214 



NA TURE 



[June 28, 1906 



has informed the Board that it concurs. In considering 

 the constitution of the new institution the Board has had 

 under consideration the suggestion of the departmental 

 committee (No. 94, p. 27) that, without delaymg the 

 commencement of the new institution's work, a Royal 

 Commission should be appointed to consider whether 

 changes could advisedly be made in the character and con- 

 stitution of the University which may make it desirable 

 and possible to amalgamate the two institutions. It has 

 also had before it the resolution of the senate of the 

 University deprecating the appointment of such a Roval 

 Commission within so short a period after the reorganis- 

 ation of the University, and expressing the desire that 

 opportunity should be afforded for conference between the 

 Board and the Senate as to any changes of the kind sug- 

 gested. In the course of the conference, which took place 

 on March q, between the Board of Education and a depu- 

 tation from the Universitv senate upon these matters, the 

 suggestions thrown out by the University deputation seemed 

 to be contingent, practicallv, upon the incorporation of 

 the new insti'tution within the University. As this would 

 necessitate a prolonged delay in the starting of the institu- 

 tion, which the committee specially recommended should 

 be avoided, the Board has found it impracticable to pro- 

 ceed on those lines, but is hastening as much as possible 

 the preparation of a draft charter on the lines of the report 

 of the departmental committee. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 

 Royal Society, April 5.—" On a Method of Obtain- 

 ing Continuous Currents from a Magnetic Detector of the 

 Self-restoring Type." By L. H. Walter. Communicated 

 by Prof. Ewing, F.R.S. 



Magnetic detectors for wireless telegraph purposes have 

 proved satisfactory for telephonic reception, but have not 

 hitherto been capable of furnishing continuous currents 

 suitable for use with recording instruments. The author 

 has devised a new form of magnetic detector which is 

 capable of furnishing both continuous and alternating 

 currents, the former for recording purposes and the latter 

 for telephonic reception. The apparatus consists of a 

 form of differential dynamo, having two similar armatures 

 on the same shaft. The armature cores are of iron or 

 steel wires. The electromotive forces generated by the 

 two armatures are opposed to each other and normally 

 balance, so that no potential difference is detectable at the 

 commutator brushes. Oscillations set up in the receiver 

 aerial as a result of signals are led through the magnetic 

 wire forming one armature core, causing it to take up a 

 higher induction, and thus disturbing the balance, a con- 

 tinuous current being obtainable from the brushes so long 

 as the oscillations persist. This current is utilised for 

 actuating the recording instrument or relay. For simul- 

 taneous reception of the signals on the telephone, the 

 alternating current generated as a result of the action 

 of oscillations is taken off, by means of slip-rings and 

 brushes, before it is commuted into unidirectional current. 



May 17. — " Some Stars with Peculiar Spectra." By 

 Sir Norman Lockycr, K.C.B., F.R.S., and F. E. 

 Baxandall. 



This paper relates to a few stars the spectra of which 

 show certain peculiarities that make them not altogether 

 conformable to any common type. The most notable of 

 these stars are a Andromedae, B Auriga, a Canum 

 Venaticorum, and e Urs^e Majoris. They are all on the 

 descending side of the Kensington curve of stellar tempera- 

 ture, the first three being of the Markabian type and the 

 last of the Sirian type. A short account is given of the 

 spectrum of each of these stars. 



a Andromedse has recently been found by Slipher, of 

 the Lowell Observatory, to be a spectroscopic binary with 

 a period of about 100 days. Prior to this, an investi- 

 gation of the various Kensington spectra of o Andromeda;, 

 taken in the years 1900-4, appeared to indicate slight 

 changes in the relative intensity, position, and definition 

 of some of the lines in the various photographs. There 



NO. I 91 3, VOL, 74] 



does not, however, seem to be any regularity in these 

 changes, either in the lines themselves or in the manner 

 in which they are affected, so that it has not been possible 

 to come to any conclusion as to their real significance. 

 Additional photographs will be necessary to test whether 

 the changes in the spectrum bear any relation to the 

 period established by Slipher. The spectrum of a .'\ndro- 

 medse also shows a set of well-marked strange lines which 

 do not occur in any other celestial spectrum, and for 

 which records of terrestrial spectra afford no satisfactory 

 clue as to origin. 



