466 



NA TURE 



{March 13, 1884 



tions above mentioned are suitalile for the measurement of such 

 currents as lo amperes. 



Another method, available with the strong currents which are 

 now common, depends upon Faraday's discovery of the rotation 

 of the plane of polarisation by magnetic force. Gordon found 

 15° 1 as the rotation due to the reversal of a current of 4 amperes 

 circulating about 1000 times round a column of bisulphide of 

 carbon. With heavy glass, which is more convenient in ordinary 

 use, the rotation is somewhat greater. With a coil of 100 

 windings we should obtain 15° with a current of 40 amperes ; 

 and this rotation n)ay easily be tripled by causing the light to 



traverse the column three times, or, what is desirable wit>: so 

 strong a current, the thickness of the wire may be increased and 

 the number of windings reduced. With the best optical arrange- 

 ments the rotation can be determined to one or two minutes, but 

 in an instrument intended for practical use such a degree of 

 delicicy is not available. One difficulty arises from the depolar- 

 ising properties of most specimens of heavy glass. Arrangements 

 are in progress for a redetermination of the rotation in hi ulphide 

 of carbon. Rayleigh 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



Oxford. — In spite of the large majority in favour of the 

 preamble of the statute allowing women to enter for certain 

 University Examinations, the statute was again opposed on 

 March 11, on being brought up by Council after amendment. 

 After a lengthy debate, the statute was carried by 107 against 

 72. The chief arguments used against the measure were based 

 on the alleijed unfairness to men in allowing women to compete 

 under no restrictions of time and residence, and for portions only 

 of any examination ; and on the evil to the health of women which 

 might arise from their competing with men. Mr. Pelham, of 

 Exeter, pointed out that the statute was not one to confer 

 degrees upon women, but to make Oxford an examining body 

 for the various centres of female education in England, and 

 enable it to confer certificates which would have a recognised 

 value. Mr. Sedgwick read letters from the heads of Newnham 

 and Girton, at Cambridge, showing that the health of the students 

 was excellent. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



The American youriial of Science. I'ebruary. — Examination 

 of Alfred R. Wallace's modification of the physical theory of 

 secular changes of climate, by James CroU. While agreeing 

 with much that has been advanced by Wallace in his " Island 

 Life," in explanation of geological climate, the author fails to 

 perceive that any of the argimients or considerations there adduced 

 materially affect his own theory as advocated in "Climate and 

 Time." He still holds that with the present distribution of land 

 and water, without calling in the aid of any other geographical 

 conditions than now obtain, the physical agencies detailed in 

 "Climate and Time" are sufficient to account for all the phe- 

 nomena of the Glacial epoch, including those intercalated warm 

 periods, during which (Greenland would probably be free from 

 ice, and the Arctic regions enjoying a mild climate. — Communi- 

 cations from the United States Geological Survey, Rocky 

 Mountain division. No. v. ; on sanidine and topaz, &c., in the 

 nevadite of Chnlk Mountain, Colorado, by Whitman Cross. 

 The sanidine crystals contain gas inclusions, but no fluids, and 

 the topaz, elsewhere found only in granite, gneiss, or other meta- 

 morphic or crystalline schists, here occurs in an eruptive rock 

 probably of early Tertiary age. — On the occurrence of the Lower 



' January, 1884. In a note recently communicated to the Royal Society 

 {Proceedings. November 15, i8S^) Mr. Gordon points out that, owing to an 

 error in reduction, the number given by him for the value of Verdet s con- 

 stant is twice as great as it sh.juld be. Ihe r(.t,^tu>ns above mentioned must 

 therefore be halved, a correction wliich diminishes materially the prospect 

 of constructing a useful instrument upon this principle. 



Burlington limestone in New Mexico, by F'rank Springer. The 

 observations made by the author in 18S2 in the Lake Valley 

 Mining District, Southern New Mexico, have brought to light 

 numerous facts confirming the views of the Burlington geologists 

 regarding the distinct character of the upper and lower sub- 

 carboniferous groups in that district, but demonstrating that the 

 Lower Burlington limestone has a much wider geographical 

 range than had hitherto been suspected. — The Minnesota Valley 

 in the Ice Age (concluded, with two maps), by Warren Upham. 

 — Glacial drift in Montana and Dakota, by Charles A. White. 

