94 



NA TURE 



\_N0V. 2 2, 1883 



Registrar of the University their application, and also any docu- 

 ments which they may wish to submit to the electors, on or 

 before Saturday, January 26, 18S4. 



The Professorship of Rural Economy — now separated from 

 that of Botany — will be filled up in December. Candi- 

 dates are requested to send to the Registrar of the Uni- 

 versity their applications, and any documents they may wish 

 to submit to the electors, on or before Monday, December 10, 

 1883. According to the regulations sanctioned by the Court of 

 Chancery, the Sibthorpian Professor of Rural Economy shall 

 lecture and Jive instruction on the scientific principles of agri- 

 culture and forestry. He shall be entitled to the emolument of 

 200/. derived from the benefaction of Dr. John .Sibthorp, Doctor 

 of Medicine, and assigned to the professorship. The professor 

 holds his ofi'ice for a period of three years from election, and no 

 longer. He may be re-elected for a second period of three years, 

 and no longer ; but no professor shall hold the professorship for 

 more than six years consecutively. The professor will have the 

 use of the garden appropriated for making experiments on the 

 subjects of his professorship. The professor shall give not less 

 than twelve lectures in the course of the academical year, in full 

 term, and not more than two in any one week. 



Cambridge. — The following are the speeches made to the 

 .Senate of the University by the Public Orator (Mr. J. E. 

 Sandys) in presenting Professors Foster and Macalister for the 

 complete degree of M.A. honoris causd, on November 8 : — 



" Dignissimedomine, domine procancellarie et tota Academia : 

 In hoc ipso loco, duodecim abhinc annos, unum e Collegii 

 maximi Praelectoribus auspiciis optimis titulo vestro honorifico 

 exornastis. Hodie eundem, tot annorum usu et experientia 

 spectatum probatumque, et Academia:: totius Profes^oribus merito 

 adscriptum, senatus nostri in ordinem honoris causa adsciscimus. 

 Quantum interim, hujus praasertim laboribus, inter alumnos 

 nostros creverit vigueritque physiologiaa studium, vosmet ipsi 

 omnes animo grato recordamini. Ut animantiuni in corporibus 

 ex ipso corde, velut e fonte quodam, salutares illi sanguinis rivi 

 per membra omnia fluunt refluuntque ; non ali'er corporis 

 Acadeoiici in partes quam plurimas ex hoc fonte scienti?e fluniina 

 effluxisse atque inde rursus redundasse dixerim. Tali e fonte 

 quot alumnis vires nova; reddita; sunt ; quotiens ex alumnis 

 rivuli fontem ip~um denuo auxerunt ! E discipulis vero tarn 

 multis cum magistro tanto feliciter consociatis, plurimos adhuc 

 superesse, nonnuUos etiam adesse hodie gaudemus ; unum ilium 

 non sine lacrimis desideramus qui nascentis vitae primordiis 

 hujus auxilio sagacissime investigatis, nuper inter Alpium cul- 

 mina, in ipso ajtatis flore, morie immatura e nobis est abreptus. 

 Talium filiorum progenies Matri AlmK indies nova succrescat: 

 magistrorum talium accesionibus et Professorem et Senatorum 

 ordo identidem nobis augeatur ! 



"Vobis prresento Collegii sacrosanctce Trinitatis socium, 

 Physiologia; Professorem illustrem, Michaelem Foster." 



"In Prof essoribus rlovis vestro omnium nomine salutandis, fate 

 quodam iniquo succe-soris laudes decessoris desideria nonnunquam 

 aliquatenus imminui videntur. Hodie ver 1 ornat adhuc Profes- 

 sorum ordinem eloquenti^simus ille Anatomias Professor quern diu 

 sumus admirati. Integro igitur sinceroque gaudio Professorem 

 ilium salvere jubemus, quern Caledonia Hibernia; quondam 

 donavit, Hibernia Britanni£e nuper reddidit. Salutamus virum 

 qui corporis humani scientiam interiorem, antiquissimum illud 

 atque regium (uti nuper audivimus) scribendi argumentum, quasi 

 propriam jirovinciam penitus exploravit ; qui ne his quidem 

 finihus contentus, sed etiam in alias rerum natura: regiones 

 egressus, non modo de zoologia et de comparativa qua; dicitur 

 anatomia egregie meritus est, sed geologic quoque operam 

 singularem impeudit, petrographise pra:sertim recentiores, pro- 

 gressus cuviositate minuta perscrutatus. Idem et litterarum 

 amore et linguarum peritia insignis, inter rerum antiquarum 

 monumenta ne hieroglyphica neglexit, neque historiam ecclesias- 

 ticam intactam reliquit. Ergo non uui tantum Collegio sed 

 toti Academice gratum est, virum tot tantisque animi dotibus 

 instructum, societati illi tam cito esse adscriptum, cui medicinse 

 studia commendavit olim vir et de litteris antiquis et de scientiis 

 recentioribus pra;clare meritus, Thomas Linacre. 



