6oo 



NATURE 



[Oct. 2 1, iJ 



of the above subjects if the examiners think it expedient. In- 

 tending candidates should communicate with the Master of 

 Balliol before November I2. There will aUo be offered two 

 exhibitions worth 40/. a year, the examination for which will 

 comprise the elements of Physics, Chemistry, or Physiology, as 

 well as Classics and Mathematics. 



Cambridge. — Dr. Michael Foster will lecture on elementary 

 physiology ; Mr. Langley will lecture to the advanced class on 

 general physiology twice a week ; Mr. Lea takes physiological 

 chemistry ; and Dr. Gaskell the physiology of the circulation. 



Mr. Venn will lecture during the next two terms on scientific 

 method. 



.. Mr. Freeman of St. John' s College is to lectureas^deputy 

 for Prof. Chaliis, owing to his infirm health. 

 ,-r- Dr. Reginald Thompson of Trinity College is to be one 

 of the Examiners for 3rd M.B., and Dr. Cheadle to be Assessor 

 to the Regius Professor of Physic. 



The list of lecturers at Newnham College this term includes 

 the names of Miss Crofts (English History and Literature), Mi^s 

 Merrifield (Greek), Miss Harland (Algebra), and Miss Scott 

 (Analytical Conies). The lectures are now delivered at the 

 College, and not in Alexandra flail. 



At St. Thomas's Hospital Medic.1l School'Mr. Robert Lawson 

 has obtained the Entrance Scholarship in Natural Science, of 

 the value of 100/, and Mr. Herbert Lankester that of 60/. 



At the meeting of the Council of the College of Physical 

 Science, Newcastle-on-Tyne, on October 11, it was decided 

 without opposition that a ladv candidate, Miss Isabel M. Aldis, 

 should be allowed to hold an exhibition in the College. This 

 decision completes the opening of the advantages of the College 

 to lady students. They were previou-.ly admitted to all the 

 lectures, bat this is the first lime that a lady has been a candidate 

 for an exhibition. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, October 11. — M. Wurtz in the chair. 

 The follow ing papers were read : — On the rile of time in the 

 formation of salts, by M. Berthelot. Experiments with several 

 hundred saline mixtures prove that the period of change in saline 

 reaction'^, comprised between the moment when the system has 

 become phy^ical!y homogeneous and that vhen it attains its 

 chemical equilibrium, is excessively short, and wholly included 

 in the short duration of the calorimetric experiment. The same 

 period in ethene reactions, on the other hand, is incomparably 

 longer. The instantaneity in the former case is proved by an 

 application of the author's t'neoremof slow actions. — On pellagra 

 in Italy, by M. Faye. In tlie past year there have been 40,000 

 well-marked cases of the disease in Lombardy, and 30,000 in 

 Venetia, the richest and most productive provinces in Italy. It 

 is unknown in Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia (so poverty and bad 

 hygiene do not seem to be the causes). Wlierever pellagra appears 

 in the endemic state /<)/(•«/« or cnichadc are eaten, i.e., varieties 

 of unfermented bread (made from maize and millet), and M. 

 Faye thuiks the substitution of fermented bread would prove 

 salutary. — On the photophonic experiments of Prof. Bell and 

 Mr. Smnner Tainter, by M. Breguet. — On algebraic equations, 

 by Mr. West. — Earthquakes at Smyrna on July 29, by Dr. 