6 AurigEe and a Canum Venaticorum show several 

 strange lines nearly identical in the two spectra, but 

 entirely different from the strange lines of a Andromeda;. 

 No terrestrial equivalents have been found for these stellar 

 lines. 



In 6 UrssE Majoris, the chief deviations from the Sirian 

 type are the weakening of the silicium (group ii.) lines 

 and the strengthening of the enhanced lines of chromium. 



Entomological society, June 6. — Mr. F. Mmifield, presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — Exhibits. — .Specimens of Lomechusa 

 strumosa, F., taken with Formica sanguinea at Woking 

 on May 26 and 29 : H. St. J. Donisthorpe. Only two 

 other British examples are known, one taken by Sir Hans 

 Sloane on Hampstead Heath in 1710, the other found by Dr. 

 Leach, in the early part of the last century, while travel- 

 ling in the mail-coach between Gloucester and Cheltenham. 

 — A case to illustrate a large number of the life-histories of 

 Coleophorids, notes on which have appeared in the society's 

 Proceedings or in the Entomological Record : H. J. 

 Turner. — .\ few butterflies from Majorca, captured 

 between April 8 and April 20 : H. Lupton. — A specimen 

 of Cramhus ericellus, Hb., taken at Loughton, Essex, 

 August 8, 1899, not previously recorded from further 

 south than Cumberland ; two specimens of Nola confusalis, 

 H.S. ab. coluitibina. Image, taken in Epping Forest, 

 May s ; S. Imagre. The first examples of this aberration 

 were taken by the exhibitor at the same locality, May 22, 

 1905, and a specimen of Peronea cristana, P., the ground 

 colour of upper-wings abnormally black, even more in- 

 tensely black than in the ab. nigrana, Clark, also taken 

 in Epping Forest, .August 19, 1905. — The type of Spathor- 

 rhamphus corsiciis, Marshall, from Vizzavona, Corsica : 

 J. H. Keys. This fine Anthribid was supposed by some 

 coleopterists to have been an accidental importation into 

 the mountainous regions of the island, but was no doubt 

 endemic. Mr. G. C. Champion remarked that he had 

 taken Platyrrhintts latirostris, in numbers, at the same 

 locality, in the beech and pine forests (Piniis laricio) along 

 the line of railway, above the tunnel. — Specimens of 

 African Pierinaj found by Mr. C. A. Wiggins on 

 February 2 settled on damp soil near the Ripon Falls, 

 Victoria Nyanza, and caught, to the number of 153, at a 

 single sweep of the net : Dr. F. A. Dixey. Eight species 

 were represented ; the examples were all males, and, with 

 one exception, belonged to the dry-season form of their 

 respective species. — Notes on Natal butterflies, received 

 from Mr. G. H. Burn, of Weenen, and the four individuals 

 of Euralia wahlberghi, Wallgr., and E. mima, Trim., 

 captured by Mr. G. A. K. Marshall, near Malvern, Natal : 

 Prof. E. B. Poulton. Prof. Poulton then exhibited Mr. 

 Marshall's latest demonstration of seasonal phases in South 

 African species of the genus Precis, the proof by actual 

 breeding that P. tukiioa, Wallgr., is the dry-season phase 

 of P. ceryne, Boisd. Prof. Poulton further showed 325 

 butterflies captured in one day by Mr. C. B. Roberts, be- 

 tween the eighth and tenth mile from the Potaro River, 

 British Guiana, and directed attention to the preponderance 

 of males. — Papers. — .Some bionomic notes on butterflies from 

 the Victoria Nyanza region, with exhibits from the Oxford 

 University Museum : .S. A. Neave. — The habits of a 

 species of Ptyelus in British East Africa : S. L. Hinde, 

 illustrated by drawings by Mrs. Hinde. — (i) Mimetic forms 

 of PapiUo dardanus {mcrope) and Acraea johustoni ; 

 (2) Predaceous insects and their prey : Prof. E. B. 

 Poulton. — Studies on the Orthoptera in the Hope Depart- 

 ment, Oxford University Museum, i., Blattidaa ; and a 

 note on a feeding experiment on the spider Nephila 

 maciilala : R. Shelford. 



