September 13, 1906] 



NA 'JURE 



505 



Newsholme, has struck out a new line. The vacant wards 

 of the hospital are utilised for the education of consump- 

 tives. Patients living at home are admitted to the hospital 

 for short periods (four to six weeks), during which time 

 they are instructed as to how they should live and in all 

 the precautions and preventive measures they should 

 practise on returning to their homes. In this way a con- 

 stant stream of enlightened information is continually 

 disseminated among the most ignorant. Some other towns 

 are following this excellent example. 



Although it has been shown that much time, money, and 

 energy are being expended by various public and private 

 bodies in the effort to throw a net over the whole tubercu- 

 lous population, yet it must be confessed there remain 

 many gaps which must be filled up if success is to be 

 attained in ou"- war against consumption. Proper organisa- 

 tion and coordination of effort are needed. A well-thought- 

 out scheme must be put in action throughout the country 

 and controlled by some central authority. This duty falls 

 naturally to the Local Government Board, and is it too 

 much to expect that a " tuberculosis committee " of that 

 board may be appointed the chief duty of which should be 

 the control and direction of the isolated efforts now being 

 made in various parts of the country? By this means 

 greater efficiency and better results would accrue at a pro- 

 portionately smaller cost. R. Fielding-Ould. 



ATMOSPHERIC ELECTRICITY IN ALGER /A. 

 T N the Revue generate des Sciences of May 30, M. Ch. 

 -^ Nordmann gives an account of the phenomena of atmo- 

 spheric electricity, and of one or two of the latest theories 

 on the subject, and also describes some recent observations 

 made by himself in Algeria. Atmospheric electricity is 

 now so large a subject that the essay naturally covers only 

 a part of the ground, and does not go into many details. 

 It shows, however, the clearness and lightness of touch 

 one expects from our neighbours across the Channel. In 

 a few points perhaps its conclusions are a little pre- 

 cipitate, but it contains some shrewd criticisms of other 

 people's theories. The paper contains copies of some 

 interesting electrograms, mostly obtained by the author in 

 August and September, 1905, at Philippeville, on the 

 southern coast of the Mediterranean. 



M. Nordmann first points out that the normal potential 

 gradient in the atmosphere may arise from a negative 

 charge on the earth, or a positive charge in the air, or 

 from the two combined. He regards the presence of an 

 excess of positive electrification in the air as proved by the 

 fall in the potential gradient with increasing height 

 observed in balloon ascents. He refers to Elster and 

 Geitel as having discovered that any charged body, how- 

 ever well insulated, loses its charge in ordinary atmo- 

 spheric air. Historically this is hardly complete, as Elster 

 and Geitel merely confirmed what Linss had discovered 

 many years before. Elster and Geitel have, of course, 

 added enormously to our knowledge of the subject, and 

 they gave it much greater precision, besides bringing it 

 into line with recent laboratory research. 



Passing to the diurnal variation in the potential gradient, 

 p. 445, M. Nordmann refers to the double period with 

 maxima about 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. as having been regarded 

 until recently as universal. He next refers to observations 

 on mountains, especially those on the Sonnblick, as show- 

 ing that at high levels the afternoon minimum disappears, 

 the diurnal variation becoming simple, and mentions 

 Chauveau as having established the existence of the same 

 phenomenon on the Eiffel Tower. In both cases the 

 observations show rather a reduced prominence in the 

 afternoon minimum than its total absence, and on p. 447 

 Nordmann somewhat qualifies his earlier remarks. His 

 own observations at Philippeville supply a very interesting 

 example of a simple period. Observing on an eminence 

 160 metres high, immediately adjacent to the sea, he 

 obtained as the mean from the quietest days of his stay 

 (the number of which is not stated) a diurnal variation 

 with a minimum from 4 a.m. to 5 a.m., and a maximum 

 about 5 p.m. The value was above the mean from ! i a.m. 

