Dec. 1 6, 1886] 



NA TURE 



157 



three, and the range of subjects was more limited ; other- 

 wise the examination was exactly the same as in the 

 period 1848-72. But Part III. was a complete novelty, 

 and a great deal of curiosity was felt as to how the first 

 Moderators and Examiners would interpret the regula- 

 tions. Would the new examination resemble, as regards 

 the character of the questions set, the last three days of 

 the old five days, or was the examination to be one of a 

 distinctly higher order ? The result showed that the 

 latter anticipation was the correct one. No longer 

 hampered by the order of merit, the examiners felt them- 

 selves free to set difficult and elaborate questions, such 

 as were only appropriate to specialists in the particular 

 subjects ; and a new departure was made. 



As soon as the newsystem came intofuU operation, itwas 

 found that it needed amendment in various respects ; and 

 this is not to be wondered at, considering that it had been 

 constructed in order to fit in with the few regulations 

 that had escaped the general massacre of May 1878, and 

 that almost e\ery part of it was the result of a compromise. 

 It was found that the interval between June and January 

 — less than seven months, and including a long vacation 

 in which very few lectures were given — was too short for 

 an adequate preparation for Part III. It is true that 

 most of the work for Part III. could be done — and indeed 

 was done — before the examination in Parts I. and II. ; 

 but the competition in these two parts remained as keen 

 as ever, and, as the examination became imminent, the 

 candidates were tempted to neglect the higher work, and 

 give their whole attention to the more elementary 

 subjects, upon which the list in order of merit depended. 

 As a consequence there was a diminution in the numbers 

 of students attending the higher mathematical lectures in 

 the University. With respect to the actual conduct of 

 the examination, it was found that the strain upon the 

 Moderators and Examiners was very serious, and general 

 regret was expressed that under the new scheme no pro- 

 vision had been made for the annual appointment of an 

 Additional Examiner, as in the previous scheme which 

 had been in operation from 1873 to 18S2. Under 

 the new system the candidates devoted themselves to 

 special branches of the higher mathematics, and there 

 was even greater difficulty in adequately representing 

 all the subjects of examination. Accordingly, on 

 June 12, 1884, the Senate confirmed a Report of the 

 Mathematical Board recommending that the examina- 

 tion in Part III. should take place in June, exactly 

 a year after that in Parts I. and II., and that the Mode- 

 rators and Examiners, with the Chairman of the Mathe- 

 matical Board, should nominate an Additional Examiner, 

 the first nomination being made in the Easter term, 1885, 

 and having reference to the examination in January 1886. 

 It was considered that the Moderators and Examiners 

 were themselves the best judges of the branches of 

 mathematics in which they most desired assistance, and 

 were therefore the most suitable body to nominate the 

 Additional Examiner. 



The last time that the whole examination took place in 

 January was in 1882. This year (1886) the examination 

 in Part III. has taken place in January for the last time, 

 so that the historic connection between the Tripos and 

 the month of January has now finally ended. Henceforth 

 the examination in all three parts will take place in the 

 middle of the year. 



(To be continued!) 



EARTHQUAKE AT SEA 



WE have received the following communication from 

 Mr. R. H. Scott, F.R.S., Secretary, Meteorological 

 Office :— 



Britislt Consulate, St. John's, Porto Rico, 

 November 4, 1 886 

 Sir, — I have the honour to inform you that Mr. J. 

 Simmons, master of the British brigantine Wilhelmina, 



of Lunenburg, now loading in this port, has reported to 

 me that, on October 20 last, at 4.30 p.m., while in latitude 

 19° 21' N., and longitude 64° 22' W., he felt a shock of 

 earthquake which caused the ship to tremble. The shock 

 lasted one minute, and was accompanied by a loud 

 rumbling noise like distant thunder. Capt. .Simmons 

 states further that, were it not that he believed the depth 

 of water at the spot to be no less than two thousand 

 fathoms, he could have imagined that his vessel was 

 running upon the rocks, so great was the vibration and 

 so loud the noise. I have thought it my duty to report 

 this occurrence officially, as it seems not improbable that 

 some volcanic disturbance is in operation in the locality 

 herein referred to. 



I have the honour to be. Sir, your most obedient 

 humble servant, 



Reginald H. Hertslet, 

 H.M. Consul 



The Assistant Secretary, Marine Department, 

 Board of Trade 



NOTES 

 We regret to hear of the death at Calcutta of Father Scorte- 

 chini from dysentery. He has succumbed to his extraordinary 

 exertions in the botanical exploration of Perak, where he had 

 made very large and valuable collections. These he intended to 

 make the basis of a flora of this native State in collaboration 

 with Dr. King, the Superintendent of the Royal Botanic Garden, 

 Calcutta. His coUectiona will, as far as possible, be made use 

 of by Sir Joseph Hooker in the portions of the flora of British 

 India now in progress at Kew. 



One of the severest storms of recent years swept over the 

 country in the middle of last week, being indeed a storm seldom 

 paralleled for its wide-spread destructiveness. The damage to 

 property and the loss of life have been exceptionally great, and 

 each morning newspaper has been adding to the long tale of 

 losses and disasters. Another peculiarity of the storm is that it 

 was heralded with only the slightest premonitions of its approach. 

 It was at Valencia only that the observations of the previous 

 evening indicated a storm, and these even seemed to foreshadow no 

 more than a subsidiary cyclone. But on Wednesday morning last 

 week the centre of the storm had already advanced on the north- 

 west of Ireland, where at BelmuIIet, at 8 a.m., the barometer had 

 fallen, at 32° and sea-level, to 27-580 inches. In the course of 

 the day the cyclone moved eastward at the rather slow rate of 

 20 miles an hour, and by 6 p.m. its centre was near Barrow-in- 

 Furness, where the barometer is stated to have fallen to 

 27'4I0 inches. The centre passed somewhat to the south 

 of Edinburgh, about half-past seven, pressure being then 

 27-650 inches, and the wind easterly. The greatest interest 

 is attached to the observations that may have been made 

 in the north of England and the south of Scotland during the 

 evening of Wednesday week, from which the path of the cyclone 

 may be traced ; and particularly, if the low reading at Barrow- 

 in-Furness be confirmed, what lower readings of the barometer 

 were made to the eastward. But in any case it is plain that in 

 this part of Great Britain, on the evening of Wednesday week, 

 pressure fell nearly as low as it did on January 26, 1884, at Och- 

 tertyre, Perthshire, where it fell to 27-333 inches ; and it is re- 

 markable that these two low barometers, hitherto the lowest 

 observed by man anywhere on the land surfaces of the globe 

 after being reduced to sea-level, have occurred in the British 

 Islands, and within three years of each other. It is noteworthy 

 that the lowest pressure on Ben Nevis was 23-451 inches at 

 2h. 31m. p.m., and that at the height of the storm, at 6 p.m., 

 the wind was south-east, and blowing at the rate of fully 120 

 miles an hour — thus indicating that the storm was not only 

 wide-spread, but that it also, as regards direction and force 



