October 24, 1912] 



NATURE 



24: 



sistence on the surplus products of the British farmer, 

 but after a long period of forgetfulness, once again 

 it has been recognised that a progressive agriculture 

 is essential to the well-being of the nation. This is 

 not the time to discuss the nature of the questions 

 which press upon us to-day ; but let us not forget that 

 they are our questions. To this newly-formed section 

 of the British Association has descended the task of 

 the early associations ; it is the privilege of its mem- 

 bers to preserve, and to hand down to their successors, 

 that spirit of the improver which animated alike the 

 ancient writers of Greece and Rome and the British 

 societies of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries ; 

 and to-day we may take to ourselves the exhortation 

 of Walter Blith, for his words apply to Section M as 

 they did to its predecessors, " from you, too, I expect 

 and waite for more discoveries of some thing, I 

 scarce know what to name it, which lies yet in 

 obscurity, but I will call it the Improvement of the 

 Improver." 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — The electors to the Isaac Newton 

 studentships give notice that in accordance with the 

 regulations an election to a studentship will be held 

 in the Lent term, 1913. These studentships are for 

 the encouragement of study and research in astronomy 

 (especially gravitational astronomy, but including other 

 branches of astronomy and astronomical physics) and 

 physical optics. The persons eligible are members of 

 the University who have been admitted to the degree 

 of Bachelor of Arts and are under the age of twenty- 

 five years on the first day of January, 1913. The 

 studentship will be tenable for the term of three years 

 from April 15, 1913- The emolument of the 

 student will be 200/. per annum. Candidates for 

 the studentship are invited to send in their applica- 

 tions to the Vice-Chancellor between January 16 and 

 26, 1913, together with testimonials and such other 

 evidence as to their qualifications and their proposed 

 course of study or research as they may think fit. 



The Arnold Gerstenberg studentship has been awarded 

 to A. E. Heath, of Trinity College. The Gedge prize 

 has been awarded to A. V. Hill, of Trinity College, 

 for his essay entitled " The heat production of am- 

 phibian muscle and of cold-blooded animals." 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, August 23.- — F. W. Aston : The 



influence of the nature of the kathode on the length 

 of the Crookes dark space, (i) The relations between 

 the values of pressure, voltage, current, pnd the 

 length of the dark space are determined for plane 

 kathodes of many different materials, and found to 

 satisfy the same form of equations as those previously 

 given for aluminium, the constants varying consider- 

 ably. (2) Roughness of the kathode surface does not 

 appear to affect the discharge, if the dimensions of 

 the irregularities are small compared with the length 

 of the dark space. (3) The length of the dark space 

 is shown, in the cases examined, to be greatest for 

 silver and least for magnesium, the metals following 

 the same order as in the case of the kathode fall. 



(4) The rate of change of length of the dark space 

 with change of current density at the surface of the 

 kathode seems much the same for all kathodes. 



(5) Difficulties in the way of arriving at a satisfac- 

 tory explanation of these and other data connected 

 with the dark space are indicated and shortly dis- 



NO. 2243, VOL. 90] 



cussed. — F. \V. Aston : The discharge between con- 

 centric cylinders in gases at low pressures. (1) The 

 relations between pressure, voltage, and the length of 

 the Crookes dark space in the discharge between con- 

 centric cylinders take much the same form as those 

 in the discharge between parallel planes. (2) Curva- 

 ture of the surface of the kathode appears to have no 

 influence upon the rate of alteration of the length of 

 the dark space with change of current density, so long 

 as the latter is measured at the surface of the kathode. 

 (3) Ceteris paribus, the length of the dark space is 

 greater for a convex cylindrical surface than a plane, 

 and for a plane than a concave one. 



Manchester. 

 Literary and Philosophical Society, October i. — Prof. 

 F. E. Weiss, president, in the chair. — Prof G. Elliot 

 Smith, F.R.S. : Ancient stone monuments. There is, 

 stated the author, no longer any room for doubt that 

 the monuments known as " megalithic," which are 

 to be found along the coast-lines of Europe, North 

 Africa, and Asia, ranging from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific, embody the same general idea which has been 

 elaborated in various ways amongst the different 

 peoples. The repetition of apparently insignificant 

 details in these monuments in countries as far apart 

 as France and India, and Ireland and Japan, makes 

 it quite certain that no theory of independent evolution 

 of the idea of erecting these curious monuments can 

 be entertained. .A,ll the evidence we possess tends to 

 prove quite definitely and conclusively that the farther 

 away from the eastern Mediterranean, whether east 

 or west, north or south, the more recent the date of 

 their construction. Thus, there can be no doubt that 

 the idea of erecting such monuments originated some- 

 where in the region of the eastern Mediterranean. 

 Now, so far as we know, the art of building in stone 

 was cultivated in Lower Egypt at an earlier period 

 than elsewhere. It is also known that every stage 

 in the evolution of the burial customs associated with 

 stone mausolea and every phase of the gradual de- 

 velopment of the craft of stone-working have been 

 preserved in Egypt. Further, in Egypt, the people 

 were making a variety of stone tombs and mortuary 

 chapels, which are obviously the prototypes of every 

 kind of megalithic monument, long before any such 

 monument is known to have been erected elsewhere. 

 The conclusion is that the idea of building such monu- 

 ments originated in Egypt. 



GOTTINGEN. 



Royal Society of Sciences — The Nachrichten (physico- 

 mathematical section), parts 5 and 6 for 1912, contain 

 the following memoirs communicated to the society : — 



May 18. — P. Hertz : A proof by Boltzmann of the 

 second law of thermodynamics. — W. Voigt : Electric 

 and magnetic double-refraction (i.), with an appendix 

 by P. Langevin. Th. Brandes : Plesiosaurus (Thau- 

 matosaurus) aff'. megocephalo Stutchbury from the 

 lower Lias of Halberstadt. — W. Blaschke : Proof of the 

 undeformability of closed convex inextensible surfaces. 

 — K. Forsterling ; The theory of the Zeemann effect 

 in any direction. — E. Landau : The number of integer- 

 points in certain regions {i.e. the number of points 

 with integral coordinates included within given regions 

 of any number of dimensions). 



July 20, 1912. — P. von Liebermann and G. Rivesz : 

 Binaural combination of tones. — J. Thomae : The con- 

 vergence of a Fourier's series. 



The business communications (part i for 1912) con- 

 tain the prize-subjects proposed by the society, the 

 eleventh report of the Samoa Observatory for 1911-12, 

 and a memoir of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker by A. 

 Peter. 



