August 30, 1906J 



NA JURE 



459 



gations among the native troops of the Egyptian Army, to 

 vvhioh was added some observations on nasal and ceplialic 

 indices in Egypt by Dr. C. S. Myers; that of the rom- 

 mittee to conduct anthropometric observations in the British 

 Isles, which issued in its report a series of photographs 

 and diagrams of the living figure with the points, between 

 which dimensions are to be measured, marked ; and that 

 of the committee to collect anthropological photographs, 

 which issued a first list of photographs registered. 



.U. L/PP.U.LV.V.S METHOD OF I'llOTO- 

 GRAPIIY IN COLOl R. 

 'PlIE original method of photography in colour proposed 

 by M. G. Lippmann was based on the production of 

 interference fringes in the photographic plate, and had the 

 disadvantages of requiring very delicate adjustments and a 

 long e.xposure. In the Comptcs rendus for July 30 M. 

 Llppjiiann gives an account of a method in which long 

 exposures are not required. Consider a photographic 

 spectroscope consisting of a slit, a prism, a lens, and a 

 sensitised plate. The light falling on the slit is analysed 

 by the prism, and the rays produce a corresponding number 

 of dark lines on the negative, each of which is a conjugate 

 image of the slit. If a positive is taken from this negative, 

 and the former placed in the e.xact position originally 

 occupied by the latter, the system is reversible. If the 

 plate is now illuminated by white light, the light passing 

 through the transparent portion of the plate formed by any 

 particular line will produce at the slit only that ray which 

 originally imprinted the negative. On the whole spectrum, 

 the net result will be to reconstitute at the slit the original 

 colour. In order to apply this principle to photography in 

 colours, the following apparatus has been arranged. The 

 single slit of the spectroscope is replaced by a series of 

 slits very close together, consisting of fine transparent lines 

 ruled five to the millimetre. This grating is fixed at one 

 end of a solidly built bo.x, the other end carrying the photo- 

 graphic plate, and between these is a converging lens, in 

 front of which is a prism of very small angle. The object 

 to be reproduced is projected on the grating, illuminated 

 with white light. The light passing through the prism 

 and lens falls on the sensitive plate producing a negative 

 in black and white, which under the lens appears lined, 

 each line being divided into small zones, which are parts 

 of an elementary spectrum. If the negative be now re- 

 placed in its original position and illuminated by white 

 light, the eye being placed at the distance of distinct 

 vision from the grating, the image of the object photo- 

 graphed is seen in colours, these colours being comple- 

 mentary to those of the object ; the latter appears in its 

 own proper colours when the negative is replaced by a 

 positive. The spectrum of the electric light has been pro- 

 duced with this apparatus by the aid pf a positive in its 

 natural colours. It is necessary that the angle of the 

 prism used should be so small that the length of each 

 spectrum produced by it should be less than the length be- 

 tween each line, otherwise the spectra interfere with each 

 other. Ordinary sensitive orthochromatic plates can be 

 used, and the exposure required is very much less than 

 with the interference method. The chief drawback at 

 present is the necessity of using the identical apparatus 

 in which the exposure is made to view the colours, but 

 M. Lippmann suggests a method by which this difficulty 

 may possibly be overcome. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 Cambridge. — The Frank Smart studentship in botany has 

 been awarded to Mr. D. Thoday, of Trinitv College. The 

 studentship is held at Gonville and Caius College. 



Engineer F. R. Eichiioff has been appointed professor 

 of iron metallurgy in the Berlin Mining School. 



.A MOVEMENT is On foot for the foundation in the Glasgow 

 .Agricultural College of a bursary, to be known as " the 

 Biggar Bursary," in memory of the late Mr. James Biggar. 



NO. 1922, VOL. 74] 



The metallurgical laboratory of the Technical High 

 -School, Charlotlenburg, is to be divided into two sections, 

 the one, especially for iron and steel, to be under Prof. 