 to 10 p.m., and below from 11 p.m. to 10 a.m. During 

 the dav the wind blew straight from the sea, and during 

 the night from the land. The results are so unusual, and 



NO. 1924, VOL. 74] 



if confirmed so suggestive, that an extension of the observ- 

 ations over a much longer period is desirable. Until that 

 is done, one cannot feel sure that the results are fairly 

 representative, even of the particular season of the year 

 when they were observed. Among the electrograms re- 

 produced is one showing the effects of a sirocco from the 

 desert. The large and sudden changes of potential, the 

 curves going off the sheet both in the positive and negative 

 directions, are similar to those met with in England during 

 thunder or heavy rain. Other curves of interest arc those 

 showing the changes of the potential and of the positive 

 ionisation of the air at Philippeville during the total eclipse 

 of the sun on August 30, 1905. Between the times of the 

 first and last contacts the potential was slightly above its 

 mean for the time of the day, and the ionisation fell 

 decidedly as totality approached. The maximum in the 

 one curve and the minimum in the other occurred forty- 

 five minutes after totality. 



In his criticisms of theories by Elster and Geitel and 

 Ebert the author points out that at Philippeville the 

 potential was below, not above, its mean when the wind 

 blew off the land, and that the barometric pressure showed 

 the ordinary double period. In discussing some theoretical 

 views of his own, he refers to a difficulty in that " en 

 passant de I'^t^ i I'hiver la diminution du rayonnement 

 solaire s'accompagne d'un abaissement du champ, en 

 passant du jour k la nuit elle coincide, au contraire, avec 

 une augmentation." This is rather puzzling in view of 

 the author's perfectly correct statement, p. 446, that the 

 potential is highest in winter. C. Chree. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



The University of Greifswald has received a legacy of 

 60.000 marks under the will of the late Dr. Milschewsky, 

 who died recently in Loburg. 



Prof. Morris Travers, F.R.S., professor of chemistry 

 at the University College, Bristol, has been appointed 

 director of the Indian Institute of Science which is to be 

 established in Bangalore. 



According to the Chemiker Zeitung, the authorities of 

 the Ziirich University have decided to increase considerably 

 the University lecture and laboratory fees chargeable to 

 foreigners, with the idea of lessening to some extent the 

 present high percentage of foreigners who attend. 



In the columns of the Chemiker Zeitung for last week 

 we read that the Grecian Government recently received 

 from St. Petersburg a legacy of about eight million roubles, 

 or i\ millions sterling, which was left in the beginning 

 of the last century by a rich Grecian merchant, of the 

 name of Dombolis, with the condition that after the 

 lapse of a definite time a second Grecian university should 

 be built in Corfu out of the capital and interest, and be 

 called the Kapodistrias University. 



The fees for the examinations of the German technical 

 high schools have been fixed on the following scale : — for 

 the preliminary diploma examination, 60 marks for 

 naturalised Germans, 120 marks for foreigners ; for the 

 diploma examination, 120 marks for Germans and 240 

 marks for foreigners ; for the doctor of engineering ex- 

 amination, 240 marks, of which the first half is to be paid 

 when the examination thesis is handed in, and the re- 

 mainder before the oral examination is taken. 



The university buildings of Groningen were almost com- 

 pletely destroyed by fire on August 30. The fire is sup- 

 posed to have been caused by careless use of benzine or 

 methylated spirits on the part of workmen. The natural 

 history museum and the chemical and pharmaceutical labor- 

 atories were entirely destroyed, while the hygienic and 

 physiological laboratories were saved. The university 

 buildings, which, strangely enough, were not insured, were 

 erected in 1846-1852. An emergency committee has made 

 arrangements for the lectures and classes of the coming 

 session to be begun as usual. The University has approxi- 

 mately five hundred students. 



The prospectus of the Borough Polytechnic Institute for 

 the session 1906-7 contains abundant proof that the educa- 



