October 26, 191 1] 



NATURE 



0, .I 



the congress are the increase of facilities in the universities 

 of the United Kingdom for post-graduate and research 

 work, and some plan for the interchange of university 

 teachers. It appears that the majority of Canadian post- 

 graduate students go to the American and German universi- 

 ties, and not to the universities of the United Kingdom. 

 Reasons for this are set out in Dr. Roberts's report ; and 

 it may be confidently expected that the deliberations of the 

 congress next year will lead to some combined action to 

 remedy this state of things, for it is clearly of supreme 

 importance, both from the university and the imperial 

 points of view, that able students from the King's 

 dominions overseas should In- encouraged to pursue their 

 post-graduate studies in the Mother Country. 



A copy of the annual report, for tin year ended Maj 



31, 191 1, of the Rhodesia Scientific Association, has 

 reached us. It contains, among other interesting par- 

 ticulars of the work of the association, the address of the 

 retiring president, Mr. F. P. Mennell, who took education 

 in Rhodesia as his main subject. Dealing with scientific 

 and technical training, the president pointed out that he 

 had exceptional opportunities of coming into contact with 

 the men who desire technical and scientific instruction, and 

 proceeded to propose the following plan. In the first 

 place, he said, a building would have to be hired or 

 erected, which might be known as the Bulawayo Technical 

 Institute. The expenditure of 2000/. would probably meet 

 all requirements in the building line, provided, of course, 

 that the convenience of the users was given first considera- 

 tion and not the fancies of architects. In the next place 

 it would be desirable to engage a man to act as organiser 

 and principal, in addition to teaching one or more sub- 

 jects. For other teachers it would be necessary to ask 

 the cooperation of the museum, the Geological Survey, tin 

 Government mining engineer, and even local professional 

 men. There might thus be secured, without great expense, 

 the services of specialists, who would each conduct a par- 

 ticular course. The feature of the scheme would be the 

 shortness of the courses. Each subject would be limited 

 to a month, every morning and afternoon being devoted 

 during that time to the same subject, until the course was 

 finished. Practical, that is, experimental, work would 

 necessarily be an essential feature of each course. As 

 subjects Mr. Mennell suggested inorganic chemistry, 

 physical geology, agricultural chemistry and geology, 

 determinative mineralogy, theory of ore deposits, principles 

 of sampling and opening up mines, metallurgy of gold. 

 Possibly, in addition, it might be found practicable to teach 

 gold assaying and simple methods of surveying. It need 

 scarcely be said that most of these subjects could nut be 

 effectively taught in so short a period as a month. A great 

 deal, however, could be done in that time. In the event 

 of "more extended courses being established, the president 

 continued, Rhodesia would only be competing unavailingly 

 with Johannesburg, whereas the people it is desired to 

 attract are those who cannot afford either the timi ' 

 money to go there. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London. 

 Institution of Minine and Metallurgy, October 10 

 - Mi. II. Livingstone Sulman, president, in the chair. — 

 H. Standish Ball : The economics of tube milling. The 

 investigation, of which this paper is a report, was under- 

 taken by the author at the McGill University, Montreal, 

 for the purpose of determining the most efficient working 

 conditions of the tube-mill on metal-bearing ores. An 

 experimental tube-mill was constructed, with all necessary 

 accessories, and a series of test runs was made under 

 various conditions of feed, moisture, pebble load, and speed, 

 the system adopted being that in each series of t< sts one 

 of the above factors was varied whilst the oth. :rs were 

 maintained as constants. Taking the experimental mill as 

 a standard, the result of the tests was to establish certain 

 conditions for each of the four factors mentioned as those 

 most conducive to efficiency; and the author believes thai 

 there is a possibility of estimating from the curves obtained 



NO. 2IQI. VOL. 8y] 



from the different tests the probable results that would be 

 derived from running the mill under different conditions, 

 lie deduces from this the rather startling theory that in 

 any mill it would be possible by a similar series of tests to 

 obtain tin- necessary information for running it to the best 

 advantage. Among other results of his experiments he was 

 able to ascertain the duration of time required by a mill 

 tn assume a uniform condition following a change of 

 adjustment of its various component factors, and to test 

 th.- efficiency of the mill during the transition periods. 

