34Q 



NATURE 



[September 7, ign 



shops, and so on, and serves excellently to show how 

 successfully the Belfast authorities are carrying out the 

 chief object of the institute, which is to provide instruc- 

 tion in the principles of those arts and sciences which 

 bear directly or indirectly upon the trades and industries 

 of Belfast, and to show by experiment how these principles 

 may be applied to their advancement. A day technical 

 course has been established to supply instruction in the 

 science and technology of mechanical engineering, electrical 

 engineering, the textile industries, and pure and applied 

 chemistry, and is designed to give a sound training to 

 youths who aim at filling positions of responsibility in the 

 city's industries. Among other interesting particulars 

 given in the prospectus of the Technical College, Sunder- 

 land, are those referring to the diploma of associate of 

 the college. Students may obtain this diploma in the 

 subjects of engineering, electrical engineering, naval archi- 

 tecture, and chemistry by passing through certain pre- 

 scribed courses of study. A candidate's claim for a 

 diploma is judged by regularity of attendance, by his 

 successes in the annual class examinations, home-work 

 marks, and evidence of reasonable skill in practical work. 

 An external examiner is appointed to act as assessor in 

 the associateship examinations, which are conducted by 

 the respective heads of departments. It is satisfactory to 

 note that at this college the County Borough of Sunder- 

 land grants every year a number of scholarships to appren- 

 tices of engineering and shipbuilding firms in Sunderland 

 and the neighbourhood. The apprentice-student scholars 

 attend classes during the winter six months, and during 

 the summer they return to the works at which they are 

 apprenticed. The time spent in the college is reckoned 

 as part of the apprenticeship ; the rate of advance in 

 wages is the same as if the apprentices were continuously 

 employed in the shops, and during the summer special 

 facilities in the works are given to the apprentices for 

 traversing all the various stages of work. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, August 28. — M. Armand Gautier 

 in the chair. — Arnaud Denjoy : The Analysis situs of the 

 plane. — Jules Andrade : A new regulator for chronometers. 

 Two spiral springs are employed in the place of one. 1 he 

 use of Arnold's terminal curves is avoided, and the sinu- 

 soidal law of the balance spring is maintained. — M. 

 Bourgeois : Determination of the geographical co- 

 ordinates in the colonies by the use of wireless telegraphy. 

 Trial of the method between Paris (Observatory) and 

 Brussels. A compact and portable form of apparatus is 

 described for the determination of differences of longitude. 

 Full details are given of the application of the method to 

 the measurement of the difference of longitude between 

 Paris and Brussels. — A. G. Webster : A new mixed 

 problem of the telegraphists' equation. — M. Tsvett : A new 

 colour reagent for callose. The blue solution obtained l.\ 

 the spontaneous oxidation by the air of an aqueous solu- 

 tion of resorcinol rendered alkaline by ammonia is pro- 

 posed as a stain for the distinction of callose in micro- 

 scopical specimens. Cellulose remains colourless on treat- 

 ing with this reagent; callose is stained blue, an exposure 

 of from thirty to sixty seconds being sufficient. In com- 

 bination with Congo red, the blue solution is suitable foi 

 double staining. — Pierre Kennel : The function of the 

 adipose reserve of the adipo-lymphoid bodies. In 

 Batrachians, the adipose reserve is utilised whenever the 

 animal is exposed to bad conditions of nutrition, particu- 

 larly during hibernation. This reserve also 

 development: of thi 1 ual elem n( , pecially in the 



oration of the dentoplasm of the egg ' 

 Cepede : The cycle of evolution and the systematic affini- 

 ol the Haplosporideae of Donax. — Em. de Martonne : 

 The chronology of the Pliocene and Quateri 

 and Isere. 



Calctj 1 1 \ 

 Asiatic S ciety of Bengal. Auf»i-t 2. — Anand Koul : 

 Ancient monuments in Kashmir. The paper conta 

 short account ol twenty-nine monuments which exist in 



ruins in Kashmir. Some of the monuments are said to 

 have been very old. — Maulavi Qasim Hasir : h'iruz Shah's 

 menagerie. The system of providing metropolitan towns 

 with zoological gardens was not unknown to Muslim rulers 

 of India. According to a contemporary writer, the earliest 

 was founded in the middle of the fourteenth century by 

 Sultan Firuz Shah (a.c. 1351-88), who built a Kdshk 

 (kiosk) at Firuzabad, and acquired animals to be pre- 

 served there. — Dr. Satis Chandra Vidyabhusana : (iadad- 

 hara, prince of Indian schoolmen. Gadadhara was born 

 in the village of Laksmichapara, in the district of Bogra 

 in eastern Bengal, in the seventeenth century A.D. He 

 came to Navadwipa, where he made a special study of 

 logic (Nyaya). He was called the prince of Indian school- 

 men, in whom modern logic reached its climax. He was 

 such a thorough-going logician that when on his death-bed 

 he was asked to meditate on the prime cause of the 

 universe, he is said to have exclaimed " Atoms, atoms, 

 atoms ! ! ! " 



CONTENTS. page 



The Parsons Steam Turbine. By W. H. W. . . . 307 



Systematic Botany. By W. B. H 308 



Photomicrography 309 



Modern Electromagnetic Theory 31 1 



Elementary Principles of Aviation. By L. Bairstow 311 



Our Book Shelf 3' 2 



Letters to the Editor: — 



The Early History of the Gibraltar Cranium — Dr. 



A. Keith 3'3 



A New Mineral ?— J. R. Sutton 3'4 



A Miniature Rainbow— W. E. Hart 314 



The Fertility and Extinction of Forest Trees— Dr. 



Michael Grabham 3'5 



Non-Euclidean Geometry— Rev. W. B. Frankland 315 

 The Salary of an Assistant Lecturer — W. H. 



Hodgson 3'5 



Obsolete Botanical and Zoological Systems— M. 



Niblett ■ ■ 3'S 



The Suk Peoples. {Illustrated.) By Sir H. H. John- 

 ston, G.C. M.G , K.C.B. 3>6 



Westland— A New Zealand Province. (Illustrated) 3 1 7 



The Rev. F. J. Jervis-Smith, F.R.S 3 lS 



The British Association at Portsmouth 31 s 



Section C— Geology.— Opening Address by Alfred 

 Haiker, M.A., F.R.S. , President of the Sec- 

 tion 5>9 



Section D.— Zoology.— Opening Address by Prof. 

 D'Arcy Wentwotth Thompson, C.B., Presi- 

 dent of the Section 3-4 



Section I . Geography.— Opening Address by Col. 

 C. F. Close, C.M.G., R.E., President of the 



Section 3 2 9 



Notes 333 



Our Astronomical Column: — 



The Spectrum of Kiess's Comet 337 



The Zodiacal Light 337 



Meteorite Finds 337 



The Leeds Astronomical Society 337 



An Open air Telescope 337 



Luminous Meteor Trains 337 



The ( Ixford University Observatory . ... 337 



Meteorological Reports and Year-books . . 338 

 The American Indian Languages. By Sidney H. 



Ray ... ... ■ 33 8 



University and Educational Intelligence 339 



Societies and Academies 34° 



NO. 2184, VOL. 87] 



