4 jo 



NATURE 



[July 



1913 



versity college, or of an educational body containing 

 representatives of such places of higher education. 

 The university or supervising body must be respon- 

 sible for the framing of the syllabus, and the selection 

 of a suitable tutor ; and the 'instruction must aim at 

 reaching, within the limits of the subject covered, 

 the standard of university work in honours. The 

 course must extend for each class over a period of not 

 less than three years, and must occupy at least two 

 hours a week for twenty-four weeks ' in each vear, 

 at least one-half of the time being devoted to class 

 work. 



In the issue of Science for June 13 further large 

 gifts to higher education in the United States are 

 announced. Mr. Andrew Carnegie has undertaken to 

 provide 200,000/. for the medical department of Van- 

 derbilt University. Of this sum 40,000/. is to be 

 given to the University immediately for the erection 

 and equipment of laboratories. The income from the 

 remaining 160,000/. is to be paid annually for the sup- 

 port of the department through the Carnegie Cor- 

 poration. A condition of the donation provides that 

 the direction of the educational and scientific work 

 of the department shall be committed bv the board 

 of trustees to a small board of seven members, three 

 of whom shall be eminent in medical and scientific 

 work. Messrs. J. B. and B. N. Duke have given 

 160,000/. more to Trinity College in North Carolina. 

 The college has thus secured the 30,000/. promised by the 

 Rockefeller Foundation, and has added 200,000/. to its 

 endowment. Governor Sulzer has signed a Bill grant- 

 ing 50,000/. for a building for the "State College of 

 Agriculture at Syracuse University. 



The report for 1913 of the council of the City and 

 Guijds_ of London Institute has now been published. 

 In it is passed in review the work of the City and 

 Guilds (Engineering) College, the City and Guilds 

 Technical College, Finsburv, the South London Tech- 

 nical Art School, the Department of Technology, and 

 the Leather Trades School. The audited accounts 

 and balance-sheet of the institute are given, and the 

 reports of the heads of the various colleges and schools 

 are included. During the past session the Depart- 

 ment of ^Technology registered 4552 classes in the 

 United Kingdom in 331 towns. These classes were 

 attended by 53,999 students; this number represents, 

 however, only a proportion of the total number of 

 students in attendance at courses of technical in- 

 struction largely influenced by the work of the depart- 

 ment. The examinations of the department were held 

 in seventy-five technological subjects, for which 22,111 

 candidates were presented in the United Kingdom 

 alone. While the total number of candidates shows 

 a decrease on the number for 1911, the proportion of 

 passes in the examinations has, on the contrary, risen 

 by 4 per cent., which suggests that the fall in the 

 number of candidates is largely due to the exclusion 

 of a number of insufficiently prepared students from 

 the examinations. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 ^ Royal Society, June iq.-^Sir Archibald Geikie, 

 K.C.B., president, in the chair. — Sir James Dewar : 

 Atomic specific heats between boiling points of liquid 

 nitrogen and hydrogen. — I. The mean atomic specific 

 heats at 50 absolute of the elements a periodic 

 function of the atomic weights. — Hon. R. J. Strutt : 

 An active modification of nitrogen produced by the 

 electric discharge. V. fi) An improved practical 

 method of preparing and storing nitrogen for the 

 experiments is described. (2) It is shown, notwith- 

 standing criticisms of certain other experimenters, 

 NO. 2 2-q, VOL. 91] 



that the presence of traces of oxygen in the nitrogen 

 used is not essential, or even favourable, to the 

 phenomena. The nitrogen used, purified by cold 

 phosphorus, does not contain oxygen t o the extent 

 of one part in 100,000. Passing it over red-hot copper 

 in addition makes no difference. The intentional addi- 

 tion of oxygen does harm ; 2 per cent, obliterates the 

 effects altogether. Hydrogen and carbon dioxide as 

 impurities are much less harmful, but traces even 

 of water vapour have a very bad effect. (3) Nitrides 

 are formed by the admixture of active nitrogen with 

 vapour of mercury, cadmium, zinc, arsenic, sodium, 

 and sulphur. These are decomposable by water or 

 potash solution, yielding ammonia. (4) Carbon di- 

 sulphide yields a blue polymeric nitrogen sulphide, 

 and polymeric carbon monosulphide. Chloride of sul- 

 phur gives ordinary yellow nitrogen sulphide. Stannic 

 chloride and titanium tetrachloride also yield solid 

 products. In the latter case nitrogen was proved to 

 be present. (5) All organic compounds tried, except 

 carbon tetrachloride, yield hydrocyanic acid freely, but 

 not cyanogen, as was proved by chemical tests. When 

 chlorine is present, cyanogen chloride is formed. 

 Benzene yields (almost certainly) cyanobenzene. (6) 

 The intensity of the cyanogen spectrum with organic 

 compounds is no index of the quantity of hydro- 

 cyanic acid being formed. Preponderance of the red 

 cyanogen bands is associated with cyanogen chloride 

 or bromide. On a general view of the evidence, there 

 does not appear to be any definite connection between 

 the development of spectra by active nitrogen and the 

 chemical actions in progress. — Dr. J. A. Barker and 

 Dr. G. W. C. Kaye : The electrical emissivity and 

 disintegration of hot metals. Preliminary experiments 

 have been carried out on the volatilisation and elec- 

 trical emissivity of a number of metals, mostly in 

 nitrogen at reduced pressures. The metals were 

 heated by alternating current and no applied potential 

 was employed. (1) The emission of positive electricity 

 occurs at temperatures from about iooo to 1400 C. 

 For metals which melt within this range, a sudden 

 and marked increase in the positive current often 

 occurred at the liquefying point — due, probably, to 

 the sudden release of occluded gas. (2) Oxygen 

 appears to augment the positive current. (3) At 

 higher temperatures, negative electricity predominates 

 and increases rapidly with the temperature. The 

 negative current attained with iridium at the melting 

 point was 80 milliamperes, with tantalum at 1670 C. 

 220 microamperes, with iron at the melting point 90 

 microamperes. In the case of carbon in air at atmo- 

 spheric pressure, an ionisation current of 3^ amperes 

 was obtained. (4) The negative current at moderate 

 pressures appears to be largely increased if the con- 

 ditions are such that considerable sputtering of the 

 metal occurs. (5) The negative currents are probably 

 a consequence of chemical reaction between the metal 

 and the surrounding gas. (6) Carbon becomes plastic 

 in the neighbourhood of 2500 C. At such tempera- 

 tures it also readily sublimes. — Dr. A. O. Rankine : 

 A method of measuring the viscosity of the vapours 

 of volatile liquids, with an application to bromine. 

 In this method of determining viscosities the rate of 

 transpiration of the vapour through a capillary tube 

 is controlled by the vapour pressures of the liquid 

 itself, a difference of pressure being established in 

 the process of virtually distilling the liquid through 

 the capillary. The pressures can be estimated with- 

 out the use of mercury gauges — a state of affairs 

 especially desirable in the case of the halogens. The 

 viscosities of unsaturated bromine vapour over the 

 approximate range io° C. to 250° C. have been 

 measured, and, except at the lowest temperatures, are 

 found to agree will with Sutherland's formula, not- 