 Mathesius, and the other, for the metallurgy of other 

 metals, under Prof. Doellz. Near the technical chemistry 

 institute of the same high school a chemical museum has 

 been provided and placed in the charge of Prof. O. N. 

 Witt. 



Prof. Eduard Suess, president of the Vienna Academy 

 of Sciences, celebrated his seventy-fifth birthday on 

 August 20, and also the fiftieth anniversary of his appoint- 

 ment as extraordinary professor of palaeontology in the 

 University of Vienna. Prof. E. Ludwig, the holder of the 

 chair of medical chemistry in the same university, has been 

 elected an ordinary member, and Prof. J. Herzig, professor 

 of chemistry, a corresponding member, of the Vienna 

 Academy of Sciences. 



The issue of Science for August 17 gives particulars as 

 to the degrees of Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of 

 Science conferred during the past year by .American uni- 

 versities. The number of students receiving one or other 

 of the degrees in 1906 was the same as in 1905, viz. 325, 

 while the total number of doctorates (in philosophy or 

 science) conferred in nine years was 2387. The names of 

 those on whom the degrees were conferred, the subjects of 

 their theses, and the names of the institutions conferring 

 the degrees are given in the number. 



In connection with the meeting in Canada of the British 

 Medical Association, the honorary degree of LL.D. has 

 been conferred by the University of Toronto upon the 

 following medical men :— Prof. T. Clifford Allbutt, F.R.S., 

 Dr. A. H. Freeland Barbour, Sir Thomas Barlow, Bart., 

 Sir James Barr, Sir William Broadbent, Bart., F.R.S., 

 Prof. G. Cooper Franklin, Prof. W. D. Halliburton, 

 F.R.S., Sir Victor Horsley, F.R.S., Dr. Donald MacAlister, 

 Dr. W. Julius Mickle, Dr. Louis Lapicque, Paris, Dr. 

 Ludwig Aachoff, Marburg, and Dr. W. J. Mayo, president 

 of the American Medical Association. The degree was 

 also conferred in absentia upon Dr. H. W. Langley 

 Browne, chairman of the British Medical Council. The 

 same degree is also to be conferred in absentia on Sir 

 Thomas Barlow, Bart., Sir William Broadbent, Bart., 

 F.R.S., Prof. T. Clifford Allbutt, F.R.S., and Sir Victor 

 Horsley, F.R..S., by the McGill University, Montreal. 



In the last of six lectures on British institutions, de- 

 livered to students attending the University E.xtension 

 summer meeting at Cambridge, Prof. Masterman dealt 

 with education. He said we are just at the beginning of 

 a systematisation of our secondary education as an attempt 

 to complete the ladder for brilliant pupils from the 

 elementary school to the university. There is a danger, 

 he said, that the majority of children unable to climb such 

 a ladder may be neglected. Prof. Masterman thinks that 

 the next two towns to obtain a university charter will be 

 Bristol and Newcastle. The new universities are largely 

 dependent on the subsidies of municipal authorities. In 

 this the lecturer sees the danger, and he does not speak 

 without knowledge, that the universities will be hampered 

 from the higher education point of view by the entirely 

 inadmissible conditions of the municipal authorities. The 

 men who provide the money may claim to control the 

 expenditure of it and disregard the opinions of experts. 

 That can only be averted by a large subsidy paid from the 

 central authority. He urged that universities ought to 

 receive greater assistance from the State. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, Mav 10 — "The Action of Ana:sthetics 

 on Living Tissues. Part II. — The Frog's Skin." By 

 N. H. Alcock. 



This paper is a continuation of researches made on 

 isolated nerve (Proc. Roy. Soc, B, vol. Ixxvii., p. 267), 

 and the phenomena here described are to be considered in 

 connection with them. 



The experiments may be summarised as follows : — 



(i) CHCl, vapour locally applied to the outer surface of 

 the frog's skin abolishes the normal ingoing resting current. 



