474 



NA TURE 



[March 17, 1881 



tion was held on Monday at the Mercers' Hall, Sir S. Waterlow, 

 M.P., one of the vice-presidents, in the chair. The most im- 

 portant points referred to in the report were the course taken in 

 reference to the plans and estimates for the central institution, 

 the settlement of the plans for the Technical College, and the 

 technological examinations. With regard to the central institu- 

 tion the Board thought it ought not to authorise the entering into 

 any contract beyond that for which they had the money in liand. 

 The Chairman earnestly hoped that some of the companies that 

 had not yet contributed would subscribe and enable the 20,000/. 

 which was yet required to be made up. With reference to the 

 Technical College at Finsbury there was no reason why the 

 foundation-stone of the building should not be laid at an eaily 

 date. He was glad to be able to state that the Drapers' Company 

 had announced its intention of increasing its subscriptions from 

 2000/. to 4000/. per annum, the additional sum to be applied for 

 the first two years towards the cost of building and fitting the 

 Finsbury Technical College. The Vintners' Company had like- 

 wise signified its intention of contributing 250/. per annum, 

 which showed its sympathy in the work. During the past year 

 the income had been 13,549/., and by the subscriptions received 

 it was raised to 20,765/. for the year 1881. The chairman con- 

 cluded by moving the adoption of the report. Mr. W. 

 Spottiswoode • seconded the motion, which was unanimously 

 carried. 



At a meeting held at 68, Grosvenor Street, W., on February 

 18, Mr. George Palmer, M.P., in the chair, it was decided to 

 raise a fund for the purpose of founding an annual prize or 

 scholarship for mathematics in memory of Miss Ellen Watson, 

 to be open for competition equally by men and women, at either 

 University College or the London University. Miss Wat-on 

 was the first woman to enter the classes of mathematics at Uni- 

 versity College, London. Her success as a student of mathe- 

 matics was brilliant, and at the end of the session, in June, 1S77, 

 she gained the Mayer de Rothschild Exhibition, which is awarded 

 annually to the most distinguished mathematical student of the 

 year. After passing the 1st B.Sc. examination at the London 

 University, in July, 1879, Miss Watson was obliged by failing 

 health to leave England for Grahamstown, South Africa, where 

 she died last December, aged twenty-four years. It may be 

 added that the Ellen Watson scholarship, or prize, would be the 

 first that has been founded in memory of a woman's mathematical 

 genius and promise of scientific work. A second meeting to 

 determine to which of the above institutions the scholar.-hip 

 should be offered, and to arrange other matters in connection 

 with it, was held yesterday. Subscriptions will be gladly received 

 and may be paid to Miss Alice M. Palmer, hon. sec, 68, 

 Grosvenor Street, W., or to the account of the "Ellen Watson 

 Fund," Messrs. Dimsdale and Co., Bankers, Cornhill, E.C. 



Prince Leopold will formally open the new University 

 buildings at Nottingham on Thursday, June 30. 



At a meeting of the Council of the Wilts and Hants Agri- 

 cultural College, at Downton, Salisbuiy, on Wednesday, it was 

 unanimously resolved that the College should hencefortli be 

 called the College of Agriculture. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



Annalen dcr Physik imd Chemie, No. 2.— On absorption of 

 carbonic acid by wood charcoal, and its relation to pressure and 

 temperature, by P. Chappuis. — On absorption of dark heat-rays 

 in gases and vapours, by E. Lecher and J. Pernter. — New re- 

 searches on Newton's rings (continued), by L. Sohucke and A. 

 Wangerin. — On the disch.irge of electricity in rarefied gases 

 (continued), by E. Goldstein. — On the question as to the nature 

 of galvanic polarisation, by F. Exner. — On the same, by W. 

 Beetz. — On excitation of electricity on contact of metals and 

 gases, by F. Schulze-Berge. — Note on F. Exner's paper on the 

 theory of Volta's fundamental experiment, by the same. 



Bulletin de V Academic Royale des Sciences (de Belgique), No. I. 

 — Geodetic junction of Spam and Algeria in 1879, byM. Perrier. 

 — Fire-damp and atmospheric perturbations, by JL Comet. — 

 On the excretory apparatus of rhabdoccelan and dendroccelan 

 Turbellaria, by M. Fancotte. 



Reale Istitttto Lomhardo di Scienze e Lcttere. Renciiconti, 

 vol. xiv., fasc. i. and ii. — Synoptic tables of results obtained in 

 the Botanical Garden of Pavia University from cultivation of 

 fifteen qualities of vine (Asiatic and American species and 

 varieties), by S. Giacomo. — Contribution to the pathology of 



voluntary muscles, by C. Golgi. — Contribution to the 'physio- 

 logy of strychnic tetanus, by G. Ciniselli. — On Cremonian 

 correspondences in the plane and in space, by C. F. Archieri. — 

 The invasion by the Ptronospora viticola in Italy, by ■ S. 

