NA TURE 



[July 6, 1905 



eleven American universities, and four Australian universi- 

 ties have been communicated with. It was resolved to 

 elect a committee to formulate recommendations as to what 

 should be done to help to develop the residential system. 

 It was decided also to extend the scope of the constitution 

 of the congress so as to include delegates from the uni- 

 versities of Ireland as well as of England and Wales, and 

 to invite universities of Scotland also to send repre- 

 sentatives annually. 



It is announced that Mr. J. D. Rockefeller has given 

 2,000,000/. to the General Educational Board, a body in- 

 corporated by a recent Act of Congress for the purpose of 

 promoting education in the United States, and the income 

 is to be used for the extension of higher education in the 

 United States. Mr. Rockefeller has also presented 

 200,000/. to Yale University. It is stated the gift to the 

 Educational Board is to be held in perpetuity, and the 

 income, after payment of administrative expenses, is to be 

 used for the benefit of such institutions as the Board may 

 select for periods, in amounts, for purposes, or on con- 

 ditions to be determined by the Board, which may also 

 employ the income in such other ways as it may deem 

 best adapted. to promote a comprehensive system of educa- 

 tion in the United States. The income is to be used with- 

 out distinction of locality, and its use is to be confined to 

 higher education. It is designed especially for colleges 

 as distinguished from the great universities, although there 

 is no prohibition of grants to universities. The benefits 

 of the donation are to be open to all, although the fund 

 cannot be employed for giving specifically theological in- 

 struction. The fund may be used for endowment, for 

 building, for paying off debts, or meeting current expenses. 



The report for the year 1904 of the council to the 

 members of the City and Guilds of London Institute has 

 been received. We notice that the number of university 

 students attending the Central Technical College continues 

 to increase, and that more than no such students are 

 in attendance during the current session. .At the last 

 degree examination in engineering for internal students of 

 the university, open to all engineering schools in London, 

 eleven degrees in all were conferred, and of these eight 

 were obtained by this college. The total number of 

 students in the college during 1904 was 409, as compared 

 with 304 in the preceding year. This increase in number 

 of the students has made it necessary to provide an in- 

 crease in the teaching staff, and the appointment of five 

 new assistants has been sanctioned at a cost in salaries 

 of 800/. a year. The council, in their last report, 

 announced the steps which had been taken towards the 

 extension of the building of the Technical College at 

 Finsbury. Since then the plans of the new building have 

 been approved, a tender accepted, the foundations 

 excavated, and the building begun. In settling the details 

 of the plans and on the question of the equipment of the 

 new building, the committee had the benefit of the advice 

 of Sir William White, K.C.B., F.R.S. The work of the 

 department of technology of the institute continues to 

 increase with the growing demand for instruction in the 

 application of science and art to specific industries and 

 trades. There are two directions in which, in the opinion 

 of the council, improvements might be effected in the 

 technical education of artisans. First, in the preparation 

 of students before entering upon their courses of evening 

 technical instruction, and secondly, in the standard of 

 qualifications of the teachers nominated by local authori- 

 ties to give such instruction. It is satisfactory to find 

 that in the different branches of technology the number 

 of students registered as attending classes" in the United 

 Kingdom was 41,089, as compared with 38,638 in the 

 previous year. The report as a whole is an e.xcelient record 

 of a substantial year's work. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Entomological Society, June 7.— Mr. F. Merrifield, presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — An earwig, Aptervgida arachidis, 

 Yers., found by Mr. Annandale, of Calcutta, in a box of 

 specimens received from the Andaman Islands : M. Burr. 



NO. 1862, VOL. 72] 



