456 



NATURE 



[October 6, 1910 



The sixty-second session of the Bedford College for 

 Women begins to-day. The college was founded in 1849 

 by Mrs. Elizabeth Jesser Reid, with the intention of 

 offering to women the opportunity of a liberal education 

 in the higher branches of knowledge. The number of 

 students has increased steadily. We notice from the 

 current calendar of the college that in 1889 the number 

 of students was 145, in 1899 226, and in 1909 357. It 

 will be remembered that the institution is now one of the 

 constituent colleges of the University of London, and pre- 

 pares its students for degrees in arts, science, and medicine. 

 It is hoped that the new buildings of the college at York 

 Gate, Regent's Park — which will provide accommodation 

 for from 400 to 500 students, with residence for about 

 a quarter of the number — will be ready for occupation in 

 1912. 



The new chemical and physiological laboratories for the 

 University of Bristol are now complete, and were opened 

 for students this week. The formal opening will take 

 place on November 15 by Lord Winterstoke, Chancellor of 

 the University. The new chemical department consists of 

 thirty rooms and laboratories, and contains worlcing places 

 for two hundred students. The main laboratory is capable 

 of accommodating eighty students working at one time. 

 The laboratories have been wired for electrical experiments 

 and so on, and heavy currents from the city supply Are 

 available for electro-metallurgical and physico-chemical 

 investigations. Smaller laboratories, specially designed and 

 equipped for physical, organic, biological, and photo- 

 graphic chemistry, have been provided. The department of 

 physiology is arranged to accommodate fifty students. 

 The main lecture theatre has seats for about 120, and is 

 served by a preparation room, store, and museum, all on 

 the same floor. Chemical physiology is taught in a special 

 laboratory. Optical work, photography, and gas analysis 

 are allotted a fine room, to which is attached a well- 

 ventilated dark-room of ample size. Experimental physi- 

 ology has its own laboratory, and histology is housed in 

 one of the finest rooms in the building, with north light, 

 weaving-shed roof, and a gallery over. There is also a 

 demonstration theatre, built on the model of the operating 

 theatre of a hospital. Research is amply provided for ; 

 there is a room for the preparation of electrometer and 

 other records by photography, and a fine suite of rooms 

 apart from the teaching laboratories. Incubator room, 

 constant temperature room, and cold store are also pro- 

 vided. Altogether, between twenty and thirty rooms are 

 comprised in the department, and they are thoroughly con- 

 venient and up-to-date. It is noteworthy that nearly 

 50,000/. has been expended on these additions. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



P.4RIS. 



Academy of Sciences, September 26. — M. Bouchard in 

 the chair. — The president announced the death of Mme. 

 Pasteur. — M. Darboux presented vol. xiv. of the 

 Travaux et Mi-moires du Bureau international, contain- 

 ing a full account of the measurements of the exact 

 volume of the kilogram of water. Three different methods 

 have been employed, and the mean of the closely con- 

 cordant results gives 1-000027 cubic decimetres as the 

 volume of the kilogram of water at 4° C. and under 

 normal atmospheric pressure. — A. Laveran : The treat- 

 ment of different trypanosomiases by arsenic and antimony 

 emetic. The compound used was obtained in large 

 crystals by crystallising together under certain conditions 

 aniline-arsenyl-tartrate and aniline-antimonyl-tartrate. 

 Details of the methods and dosage are given. Fifteen 

 guinea-pigs infected with T. evansi, T. gambiense, 

 T. dimorphon, or by T. congolense were cured. In four 

 of these cases there was a relapse, which was cured bv 

 a second treatment. The possibilities of application to 

 the human subject are discussed. — R. Bourgeois : The 

 comparison of two astronomical pendulums with tlie .lid 

 of electrical signals transmitted by a submarine cable of 

 great length. A Thomson siphon recorder was modified 

 in a manner to suit this work. The method will be used 

 to determine the difference of time between Brest and 

 Dakar, a distance of about 4500 kilometres. — .A. 

