39° 
NATURE 
THE announcements in the issue of Science for 
May 18 last show that there is no falling off in the 
United States in the interest in higher education, 
which expresses itself by liberal gifts for the develop- 
ment of universities and colleges. Our contemporary 
states that by the will of Mr. C. H. Pratt, the Massa- 
chusetts Institute of Technology receives a large 
bequest to endow a Pratt school of naval architecture 
and marine engineering. The income of the estate is 
to accumulate until the sum of 125,000]. has been 
reached, though it may be used at the expiration of 
twenty-one years. The Governor has signed the Bill 
passed by the Massachusetts Legislature appropriating 
10,0001, annually for five years to the Worcester Poly- 
technic Institute. The grant is to be extended for an 
additional five years if in the meantime the institute 
obtains 70,0001. An anonymous benefactor has given 
20,0001. to Hamilton College for the erection of a 
new library building. Columbia University has re- 
ceived from Mr. and Mrs. W. R. Peters a gift of 
10,0001. to establish a fund for engineering research 
in memory of their son. A second gift of 5oool. to 
Brown University from Mr. John D. Rockefeller, 
jun., is announced. The endowment has now reached 
163,000l. toward the desired 200,000l. Appropriation 
Bills for the College of Agriculture, Cornell Uni- 
versity, to the amount of 181,o00l., of which 158,oool. 
is immediately available, were passed by the New 
York Legislature at its recent session. The 
Veterinary College received an appropriation of 
21,000l., bringing the total up to 202,400l. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
Lonpon. 
Royal Society, June 6.—Sir Archibald  Geikie, 
K.C.B., president, in the chair.—Dr. Keith Lucas: 
The process of excitation in nerve and muscle: the 
Croonian lecture. Attention has lately been directed 
to the slow progress made by physiologists in under- 
standing the physico-chemical nature of the nervous 
impulse. In the present lecture an attempt is made 
to examine one aspect of the experimental knowledge 
which must precede the formulation of any hypo- 
thesis of this nature. The first problem is to analyse 
by experiment the relation between each of the 
phenomena observed in an excited nerve or muscle 
and that central disturbance which constitutes the 
nervous impulse. This analysis determines what 
phenomena must be taken into account in any hypo- 
thesis of the nervous impulse. By the recognition of 
the local excitatory process there is opened a fresh 
possible line of advance in the direction of deter- 
mining what the nature of the propagated disturbance 
may be. The former constitutes the condition which 
initiates the latter, and a knowledge of the physico- 
chemical nature of the local change may therefore 
form an important step towards formulating an hypo- 
thesis of the nature of the disturbance which is the 
basis of propagation. The hypothesis of Nernst, that 
the local excitatory process is a concentration of ions 
at a membrane impermeable to those ions, is examined 
critically. Some objections already brought against 
it prove unfounded. The genuine difficulties of the 
hypothesis are in themselves of service in suggesting 
experimental work which is needed for the complete 
verification of any such hypothesis.—Dr. H. L. Duke: 
Antelope as a reservoir for Trypanosoma gambiense. 
—Dr. H. L. Duke: Observations on fowls and ducks 
in Uganda with relation to T. gallinarum and T. 
gambiense.—Sir D. Bruce, Major D. Harvey, Major 
A. E. Hamerton, Dr. J. B. Davey, and Lady Bruce: 
The morphology of the trypanosome causing disease 
in man in Nyasaland.—Prof J. C. Fields: Theory of 
the algebraic functions. 
NO. 2224, VOL. 89] 
[JUNE 13, 1912 
Paris. 
Academy of Sciences, June 3.—M. Lippmann in the 
chair.—G, Bigourdan: The advantages of the reflec- 
tion meridian circle and the question of small planets. 
The advantages of the reflection meridian circle have 
been pointed out by Prof. H. H. Turner. The author 
confirms this, with special reference to the observa- 
tion of the minor planets.—Armand Gautier and Paul 
Clausmann: The detection and estimation of very 
small quantities of fluorine in minerals, in waters, 
and in living tissues. A description of the 
method of concentrating quantities of fluorine 
of the order of 1 milligram from large quan- 
tities of water or organic matter without loss. 
The object of the work is to be able to 
follow the introduction of fluorine into the animal 
economy by food materials and to determine its 
localisation in each organ.—L. Mangin and N. 
Patouillard; Atichia, a group of the lower Ascomy- 
cetes.—J. Violle: Results of measurements effected 
during the eclipse of April 17. Details of the varia- 
tions in atmospheric temperature and humidity, and 
of the solar radiation.—C,. E. Guillaume ; The specific 
heat of water from the experiments of Regnault. 
Taking a specific heat at 60° C. of o’9994, the mean 
of the data of Barnes, Callendar, and Dieterici, the 
values for temperatures up to 200° C. are recalculated 
from the data of Regnault. Up to 120° C. the re- 
calculated values are in good agreement with the 
determinations of Dieterici.—M. Flajolet: The recep- 
tion of the radio-telegraphic signals from the Eiffel 
Tower at the Observatory of Lyons during the eclipse 
of the sun of April 17. If any variations in the 
intensity of the signals were due to the eclipse they 
were very small and of the same order as the changes 
of the zero.—Emile Borel: Series of annlytical 
functions and  quasi-analytical functions.--Alfred 
Rosenblatt : Some inequalities in the thec-y of alge- 
braic surfaces.—Gustave Dumas: The singulavities of 
surfaces.—M. Arnaud: A new formula for barometric 
levelling.—Ch. Fabry and H. Buisson: The mass of 
the particles which emit the two spectra of hydrogen. 
The method is based on the observation of the limit- 
ing order of interference; it was found that the mass 
of the particles emitting the second spectrum of 
hydrogen is equal to the atomic mass oi hydrogen. 
Hence the lines of the second spectrum are not due 
to an association of several atoms, but to corpuscles 
identical with the atom or diflering from it very 
slightly. A study of the first spectrum, the distribu- 
tion of which follows Balmer’s law, leads to a similar 
conclusion.—Jean Danysz: The deceleration under- 
gone by the 8-rays when traversing matter. The 
slowing down of the rays observed for various metals 
is of the same order as those recently given by 
Whiddington for the kathode rays. Applying the 
theory of J. J. Thomson to these data as a rough 
approximation the number of electrons contained in 
an atom is of the same order of magnitude as the 
atomic weight.—F. Dienert and A. Guillerd : The appli- 
cation of physico-chemical methods to the estimation 
of the constituents of natural waters.—E. Chablay : 
Contribution to the study of the metallic glycol- 
alcoholates.—F. Bodroux and F. Taboury: The 
bromination of cyclohexanone and of cyclohexanol.— 
André Meyer: Dibromophenylisoxazolone and __ its 
derivatives.—F. Bodroux and F. Taboury: The 
bromination of some hydroaromatic compounds.—A. 
Mailhe: The nitro-derivatives of diphenylene.—J. B. 
Senderens: The use of carbonates in the catalytic 
preparation of ketones. The conversion of fatty acids 
into ketones by means of heated calcium or barium 
carbonates is not a_ true catalytic reaction.—V. 
Hasenfratz: Trimethyldiapoharmine, a new _ base 