 Garov.iglio. — On the damage which Peronospora may do in 

 Italy in future, by V, Trevisan. — Statistical note on inflamma- 

 tion, on cancer, on cirrhosis, on tuberculosis, and on pyaemia, 

 by G. Sangalli. — Proposed classification of the stature of the 

 human body, by S. Zoja. 



Aiti della R. Accademia dei Lincei, vol. v. fasc. 2 (December 

 18, l88o) — Reports on prize competitions. 



Fasc. 3 (January 2). — Contributions to the study of medullated 

 nerve fibre and observations on amylaceous corpurcles in the 

 brain and sj'inal cord, by A. Ceci. — On the bacillus of contagious 

 mollusca, by M. Domenico. — On an equation between the 

 partial derivatives of the inverse distances of three planets which 

 attract one another, by Dr. G. Annibale. — Two small fossil 

 hymenoptera of Sicilian amber, by G. Mulfatti. — On some rare 

 species of Italian birds, by P. Lnigi. — On Stilbite from Miage 

 (Monte Bianco), by C. Alfonso. — On ollenite, an amphibolic 

 rock of Mount OUen, by the same. 



Riviita Scienlifico-Industriale, No. 2, January 31. — Coglie- 

 vina's centigrade photometer, by R. Ferrini. 



Memoirs of the St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists. — The 

 last volume of the Metnoirs of the St. Petersburg Society of 

 Naturalists contains, besides the minutes of meetings of the 

 Society, a most interesting paper by Prof. Kessler, on the " Law 

 of Mutual Help," or sociability, which he proves to be the neces- 

 sary complement of Darwin's law of the struggle for existence. — 

 Ornitholo^iical observations in Transcaucasia, by M. Mikhai- 

 lovsky. — Observations on the motions of diatomacese and their 

 causes, by M. K. Merejkovsky. — Materials for the knowledge of 

 the infusorial fauna of the Black Sea, by the same author. — A 

 sketch of the flora of the province of Toula, by MM. D. Kojev- 

 nikoff and W. Tzinger, with a map. — Figures showing the 

 quantities of gases in the blood and the quantities of urea and mine 

 secreted by man under various conditions of life, by M. Shitz ; 

 and a paper on Medusas, by M. K. Merejkovsky. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



London 



Royal Society, February 3. — Dr. Klein communicated a 

 paper by John Haycraft, Senior Physiological Demonstrator 

 in the University of Edinburgh, on the cause of the striation of 

 voluntary muscular fibre. The author showed that all the cross 

 stri:e observed are due not to any differences of structure along 

 the fibre, but simply to the shape of the fibre itself. The fibre 

 is not a smooth cylinder, but is ampullated, alternate ridges and 

 depressions occurring with beautiful regularity across its length. 

 The stria; correspond wiih these in position, and are caused by 

 their action on the transmitted light. He showed theoretically 

 how this must be so, and illustrated it with a model of the same 

 shape but of uniform structure, which exhibited down to the 

 minutest detail the cross strife seen in the muscle itself. He 

 then showed the true explanation of the action of staining agents 

 and of polarised light. 



Mathematical Society, March 10. — S. Roberts, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — Prof. Cayley read a paper on the equi- 

 librium and flexure of a skew surface. — Mr. Tucker communicated 

 portions of papers, viz. ; — An application of elliptic functions to 

 the nodal cubic, by Mr. R. A. Roberts ; and note on Prof. C. S. 

 Peirce's probability notation of 1867, by Mr. H. McCoU. — Mr. 

 J. W. L. Glaisher, F.R.S. (vice-president), having taken the 

 chan, the president communicated the following direct analogue 

 in space of the well-known plane tlieorem, " If we take an 

 arbitrary point on each side of a triangle and describe a circle 

 through each vertex and the two points on adjacent sides, the 

 three circles meet in a point," viz. if we take an arbitrary point 

 on each edge of a tetrahedron and describe a sphere through each 

 vertex and the three points on adjacent edges, the four spheres 

 meet in a point. The analogue was used as .a point of departure 

 for the study of four spheres meeting in a point. 



Chemical Society, March 3.— Prof. Roscoe, president, in 

 the chair.— The following papers were read :— On the action 

 of Bacteria on various gases, by F. Hatton. An aqueous ex- 

 tract of flesh was used as the source of the Bacteria-contammg 

 liquid. A small flask half full of this liquid and half full of 



