March 6, 1884] 



NA TURE 



443 



ciable erosion by the waves and no visible accumulation of 

 detritus, are to be found among the land-locked fjords or inlets 

 of the west coast of Scotland. In these sheltered recesses the 

 smoothed striated rocks of the Ice Age slip under the sea, 

 with their characteristic glaciated surfaces still so fresh that it 

 is hard to believe that a long lapse of ages has passed away 

 since the glaciers left them. 



The remarkable contrast between the scenery of the eastern 

 and western coast-line of the British Islands arises partly from 

 the jireponderance of harder rocks on the west than on the east 

 side, but probably in large measure upon the greater extent of 

 the submergence of the western sea-board, whereby the sea has 

 been allowed to penetrate far inland by fjords which were for- 

 merly glens and open valleys. The details of c last-scenery vary 

 with the rock in which they are developed. Now'here can tlie 

 effects of each leading type of rock upon landscape be more 

 instructively studied than along the sea-margin. As distinct 

 types of coast-scenery, reference may be made to sea-cliffs and 

 rocky shores of granite, gneiss, basalt, massive sandstone and 

 llagstone, limestone, alternations of sandstone shale or other 

 strata, and boulder-clay, and to the forms assumed by detrital 

 accumulations such as sand-dunes, shingle-banks, and flats of 

 sand or mud. 



The concluding portion of the lecture was devoted to an 

 indication of the connection between the scenery of a country 

 and the history and temperament of the people. This subject 

 was considered from four points of view, the influence of land- 

 scape and geological structure being traced in the distribution of 

 races, in national history, in industrial and commercial progress, 

 and in national temperament and literature. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



Oxford. — The proposal to allow women to enter for the 

 same horour examinations as men met with less opposition in 

 Congregation than was generally anticipated. By loo votes 

 to 46 the statute was passed by Congregation permitting 

 women to enter for bath Classical and Mathematical Modera- 

 tions, and for the final Schools of History, Mathematics, and 

 Natural Science. On March li the statute will come before 

 Convocation, and will in all probability be passed. 



In a Convocation held on March 4 a decree was parsed 

 authorising the Professors of Anatomy and Physiology to engage 

 a table for the use of students of the University at the Zoological 

 Station at Villefranche. The anti-vivisectionists were demon- 

 strative, but did not divide the House. 



The Professor of Medicine gives notice that the Testamurs for 

 Chemistry and Physics in the Preliminary Honour Examinttion 

 excuse candidates from the Chemistry and Physics Examination 

 in the First M. B., but that the Testamurs for Chemistry and 

 Physics in the Pass Schojl are not recognised. Candidates may 

 take up Chemistry and Physics separately from Anatomy and 

 Ph.siology. 



An examination will be held at Keble College on March iS 

 to elect a Scholar in Natural Science. Candidates may offer 

 Chemistry and Biology. 



Cambridge. — Plans have been obtained for the building of a 

 new foundry and a temporary lerture-room and museum for the 

 Department of Mechanism, suitable eventually for additional 

 workshops. The cost is to be 450/. The number of pupils in 

 this department has now increased to fifiy-seven. 



Plans have also been prepared for the new botanical class- 

 rooms for microscopic work, the estimated CKt being 1065/. 



Messrs. E. C. Ames, B.A., B. H. Bent, and J. H Nicholl, 

 B.A., have been appointed Demonstrators of Mechanism and 

 Applied Mechanics. 



The following Colleges hold Examinations for Open Scholar- 

 ships in Natural Sciences on the respective dates mentioned : — 

 Clare, March 18; Jesus, March 13 ; Downing, June 10 ; Caven- 

 dish, August 6. For particulars, application should be made to 

 the tutors of the Colleges. A Clothworkers' Exhibition in 

 I'hysical Science, tenable either at Oxford or at Cambridge, will 

 be awarded in July. Information may be obtained from the 

 Censor of Non-Collegiate Studen's, Camb.idge. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



yournal of Botany. — The number for February commences 

 with the first part of an important paper by Mr. Thomas Hick 

 on protoplasmic continuity in the Floridese. The connection of 



protoplasm from cell to cell has now been established in a 

 number of instances in the vegetable kingdom. It may be seen 

 with very great ease, as described and drawn by Mr. Hick, in 

 the frond of some of the red seaweeds, as Polysiphonia and 

 CallUhamnioii, without any chemical reagent, except one that 

 causes a slight contraction. — Mr. Carruthers contributes a useful 

 paper on the mode of distinguishing the seed of the sweet vernal 

 grass, Anthoxaiitlium odoratum, from that of A. Puellii, an 

 annual species with which it is often adulterated by seed- 

 growers. 



