272 



NATURE 



[October 31, 191 2 



London. — The Senate, at its meeting on October 

 23, made four appointments to University professor- , 

 ships. In one case, the appointment of Mr. Harold [ 

 Hilton to the professorship of mathematics at Bedford I 

 College for Women, the new professor will continue 

 hi.; present work. Dr. J. W. Nicholson has been 

 appointed professor of mathematics at King's College, 

 and Mr. A. H. Jameson professor of civil engineering 

 at the same college. Dr. Nicholson is at present 

 mathematical lecturer at Girton College, and Mr. 

 Jameson is a well-known civil engineer, trained at 

 Manchester University. Dr. F. J. C. Hearnshaw, 

 formerly of Hartley University College, Southampton, 

 and at present professor at Armstrong College, New- 

 castle-on-Tyne, has been appointed to the professor- 

 ship of history, tenable at King's College. These new 

 appointments have been made with funds provided 

 by the new grants from the London County Council. 



The D.Sc. degree has been granted to the following 

 students : — H. E. Watson, University College, in 

 chemistry; C. H. O'Donoghue, King's and L'niversity 

 Colleges, in zoology; Miss E. R. Spratt, King's 

 College, in botany; and Miss E. M. Delf, University 

 College, in botany. 



It is announced in Science that 20,000!., to endow 

 scholarships for young men, has come to the Univer- 

 sity of California from the estate of Mrs. Carrie M. 

 Jones, of Los .Angeles. From the same source we 

 learn that Mount Holyoke's alumnae committee re- 

 ports that its efforts to raise 100,000!. for the college 

 have met with success. The committee has trans- 

 ferred to President Woolley vouchers for 110,400!. 



Owing to the appointment of Dr. W. H. Mills to 

 the Jacksonian demonstratorship at Cambridge, in 

 succession to Dr. H. O. Jones, who was killed recently 

 on the Alps, the governors of the Northern Polytechnic 

 Institute, Holloway, London, N., have appointed Dr. 

 H. H. Hodgson head of the chemical department at 

 that polytechnic. Mr. Hodgson was previously lec- 

 turer and research chemist at the Bradford Technical 

 College. Also, to fill the vacancy of head of the build- 

 ing department caused by the appointment of Mr. 

 Hugh Davies to be an inspector under the Board of 

 Education, the governors have appointed Mr. J. 

 Campbell Reid to take charge of that department. 

 Mr. Reid was lecturer in building subjects at the 

 Paisley Technical School, and an architect in practice 

 in Glas-fow. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, October 14. — M. Lippmann in 

 the chair. — B. Baillaud : The seventeenth general 

 meeting of the International Geodesic Association. 

 The meeting, held at Hamburg, September 17-27, was 

 attended by sixty-two delegates representing twenty 

 countries. Details of the subjects discussed are given, 

 and of the resolutions passed by the association. — 

 A. Lacroix ; Preliminary note on some Madagascar 

 minerals, several of which have been utilised as gems. 

 Amongst the minerals described of exceptional trans- 

 parency are opal, chalcedony, orthose (golden-yellow), 

 diopside, apatite, kornerupine, saphirine, and zircon. — 

 Pierre Termier : The scientific results of the Alpine 

 excursion of the Geologische Vereinigung. The lepon- 

 tine strata in the Tauern. The conclusion is drawn 

 that dynamo-metamorphism does not exist, and the 

 name ought to disappear from science. Rocks are 

 deformed but not transformed by dynamical action. — 

 M. Gouy : The kinetic theory of ionised gases and 

 Carnot's principle. The study of a gas, maintained 

 adiabatically at a temperature such that a very small 



NO. 2244, VOL. go] 



fraction of its molecules are decomposed with ions 

 of opposite signs, and placed in a uniform magnetic 

 field, leads to conclusions that are in contradiction 

 with Carnot's principle. If this principle holds, then, 

 alternatively, it is necessary to reject the possibility of 

 the ionisation of a gas by a rise of temperature alone. 

 The author regards the latter view as opposed to 

 experiment, and points out that the magnetic field 

 may be regarded as acting like Clerk Maxwell's 

 demon, which, without supplying energy, exercises 

 a directive and selective action on the particles. — 

 Edouard Heckel : The influence of removal of the 

 se.x organs, male, female, and total, on the formation 

 of sugar in the stems of maize and sorghum. The 

 removal of both the sex organs in these plants leads, 

 to a marked increase in the proportion of sugar 

 present. — J. Ouillaume : Observations of the Gale 

 comet (191217) made with the Brunner equatorial at 

 the Observatory of Lyons. Positions are given for 

 October 9, 10, 12, 14, and 15. The comet is circular, 

 with a central condensation round a stellar nucleus ; 

 it was about the 8th magnitude on October 9, in- 

 creasing to 55 on October is.—M- Borrelly : Observa- 

 tions of the 1912 Gale comet, made at the Observatory 

 of Marseilles, with the comet-finder. Positions given 

 for October 4 and 5.— P. Chofardet : Observations of 

 the Gale comet (1912a), made at the Besan^on Ob- 

 servatory with the 33 cm. bent equatorial. Positions 

 given cr- six days between September 27 and October 

 12. On October 10 the shape of the tail could be 

 made out. — Ernest Esclangon : The orientation of 

 photographic equatorials. It is pointed out that one 

 method current is defective in principle, and a 

 better alternative method is proposed. — A Petot : Con- 

 jugate systems.— Henri Lebesgue : The principle of 

 Dirichlet. — Jules Andrade : A point still under discus- 

 sion in the study of marine chronometers. A dis- 

 cussion of the variation from isochronism due to the 

 inertia of the balance-spring.— J. de Boissoudy : Mole- 

 cular association in gases.— L. G. Droit : The opacity 

 to the X-rays of tissues suitably loaded with a dye 

 containing lead salts. Silk is loaded with phospho- 

 stannate of lead to the extent of 68 per cent, of 

 mineral matter, half of which is lead. Six 

 thicknesses of this material form an effective screen 

 against the X-ravs, and for soft rays even two or 

 three thicknesses' are sufficient.— .A. Guillet and M. 

 Aubert : The electrical attraction of two conducting 

 spheres; the properties of the families of polynomials 

 occurring in this problem and their relations with the 

 spherical Heine-functions of higher order.— M. Besson : 

 The dissymmetry of the positive and negative ions 

 relating to the condensation of water in an atmo- 

 sphere of carbonic acid.— M. Hanriot : The hardness 

 of metals. It is shown that the hardness of the metal 

 is altered in carrving out Brinnel's test, with the result 

 that the figures for" hardness with an annealed metal 

 come out too high.— F^lix Robin : The production of 

 voluminous grain in metals. — Albert Colson : The law 

 of mass action. Its contradictory verifications and its 

 defence, bv M. Le Chatelier.— Georges Deniges : A 

 new very sensitive reaction characteristic of free 

 bromine. A solution of rosaniline, decolorised with 

 bisulphite and mixed with a little hydrogen peroxide, 

 gives a violet coloration in presence of free bromine. 

 The colouring matter formed is soluble in choloroform 

 and gives a characteristic absorption spectrum. — 

 Maurice Durandard : Variations of the most favourable 

 working temperature under the influence of the 

 medium in Muror rouxii.—G. Arnaud : The cytology 

 of Capnodinni meridionale and of its mycelium. — 

 Andr6 Mayer rmd Georges Schaeffer : The chemical 

 composition of the blood and hemolysis. The cor- 

 puscles from different animals are unequally resistant 



