APRIL I, 1915] 
NAT ORE 
n5) 2) 

number of 335, the decline in full-time students up 
to the present date being 462. The fall in numbers 
will involve a decrease in fees of not less than 
10,0001. The ‘Pro Patria”’ list already issued con- 
tains 665 names, distributed as follows :—Army, 523; 
Navy, 30; Officers Training Corps, 69; Red Cross 
work, already abroad, 17; voluntary aid detachment, 
ready for service, 26. A large number of refugee 
students has been received, each student paying a 
nominal fee. The number admitted since the begin- 
ning of the session has been 116; at the opening of 
the second term, the number actually at work was 81. 
The college staff, with the help of its friends, has 
provided hospitality for about forty-eight persons, and 
has raised a sum of nearly 3001. to aid the students. 
The revenue of the college in 1913-14 was 71,567I., 
the expenditure 71,2601. Members of the college have 
already indicated their willingness to assist in helping 
towards the deficit created by the war. The comple- 
tion of the new buildings has been delayed by the war. 
A special effort on the part of the Equipment and 
Endowment Fund Committee is to be made to raise 
the remainder of the sum necessary for the completion 
of the chemical laboratories. The sum still needed for 
this purpose is 13,650l., the greater part of which 
(10,000!) is required for the special equipment of a 
physical and electrical chemistry laboratory. The 
national need of improved facilities for chemical educa- 
tion emphasises the desirability of completing the 
equipment of these new laboratories. 

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
Lonpon. 
Mineralogical Society, March 16.—Dr. A. E. H. 
Tutton, president, in the chair.—Prof. G. Cesaro: 
Orpiment from Balia, Asia Minor. Results of a 
crystallographic examination were given.—Prof. G. 
Cesaro: Stereographic projection of a cone touching 
the sphere of projection along a small circle.—Dr. S. 
Kozu: The dispersion of adularia from St. Gothard, 
felspar from Madagascar, and moonstone from Ceylon. 
A second communication giving the results of careful 
measurements.—Dr. G. T. Prior: The meteoric stone 
of Launton, Oxfordshire. The stone, which was seen 
to fall on February 15, 1830, was acquired by Dr. Lee 
and placed in his natural history collection at Hartwell 
House, near Aylesbury. After his death it was, 
through confusion with another meteorite, lost sight 
‘of until 1895, when it was found by Dr. Fletcher 
wrongly labelled in the Lee collection, and was secured 
for the British Museum. The stone belongs to the 
white-veined chondrite group, and in chemical and 
mineral composition agrees with other members. of 
that group. 
Linnean Society, March 18.—Prof. E. B. Poulton, 
president, in the chair.—J. A. Wheldon and W. G. 
Travis: The lichens of South Lancashire. Ih the 
introductory part of their paper, the authors, after 
referring to the enormous industrial development and 
increase of population which took place in South 
Lancashire during the last century, point out the 
deterioration of the flora which ensued, and then pro- 
ceed to detail the results of their study of the effects 
of air-pollution by coal-smoke on the cryptogamic 
vegetation, and more particularly on lichen-growth. 
They are of opinion that South Lancashire exhibits 
the deleterious effects of smoke on vegetation to a 
higher degree over a larger area than is, perhaps, 
the case in any other part of Great Britain. They 
think, however, that these adverse conditions have 
now reached their maximum. It has, therefore, been 
considered of importance exactly to describe the state 
of the lichen-flora as it at present exists, so that data 
NO. 2370, VOL. 95| 

may be afforded for purposes of comparison at some 
future time when a regenerated lichen-flora has de- 
veloped under purer atmospheric conditions. The 
authors show the extent to which the various classes 
of lichens, more especially those of corticolous and 
rupestral habitats, have suffered; and in this connec- 
tion the marked influence of a calcareous substratum 
in neutralising the deleterious effects of smoke on 
lichen-growth is discussed. Particular attention has 
been paid by the authors to the lichens of the coast 
sand-dunes, the lichens of the Sand-dune Plant 
Formation in Britain not having hitherto been 
specially investigated. The characteristic lichens of 
these dunes and their ecological relations are 
described. A systematic list of all species of lichens 
found in the vice-county is given; and four new 
species and two new varieties are described. 
MANCHESTER. 
Literary and Philosophical Society, February 23. 
—Mr. F. Nicholson, president, in the chair. 
—Prof. W. W. Haldane Gee: A projection screen in- 
vented by the late Mr. Thomas Thorp. The screen is 
made by producing a special type of matt surface on 
glass, on which is then deposited silver. This forms 
the opaque back of the screen, the front being of 
transparent glass. The screen gives a well-illuminated 
picture when employed for ordinary lantern work, and 
is especially good for use with the projecting micro- 
scope. By its means the Brownian motion of colloidal 
particles, which requires high magnification and great 
loss of light, can be demonstrated. The screen is most 
effective when viewed at an angle nearly perpendicular 
to its surface. A microscopic examination of the sur- 
face shows that it is made up of minute convex discs. 
—Prof. G. Elliot Smith: The significance of the geo- 
graphical distribution of the practice of mummifica- 
tion. Mummification is the most distinctive element 
of a complexly-interwoven series of peculiar customs, 
including the practice of building megalithic monu- 
ments, sun- and serpent-worship, circumcision, tattoo- 
ing. etc. The art of embalming certainly originated 
in Egypt, and, as the practice is of a nature extremely 
repulsive to mankind, the circumstances must have 
been of quite an exceptional nature to have driven any 
people to adopt such a custom. It is altogether un- 
likely that such a complex combination of special cir- 
cumstances as we know to have called the practice 
into existence in Egypt should have arisen in more 
than one place. The details of the technique, in what- 
ever part of the world the custom is found, emphasise 
an Egyptian origin. The practice spread from Egypt 
to the Mediterranean littoral, Europe, and the Canary 
Islands; to East Africa, Upper Congo, Southern 
Nigeria; to the Persian Gulf, India, Ceylon, Burma, 
Indonesia, New Guinea, the islands of the Torres 
Straits, and thence to Australia. Emigrants from 
Indonesia carried it to Tonga, New Zealand, Tahiti, 
and eventually to the Peruvian coast of South America. 
Paris. 
Academy of Sciences, March 15.—M. Ed. Perrier in 
the chair.—René Garnier; A class of Abelian systems 
deduced from the theory of linear equations.—Victor 
Valcovici : The theorem of movements of quantities of 
motion.—\. Le Bel: Researches on the catathermic 
radiation. Experiments on the hypothetical radiation 
suggested by Tissot.—A. Leduc: The ratio y of the 
two specific heats of mixtures of gases. Applications. 
A formula is deduced for the ratio of the two specific 
heats of gas mixtures based on expressions given by 
the author in earlier papers, and it is shown that the 
results are appreciably different from those calculated 
from the usual method of averages.—Léon Bloch : 
The absorption of gases by resonance.—A. Portevin : 


