May 27, 1S80] 



NATURE 



91 



gx-eat deficiency of apparatus. The building itself appears to me 

 to be very convenient and adequate to its purpose, but the 

 advantages which it should afford cannot be fully realised with- 

 out a large addition to the existing stock of apparatus. Even 

 with an adequate outfit, a considerable annual expenditure is 

 necessaiy for renewals and to meet the wants of students engaged 

 in original research. Knowing that the University is not likely 

 for several years to be in a position to meet the ^^■ant, and feeUng 

 that Cambridge ought not to remain in this respect behind several 

 Continental and American Universities, I have been endeavour- 

 ing to raise an apparatus fund, to be spent in eight or ten years 

 at the discretion of the Professor, by inviting contributions from 

 persons interested in Cambridge and in science. I have been 

 fortunate enough to secure the co-operation of the Chancellor, to 

 whom the University is already indebted for the building and for 

 most of our existing apparatus ; and the proposal has met with 

 such a degree of support from others that it may be considered 

 to be already a partial success. It is difficult to form an exact 

 estimate beforehand, but I should suppose that 2,500/. will be 

 required during the next ten years to put the institution upon a 

 proper footing." Lord Rayleigh announces that he has received 

 promises and donations amounting to 1,825/. 



In connection with the .Science and Art Department at South 

 Kensington the following courses of instruction for science 

 teachers will probably be organised this summer : — (l) Chemistry, 

 from July 7 to 29, Dr. W. R. Hodgkinson. (2) Light, from 

 June 29 to July 14 ; (3) Magnetism and Frictional Electricity, 

 from July 15 to 30, Prof. Guthrie, F.R.S. (4) Applied 

 Mechanics, from June 30 to July 22, Prof. Goodeve, M.A. (5) 

 Geology, from June 30 to July 22, Prof. Judd, F.R.S. (6) 

 Botany, from July 7 to July 29. Prof. W. T. Thiselton Dyer, 

 F.R.S. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 

 ^ Royal Society, May 13. — Abstract of paper "On the 

 Chemical Composition of Aleurone-Grains," by Dr. Vines. 



This paper continues the account of this investigation, 

 which appeared in the Proceedings for 1878. It was therein 

 shown that the aleuroue-grains of the Lupin consist of three 

 proteid substances, namely, of two globulins — the one belonging 

 to the myosin group, the other to the vitellin group — and 

 of a substance, allied to the peptones, provisionally termed 

 hemialbumose. In the present communication the results 

 of the investigation of the grains of the peony and of 

 the castor-oil plant (Riciims) are given. The grains of 

 the peony are found to be readily soluble in distilled water. 

 Treatment with 10 per cent. NaCl solution, ^however, proves 

 the existence of a myosin-globulin. Apparently no vitellin- 

 globulin is present. The grains contain hemialbumose in 

 considerable quantity. The grains of Ricinus present a com- 

 plex structure. They consist of a mass of ground-subitance of 

 proteid nature, inclosing a crystalloid of proteid substance and a 

 globoid which consists of inorganic matter. The ground- 

 substance is found to be composed, like the grain of the Lupin, 

 of the two globulins and of hemialbumose. The chemical nature 

 of the crystalloid is not so clearly made out. It is slowly soluble 

 in 10 per cent. NaCl solution, and readily soluble in 20 per 

 cent, or in saturated NaCl solution after treatment with alcohol. 

 The crystalloids of several plants were investigated with the view 

 of ascertaining their relative solubility in solutions of this salt. 

 Those of Viola elatior and of Liimm Jisitatissiimon were found to 

 resemble those of Ricinus in this respect ; those of Eertholletia 

 and of Cucurbita are readily soluble in 10 per cent., and 

 saturated NaCl solutions ; those of Musa ensete and hillii and 

 those of Spayganium rainosum are either insoluble or only 

 partially soluble in these solutions. 



The points of more general interest are the action of alcohol 

 in promoting the solution of the crystalloids of Ricinus in 20 per 

 cent, and in saturated solutions of NaCl, and the fact that long- 

 continued exposure to alcohol does not render the vegetable 

 globulins insoluble in these solutions. 



The author finally expresses his opinion that the caseins which 

 Ritthausen has extracted from various seeds consist to a consi- 

 derable extent of precipitated hemialbumose. 