 Demourin : The families of Lame composed of surfaces 



possessing singular points. — Gaston Darboux : Remarks 

 on the preceding communication. — Carl Stormer : The 

 canonical forms of the general equations of motion of a 

 particle in a magnetic field and an electric field super- 

 posed. — H. True and C. Fleigr : Experimental ocular 

 action of the dust on tarred roads. Dust from tarred 

 roads is shown experimentally to be capable of provoking 

 much more serious eye troubles than dust from untreated 

 roads, and the smaller the lapse of time since the road 

 has been tarred the more serious are the lesions produced. 

 — H. Guillemard and G. Reg^nier : Observations on 

 animal calorimetry made on Mt. Blanc. Increase of 

 altitude has no sensible effect on the body temperature, 

 but there is a marked increase in the amount of heat 

 evolved by the body as the altitude increases, amounting 

 to more than 30 per cent, between Chamonix and the 

 summit of Mt. Blanc. A discussion of the results leads 

 to the conclusion that protection against the cold is the 

 best way of combating mountain sickness. — Charles 

 Nicolle and E. Conseil : Properties of the serum of 

 convalescents and animals cured of exanthematic typhus. 

 Serum collected from the ninth to the fourteenth day of 

 convalescence has well-marked preventive and curative 

 properties against the disease. The curative effects dis- 

 appear if the serum is collected later. — Joseph Roussel : 

 The mode of formation of tricalcium phosphate in Algeria 

 and Tunis. 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



The Mammals of Manitoba. By R. L 423 



The Care of Trees 423 



The Making of Beet-sugar. By C. S 424 



Methods of Rock-analysis. By A, H 42s 



New Geographical Books. By B. C. W 426 



Our Book Shelf . 427 



Letters to the Editor : — 



The Fur Trade. — Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell . ... 428 

 An Attempt to Determine the Supposed Change in 

 Weight Accompanying (he Radio-active Disinte- 

 gration of Radium. — Dr. Bertram D. Steele . . 428 

 The Habits and Distribution of Scutigera in India. — 



A. D. Imms 429 



Fire Tests with Textiles. — Leonard Parry .... 429 



Customs at Holy Wells. — Zorah Godden 429 



A Meteorological Phenomenon, — Rev. R. Ashington 



Bullen 429 



Radium Standards and Nomenclature. — Prof. E. 



Rutherford, F.R.S ... 430 



Heredity at the Church Congress 431 



Cocos-Keeling Atoll. [Illu^tialcJ.) 432 



Researches in Stellar Parallax. By W. E. P. . . 433 



The Perfilograph. By A. M. F 434 



Notes 435 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



Astronomical Occurrences in October 438 



A Bright Meteor . 438 



Rediscovery of Brooks's Periodical Comet (1889 V.), 



I910</ 438 



The Luminosity of Comets . . . 439 



Coloured Stars between the Pole and 60' N. De- 

 clination 439 



Observations of the Companion of Sirius 439 



The Perseid Shower, 1910 439 



A Modified Method for Nadir Observations . . 439 



A New Micrometer . . 439 



The Mtan Parallax of Tenih-magnilude Stars . . . 439 



Halley Meteors . 439 



The Autumn Meeting of the Iron and Steel In- 



stitute 440 



The Geological Congress at Stockholm . . . 440 



The Thomas Young Oration 443 



The Polar Eskimos 443 



The British Association at Sheffield. 



Section I — Physiology. — Openinij Address bv Prof. 



A. B. Macallum, M.A., MB, Ph.D., 'Sc.D., 



LL.D., F.R.S. , President of the Section . 444 



Section K. — Boiany, — Opening Address by Prof. 



James W. H. Trail, M.A., M.D., F.R.S , 



President of the Section 452 



University and Educational Intelligence 455 



Societies and Academies 456 



NO. 2136, VOL. 84] 



