Juty 18, 1912} 
NATURE 
521 
the maintenance of the chair. The chairs and labora- | 
tory will be named after the munificent donor. 
Tue annual Degree Congregation of Sheffield Uni- 
versity took place on July 11. Mr. Balfour was, 
among others, the recipient of an honorary degree, 
and during the proceedings addressed the students. 
He said the great development which has taken place 
of recent years in universities has been wholly on the 
right side. The functions of a university are extra- 
ordinarily various, dealing with every kind of object 
in life, and not confined to one sex or one kind of 
learning. Those who regret that the old curriculum 
is not maintained in its simplicity are quite wrong 
from the point of view of general culture, let alone 
the necessity of giving the opportunity to students to 
learn those things which may be must useful to them 
in life. It is, relatively speaking, only in recent years 
that high scientific training has had a direct and 
necessary bearing upon every kind of industrial suc- 
cess. The old days of rule of thumb have passed, and 
the most elaborate scientific training is required in 
order that we may keep abreast with other countries, 
and also that all countries may use the powers and 
resources possessed to the best advantage of man- 
kind. With the advent of this new period have come 
new functions for our great teaching centres, and 
there is no place where this high scientific training 
is likely to produce more fruitful results than Sheffield, 
and no place where scientific and technical training 
has been more successfully developed. Speaking sub- 
sequently at a luncheon, Mr. Balfour pointed out that 
the conjunction of those engaged in academic pursuits 
and the leaders of industry and commerce will produce 
in the future fruits of university training of which our- 
forefathers never dreamed. Probably when the great 
university movement started in Europe many centuries 
ago, the idea of a great industrial centre was in itself 
alien to the thoughts of men, and the idea of com- 
bining industry with university culture,- although it 
did happen in some great Continental cities like 
Bologna, is nevertheless a relatively modern idea. In 
these modern days there is no class more sensible of 
the enormous debt which civic and industrial life 
owes to university teaching, properly understood, than 
the great leaders of industry. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
Lonpbon. 
Challenger Society, June 26.—Dr. A. E. Shipley, 
F.R.S., in the chair.—Dr. W. S. Bruce : Twenty-three 
new species o: invertebrates taken by the 
Scotia were exhibited. The collection included 
four aleyonarians, . thirteen echinoderms—asteroids, 
ophiuroids, and  holothurians, two nematodes, 
two pyenogons, and two. amphipods. The author 
also. showed two known species, namely, the 
interesting pycnogon, Decalopoda australis of Eights, 
and his interesting large isopod, Glyptonotus antarc- 
ticus. The interest of the collection lay mainly in the 
fact that most of these species had been taken in deep 
water and in high southern latitudes. A very high 
percentage of those taken in deep water were new to 
science. The Scotia collections practically disposed of 
a theory of bi-polarity. Except where species were of 
universal distribution, Antarctic species were markedly 
different from those of the Arctic. regions.—C. Tate 
Regan: Antarctic fish-fauna: material from the 
Scotia collections. The Nototheniidaee and _ re- 
lated families form a natural group characteristic | 
ef and peculiar to the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic , 
seas, and about seventy species are known, mostly : 
littoral, but some pelagic or abyssal; some of the | 
NO. 2229, vol. 89] 
species seem to have a circumpolar distribution. 
Other abyssal and pelagic fishes of the Antarctic are 
mostly con-generic with forms already known from 
the Atlantic or Indo-Pacific; the littoral fishes are re- 
lated to those of New Zealand and Patagonia. The 
fishes do not support the theory of bi-polarity, and 
throw little light on the question of a former extension 
of the Antarctic continent.—H. J. B. Wollaston: A 
new method of working vertical tow-nets. The line 
from the net, after passing over blocks attached to 
boat davits, is attached to a weight; the sinking of 
the weight supplies the hauling power for the net, 
which rises to the surface at an even speed, readily 
regulated by the weight used. The advantages of the 
method are that constancy of speed of hauling is in- 
dependent of the operator, and nearly independent of 
the movements of the ship, being approximately 
uniform even in bad weather. 
Dustin. 
Royal Irish Academy, June 24.—Rey. Dr. Mahaffy, 
president, in the chair.—J. A. McClelland and 
Kennedy: Large ions in the atmosphere. Observa- 
tions are recorded of the number of large ions in the 
atmosphere for a period of more than a year, with 
accompanying notes on certain weather conditions. 
The number per cent. varied between a minimum of 
3700 and a maximum of 60,000.—J. A. McClelland and 
J. J. Nolan: The electric charge on rain. The observa- 
tions discussed in the paper cover the period from 
October, 1911, to May, 1912, and, with results pre- 
viously published, cover a period of more than 
a year. Of all the rain examined in the 
later period 82°6 per cent. was positively charged, 
the remaining 17°4 per cent. negatively. The positive 
electricity was 769 per cent. of the whole—G. A. J. 
Cole: The problem of the Liffey Valley. The im- 
mature gorge of the Liffey near Pollaphuca is con- 
trasted with the highly mature valleys, which are 
now practically devoid of streams, to the north near 
Brittas, and it is suggested that the drainage has 
become reversed, through the deepening of the floor 
of the upland near Pollaphuca, by glacial scour. Such 
a reversal is supported by the northerly courses of the 
King’s River and the Liffey in the upper reaches of 
their valleys—A. D. Cotton: Marine alge (Clare 
Island Survey). An account is given of the algal 
vegetation found within the Survey area, three forma- 
tions and a large number of associations and societies 
being recognised.—G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton ; Mam- 
malia (Clare Island Survey). Only two species of 
strictly terrestrial mammals, viz. the wood mouse 
(Apodemus sylvaticus) and the pigmy shrew (Sorex 
minutus), occur on Clare Island. The hare and rabbit 
have been recently introduced, and the rat and house 
mouse probably owe their existence on the island to 
the same cause.—R. F. Scharff: Reptilia and 
amphibia (Clare Island Survey). Only a_ single 
species of reptile and two amphibians, viz. the common 
lizard (Lacerta vivipara), the frog (Rana temporaria), 
and the newt (Molge vulgaris), are found within the 
area of the Survey.—G. P. Farran: Fishes (Clare 
Island Survey). Only a single strictly fresh-water 
fish occurs on Clare Island, namely the river trout.— 
W. F. Johnson and J. N. Halbert: Coleoptera (Clare 
Island Survey). In this paper there are records of 
524 species, of which about 203 were found on Clare 
Island. At least four of the species are addi- 
tions to the known Irish fauna.—J. N. Halbert: 
Hemiptera (Clare Island Survey). One hundred and 
seventy species of Heteroptera and Cicadina are re- 
corded.—J. N. Halbert: Neuroptera (Clare Island 
Survey). The Neuroptera are represented by 120 
species, or exactly half the total number recorded from 
Ireland_G. H. Carpenter: Orthoptera (Clare Islon¢ 
