418 
NATURE 
[Marci 24, 1923 

Norris of the Imperial College (Royal College of 
Science) for a thesis entitled “‘ The Formation and 
Stability of Spirane Hydrocarbons”; and Edith H. 
Usherwood of the Imperial College (Royal College 
of Science) for a thesis entitled “‘ (i.) The Formation 
of Heterocyclic Rings involving Reactions with the 
Nitroso- and Nitro-groups in their various Tautomeric 
Modifications ; (ii.) Experiments on the Detection 
of Equilibria in Gaseous Tautomeric Substances.” 
A post-graduate scholarship in science of the 
yearly value of 125/., for two years, is being offered 
to Bedford College graduates for award in June 
next. Further information will be furnished upon 
application, by the Secretary of the College, Regent’s 
Park, N.W.1. 
MANCHESTER.—Mr. R. S. Adamson has resigned 
his post as senior lecturer in botany on his appoint- 
ment to the Harry Bolus chair of botany in the 
University of Cape Town. 
Mr. C. R. Christian has been appointed temporary 
demonstrator in pathology. 
The Court of Governors has authorised the confer- 
ment of the following honorary degrees: D.Sc. : 
Prof. Niels Bohr, Copenhagen ; Prof. F. G. Hopkins, 
Cambridge ; and Mr. W,. B. Worthington, president 
of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 1921-1922. 

WE have received from the newly constituted 
University of Lithuania, Kaunas (Kovno), a copy | 
of a bilingual—Lithuanian and English—calendar. 
The University, which was opened in February 
1922, has the following faculties: theology and 
philosophy, humanities, law, mathematics and 
natural sciences, medicine, and technical science 
(engineering, chemical technology, architecture, etc.). 
It has 45 professors, 37 docents, and 35 members of 
the junior teaching staff, while there are more than 
a thousand students. It appeals to cultural in- 
stitutions to help in the establishment of a library 
by sending books and other publications. 
ct 
LOUGHBOROUGH COLLEGE celebrated its first pre- 
sentation day on March ro, when the College diploma 
was conferred on some 250 students of the following 
departments : mechanical and civil engineering (69), 
electrical (31), automobile (32), pure and applied 
science (10), commerce and economics (88), training 
of teachers (31). The Minister of Labour, Sir Mon- 
tague Barlow, who presented the diplomas and gave 
an address, remarked that the College is carrying 
out a very interesting experiment in undertaking a 
course which combines very closely theoretical 
studies and practical experience. This feature, to 
which we directed attention in our issue of October 
21, p. 562, aims at securing for engineering students 
advantages comparable with those which a School 
Hospital gives to medicals. An essential principle 
of management of the instructional factory is that 
the output should be saleable. During the war the 
College trained more than 2300 munition workers, 
and at its close inherited the fine buildings erected 
for this work as well as valuable engineering equip- 
ment. Among the post-war students have been 
more than 500 enrolled under the scheme of grants 
for higher education for ex-service students ; 237 of 
them have taken the diploma, and of these 138 have 
been satisfactorily placed in employment. The 
number of private fee-paying students enrolled is 
343. There are students from Australia, South 
Africa, India, and many foreign countries. The 
College aims at a normal enrolment sufficient to 
enable the productive work scheme to be carried on 
as a commercial and economic enterprise. 
NO. 2876, VOL. 111] 

Societies and Academies. 
Lonpon. 
Royal Society, March 15.—J. A. Carroll: Note on 
the series-spectra of the aluminium sub-group. In 
contradistinction to the alkali metals, the highest 
terms in the known series-spectra of the elements of 
the aluminium sub-group are the common limits of 
the sharp and diffuse series, and not the limits of the 
principal series. Measurements of the ionisation and 
resonance potentials for thallium suggested that there 
‘might be a yet undiscovered principal series in the 
far ultra-violet, the limit of which would be the 
greatest term and would correspond with the 
normal state of the thallium atom. Against this is 
the absence of positive evidence of such a series, and 
the easily reversible nature of the lines of the subor- 
dinate series in the arc spectra. Evidence as to the 
normal state of the atoms is afforded by an investiga- 
tion of the absorption spectrum of the cool vapour of 
one of the elements in question, e.g. thallium. The 
lines were members of the subordinate series, thus 
confirming the original series arrangement. The 
results accord with the latest developments of 
Bohr’s theory.—-W. E. Curtis: The structure of 
the band spectrum of helium.—II. Seven of the 
doublet bands previously examined by Fowler have 
been studied in detail. The structure of the bands, in 
the main, is in agreement with the requirements of 
the quantum theory; some discrepancies are dis- 
cussed in connexion with Kratzer’s half-quantum 
hypothesis. Values for the moments of inertia of 
the molecules concerned are derived by a graphic 
method. Several perturbations are recorded (the 
: . 

ee 
i 
soe ee ene 
4 
oy 
first examples in this spectrum) and their significance ~ 
Aberration diffraction 
Diffraction theory would indicate that the 
is discussed.—G. C. Steward: 
effects. 
image of a luminous point, given by a symmetrical ~ 
optical system, should be a system of luminous rings, 
and this was investigated by Airy in 1834; geo- 
metrical theory leads to a consideration of several 
types and orders of aberration, and the modification 
of the “‘ ideal’ diffraction pattern produced by these 
geometrical aberrations is discussed. The method 
adopted depends upon the Eikonal function of Bruns. 
Aberration diffraction effects are dealt with, assuming 
that the stops of the optical system are circular, with 
centres upon the axis of symmetry. Other stops 
used, namely, the usual circular aperture, but with 
the central portion stopped out, one (or two parallel) 
narrow rectangular aperture, and a semi-circular 
aperture are also considered. — Lord Rayleigh: 
Further observations on the spectrum of the night 
sky. Specially designed spectrographs having a work- 
ing aperture of f /-9 are described. The northern 
and southern horizons have been photographed 
simultaneously on the same plate, and the aurora 
line recorded almost down to the horizontal direction | 
in each. There is no marked difference of intensity 
between them. The negative nitrogen bands appear 
fairly often in photographs taken in the north of 
England, but similar spectra taken in the south of 
England do not show them. They are always strong 
in the Northern Lights in Shetland. Two bright 
lines or bands in the blue and violet were always 
observed, the approximate positions, determined on 
the very small scale spectra, being 4200 and 4435. 
Their origin is not known. 
aurora line 5578, also of unknown origin, and the dark 
Fraunhofer lines H and K.—Lord Rayleigh : Studies 
of iridescent colour, and the structure producing it. 
IV.—Iridescent beetles. Some of the iridescent 
beetles which have striking metallic colours show 
band systems in the spectrum of the reflected light. 
In addition, there is the — 