" Vobis prajsento Collegii Divi Johannis socium, Anatomise 

 Professorem insignem, Alexandrum Macalister." 



The allusions to the growth of the physiological school, to 

 the loss of Prof. F. M. Balfour, to Prof. Macalister's inaugural 

 lecture with its happy antiquarian illustrations, and his speedy 



enrolment as a Fellow of St. John's, were heartily taken up by 

 the members of the Senate and the undergraduates present. 



The Special Board for Medicine publish for the guidance 01 

 students proceeding to medical and surgical degrees the following 

 schedule defining the range of the examination in elementary 

 biology under the regulations which come into effect on the first 

 day of January, 1S84 (Grace, November 15, 1883). The exam- 

 ination in elementary biclogy will have reference to (i) the 

 fundamental facts and laws of the morphology, histology, 

 physiology, and life-history of plants as illustrated by the following 

 types : ^acc/taromyces, Protococciis, Miicor, Sfirogyra, Chara or 

 Nitclla, a fern, Pinits, and an angiospermous flowering plant ; 

 (2) the fundamental facts and laws of animal morphology, as 

 illustrated by the following types : Amaba, Paramacium or 

 Vorticdla, Hydra, Liimbrictis, Astacus, Anodon, Ainphioxus, 

 Sryllium, Raiia, Lfpus. Under the head of vegetable physio- 

 logy the student will not be expected to deal with special 

 questions relating to the more highly difl^erentiated flowering 

 plants. He will be expected to show a practical knowledge of 

 the general structure of each of the animal types above specified, 

 and an elementary know ledge of the chief biological laws which 

 the structural phenomena illustrate. He will also be expected 

 to show an elementary knowledge of the general developmental 

 history of Aniphioxus and of Puna. He will not be expected 

 to deal with purely physiological details. 



The subject announced for the next Adams Prize to be 

 adjudged in 1S85, is as follows : Investigate the laws governing 

 the interaction of cyclones and anticyclones on the earth's 

 surface. In order to give precision to this, the following sugges- 

 tions are given to the examiners : — An infinite plane has surface 



density -s— (where g is gravity) ; on one side of it is air in equi- 

 librium, the density of which must diminish according to the 

 barometric law as we recede from the plane. The system re- 

 volves as [a rigid body, about an axis perpendicular to the plane, 

 with a constant angular velocity to. If one or more vortices, 

 with a revolution either consentaneous with w (cyclones), or 

 adverse thereto (anticyclones), be established in the air, inves- 

 tigate their motions. It may be well to consider the axes of the 

 vortices as either straight or curved, and perpendicular or inclined 

 to the plane. If possible, pass to the case in which the vortices 

 exist in the atmosphere surrounding a rotating globe. 



The Rev. H. VV. Watson has been approved for the degree 

 of Sc.D. — Prof. Darwin is arranging to give a course of prac- 

 tical leaching in astronomy with the instruments under his 

 charge. Next term Mr. H. H. Turner of Trinity College will 

 undertake this course. — The General Board of Studies, in re- 

 issuing its recommendations as to Readers, Demon.strators, &c., 

 has asked that power be given to the Museums and Lecture 

 Rooms Syndicate to obtain plans for a foundry for the Depart- 

 ment of Mechanism, for buildings for Botany, and for additional 

 buildings for Comparative Anatomy and Physiology. — It is re- 

 commended that a Curator of the Mu>eum of General and 

 Local Archazrology be appointed, at a salary of 100/. per annum. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



Journal of the Franklin Institute, vol. cxvi. No. 694, October, 

 18S3. — The commercial and dynamic efficiencies of steam- 

 engines, by Prof. R. H. Thurston. In this paper there are cal- 

 culated the ratio of expansion to furnish power most economically, 

 the m.tximum efficiency of a given plant, and maximum efficiency 

 of fluid, when such data are taken into account, as total aimual 

 cost of steam, and total annual cost of all items variable with 

 size of steam-cylinder. — Mr. R. Grimshaw, in a paper on the 

 steam-engine indicator as a detector of lost motion, describes the 

 use of the indicator to pick out defective setting of cranks, cross- 

 heads, &c. — The next three articles are on the " ater supply of 

 cities in ancient times, on oil-dressed belting, and a report on the 

 pressure-governed gas-meter and burner. — The address by Prof. 

 Rowland, entitled " A Plea for Pure Science," lately reprinted 

 in Nature, is also reproduced in extenso. 



Antialen der Physik und Chanic, xxii. No. 10, contains a 

 long memoir by Professors Sohncke and Wangerin on interfer- 

 ence phenomena obtained with thin and especially with wedge- 

 shaped laminae. The article will be continued in the next 

 number. — On the changes of volume of metals and alloys on 

 melting, by Prof. Eilhard Wiedemann. The metals were cast 

 in thin rods, then dropped into a nearly-fitting glass tube, 



