NA TURE 



[July 20, 1905 



rangle, and are situated upon a site overlooliing Weston 

 Park. A tower has been erected at one corner of the 

 quadrangle, octagonal turrets at two of the other corners, 

 the site of the third turret together with the fourth side 

 of the quadrangle being left vacant in order to provide for 

 future extensions. The building on the south side, which 

 faces Western Bank, contains the large hall of the Uni- 

 versity ; this hall is to be known by the name of the Firth 

 Hall, after the founder of Firth College. The Firth Hall is 

 designed to accommodate an audience of about 800 persons. 

 In the same building are the administrative offices, the 

 council room, the common rooms and refectories. The 

 building on the west side provides for the departments in 

 the faculties of arts and pure science, that on the north 

 for the departments in the medical faculty. The faculty 

 of applied science is located on a separate site about 

 four minutes away in St. George's Square. 



The physical laboratories contain a superficial area of 

 10,000 square feet, and are self-contained on three floors 

 connected by a spiral staircase and apparatus lift, the 

 rooms on each floor being arranged on either side of a 

 central corridor except those on the lower ground floor, 

 which, owing to the slope of the ground, are confined to 

 the quadrangle front. Accommodation is provided for all 

 the various departments of physics, except electrical engin- 

 eering, which is housed in the buildings for applied science 

 in .St. George's Square. 



The chemical department occupies the northern half of 

 the top floor in the western block, and has a floor area, 

 including corridors, of 7400 square feet. Two lecture 

 theatres are provided. The larger, 30 feet by 40 feet, is 

 furnished with seating accommodation for no students. 

 h preparation room for lecture experiments adjoins this. 

 On the other side of the corridor is a smaller lecture 

 theatre to accommodate 34 students ; this will be utilised 

 for tutorial work, and for work with small classes. 



There are laboratories for elementary and advanced 

 students, and a small one for research work. 



The biological department, which includes the two 

 subjects of zoology and botany, adjoins the chemical 

 department, and occupies the southern half of the top 

 floor of the west wing. A lecture room is also allotted 

 to this department on the first floor, and the whole of 

 the upper part of the tower. There are two lecture rooms, 

 the larger having accommodation for about 80 students. 

 The general laboratory, with a raised platform and table 

 for the purpose of practical demonstrations, and the 

 botanical laboratory afford accommodation for 30 students 

 each ; there is also a zoological laboratory for advanced 

 students, besides zoological and botanical research labora- 

 tories. 



The anatomical department includes a large lecture 

 theatre, a museum, several research laboratories, and 

 private rooms for the professor and demonstrators. Ac- 

 commodation for microscopes and stereoscopes is provided, 

 also a set of the most modern anthropological instruments, 

 and requisites for students who may desire to do work in 

 modern developments of anatomy. 



The physiological department has an area of about 5400 

 square feet. There are nine rooms in the department, and 

 no corridors, the rooms opening into each other ; the three 

 largest of these are the general laboratory, 70 feet by 

 25 feet, the chemico-physiological laboratory, 50 feet by 25 

 feet, and the lecture theatre. Another large room in the 

 department is the general research room, 25 feet by 30 

 feet. The rooms in this department, like all the othei 

 rooms on the north front, are lighted with specially large 

 windows in order to facilitate microscopical work, and 

 have several concealed sinks in the floor, which, when 

 opened, reveal supplies of gas, water, and electricity, thus 

 avoiding the necessity of fixed benches, their place being 

 taken bv movable tables. 



The pathological department occupies the whole of the 

 upper floor of the medical block : the main feature is the 

 large students' laboratory facing north, 70 feet by 26 feet, 

 divided by two partitions. There are adjoining this two 

 laboratories, one large and one small, intended for the 

 bacteriological \\'ork to be done in connection with the City 

 Health Department. A special feature consists of an in- 

 cubating room in the centre of the department, so arranged 

 that it can be kept at a constant temperature ; this room 



NO. 1864, VOL. 72] 



will replace the ordinary incubating ovens. There is a 

 large lecture theatre in the department, a museum with 

 a top and a south light, a special research laboratory, also 

 private rooms, photographic and store rooms — the last 

 two mentioned being in the roof and the turrets above 

 the department. 



