NA TURE 



[January 6, 1910 



the freezing point and 12\ at tlie temperature of the human 

 body, and these larger degrees are again divided into 

 smaller ones, namely, each degree into eight. At all 

 events, this idea of placing 75 at the freezing point, together 

 with all the other facts that have been mentioned, seems 

 prettv certainly to prove Romer's influence, since it is 

 highlv improbable that two persons independently would 

 both think of placing •]\ at the freezing point. Barnsdorf's 

 zero is somewhat higher than that of the later Fahrenheit 

 thermometers. 



There is other evidence that Fahrenheit used 7J at the 

 freezing point and had his original zero a little higher 

 than the later one. In 1737 Prof. Dn. Kirch described ' 

 a thermometer which he had received from Fahrenheit 

 more than twenty years before. He states there that his 

 thermometer has 7?j at the freezing point, and that his 

 zero lies somewhat higher than that on the later Fahren- 

 heit thermometers. 



One more thermometer — perhaps the very oldest — seems 

 based upon a division with fixed points and a scale like 

 Barnsdorf's, although the division, apparently, is quite 

 different. Grischow writes in 1740 that a large thermo- 

 meter which Fahrenheit had constructed thirty years before 

 for the Royal Society in Berlin, and consequently con- 

 structed with the greatest care, still agrees completely 

 with the little thermometers which Fahrenheit had sent a 

 short time before from Amsterdam to Berlin. These 

 small thermometers were graded with the help of two or 

 three fixed points, and are throughout like those we use 

 now. So the first thermometer was also constructed 

 according to fixed principles, for such agreement cannot be 

 due to mere chance ; a similar thermometer, which had 

 been used for observations in 1709, and which certainly 

 is one of the first Fahrenheit thermometers constructed, 

 was found in Danzig in 1740. 



This thermometer was apparently divided after the 

 manner of the Florentine thermometer : qo at the 

 temperature of the body, o at about summer heat, 90 at 

 the lowest degree of heat (which accordingly corresponded 

 to zero on a Fahrenheit thermometer), and 30 at the 

 freezing point. From the lowest to the highest degree of 

 heat, then, there are iSo° = 8.22j, from the lowest degree 

 of heat to the freezing point 6o° = 87j, accordingly like 

 Barnsdorf's. 



In 1714 Fahrenheit constructed two thermometers for 

 Chr. von Wolf, Chancellor of the University of Halle, 

 who was very enthusiastic about them, and has given a 

 description of them.^ The scale had 26 degrees; the 

 second degree on the scale was marked "greatest cold," 

 so that from this point to the top of the scale there were 

 24 degrees: the eighth degree was marked "cold." It 

 reminds us perfectly of a scale which Grischow gives for 

 the older Fahrenheit thermometers with the fixed points 

 o, S, 24. which later were changed to o, 32, 96. So here 

 Fahrenheit hesitated — just as, perhaps, Romer did, accord- 

 ing to Horrebow's opinion — and he took 8 instead of 7^. 

 However, taken all in all, there are strong indications that 

 it is Ole Romer's strange number for the freezing noint 

 which is the origin of the 32° Fahrenheit now used for 

 this point. 



Now, perhaps the objection may be made that if Romer's 

 scale were to be traced in Fahrenheit's, we should find 

 4-60 = 240 at the boiling point, and not 212; but there is 

 an explanation for this. According to those descriptions 

 of the oldest thermometers which are given above, it 

 appears that the zero in the later thermometers is placed 

 lower than in the earlier ones. Now if the zero in the 

 earlier ones coincided with that of Romer's, the degrees 

 on them must have been shorter than on the later ones, 

 since there must be the same number of degrees within 

 a shorter limit. In the later thermometers the number 

 for the boilimj point was found bv dividing the space 

 between zero Cchiefly determined bv means of a cold mix- 

 turel and the freezing point into thirty-two equal Darts, and 

 marking equal parts off above the freezing point ; since 

 these degrees are longer than the older ones, there must 

 be fewer within the same limit, therefore 212, and not 240, 

 at the fixed point, the boiling point. 



KiRSTINE MeVEK. 



