5o6 



NA TURE 



[February 25, 1909 



James Watt, we are told, suggested the screw propeller 

 in 1770; half a century later it commenced to come into 

 use, and now it is almost universally adopted in all new 

 construction. 



It is a very interesting and curious fact to note that in 

 the first instance, and for many years, the. screw was driven 

 by spur gearing from a very slow-speed engine, presumably 

 because the builders of engines were afraid to design the 

 engines to run so fast as the screw required to be driven. 

 Now for forty years or more gearing has been entirely 

 abandoned, and the high-speed reciprocating engine has 

 worked well. 



The turbine has now come on the scene, and its best 

 speed of revolutions is faster than that of the screw, except- 

 ing in fast vessels ; for the larger portion of the tonnage 

 of the world it is at present .unsuitcd, except to take a 

 secondary but excellent part in the combination system. 



We may naturally speculate as to. the future, and inquire 

 if there is a possibility of the turbine being constructed 

 to run more slowly and without loss of economy, or whether 

 the propeller can be modified to allow of higher speed of 

 revolution. 



Or, again, may a solution be found in reverting to 

 some description of gearing, not to the primitive wooden 

 spur gearing of half a century ago, but to steel gearing 

 cut by modern machinery with extreme accuracy and 

 running in an oil bath, helical tooth gearing or chain 

 gearing, or, again, some form of electrical or hvdraul-c 

 gearing:- 



These are questions which are receiving attention in some 

 quarters at the present time, and if a satisfactory solution 

 can be found, then the field of the turbine at sea will be 

 further extended. 



V^IVERSITY AKD EDLCATIO.WIL 

 IXTELUGEXCE. 



C.\Mi!RiDGii. — It is proposed to confer the honorarv 

 degree of Sc.U. on Dr. Sven Hedin on Thursday, March 4. 

 Dr. Sven Hedin will lecture before the Senate on that 

 date in the Senate House. Before the ceremonv he will 

 be entertained at lunch by the master and fiUows of 

 Gonville and Caius College. 



The Isaac Newton studentship, tenable from .\pril 15, 

 1909, to April 15, i,Si2, has been awarded to Mr. W. ]. 

 Harrison, of Clare College. 



The Lowndean professor. Sir Robert Ball, F.R.S., will 

 lecture on " .Ancient and Modern Views of the Constitu- 

 tion of the Milky Way " before the Cambridge Antiquarian 

 Society on Monday, March i, at 4.30 p.m. 



In July of last year letters signed by . the Chancellor 

 were sent lo more than . 300 • universities, . colleges, 

 academies, and other corporate bodies. : inviting them to 

 appoint, delegates to attend the Darwin celebration from 

 June 22-24 next. In answer to these invitations more 

 than • 200 delegates have been appointed. The expense 

 likely to be incurred in carrying out the programme 

 amounts to considerably more than 500;., but it is hoped 

 that it may be possible to provide the excess above that 

 sum by private subscriptions, and the Senate will there- 

 fore not be asked to authorise the expenditure of more 

 than 500/. from the Universitv chest. 



Mr. E. C. Wills has given 10.000/. to the Bristol Uni- 

 versity Fund, thus raising the fund to practically 20o,ooof. 



We learn from a recent number of Science that Mrs. 

 E. G. Hood has given the University of Pennsylvania 

 20,000/. to establish graduate fellowships in the law- depart- 

 ment. Mr. .Adolphus Busch, w-ho last -August promised to 

 contribute 10,000/. towards the 60,000/. necessary for the 

 erection of the new building for the Germanic Museum at 

 Harvard University, has increased his gift to 20,000/. The 

 General Education Board has offered to give Bryn Mawr 

 College 50,000/. on condition that friends of the college 

 subscribe 56,000/. by June, 1910. This is in addition to 

 the 20,000/. recently given by the alumnae. Of this sum, 

 26,000/. is to be used to pay the debt of the college, and 

 the balance is to be reserved as an endowment fund. 