The new buildings allotted to the engineering depart- 

 ment consist of four floors ; the lowest floor or basement 

 contains a large e.xtension of the original laboratories. 

 The main engineering laboratory contains a plant which 

 can be used both by mechanical and electrical engineering 

 students. There is also a very complete electrical equip- 

 ment in the new building to demonstrate the applications 

 of electricity to lighting, traction, and power transmission. 



The department of metallurgy has had special attention 

 paid to it, seated as it is in a city where the chief national 

 metallurgical industry is carried on. As a natural con- 

 sequence of this, so' far as iron and steel metallurgy is 

 concerned, the metallurgical laboratories of the University 

 of Sheffield are unique. These laboratories _ are divided 

 into two sections, the scientific and the practical. In the 

 first named there are nine, and in the second two labora- 

 tories. 



GEOLOGICAL NOTES. 



AMONG recent publications of the Geologische Reichs- 

 anstalt of Vienna, Herr G. Geyer {Yerhandlungen, 

 1904, p. 363) discusses the nature of the pre-Jurassic floor 

 of Austria, from a study of blocks of crystalline rock 

 embedded in Liassic sandstone, and of the island-like 

 " Klippe," formed of granite, which lies N.W. of Weyer, 

 and which has been utilised for the memorial of von Buch. 

 This mass of granite, by-the-by (Toula, ibid., 1905, p. 89), 

 was correctly appreciated as a projecting mass of older 

 land, and not as an erratic block, by von Hochstetter as 

 far back as 1869. Herr Geyer refers to many instances 

 of " exotic blocks " north of the Alps, and points out the 

 influence of the old gneissic and granitic foundation on 

 the subsequent folding in the region of the Enns. Herr 

 R. J. Schubert (ibid., 1904, p. 461) adds greatly to our 

 knowledge of the Upper Eocene and Oligocene beds of 

 Dalmatia, while Dr. Franz Kossmat (ibid., 1905, p. 71) 

 shows how the Sava began to flow eastward on the uplifted 

 floor of a Miocene gulf, and formed the plain near Laibach , 

 by filling in a depression that developed during the latest 

 movements of the Alps. In the department of palaeontology, 

 Dr. Katzer (ibid., 1905, p. 45) furnishes an interesting 

 account of the microscopic structure of the Devonian 

 Tentaculite-limestones of Bohemia, which may be regarded 

 as a valuable supplement to NovAk's work on Tenta- 

 culites (Beitriigc sue Pal. Oestcrreich-Unganis, ii. Bd., 

 1882). Herr Theodor Fuchs (Jahrbuch dcr k.k. Reich.':- 

 anstalt, 1004, p. 359) reviews in considerable detail a 

 number of recent papers on fucoids, and concludes that 

 these problematic organisms were not washed into the 

 strata after the manner of floating seaweeds, but arose 

 where they are now found. He insists that museum-speci- 

 mens in such cases are likely to be misleading, and that 

 a study of fucoids in the field shows that some, at any 

 rate, run perpendicularly to the strata by which they are 

 surrounded. Herr G. Stache {Verhaiidhingen, 1905, p. 100) 

 again investigates the globular Cretaceous organism named 

 by him Bradya, and gives it new interest by showing its 

 resemblance, in structure and mode of occurrence, to 

 Brady's recent genus Keramosphaera, described in 1882 

 from the deep sea south of Australia. Bradya has long 

 been connected with Steinmann's hydrozoan form Poro- 

 sphaera ; but Stache is now able to revive it, and once 

 more to refer it to the foraminifera. Students of our 

 well known British form Parkeria will find much to interest 

 them in this paper. Herren Hofmann and Zdarsky 

 (Jahrbuch, 1904, p. 577) discuss and illustrate the dentition 

 of Deinotherium, and the abundant remains of a species 

 of antelope, from the Miocene beds of Leoben. 



The Transactions of the Geological Society of South 

 .Africa for January to .'Vpril contain several stratigraphical 

 and structural papers by Dr. Molengraaff and others ; but 

 general interest will be raised by the illustrated description 

 of the great Cullinan diamond, by Messrs. Hatch and 

 Corstorphine, on p. 26. In the Transactions of the South 

 African Philosophical Society, vol. xvi. (1905), Mr. Rogers 



