472 



NATURE 



[Sept. 7, 1882 



as on certain branches of applied chemistry. The physical and 

 engineering departments are also provided with facilities for 

 laboratory work. The instruction in experimental physics is 

 kept abreast of the rapidly increasing requirements of the age, 

 and arrangements are now perfected for the training of stu- 

 dents as electric engineers — a pnfession for which the recent 

 development of electric discovery opens good prospects. The 

 Bristol Medical School, which is affiliated to the College, offers 

 with the Royal Infirmary and General Hospital, every facility 

 for the study of medicine. Instruction in biology is also given, 

 and it is intended to open a biological laboratory in the course of 

 the ensuing se-sion. In other subjects the instruction is such as 

 to make the curriculum practically complete. 



The Calendar of the Mason College, Birmingham, already 

 extends to 250 pages. The list of professors is fairly complete, 

 and the subjects cover pretty well the whole field of a liberal 

 education. Science, of course, has a prominent place, both 

 pure and applied, but literature, both ancient and modern, is as 

 fully represented as could be desired. The examination papers 

 are given, and are up to a high standard ; and the College as a 

 whole promises to fulfil the intentions of its liberal founder. 



Though in a less advantageous position so far as funds are 

 concerned, the modest little Calendar of the Newcastle College 

 of Science shows that every effort is being made to keep it up 

 to the mark. It is a pity some of the rich coal and iron masters 

 of the northern districts do not come forward and give the 

 struggling institution a helping hand ; they could not do the 

 north a greater service. 



An important movement is taking place among the manu- 

 facturers and machine makers of Nottingham to promote the 

 establishment of a first class technical school in connection with the 

 University College in that town. A nucleus fund for this 

 purpose has been provided by the Drapers' Company in a grant 

 of 300/. per year for five years, with an additional 200/. in the 

 first year for the purchase of apparatus. This grant is, however, 

 subject to certain conditions, and is also to some extent depen- 

 dent on the amount of local enterprise which is displayed. The 

 company, after mature consideration, and upon the report of 

 Mr. Magnus, the director of the Citv and Guilds' Technical 

 Institute, who, with certain members of the Drapers' Company, 

 visited Nottingham to make inquiries, resolved to make the 

 grant through the Institute, and the instruction provided by it is 

 to enable students, artisans, and others to present themselves for 

 the Institute examination in mechanical engineering. A course 

 of instruction in practical mechanics is to lie given by a professor 

 of physics and mechanics in the evening, and the services of a 

 skilled fitter are to be obtained to act under the professor in the 

 practical explanation of the tools and the machinery used in lace 

 and hosiery manufacture. The local committee are now arranging 

 for the setting apart of portions of the College for this special 

 purpose. 



At a meeting of the Council of the Yorkshire College, held 

 on September 2, Mr. N. Bodington, M.A., Fellow of Lincoln 

 College, Oxford, and Professor of Greek and Latin in the 

 Miison's Science College, Birmingham, was elected to the Pro- 

 fessorship of Classics, vacant by the resignation of Prof. Marshall, 

 a' id to the Principabhip of the College. 



A NEW University building, which has taken two years to 

 construct, will soon be opened in Lund. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



Annahn dor Physik and Chcmie, No. 9. — Experimental con- 

 tributions to a knowledge of the electric conductivity of flame- 

 gases, by W. Giese. — On absolute systems of measurement for 

 electric and magnetic quantities, by H. Helmholtz. — Proof of 

 the existence of Maxwell's electromotive force Y,,,,., by R. 

 Colley. — The electric conductivity of sulphuric acid and pyro- 

 sulphuric acid, and the density of concentrated sulphuric acid, 

 by W. Kohlrausch. — The specific heats of easeous biatomic 

 compounds of chlorine, bromine, and iodine with each other and 

 with hydrogen, by K. Strecker. — Re-earches on the absorption 

 of gases by liquids under high pressures, by S. v. Wroblew-ki. — 

 On the motions of air on the surface of the earth, by A. 

 Oberbeck. — On Newton's dust rings, by K. Exner. — On the 

 action and piezo-electric properties of rock-crystals and their 

 relation to the thermo- electric, by W. G. Hankel.— Note on an 

 explosion of a glass tube filled » ith liquid carbonic acid, by L 



Pfaundler. — On" an explosion of an oxygen gasometer of sheet 

 zinc, by the same. 



