Dec. 30, 18S0] 



NA TURE 



21 1 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



Alfred C. Haddon, B.A., Scholar of Christ's College, 

 Demonstrator of Comparative Anatomy, and Curator of Zoology 

 in the University of Cambridge, has been appointed Professor of 

 Zoology at the Royal College of Science, Dublin. 



The movement to found a college at Dundee has been revived, 

 and at a meeting last u eek it was announced by Dr. Baxter, the 

 Procurator-Fiscal, that he was in a position to place 125,000/. 

 at the head of a subscription for the purpose. Owens College 

 Manchester, is proposed as the model of the Dundee Institution' 



During recent years much has been done in Russia by private 

 initiative for primaiy education in natural science. Now we 

 notice the creation at St. Petersburg of a special institution, the 

 aim of H hich is to devise a id collect apparatus and drawings for 

 the teaching of natural science in primary schools. A special 

 collection of objects intended for the illustration of science will 

 be sent from school to school by the Committee, and lectures 

 will be given in each school on the subject. 



The building of the new Siberian University is being briskly 

 carried on. It will contain twenty large rooms for lectures, as 

 well as spacious halls for the museum and library. The building 

 for anatomy, as well as the hospital for clinical medicine, will 

 be erected in accordance with the latest hygienic principles. A 

 .special building will be appropriated for the physical cabinet 

 and the astronomical observatory. 



The Moscow University is closed for an indeterminate time 

 because of the disturbances among medical students, and three 

 hundred students are incarcerated in the town prison. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 

 Journal of the Franklin hntittite, December; — Boiler ex- 

 periments, by Mr. Ishernood. — New electric motor, by Mr. 

 Griscom. — The Sawyer electric light. — Proceedings of Institute, 

 &c. 



Bulletin de VAcademie Royale des Sciences de Belgique, Nos. 9 

 and 10. — Influence of liquids on the sound of sonorous bells 

 which contain them or which are immersed in them, by 

 M.Montigny. — On the chemical composition of the epidote of 

 Quenast, by M. Renard. — On Caels and De Bennie, by M. 

 Mailly. 



No. II. — On the compensation of a chain of geodetic triangles, 

 by M. Adan. — Excretory apparatus of Trematodes and Cestode 

 (3rd paper), by M. Fraipont. 



Rivista Scientifico-Indnstriale, No. 21, November 15. — On 

 spherohedry in crystallisation, by Prof. Bombicci. — On beats, 

 the third sound of Tartini, &c. (concluded), by Dr. Crotti. 



No. 22, November 30. — On some singular phenomena of 

 geometrical optics, by Prof. Cassani. 



Rcale Istituto Lombardo di Scienze e Lettere. Rendiconti, 

 vol. xiii. fasc. xvii., November 11. — On Peronospora viticola 

 and the cryptogamic laboratory, by Prof. Garovaglio. — On 

 measurement of the thermo-luminous radiations of the sun, by 

 Dr. Chistoni. — Fourth series of researches and studies on the 

 pelagic fauna of the Italian lakes (short rhumi), by Prof. Pavesi. 

 — The leprosy of Ancient Italy, especially of Comacchio, by 

 Prof. Sangalli. 



/Cosines, September iSSo, co itains : — Theodor Vuy, on the re- 

 habilitation of shattered authorities ; considerations on theciuca- 

 tion of the future. — Dr. Ernst Krause, sketch of the development 

 history of the history of development, No. 3.— Dr. H. Muller, 

 on the variability of alpine flowers. — Leopold Einstein, appre- 

 hension and comprehension, a study in the philosophy of lan- 

 guage. — Short notices and extracts from journals. Literary and 

 critical notices. 



October.— Prof. Fritz Schultze, the transformation of human 

 fundamental conceptions on the threshold of modern times. — 

 Prof. Dr. Homes, on phacops and dalmanites, genera of trilo- 

 bites and their probable genetic connection. — George Potonie, 

 on the purport of the stony particles to be found in the flesh 

 of the pear and generally in the Pomaceoa.— Dr. Fritz Muller, 

 Fciltostoina torrentium, a gnat w-ith two forms of females, one 

 with a mouth for honey-sucking the other with a mouth for 

 blood-sucking (with illustration).— Short notices and extracts 

 fro'i journals. Literary and critical noti<-es. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Chemical Society, December 16.— Prof. H. E. Roscoe, 