 The author, who had already determined the presence of true 

 northern Glacial drift in the region about the Lower Yellowstone 

 River, now traces the same drift much further west. His obser- 

 vati ms were mainly confined to the Missouri Valley, but also 

 reached to the vicinity of the Great Paw Mountains, extending 

 for over a thousand miles at intervals from the Great Falls of 

 the Missouri to Bismarck in Dakota. — Phenomena of the Glacial 

 and Champlain periods about the mouth of the Connecticut 

 Valley, that is, in the New Haven region (with two plates), by 

 James D. Dana. The author concludes that during the Ice 

 period the Mill River channel was excavated or deepened by 

 glacier action. This channel, as it widened southwards below 

 the mouth of the Pine Marsh Creek, became partly obstructed 

 by sand-bars, which increased as the flood made progress, and 

 ultimately merged in the wide terrace formation of the New- 

 Haven plain. — Supplement to paper on the paramoqihic origin 

 of the hornblende of the crystalline rocks of the North-Western 

 States, by R. D. Irving. — On herderite, a glucinum calcium 

 phos]3hate and fluoride from Oxford County, Maine, by William 

 Earl Hidden and James B. Mackintosh. ^Note on the decay of 

 rocks in Brazil, by Orville A. Derby. 



BuVetin de I'Acadhnie Koyale de Belgique, December I, 1883. 

 — Note on the presence of erratic boulders on the Belgian low- 

 lands, by M. E. Delvaux. From the blocks of Scandinavian 

 granites found at Limburg, in East Flanders, at Wachtebeke, 

 and other places, the author concludes that during the Ice Age 

 glaciation extended over the whole of the Netherlands, Belgium, 

 and the shallow or exposed lands now flooded by the North Sea, 

 terminatiiiLi on the plains of Norfolk and Suffolk. — On amygda- 

 line and germination, byM. A. Jorissen. — On Ihe scintillation of 

 the stars, in connection with the constitution of their light as 

 revealed by spectrum analysis, by M. Ch. Montigny. The 

 author's spectroscopic studies lead to the conclusion that those 

 stars sparkle most whose spectra present the fewest bands, scin- 

 tillation being \v eakest in those w hose spectra are marked by 

 broad dark bands. — On the fossil remains of Sphargis rupeliensis 

 discovered in the brick clay of the Waas district, by P. J. van 

 Benederi. — Note on a new differential dilatometer and its appli- 

 cation to the study of the expansion of alums under the action of 

 heat (one illustration), by W. Spring. — Some experiments on 

 thin liquid layers of glycerine prepared from the oleate of 

 sodium, by J. Plateau. — On the false appearances of am-ora 

 borealis observed in Belgium during the month of November 

 18S3, by F. Terby. — Note on the anatomy and .histology of a 

 Tutbdlaria rhabdocelh (three illustrations), by, P. Francotte. 

 — On the laws regulating the proprietary rights of ruthors 

 of musical and dramatical works in Belgium, by M. Cattreux.— 

 An historical study of the reformer Froment and his first wife, 

 Marie d'Enneticres, by M. Jules Vuij. — On a Society of Lawyers 

 that flourished in Brussels during a great part of the eighteenth 

 century, by Louis Hymans. — Remarks on the present state of 

 music in the chief cities of Central Europe, by X. van Elewyck. 

 — Generalisation of a property of surfaces of the second order, 

 by M. lamet. — Appearance of the satellites of Jupiter during 

 the night of October 14, 1SS3, by F. Terby.— Note on the 

 parallax of the sun deduced from the micrometric observations 

 made at the Belgian stations during the tr.insit of Venus on 

 December 6, 1S82, by means of specially constructed heliometers, 

 by J. C, Houzeau. — Contributions to the history of the ovum; 

 indirect relation of the germinative vesicle to the periphery of 

 the vitellus (twelve illustrations), by Ch. van Bambeke. — Re 

 marks on the study of biology and natural history in Belgium, 

 by M. Ed. van Beneden. — On the salient features of the beds 

 of the great marine basins, by M. A. Renard, 



Atti dclla R. Accademia del Lincei, December 16, 1883. — 

 Notice of G. Orano's treatise on "Habitual Criminals," by S. 

 Ferri. — On the causes of the retirement of the Alpine glaciers, 

 by Roberto Paolo. The author concludes that the glaciers were 

 developed under a mean summer temperature lower than at 