Rivista Scientifico-Industriale, June 15. — Elementary geome- 

 trical demonstration of the condition of minimum or maximum 

 deviation of a homogeneous ray sent through a homogeneous 

 prism, by Prof. Banfi. — On the reductive action of glycerine on 

 salts of silver and application of this phenomenon to silvering of 

 glas-, by Prof. Palmieri. — On Paliromonetes varians and one of 

 its varieties, by Prof. Garbini. 



June 30 and July 15. — Anemoscope and anemometer w ith free 

 transmission, of the Brothers Brassart, by S. E. Brassart. — On 

 unequal heating of the two electrodes by the electric discharge, 

 by Prof. Giovanni. — Movements, ruptures (lithoclases), and 

 tangential pressures the direct causes of the axial elevation of 

 the Northern Apennines, by Prof. Bombici. — Contribution to 

 study of anthropology of the southern provinces ; prehistoric 

 objects of Molise, by Dr. Del Lupo. 



Bulletins de la Socic'le d' Anthropologic de Paris, tome v. 2 

 fascicule, 18S2, contain : Papers by M. de Merejkowsky, on a 

 series of Sardinian crania, with explanatory and metric tallies, 

 and on certain American crania belonging to the Araucanian, 

 Moxo, and other native tribes of the north-west and we-t dis- 

 tricts. — A report of the discussion at the meeting of March 2, on 

 the relative weight of the brain, with reference specially to M. 

 le Bou's views on the invalid character of determinations based 

 on means, and to the conclu-ions which he has drawn from his 

 own methods of comparing the relative weight of the body and 

 brain in boys and girls. — A communication from M. de Ujfalvy, 

 on his travels in the Western Himalayas, with the results of his 

 craniometric and other determinations among the local tribes, 

 more especially in Kashmere, Lesser Thibet, and the Koulou 

 country, where polyandry exists. — At a subsequent meeting of 

 the Society, M. Beauregard gave a resumie of M. de Ujfalvy's 

 observations of the ethnic and social character of these peoples, 

 and of the records of ancient and modern travellers concerning 

 these mountain districts, tracing the history of polyandry back 

 to the Getaj and Massagetce, whom he believes to be the ances- 

 tors of the Dardis, whose country is regarded by Dr. Leitner as 

 the original seat of the Aryan race. (The discussions to which 

 the communications of M. de Ujfalvy gave rise have led to the 

 adoption of a resolution for the extension and more exact defini- 

 tion of the ethnographic observations included in the Society's 

 Directions for travellers.) — M. F. Regnault reports the results of 

 his recent excavations at Bordes in Ariege, where in an old 

 moraine bed he has found two burial chambers below an erratic 

 granite boulder. Both chambers, one of which was situated 

 below the other, contained human bones, a cut flint, and frag- 

 ments of pottery, some of which were marked with geometrical 

 designs. In the discussion following M. Regnault's communi- 

 cation, M. Leguay drew attention to a similar chamber disclosed 

 at Crecy in 1842. — M. de Merejkowsky described an instrument 

 designed to determine the relations of the nasal arch to other 

 parts of the cranium with a view of establishing a new character 

 for the hetter comparison of differences of race. This number 

 ot the Bulletins closes with the first part of M. I.e Docteur 

 D'Hercourt's Topographical Survey of the Island of Sardinia, 

 including the geography, meteorology, and natural products of 

 the island. 



CONTENTS Pace 



Animal Intelligence. By T. Whittaker 449 



Dalton's "Human Physiology" By Prof. John G. McKen- 



DRICK 45 T 



On. Book Shelf:— 



Fouque and T c'vy's "Synthese des Mineraux et des Roches " . . 4S2 

 Letters to the Editor: — 



The Australian Aborigines.— A. W. Howitt 1;. 



New and very Rare Fish from the Mediterranean.— James Yate 



Johnson 4S3 



Aurora.-X 453 



Habits nf Spiders.— W. J. C 454 



The Respiratory Movements of Insects 454 



Diary or Vesuvius, January 1 to July 16. 1882. By H. J. 



Johnston-Lavis (With Illustrations) 455 



The Hungarian Association for the Advancement of Science. 



By G. F Rodwkll 456 



The British Association 457 



Reports 4|8 



Section A— Mathematical and Physical 465 



B— Chemical Science -tg 



Section C— Geology 468 



Note* 47° 



U iversity and Educational Inte 

 Scientific Serials .... 