When placed in a small box the earwig was alone, but 

 next morning there were five larvae present ; two dis- 

 appeared, apparently being consumed by the parent, and 

 the remaining three were those exhibited. Mr. Burr also 

 showed a locustid of the family Pseudophyllidse, taken in 

 Queensland by Mr. H. W. Simmonds among twigs and 

 plants which it greatly resembled, together with a photo- 

 graph of the insect in its natural position. — (1) Three 

 examples of Gnorimiis nobilis, L., taken at Woolwich on 

 May 20 last under the bark of an old dead cherry tree, a 

 beetle supposed to be becoming extinct in Britain ; (2) a 

 malformed specimen of Lochmaea suturalis which had the 

 left posterior tibia bifid for about one-third of its length, 

 and two tarsi, one of which had the joints considerably 

 enlarged : E. C. Bedwell. — A living specimen of 

 Omophlus betulae, Herbst, a beetle not known to occur 

 in Britain, found near Covent Garden, and probably im- 

 ported : O. E. Janson. — One d and three 9 9 of ^S'ion 

 armatum taken this year by Mr. F. Balfour Browne, and 

 sent to the exhibitor alive : W. J. Lucas. — Four specimens 

 of the rare Acrognathus mandibnlaris, Gyll, captured on 

 the wing towards sunset near Woking at the end of May : 

 G. C. Champion. — Two aberrations of Btston hirtaria, 

 CI., both females, taken at rest on tree-trunks at Morte- 

 hoe. North Devon, .April 23 : Selwyn Image. The first 

 aberration was tolerably normal in general coloration, but 

 the anterior half of the fore-wings was much suffused with 

 fuscous, and at the costa was broadly emphasised with rich 

 black. The second aberration was semi-transparent black 

 all over both fore- and hind-wings, the veins strongly 

 delineated with black, powdered with ochreous. — Emptv 

 pupa-cases of Zonosoma pendularia demonstrating the wide 

 variation of methods in the placing of the silken girth 

 round the pupa : W. J. Kaye. — Leaves of strawberry, 

 Berbcris japonica, and cherry-laurel which had been 

 attacked by a minute fungus — in the case of the Berberis 

 identified by Prof. S. H. Vines as Phyllosticta japonica, 

 Thnem. : Prof. E. B. Poulton. The attack was local, 

 leaving a roundish or oval window outlined with brown, 

 sometimes in the form of a narrow line, sometimes spread- 

 ing peripherally into the leaf for a greater or less distance. 

 In the strawberry leaves the edges of the windows were 

 somewhat ragged, but those of the other two leaves had 

 smooth contours, and resembled strikingly the oval trans- 

 parent areas upon the fore-wings of Kallima inachis, 

 K. paralekta, &c. Prof. Poulton had believed that these 

 " windows " of Kallima represented holes gnawed by 

 \arvse, and that the altered marginal zone reproduced the 

 effect of the attacks of fungi entering along the freshlv 

 exposed tissues of the edge. But he now desired to with- 

 draw his earlier hypothesis in favour of the more probable 

 and convincing suggestion made by Mr. Grove. — Photo- 

 graph of the fungus-iike marks on the wings of the Oriental 

 Kallimas : Prof. Poulton. — The variability of the genitalia 



in Lepidoptera : Dr. Karl Jordan Scents in the male 



of Gonepteryx : Dr. G. B. Longrstaff. It was mentioned 

 that whereas in G. cleopaira ,^ the odour was strong, the 

 author had been unable to detect any appreciable fragrance 

 in G. rhamni q. Such a difference, he said, seemed to 

 imply a physiological difference of the two forms pointing 

 to specific distinction. Dr. F. A. Dixey, in connection 

 with Dr. Longstaff's observations, exhibited and explained 

 the several forms of Gonepteryx occurring in the Paljearctic 

 region.— The geographical affinities of Japanese butterflies : 

 H. J. Elwes. Summing up his remarks, the author said 

 that during the winter and spring months the plants and 

 msects of Japan were, like the climate, Pala;arctic in 

 character, yet during the summer and autumn they were 

 tropical.— New African Lasiocampidre in the British 

 Museum : Prof. C. Auriviljus — Memoir on the Rhvnchota 

 taken by Dr. Wvllie chieflv in Bcira and Lifii • 'G W 

 Kirkaldy. 



Chemical Society, June 14. — Prof. R. Meldola. F.R.S. 

 president, in the chair.— Influence of various sodium salts 

 on the solubility of sparingly soluble acids : J. C. Philip. 

 —The dielectric constants of phenols and their ethers dis- 

 solved in benzene and m-xylene : J. C. Philip and Miss D. 

 Haynes. — Synthesis by means of the silent electric dis- 

 charge : J. N. Collie. The facts of special interest are 

 that ethylene under the influence of the silent electric dis- 

 charge at the ordinary temperature will unite with carbon 



