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NATURE 



[July 1 3> 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



Edinburgh. — Five Fellowships in connection with this Uni- 

 versity (the gift of an anonymous donor) of the value of ioo/. each, 

 for one year, but renewable for one or two further years at the 

 pleasure of the Senatus Academicus, will be open to applicants 

 in October next. There will be no examinations for election to 

 these Fellowships, but Fellows will be elected by the Senatus 

 Academicus after consideration of the qualifications and circum- 

 stances of the applicants. The Fellowships are open to any 

 graduate of a Scottish University, not being more than thirty 

 years of age at the date of application, and provided that he be 

 not an assistant to any Protessor, or an examiner in any depart- 

 ment. They are intended for persons having attained some pro- 

 ficiency in, and who are desirous to prosecute, unprofessional 

 study and research in one of the following subjects : — Mathe- 

 matics (pure and applied), or experimental physics, chemistry, 

 biology, mental philosophy, history, or the history of literature. 

 Persons desiring to hold one of these Fellowships should address 

 an application to the secretary of the Senatus, with statement as 

 to previous course of study, and general purposes with respect 

 to future work. Each Fellow will be expected to reside in 

 Edinburgh during the winter and summer sessions of the Uni- 

 versity (1S82-S3) to prosecute his particular branch of study 

 under the advice of the Professor to whose department the subject 

 belongs ; and within a year after his election to give evidence of 

 his progress by the preparation of a thesis, the completion of a 

 research, the delivery of a lecture, or in some other way approved 

 by the Senatus Academicus. No other fellowship, scholarship, 

 or bursary, in this or any other University, will be tenable 

 together with one of the elective Fellowships, 



The budget commission of the French Chamber of Deputies 

 have printed their estimates for public instruction for 1883. They 

 claim 5 J millions sterling, irrespective of the sums granted by de- 

 partments for the same purpose. About half of this sum is claimed 

 for elementary instruction, exhibiting, an addition of more than 

 800,000/. on the credit given for 1SS2. This is in prevision of the 

 working of the law of compulsory education. The more notable 

 items are the following : — Government grant to the grammar 

 schools for young ladies, 12,000/. ; national library, extraordinary 

 expenses for printing tbe catalogue, 2000/. ; ordinary expenses, 

 21,000/. ; other public libraries, 12,000/. ; aid to men of science 

 and letters, Sooo/. ; scientific travelling and exploring, Sooo/. ; 

 College de France, 19,000/. ; Museum of Natural History, 

 36,000/. ; Institute of France, 28,000/., of which 8000/. are 

 granted to the Academy of Sciences ; Academy of Medicine, 

 3000/. ; School of Hautes-Etudes, 12,000/. ; astronomical and 

 meteorological establishments, 35,000/. ; including a school for 

 astronomers, which has been opened at the Observatoire of 

 Paris, but will be closed as soon as the several French observa- 

 tories will have procured a sufficient number of trained observers. 

 The commission refuse to grant money to the meteorological 

 observatory of Mount Ventoux. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



Journal of the Franklin Institute, June. — On the several 

 efficiencies of the steam-engine, and on the conditions of 

 maximum economy (continued), by R. H. Thurston. — Ninety 

 miles in sixty minutes (continued), by W. B. Le Van. — Ringing 

 bells, by J. W. Nystrom. — Radio-dynamics ; universal phyllo- 

 taxy, by P. E. Chase. — A thermograph, a new apparatus for 

 making a continuous graphical record of the variations of tem- 

 perature, by G. M. Eldridge. — Electricity, by A. E. Outer- 

 bridge, jun. — An essay on mechanics and the progress of 

 mechanical science, 1824-82, by F. Finley. — Device for in- 

 creasing the dynamic effect of the pulsations of diaphragms 

 and the like, by W. B. Cooper. — Influence of pulley-diameter 

 on the driving power of flat belts, by R. Grimshaw. — Recent 

 improvements in the mechanic arts, by F. B. Brock. 



Bulletin de I'Academie Royale des Sciences de Belgiqite, No. 4. 

 — History of the Imperial and Royal Academy of Sciences and 

 Belles-Lettres of Brussels, by M. Mailly. — On the dilatation of 

 alums, by M. Spring. — One word more on the determination of 

 latitude, by M. Folie. — On the rocks of the island of Fernando 

 Noronha, gathered during the Challenger expedition, by M. 

 Renard. — On the state of vegetation, March 21, 1882, by M. 

 Dewalque. — On the respiratory variations of the sanguineous 



pressure in the rabbit, by MM. Moreau and Lecrenier. — Minera- 

 logical examination of the rocks which accompany the diamond 

 in the mines of the Cape of Good Hope, by M. Meunier. 