 Charpentin. The ravages and phenomena of this earthquake 

 were limited to the Sipyle chain and the adjoining plains 

 in a perimeter of only a few leagues ; but the contre-coiip 

 was felt at great distances (Broussa, Rhodes, &c.). Chrono- 

 meters at Athens were stopped. More than 3,000 years ago 

 there seems to have been a volcano under -Sipyle, and this 

 point has been the centre of earthquakes in that region. The 

 approximate coincidence (in time) of this last Smyrna earth- 

 quake with earthquakes at Manilla, the Azores, and Naples, is 

 remarkable. — On the effects produced by cultivation of absinthe 

 as insectituge, and on its preventive application against phyl- 

 loxera, by M. Poirot. Among the absinthe plants covering large 

 tracts in North America the author has never seen Hies, ants, 

 worms, or any insects, nor yet scorpions, tarantulas, nor rattle- 

 snakes. Land manured with absinthe might be fatal to the 

 metamorphoses of phylloxera. — Ephemerides of comet b 18S0 

 (continued), by M. Bigourdan. — Observations of comet d 18S0 

 (discovered by Dr. Hartwig at Strassburg) at the Paris Observa- 

 tory, by M. Bigourdan. — On the resolvent function of the equa- 

 tion jc'" \ px + q — o, by M. Pujet. — On a property of Pois- 

 son's function, and on the integration of equations with partial 



derivatives of the first order, by M. Gilbert. — On a very exten- 

 sive class of linear differential equations with rational coefficients, 

 whose solution depends on the quadrature of an irrational alge- 

 braic product, by M. Dillner. — Principle of an algebraic calculus 

 which contains as particular species the calculus of imaginary 

 quantities and quaternions, by M. Lipschitz. — On the partition 

 of numbers, by M. David. — On the mechanical actions of light, 

 theoretical considerations capable of serving in interpretation of 

 Prof. Bell's experiments, by M. Cros. In 1872 M. Cros pre- 

 seated a memoir to the Academy, in which, guided by theo- 

 retical considerations, he affirmed ^ priori the re.^ults of experi- 

 ments which he thinks have a notable similarity to Prof. Bell's. 

 In one experiment a r.ay of light interrupted n times a second 

 was to be sent into a tube resonating with a note of n vibrations. 

 The alternate rarefaction and condensation of the gaseous 

 medium might make the tube speak. — Study of the distribution 

 of light in the solar spectrum, by MM. Mace and Nicati. The 

 maximum intensity is in the yellow, very near D. The percep- 

 tion of blue and violet diminishes much more slowly witli 

 diminished illumination than that of less refrangible colours. 

 From the extreme red to green of about o'5 ,11 wave-length, the law 

 of distribution of intensity is the same whatever the illumination. 

 Between eyes equally capable of discerning colour, there are very 

 sensible differences. — Vibratory forms of circular pellicles of sapo- 

 saccharic liquid, by M. Decharme. With a given diameter of 

 pellicle the numbers of nodals are inversely proportional to the 

 corresponding lengths of the vibrating rod (which produces tlie 

 waves). — On the place %\hich boron occupies in the series of 

 simple bodies, by M. Etard. He places boron in the family of 

 vanadium, very near that of phosphorus. — On propylacetal and 

 isobutylacetal, by M. de Girard. 



CONTENTS Page 



Scientific Worthies, XVI.— Richakd Owe.n {.IVith Sled Plnie 



Engraving) 577 



Insect Variety S79 



Weapons AND Politics OF THE Ancient Hindus 581 



Our Book Shelf : — 



Barfoed's " Lehrbuch der organischen Qnalitativen Analyse " . .581 

 Carr's "Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied 



Mathematics" _. . 582 



Quiroga's " Estudio ISIicrografico ne Algunos Easaltos de Cuidad- 



Real" SS= 



Cameletli's "II Binomiodi Newton" 582 



Letters to the Editor: — 



Photograph of the Nebula in Orion.— Prof. Henry Draper . . 5S3 



An Anelidan Entozoon. — G. E. Dobson 5S3 



Sounds made by Ants.— S. E. Peal 583 



Faraday Exhibiting Ghosts.— W. S 5S3 



Ice under Pressure.- Dr. Thos. Carnelley 583 



A Peat Bed in the Drift at Oldham.— P. O. Hutchinson ; James 



NiELD 584 



Temperatureof the Breath.— Dr. R. E. Dudgeon 384 



Selenium.— A. T. F 585 



Dynastes Hercules.— Dr. A. Ernst S^S 



Whatis Alrese?— Dr. A. Ernst 58s 



Rainfallof Sierra Leone.— W. Hume Hart 5S3 



An Octopus.— C. G. O'BlilEN 585 



Synthesis of Citric Acid 585 



Plants from Lake Nyassa AND Lake Tanganyika 586 



Graham Bell's Epperiments in Binaue.^l Audition (With Illus- 

 tration) .586 



The Geology of the Libyan Desert 587 



Physics without Apparatus, VIII. (Wj'M /a«^ni//oKj) .... 588 

 The Germination of Whelwitschia Mirabilis. By F. Orpen 



Bower 590 



Notes 59i 



Our Astronomical Column; — 



The Binary Star I Equulei S93 



Faye's Comet 593 



Hartwig's Comet 593 



Comets jS8o, d and e 594 



Meteorological Notes 594 



Biological Notes: — 



Nest-Building Amphipods S94 



Death by Hanging • -95 



Hamoglobin in Echinoderms 595 



An Optical Property of the Cornea 595 



Phosphoric Acid in the Urine of Cows 595 



Rudimentary Coma in Godetia 595 



Physical Notes 595 



Geographical Notes 59^ 



The First Decade of the United States Fish Co.mmissiok— its 

 Plan of Work and Accomplished Results, Scientific and 



Economical. By G. Brown Goode 597 



University and Educational Intelligence 599 



Societies AND Academies ^° 