1 Misc. P.erol., t. v , 1757, p. 120. 2 Ac'a Erudilorum, 1714, p. 381. 



NO. 2097, VOL. 82] 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



London. — The Board of .Studies in Ethnology will be 

 designated in future the " Board of Studies in Anthro- 

 pology." 



Mrs. Norman-Robinson has offered to found a scholar- 

 ship in craniology and anthropometry, tenable at University 

 College, in memory of the late Dr. R. C. Benington. 



The principal of the University (Dr. H. A. Miers) has 

 been elected chairman of the University Press Committee 

 of the Senate. 



In addition to the post-graduate course of lectures at 

 University College, London, by Prof. J. A. Fleming, on 

 " The Theory of the Propagation of Electric Currents in 

 Telegraph and Telephone Cables and in Electric Con- 

 ductors," two other post-graduate courses have been 

 arranged, namely : — (i) " The Ideal Arch, Metal and 

 Masonry, Theory and Design," by Prof. Karl Pearson; 

 (2) " Steam Turbines," by Messrs. W. J. Goudie and 

 E. G. Izod, both beginning on January 21. 



Among the advanced courses of scientific lectures for 

 the coming term arranged in connection with the Uni- 

 versity we notice the following. The lectures are in- 

 tended for advanced students of the University and others 

 interested in science, and admission to them will be free. 

 A course of ten lectures on the " Evolutionary Aspects of 

 Palaiobotany " will be given by Mr. E. A. Newell .^rber 

 at University College, at 4.30 p.m., on dates which are 

 published in the London University Gazette. Three 

 lectures on " The Geology and Physiography of .'\rctic 

 Europe " will be given by Prof. E. J. Garwood at Uni- 

 versity College on Thursdays, at 5 p.m., beginning on 

 February 24. Dr. W. N. Shaw, F.R.S., will give a course 

 of lectures on " Dynamical Meteorology, with Special 

 Reference to the Forecasting of Weather," at the London 

 School of Economics on Fridays, at 5 p.m., beginning on 

 January 21. .A course of eight lectures on " The Rate and 

 Conditions of Chemical Change " will be given in the 

 phvsiological laboratorv of the University by Dr. V. H. 

 Veley, F.R.S., on Fridays, at s p.m., "beginning on 

 January 21. A course of fourteen lectures on " Protozoan 

 Parasites, with Special Reference to those of Man," will 

 be given at the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, 

 Chelsea, by Prof. E. A. Minchin, on Mondays and Thurs- 

 days, beginning on January 17, at 5 p.m. A course of 

 three lectures on "The Marsipobranchii," bv Mr. F. J. 

 Cole, will be given at Llniversity College on Mondays, be- 

 ginning on Januarv 24, at .<; p.m. A course of three lectures 

 on " Amphioxus,"' by Prof. E. W. MacBride, F.R.S., will 

 br given at the Imperial College of Science and Techno- 

 logy on Mondays, beginning on February 14, nt 5 p.m. 



According to the Chicago newspapers, plans .are in 

 contemplation for giving the University of Chicago the 

 finest phvsical laboratory in the United States, if not in 

 the world. It is said that before the building is complete 

 it will have cost 200,000/. All the money is to be furnished 

 bf Mr. Martin Ryerson, president of the board of trustees 

 of the University, who was also the donor of the present 

 Rverson Laboratory at Chicago University. 



A COMMITTEE, with Mr. C. P. Trevelyan, M.P., Parlia- 

 mentary Secretary to the Board of Education, as chair- 

 man, and Mr. W. R. Barker, of the Board of Education, 

 as secretary, has been appointed by the President of the 

 Board of Education to inquire into the administration of 

 elementary education endowments. The terms of reference 

 are " to inquire into the administration of (a) endowments, 

 the income of which is applicable or is applied to or in 

 ccnnection with elementary education, and (b) small educa- 

 tional endowments other than the above in rural areas, 

 the .application of which to their proper purposes presents 

 special difficulties ; and to consider how far under the 

 existing law it is possible to utilise them to the best 

 advantage ; and whether any, and, if so, what, changes 

 in the law are desirable in the direction of conferring 

 upon county and other local authorities some powers in 

 respect of such educational endowments or otherwise." 



In an article on " Some Problems of Secondary Educa- 

 tion," in the current issue of The School World, Mr. 