NO. 2052, VOL. 79] 



A Rov.AL Co.MMissioN has been appointed to consider the 

 position and organisation of university education in 

 London. The terms of the reference to the commission 

 are : — to inquire into the working of the present organisa- 

 tion of the University of. London, and into other facilities 

 for advanced education (general, professional, and technical) 

 existing in London for persons of either sex above 

 .secondary-school, age ; to consider what provision should 

 exist in the metropolis for university teaching and re- 

 search ; to make recommendations as to the relations which 

 should in consequence subsist between the University of 

 London, its incorporated colleges, the Imperial College of 

 Science and Technology, the other schools of the University, 

 and the various public institutions and bodies concerned ; 

 and further to recommend as to any changes of constitution 

 and organisation which appear desirable. In considering 

 these matters, regard should also be had to the facilities 

 for education and research which the metropolis should 

 afford for specialist and advanced students in connection 

 with the provision existing in other parts of the United 

 Kingdom and of . His Majesty's dominions beyond the 

 seas. The chairman of . the commission is Mr. R. B. 

 Haldane, .K.C.,- M.P., and the other members are Viscount 

 Milner, G.C.B., G.C.M.G., Sir Robert Ro.ner, G.C.B., 

 Sir R. -L. Morant, K.C.B., Mr. Laurence Currie, Dr. 

 W. S. M'Cormick.Mr. E. B. Sargant, and Mrs. Creighton. 

 The ioint secretaries are Mr. J. Kemp and Dr. H. F. 

 Heath. : 



SOCIETIES AND ' ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, January 2S. — Mr. -A P. Kenipe, treasurer, in 

 the chair. — The action of the veno.n of Scpcdon Intciiiachcitcs 

 of South .Africa: Sir T. R. Fraser and Ur. J. .A. Gunn. 

 — The colours and pigments of ficnvir!,, with special 

 reference to genetics : Miss M. Wheldale. The com- 

 munication gives an account of investigations made upon 

 plant pigments, with a view to the elucidation of pheno- 

 mena observed in the genetics of flower-colour. A primary 

 classification is made into plastid pigments and pigments 

 soluble in the cell-sap. Of the former, several kinds are 

 shown to exist, in addition to carotin and xanthin. When 

 th(^ type of a species contains more than one plastid 

 pigment, the power to produce each pigment, is expressible 

 as a .Mendelian factor. Loss of the factors in turn gives 

 rise to varieties of the type. Soluble pigments are classified 

 as rcd-purple-blue (anthocyanin) and yellow (xanthein) and 

 of both ; vairious kinds can be differentiated by means of 

 chemical reagents. There is evidence, moreover, of a 

 relationship between the behaviour of the pigments in 

 genetics and ' their chemical reactions. Colourless tannin 

 or glucoside-like substances arc found to be widely dis- 

 tributed in plants, and such substances appear to take part 

 in the formation of some kinds of anthocyanin. This con- 

 clusion is based upon examination of pigments of varieties 

 of Antirrhinum majiis, of which the inheritance of flower- 

 colour has been worked out by the author (previous com- 

 munication to Roy. Soc.) ; the results of the present paper 

 show that in ■ this genus both a glucoside-like substance 

 and a reddening factor are essential to the production of 

 anthocyanin of the type. Loss of glucoside gives rise to 

 an albino variety still capable of carrying the reddening 

 factor; loss of the reddening factor gives a variety bear- 

 ing ivory-white flowers, distinguishable from the albino, 

 and containing the glucoside. Experiments on the same 

 genus further indicate that the xantheic pigment of a yellow 

 variety is a deriv;itlve of the glucoside of the ivory-white, 

 to which it is also hypostatic. Examples are given of 

 genera resembling .Antirrhinum in their series of varieties 

 derived from the anthocyanic type, and also of genera 

 forming another scries, from which the xantheic variety is 

 absent. In this connection, stress is laid upon the con^ 

 ception of two forms' of albinism, one due to loss of antho- 

 cyanin only, the other to loss of both anthocyanin and 

 xanthein. — The variations in the pressure and composition 

 of the blood in cholera, and their bearing on the success 

 of hypertonic saline transfusion in its treatment : Prof. L. 

 Rogers. This communication contains some points of 