Physical Society, May 8. — Sir William Thomson, president, 

 in the chair. — New Members: E. F. Bamber, Dr. E. Obach, 

 R. D. Turner, E. Woods, H. E. Roscoe, H. Watts.— Prof. 



Minchin, of Cooper's Hill Engineering College, described his 

 further researches on the subject of photoelectricity, brought by 

 him before the last meeting of the Society. He has found that 

 the cuiTent in a sensitive silver cell does not ah\ ays flow from 

 the uncoated to the coated plate. It does when chloride or 

 bromide of silver is used, but when the sensitive emulsion is 

 iodide of silver and the liquid water tinctured with iodide of 

 potash, the current is from the coated to the uncoated plate. He 

 demonstrated that the current set up by the fall of light on the 

 cell could be sent by wire to a receiving cell, and made to pro- 

 duce a local effect on the sensitive plate therein. He also proved 

 that electricity is developed in fluorescent bodies by the action of 

 light, and hopes to show that it is also developed in phosphor- 

 escent bodies. Neither heat nor the red rays produce this 

 electricity, but it is the blue and violet rays which do so. The 

 fluorescent silver plates he employed were coated with an emul- 

 sion of eosine and gelatin, and had been kept sensitive for twelve 

 days. They would thus be a permanent source of photoelec- 

 tricity, did the eosine not tend to leave the gelatin. Mr. Wilson 

 had suggested naphthaline red for eosine, as not apt to 

 leave the gelatin, and he had found it give good results. — 

 Dr. O. S. Lodge described certain improvements which he had 

 made in his electrometer key designed for delicate electrical 

 and especially electrostatic experiments. Assisted by the British 

 Association, he had made it more convenient, and fitted it into an 

 air-tight case which could be artificially dried. The contact-pins 

 were now of phosphor-bronze gilt instead of platinum, and the 

 contacts were made by press-pins from the outside. Dr. Lodge 

 also exhibited a new inductometer or modified form of Prof. 

 Hughes's induction balance, conbining a Wheatstone balance, 

 and expressly designed for comparing capacities and resistances, 

 especially the resistances of coils having no self-induction. A 

 telephone takes the place of a galvanometer in the bridge, and 

 the current in the primary coil is interrupted by a clockwork 

 make and break. There is one primary coil of fine wire 3^ 

 ohms in resistance and two~secondaries, one on each side of it, 

 of fine wire, each about 270 ohms. These are fixed, but the 

 primary is adjustible by'a screw. Prof. Hughes remarked that he 

 had pointed out in his paper to the Royal Society that the 

 induction-balance could be used in this way ; and Dr. Lodge 

 disclaimed any novelty in the apparatus beyond its arrangement. 

 Sir W. Thomson added that it was satisfastoiy to see so 

 serviceable an adaptation of the induction-balance to research. — 

 Dr. Hopkinson, Prof. Perry, and Sir W. Thomson offered 

 remarks on the element of time in comparing discharges from 

 condensers of different dielectrics. Sir William said that, in 1S64, 

 he had made experiments on air and glass dielectrics, and found 

 the discharge about the same for the first quarter-second. — Prof. 

 Adams then took the chair, and Sir. W. Thomson made a com- 

 munication on the elimination of air from a water steam-pressure 

 thermometer, and on the construction of a water steam-pressure 

 theniiometer. He said it was a mistake to suppose that air was 

 expelled by boiling water, because the water dissolved less air 

 when warm than when cold. The fact was due to the relations 

 between the density of air in water and the density of air in water 

 vapour. There was fifty times more air in the water vapour 

 over wtiter in a sealed tube than in the water below. If this air 

 could be suddenly expelled only -jnyth part of air would remain, and 

 of this only fs'cTT'n the water, the rest being in the vapour. This sug- 

 gested a means of eliminating air from water, wliichhe had em- 

 ployed with success. It consisted in boiling the water in a tube, and 

 by means of a fluid mercury valve allowing a puff of the vapour 

 to escape at intervals. Sir W. Thomson also described his new 

 water-steam thermometer now being made by Mr. Casella. It 

 is based on the relations of temperature and pressure in water- 

 steam as furnished by Regnault's or other tables, and will con- 

 sist of a glass tube with two terminal bulbs, like a cryo.'horous, 

 part containing water, part water-steam, and the stem inclosed 

 in a jacket of ice-cold %\ater. Similar vapour-thermometers will 

 be fonned, in which sulphurous acid and mercury will be used 

 in place of \\ater, or in conjunction with it. For low or 

 ordinary temperatures they will be more accurate than ordinary 

 thermometers. 



Geological Society, May 12.— Robert Etheridge, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair.— Rev. Samuel Gashing, Thos. J. George, 

 and Cuthbert Chapman Gibbes, M.D., were elected Fellows of 

 the Society.— The following communications were read :— On 

 the structure and affinities of the genns Protosfongia, Salter, by 

 W. J. Sollas, F.G.S. — Note on Psephophorin polygonus, von 

 Meyer, a new type of Chelonian reptile allied to the leathery 



