NATURE 



[Aprii 



i ( Ji3 



building in three blocks; the foundations of the first 

 block have already been commenced, and about 

 i io.ooo/. will be spent in the erection. Sir Hugh 

 Bell, Sir Henry Koscoe, and other distinguished men 

 of science have undertaken to advise in connection 

 with the scope of this museum, the organisation of the 

 collection, the policy to be followed in regard to the 

 collection to be placed in the new building, and also 

 as to what should be the relation of the museum to 

 other societies and museums. 



The final report of the Royal Commission on Uni- 

 versity Education in London has just been issued as 

 a Blue-book (Cd. 0717, price 2s.). The following are 

 among the principal conclusions and recommenda- 

 tions : — (1) The Commissioners consider the whole 

 organisation of the University fundamentally defective 

 — (a) because of the present relations between the in- 

 ternal and external sides of the University ; (b) because 

 of the existing combination in the University of a 

 large number of institutions differently related to it. 

 (2) They propose that external students should con- 

 tinue to be admitted to the general examinations in 

 the United Kingdom in all degrees except those in 

 medicine and technology. Pupils still at school, how- 

 ever, would not be admitted, and students in con- 

 stituent colleges or in University departments would 

 not be admitted to these examinations in any faculty 

 in which a special examination was open to them 

 without the leave of the proper University authorities. 

 13) The University in future would consist of con- 

 stituent colleges "and University departments. The 

 constituent colleges will be institutions either estab- 

 lished by the University or existing institutions which 

 are strong enough in one or more faculties to comply 

 with the conditions for incorporation, and which 

 transfer to the University the financial and educa- 

 tional control of their work in one or more of these 

 faculties. (4) The normal portal of entrance to the 

 University would be a school examination, established 

 on the lines recommended by the Consultative Com- 

 mittee, instead of the present matriculation. (5) In 

 order to reconstitute the University on these lines an 

 additional income of qq.ooo/. would be required. _ We 

 hope to deal further with the report in an early issue. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 

 Royal Society, April 10. — Sir Alfred Kempe, vice- 

 president and treasurer, in the chair. — L. Kill and M. 

 Flack : The effect of lability (resilience) of the arterial 

 wall on the blood pressure and pulse curve. — Prof. 

 J H. Priestley and R. C. Knight : The nature of the 

 toxic action of the electric discharge upon Bacillus 

 coli communis. (1) Electric discharge in air is fatal 

 to bacteria exposed to its action. (2) The effect is 

 due to the products of the interaction of the consti- 

 tuents of the air, namely nitric and nitrous acid and 

 ozone. (3) Discharge in air-free hydrogen has no 

 deli terious effect on the organisms, but the presence 

 of small quantities of air allows the formation of a 

 toxic substance, probably hydrogen peroxide, which 

 again exerts a bactericidal action. (4) It, therefore, 

 follows that electric discharges in which the current 

 density does not exceed 10- 5 amperes per square centi- 

 metre do not exert any directly toxic action upon 

 micro-organisms, a result which is contrary to the 

 statements made by some previous investigators. — 

 S. B. Scliryver : Some investigations on the phenomena 

 of "clot" formations. Part I. The clotting of milk. 

 — Surg-General Sir D. Bruce, Majors D. Harvey and 

 A. E.Hamerton, and Lady Bruce : (1) Morphology of 

 various strains of the trypanosome causing disease in 

 NO. 2268, VOL. 91] 



Nyasaland. II., The wild game strain. (2) Morpho- 

 logy of various strains of the trypanosome causing 

 disease in man in Nyasaland. III., 1 he wild Glossina 

 morsitans strain. (3) Infectivity of Glossina morsitans 

 in Nyasaland. 



Linnean Society, April 3.— Prof. J. Stanley Gardiner, 

 F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair.— Prof. A. Dendy : 

 The calcareous sponges collected in the Indian Ocean 

 on the Percy Sladen expedition. Of more than 400 

 species of Calcarea known, the present collection 

 consisted of thirteen species, several of which were 

 new to science.— Dr. I. D. F. Gilchrist : Larval stages 

 of Jasus lalandii (Milne-Edwards).— R. S. Bagnall : 

 The classification of the order Symphyla. 



Royal Astronomical Society, April 11. — Major Hills, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Mrs. Evershed : Some 

 types of prominences associated with sun-spots. The 

 paper was illustrated by forty slides of photographs 

 of various forms of prominences situated over sun- 

 spot groups ; the photographs were arranged in eleven 

 series, to show the successive changes in individual 

 prominences. Their motions are intermittent, and 

 vary in amount, thus differing from the motions ob- 

 served in spot penumbra', which are uniform and 

 constant. The outward moving gas frequently falls 

 back upon the chromosphere, sometimes forming 

 massive banks, and sometimes rising and falling like 

 fountains.— Miss Blagg : A suggested substitute for 

 Bode's law. The law itself and the various hypotheses 

 put forward to supplement it were explained. The 

 author's theory agreed much better than Bode's law 

 with the actual distances of planets and satellites; it 

 strengthened the view that tidal action had always 

 been small, and that satellites had not greatly altered 

 their distances. — Joel Stebbins : The selenium photo- 

 meter. The principle of the instrument, which was in 

 use at the Illinois Observatory, was founded on the 

 fact that the electrical resistance of selenium varied 

 when exposed to light. Many irregularities were 

 found in its use as a stellar photometer, but these were 

 reduced by keeping it at a low temperature ; about 

 — 20 C. was found most convenient. — Dr. F. W. 

 Dyson : The distribution in space of the stars of 

 Carrington's circumpolar catalogue. — E. E. Barnard : 

 Observations of the variable star 97, 1910 Cygni, at 

 the Yerkes Observatory. The star, which had a 

 period of nineteen or twenty months, was remarkable 

 for its extreme faintness at minimum, when it was 

 bevond the reach of the 40-in. telescope. — H. C. 

 Plummer : Preliminary discussion of the galactic 

 motions of the bright stars of type I. — A. C. D. 

 Crommelin : Comparison of the moon's coordinates for 

 1914, according to the new Delaunay tables, with 

 those given in the Nautical Almanac. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, April 7. — M. F. Guyon in the 



chair. — J. Boussinesq : The application of the formulas 



of superficial viscosity to the surface of a spherical 



liquid drop, falling slowly, with uniform motion in 



the midst of an indefinite liquid mass in repose and 



of a density slightly lower than that of the drop. — 



M. de Forcrand : The dehydration and decomposition 



of the hydrates of uranyl nitrate. The formation of a 



monohvdrate. — Charles Deperet : Observations on the 



1 geological Pliocene and Quaternary history of the gulf 



and isthmus of Corinth^J. Guillaume : Observations 



of the sun made at the Observatory of Lyons during 



the third quarter of IQ12. The results are given in 



1 three tables showing the number of spots, the distri- 



. bution of the spots in latitude, and the distribution of 



the facula? in latitude.— Stanislas Belsetsky : The 



stability of equilibrium in a particular case of a piece 