Reale Istituto Lombardo di Scienze e Lcttere. Rendiconti, vol. 

 xv., fasc. ix.-x. — On the nature and origin of tumours occasion- 

 ally found free in the abdominal cavity, by S. Sangalli. — Presen- 

 tation of a piece of wood from Brazil, with the apparent figure 

 of a serpent, by Dr. Mantegazza. — On protistological examina- 

 tion of the water of Lake Maggiore, extracted at 60 metres 

 depth, between Angera and Arona, by S. Maggi. — Zoological 

 notes, by S. I'avesi. 



Rivista Scicntifico-Industriale, April 30 and May 15. — New 

 seismic apparatus of the Brothers Brassart, by S. E. Brassart. — 

 The comets seen in the last ten years and Comet Wells, by S. 

 Zona. — On sounds produced by outflow of liquids, by S. Martini. 

 —On succinine, by Drs. Funaro and Danesi. — Sinaxylon muri- 

 catum, Fab., in the Romagna, by S. Rovelli. — The story of a 

 flint stone, by S. Mascarine. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



London 



Zoological Society, June 20.— Dr. A. Giinther, F.R.S., 



vice-president, in the chair. — The Secretary exhibited a series of 

 the diurnal and nocturnal Lepidopterous insects bred in the 

 Insect Hou-e in the Gardens during the present season, and 

 called attention to several specimens of clear-winged Moths 

 (Sesiidn ), a group of insects which had not before been exhibited 

 in the Insect House. The cocoon of Cricula triferieslrata, 

 together with the imago, was also exhibited. — Mr. W. A. Forbes 

 made remarks on the presence of a rudimentary hallux in certain 

 birds — the Albatrosses and two genera of Woodpeckers (7'iga 

 and Picoides), commonly described as being three-toed, and 

 exhibited preparations showing its condition in the birds in 

 question. — Prof. Owen read the twenty-fifth of his series of 

 memoirs on the Dinornis. The present communication gave a 

 description of the head and feet, with theh"dried integuments, 

 of an individual of a species supposed to be called Dinornis 

 didina. These specimens had been obtained by Mr. II. L. 

 Squires at Queenstown, South Island of New Zealand, and being 

 parts of one individual tended to elucidate in an unlooked for 

 degree the external characters of the Moa. — A second communi- 

 cation from Prof. Owen contained some observations on Trichina 

 spiralis. — Prof. E. Ray Lankester gave a description of the valves 

 of the heart of Ornithorhynchus paradoxus, and compared them 

 with those of man and the rabbit. Prof. Lankester also made 

 some observations on the fossa ovalis of the Monotremes. — Prof. 

 Huxley, F.R.S., read a description of the respiratory organs of 

 Apteryx, which he showed did not differ fundamentally from the 

 Avian type, and pointed out that neither of the structures that 

 had been termed diaphragms in the Apteryx was really in cor- 

 respondence with the Mammalian diaphragm. — Mr. W. A. 

 Forbes read the sixth of his contributions to the anatomy of 

 Passerine birds. In 'he present communication the author showed 

 that Xenicus and Acanthisitta, hitherto considered to be allied to 

 Certhia, Sitta, and Sittella, were really mesomyodian forms, most 

 nearly allied perhaps to Pitta. The discovery of such low forms of 

 Passerine birds in New Zealand was a fact of considerable interest, 

 none of the allied groups being at all represented there at the 

 present day. — A communication was read from Mr. Sylvanus 

 Hanley on the shells of the genus Leptomya, to which was added 

 the descriptions of two new species. — Mr. Sclater read a note on 

 Ruppell's Parrot, and showed that the more brightly-coloured 

 individuals, ordinarily supposed to be the males of this parrot, 

 were really the females. — A second paper from Mr. Sclater gave 

 the description of two new species of the genus Synallaxis from 

 the collection of Messrs. Salvin and Godman. — A communica- 

 tion was read from Prof. M. Watson containing an account of 

 the muscular anatomy of Proteles as compared with that of 

 Hyarna and Viverra. — Mr. Oldfield Thomas read a paper con- 

 taining a description of a new species, of Rat from China. The 

 specimens upon which the author had founded the description 

 had been sent by the Abbe Armand David to Mr. Milne-Edwards, 

 of Pari-, who had placed them in the hands of Mr. Thomas for 

 identification. The author proposed to call this Rat Mus 

 Edwardsi. — A communication was read from Mr. E. W. While. 

 F.Z.S., of Buenos Ayres, in which he gave an account of the 

 birds collected by him in the Argentine Republic. — Mr. R. 

 Bowdler Sharpe read the descriptions of two apparently new 