 president, in the chair. — The following communications, &c., 

 were made : — On the estimation of nitrogen by combustion, 

 including the nitro-comjiounds, by J. Ruftle. The author recom 

 mends the use of the following mixture instead of soda-lime in 

 the process of Will and Varrentrapp ; — Two molecules of 

 sodium hydrate, one molecule of pure lime, and one molecule 

 of sodium hyposulphite ; the substance bef.jre burning being 

 mixed with about its own weight of a mixture of sulphur and 

 wood charcoal. By this process good results were obtained with 

 sodium nitrate, picric acid, &c. — Dr. Carnelly then showed some 

 experiments as to the effect of pressure in raising the melting- 

 points of ice, camphor, and mercuric chloride. By suspending 

 a cylinder of ice (formed round the bulb of a thermometer) in a 

 Torricellian vacuum and condensing the aqueous vapour by a 

 freezing mixture, so as to keep the vacuum perfect, Ihe author 

 has raised ice to 180° C. before it melted. In the experiment 

 shown, through an accident, the temperature only rose to 30° C. 

 before the cylinder fell off the thermometer. Camphor which 

 was boiling ill a tube solidified when the pressure v\ as dimin- 

 ished, tliough the heating was continued. Mercuric chloride, 

 which under diminished pressure had been raided considerably 

 above its melting-point, melted and boiled as soon as it was 

 exposed to atmo.spheric pressure. — On some naphthalene deriva- 

 tives, by Dr. Armstrong and Mr. Graham. 



Geological Society, December 15.— Robert Etheridge, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — William Elijah Benton, Rev. 

 George Clements, J. Kerr Gulland, Francis T. S. Houghton, 

 George Bingley Luke, and William Mansell MacCulloch, M.D., 

 were elected Fellows ; and Prof. Luigi Eellardi of Turin, and 

 Dr. M. Neumayr of Vienna, Foreign Correspondents of the 

 Society. The following communications were read : — On the 

 constitution and hisfory of grits and sandstones, by John Arthur 

 Phillips, F.G.S. In the first part of this paper the author 

 described the microscopic and chemical structure of a large 

 series of grits, sandstones, and in some cases quartzites, of 

 various geological .ages, noticing finally several sands of more or 

 less recent date. The cementing material in the harder varieties 

 is commonly, to a large extent, siliceous. The grains vary con- 

 siderably in form and in the nature of their inclosures, cavities of 

 various kinds and minute crystals of schorl or rutile not being 

 rare. The author drew attention to the evidence of the depo- 

 sition of secondary quartz upon the original grains, so as to con- 

 tinue i's crystal structure, which sometimes exhibits externally 

 a crystal form. This is frequently obervable in sandstone of 

 Carboniferous, Permian, and Triassic age. Felspar grains are 

 not unfr.-quently present, with scales of mica and minute chlorite 

 and epidote. Chemical analyses of some varieties were also 

 given. The author then considered the effect of flowing water 

 upon t ansported particles of sand or gravel. It results from 

 his investigations that fragments of quartz or schorl less than 

 one-fiftieth of an inch in diameter retain their anoularity for a 

 very long period indeed, remaining, under ordinary circum- 

 stances, unrounded ; but they are much more rapidly rounded 

 by the action of wind. It is thus probable that rounded grains 

 of this kind in some of the older rocks, as, for example, certain 

 of the Triassic sandstones, may be the result of .^olian action. 

 —The chair was then taken by J. W. Hulke, F.R.S., V.P.G.S. 

 —On a new species of Tri^onia from the Purbeck beds of the 

 Vale of Wardour, by R. Etheridge, F.R.S., president ; with a 

 note on the stratigraphical position of the fossil by the Rev. W. 

 R. Andrews. In this paper the author described a species of 

 Trigonia di-covered hy the Rev. W. R. Andrews in the " cinder- 

 bed " of the Middle Purbeck series in the Vale of Wardour. 

 The specimens were found in the railway-cutting one mile west 

 of Dinton Station. The shell was referred to d'Orbigny's sec- 

 tion "Glabra;" of the genus Trigonia, and named Trigonia 

 densinoda. In its ornamentation it closely resembles T. leniii- 

 texta, Lye, of the Portland oolite, but is more depressed and 

 lengthened posteriorly, and destitute of the antecarinal space 

 which occurs in all known Jurassic "Glabrae." The escutcheon 

 is remarkably large, and posse-ses transverse ru^zse, as in the 

 Neocomian " Quadratre." The author regarded the species as 

 a transition form connecting the two groups of Tri^onite above- 

 mentioned. The description of the new species was accom- 

 panied by a note on the Purbeck strata of the Vale of Wardour 

 by the Rev. W. R. Andrews. 



Meteorological Society, December 15. — Mr. G. J. Syuions, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — J. Coventiy, J. W. Moore, 



