2 8o 



NA rURE 



\yan. 20, 1S87 



called " efficiencies " it is difficult to understand. The 

 consumer is supposed to supply a large extra amount of 

 power at his own cost by burning gas to heat the air, 

 and it seems an extremely evident misuse of the word 

 " efficiency " to apply it to the ratio of the diagram so got 

 to the diagram of the central station engine. By a little 

 more liberal burning of gas, the efficiency obtained by 

 this method could quite easily be made higher than unity. 

 On the same principle we might calculate the efficiency 

 of a steam-engine by taking the ratio of the indicator- 

 card from the steam cylinder to that taken from the feed- 

 pump that supplies water to the boiler, and thus obtain an 

 efficiency of, let us say, 50,000 per cent. This is i^redintio 

 ad absiirditin of the method of calculation which is 

 perfectly legitimate and logical. R. H. S. 



THE CLASSIFICA TION OF THE CECILIA NS 

 1 N a paper on the structure and affinities of the 

 •'• AmphiumidcB, published in the newly-issued part of 

 the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 

 (vol. xxiii. No. 123), Prof Cope has put forward some 

 views as to the position of the CEBcilians or Apodous 

 Batrachians in the Systema Naturaj, which are worthy of 

 careful consideration. The Cscilians, Prof Cope observes, 

 are generally regarded as representing a distinct order of 

 the Batrachian class, which bears the name '' Apoda," or 

 " Gymnophiona." The definition of this order given by 

 Mr. Boulenger in his recently published Catalogue of the 

 specimens of these animals in the British Museum is : 

 " No limbs ; tail rudimentary ; males with an intro- 

 mittent copulatory organ ; adapted for burrowing." Of 

 these definitions Prof. Cope maintains that not one is of 

 ordinal value. " The tail in some Csecilians is distinct. 

 The intromittent copulatory organ in such species as 

 Derinophis mexicamis, Gyinnophis proximus, and Herpcte 

 ochroccphala is not a special organ, but merely the everted 

 cloaca. The hard papills observed by Gunther in 

 Ichthyophis glutinosus are wanting in the above-men- 

 tioned species, and the protrusion of the cloaca is per- 

 formed by two special muscles." 



As regards the absence of limbs in the Cascilians, Prof 

 Cope points out that the extremely rudimentary character 

 of these organs in AnipJiiuma is well known, and that 

 their non-existence has no greater claim to be considered 

 as of ordinal value in the Batrachians than in the adjoin- 

 ing class of Reptiles, where it is in some cases not even a 

 " family " character. Looking to these facts. Prof Cope 

 proposes to unite the Caecilians with the Urodele 

 Batrachians, and to class them only as a family, 

 " Cfficiliids," connected with the more typical forms of 

 the group through the Amphiumida:. 



Messrs. Sarasin, who have recently published a most 

 interesting account of their observations on the develop- 

 ment of a species of Ciecilian in Ceylon,' seem to have 

 come to nearly the same conclusions as to the correct 

 systematic position of this group of Batrachians. 



NOTES 

 The Prince of Wales has requested the President of the Royal 

 Society to join the Committee appointed to advise on the organisa- 

 tion of the proposed Imperi.1l Institute. 



We have referred elsewhere to some of the possible results of 

 the meetings held last week in favour of the Imperial Institute. 

 Some very striking features which have been developed in con- 

 nection with this movement during the last week are, first of all, 

 the considerable desire which has been evinced to enrich various 

 localities with some Jubilee memorial, and, again, the wisdom 



"Ueber die Entwlcklungsgeschichte 

 2ool. Inst. Wurzburg, vii. p. 2Q2 (1885). 



1 Epu 



■ glntiuosujn" Arb. 



generally displayed in selecting worthy local objects, such as 

 museums, improved science schools, and the like. All this of 

 course is admirable and entirely to be applauded, but believing as 

 we do that there is a possibility of the Imperial Institute, if 

 properly conducted, doing more good for the future development 

 of science and commerce in Greater Britain than any other single 

 organisation can possibly effect, we hope that it will not be 

 starved in favour of merely local objects. We hear that the women 

 of England have already subscribed a noble sum. This no doubt 

 Her Majesty will hand over to the Institute, if it is organised so 

 as to command the confidence and respect of the various leaders 

 of opinion in this country and in the colonies. 



Many of our readers will attach much importance to Colonel 

 Donnelly's letter, which appears in another column. A large 

 increase in the number of students anxious to enter the Normal 

 School of Science and Royal School of Mines was of course to 

 be expected, and we are glad that this influx has induced the de- 

 partment to take steps to increase the accommodation, and at the 

 same time to insist upon one of the best possible forms of 

 entrance examination; astrict inquiry, nameIy,into the educational 

 history of each candidate for admission. 



The Norwegian Government has presented a Bill to the 

 Storthing for fixing a standard time for the whole of Norway. 

 The standard time proposed is Greenwich time plus one hour. 



Mr. W. B\ldwin Spencer, Fellow of Lincoln College, 

 Oxford, has been appointed to the Chair of Biology in the 

 University of Melbourne, and will leave England in about three 

 weeks. Mr. Spencer distinguished himself lately by his 

 important memoir on the pineal eye in lizards. 



A NUMBER of eminent men of science have addressed a 

 memorial to the President, Vice-Presidents, and Council of the 

 Royal College of Surgeons of England, suggesting that the 

 legacy bequeathed to the College by the late Sir Erasmus 

 Wilson might with advantage be devoted to the establishment 

 of an institution having for its object "physiological and patho- 

 logical research." It is pointed out that the want of such an 

 institution in England has long been felt, and more especially of 

 late, when we have had to look to Berlin for information respect- 

 ing tubercle, and to Paris for experiments on the prevention of 

 hydrophobia. That the Government will do anything in the 

 matter no one is so sanguine as to believe ; and it is hardly 

 more probable that the want will ever be supplied by public 

 subscription. There is, therefore, much to be said for the pre- 

 sent proposal, and the authorities of the College of Surgeons 

 will, no doubt, give it due attention. It seems strange that in 

 London there should be nothing like the splendid laboratories 

 which exist not only in the capital cities of Europe, but in com- 

 paratively small German towns, such as Bonn, Strasburg, and 

 Leipzig. 



University College, Liverpool, has reason to congratulate 

 itself on having some remarkably generous and enlightened 

 friends. On Tuesday last it was announced at a meeting of the 

 College Council that Mr. Thomas Harrison, shipowner, of 

 Liverpool, had endowed the Chair of Engineering with 10,000/. 

 Only a few weeks ago Sir Andrew Walker, also a citizen 

 of Liverpool, gave 15,000/. to build Engineering Laboratories. 



On Thursday last the honorary freedom of the City of London 

 was conferred upon Mr. H. M. Stanley, in recognition of his 

 services as a traveller and explorer in Africa. The presentation 

 was made at a special meeting of the Court of Common Council 

 in the new council chamber at the Guildhall. The City Cham- 

 berlain, in making the presentation, referred to "the remark- 

 able development of journalistic enterprise during the Victorian 

 era," observing that Mr. Stanley was the first member of "the 