 Having ascertained by tests the several conditions under 

 which the mill worked at its best, a trial was made during 

 which the critical factors were all complied with, and tin 

 resultant mechanical efficiency was found to show an in- 

 crease of 14 per cent, above all previous tests, thus seem- 

 ing to bear out the utility and value of experimental work 

 in determining the proper conditions of working. — Eugene 

 Coste : Fallacies in the theory of the organic origin of 

 petroleum. The author sets out to show that the sup- 

 porters of the organic theory founded their arguments on 

 erroneous premises, and ignore the obvious facts presented 

 by the petroleum occurrences and deposits, which point to 

 a volcanic origin In proof of his own theory he directs 

 attention to the abundance of hydrocarbon emanations 

 noted in connection with volcanic phenomena, as showing 

 that the sources of carbon are not confined to the organii 

 kingdom alone. The conclusion at which he arrives is 

 that the constant recurrence of hydrocarbons in volcanic 

 and igneous rocks, in volcanic emanations, in metallic and 

 other veins, in meteorites, in comets and other stellar 

 hodies. clearh demonstrates that petroleums are not organic, 

 as if they were their distribution could not possibly resembl 

 the actual occurrences which are met with. The petroleum 

 deposits are not everywhere associated with rocks of a par- 

 ticular age, but are found in strata of all ages, and only 

 along some of the tectonic disturbances ; where there are 

 no such disturbances the strata are barren. These occur- 

 rences are therefore, he claims, due to dynamic disturb- 

 ances accompanied by magmatic emanations from the 

 interior, which must be held to be of solfataric volcanic 

 nature, and unlike anything else know-n to be to-day in the 

 active process of formation in nature. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, ( ictoher 9. — M. Lippmann in the 

 chair. — L. Mangin : Peridiniopsis asymetrica and Pcri- 

 dinium Paulseni. These two species are currently known 

 under the name of Diplopsalis lenticula. By the use of a 

 boiling solution of 5 per cent, potash the nitrogen com- 

 pounds are removed, and the structure can be more easih 

 made out. The supplemental apical plate has either been 

 missed by previous investigators or else its presence has 

 been considered as an anomaly. This plate, however, is 

 always present, and indicates a separate genus. — A. 

 Lavo-an : Are trypanosomes latent in their vertebrate 

 hosts? An account of some experiments undertaken with 

 a view to verity facts put forward by Salvin, Moore and 

 Breinl, Fantham, and Hindle. The conclusion is drawn 

 that for the trypanosomes studied, especially T. gambiense, 

 there is no non-flagellated stage of evolution in the verte- 

 brate organism, and that the elements described under tin 

 nam.- of latent bodies correspond to different stages of 

 involution of the trypanosomes. — G. A. Tikhoff : The 

 variable star of the "Pleiades. Observations for the last 

 sixteen years of the magnitude of this star have been 

 plotted as a curve, magnitudes as ordinates, and the time 

 as absciss.-e. The period between a maximum and 

 minimum is shown to be 565 days, the last maximum being 

 on January 10, 1911. — P. Chofardet : Observations of 

 the Quenisset comet (191 if) made at the Observatory of 

 Besancon with the 33-cm. bent equatorial. Positions are 

 given for September 26 and 29. The comet was estimated 

 as of the eighth magnitude, with a round head 3' in 

 diameter. There is no well-defined nucleus, and the tail 

 is absent. — Paul Levy : A generalisation of the theorems 

 of Picard, Landau, and Schottky.— A. Blondel : The 

 reception of periodic trains of damped waves in radio- 

 telegraphy. — F. Croze : The spectrum of the negative pole 

 of oxygen. The group of bands shown in Sturbing's 

 photograph cannot be represented by the ordinary formula 