The last part (vol. iii. heft 3) of Cohn's Beitrdge zur Biologie 

 der Pflanzen contains two important cryptogamic papers : one 

 by E. Eidam, on the development of the Ascomycetes, in which 

 two new forms are described ; the other, by M. Franke, de- 

 scribing an interesting new genus of parasitic algas, Endodonium, 

 dimorphic, and growing on decaying fronds of Lemna gibba. 



Journal of the Russian Chemical and PJiysical Society, vol. xv. 

 fasc. 9. — On the action of the hydrocarbons of the acetylene 

 series upon oxide of mercury and its salts, by M. Kutscheroff. 

 — Thermic data of pyrosulphuryl, by D. Konovaloff. The 

 heat of formation of a molecule of SjOjCl.^ from its elements in 

 a gaseous state is equal to l8o'6 calories. — On a hydrate of 

 silicium obtained froar cast iron, by G. Zabudsky. — On the 

 characters of the infra-molecular force, by M. Bardsky (second 

 article). — On electrolytic light, by N. Sloughinoff, being an 

 experimental and mathematical inquiry into the light disengaged 

 during the electrolysis of liquids at one of the electrodes : his- 

 torical sketch of the subject ; instruments employed ; the laws 

 of the extra-currents of Edlund ; light disengaged in a water 

 solution of sulphuric acid, and dependence of it upon the number 

 of elements in the battery ; oscillations of the force of the cur- 

 rent ; experiments with a rotating glass; wearing of the elec- 

 trodes ; spectrum ; light in the acid solutions of salts ; on the 

 resistance, the electro-spheroidal state, and the heat disengaged ; 

 the oscillating currents. — On the theory of the curved nets, by 

 A. Sokoloff. 



Atti delta R. Accademia dei Lincei, Rome, October 18 and 

 19, 1883. — On the alterations undergone by the red globules of 

 the blood in malarious infections, by Prof. Ettore Marchiafava. 

 — Meteorological observations made at the Royal Observatory 

 of the Campidoglio during the months of August, September, 

 and October, 1883. 



December 2. — Remarks on Dr. F. Mercanti's memoir on the 

 cilian muscle in reptiles, by Signor Moriggia, — On the alterations 

 in the red globules of the blood in malarious infections, by S. 

 Todaro. — Report on Prof. E. Millosevich's memoir on the 

 diameter of Uranus, by S. Respighi. — On the molecular veloci- 

 ties of gaseous bodies, by A. Violi. — Note on fluorbenzine and 

 fluorotoluine, by P. Eminuele and O. Vinceuzo. — A new series 

 of compounds of titanium, by A, Piccini. — On the transforma- 

 tion of the fluorbenzoic acids in the animal organism, by F. 

 Coppola. — A study of the resins of Thafsia garganica, by Fr. 

 Canzoneri. — On a new species of Salpa (S. dolicosoma), by Fr. 

 Todaro). — Observations on the Pons-Brooks comet, by Pietro 

 Tacchini. — On the unipolar induced electric cm-rent and nervous 

 excitement, by G. Magini. — Archaeological discoveries at Angera, 

 Peschiera, Viterbo, Rome, Sulmona, and in other parts of Italy, 

 from June to October, 1883. — S. Sella and S. Mamiani were 

 elected president and vice-president for the ensuing four years, 

 1884-7. 



Riz'isla Scientifico-Intiistriale, Florence, November 15-30, 

 1SS3. — Further applications of the nephoscope invented by 

 Filippo Cecchi (four illustrations). — Description of a new electro- 

 magnet recently exhibited before the .Society of Natural and 

 Economical Sciences at Palermo, by Prof. A. Ricco. —An account 

 of some of the important results already obtained in the Accli- 

 matisation Garden established ten years ago by General Vin- 

 cenzo Ricasoli at Portercole, by G. Arcangeli. Amongst the 

 exotics here successfully reared are Cocos flexiiosa, Calorica 

 borbonica, PJioenix reclinata, Boldea fragrans, Citharerylon 

 reticulatum, Casuarina quadrivalvis, Edwardsia grandijlora, 

 Eugenia australis, Ficns elastica, Piccotna fragrans, besides 

 numerous species of Bignonia, Agavs, Acacia, and Eucalyptus, 

 and other Australian plants. 



Rendiconti del R. Isliluto I^mbardo, Milan, December 13, 

 1S83. — On the distinctions observed in criminal law between the 

 authors and accomplices in a felony, by Prof. A. Buccellati. — 

 Inquiry into the nature of the underground disturbances that 



