86 



NA TURE 



[March i8, 1909 



practical study of surveying in connection with the course 

 in mining. Prof. E. ' W. McBride, K.R.S., of McGill 

 University, Montreal, has been appointed chief assistant 

 in the zoological department of the college. The title of 

 ** Professor Emeritus " has been conferred upon Prof. 

 Tilden, F.R.S., in recognition of his long services as dean 

 of the Royal College of Science and professor of chemistry. 



M. Paul Langevin has been appointed professor of 

 general and experimental physics at the College de France 

 in succession to the late Prof. Mascart. 



The Scottish Meteorological Society offers for competi- 

 tion among matriculated students or graduates of the four 

 Scottish universities, including University College, Dundee, 

 a prize of 20/. for the best essay on a meteorological sub- 

 ject. As an indication of the kind of essay the council is 

 prepared to consider, the following subject is mentioned : — 

 " A discussion of the e.xtent to which the heat set free 

 when water vapour is converted into the liquid state in- 

 fluences the temperature of the atmosphere, with special 

 reference to. the climatology of different parts of Scotland." 

 An essay on any other subject will, however, be equally 

 eligible. The essays must be lodged with the secretary 

 to the Scottish Meteorological Society, 122 George Street, 

 Edinburgh, on or before March 31, igio. 



Several further gifts to colleges and universities in the 

 United States have been announced. Science states that 

 at the recent commemoration of the founding of Johns 

 Hopkins University, which opened thirty-three years ago, 

 it was reported that the gift of Mr. Henry Phipps, of 

 New York, for the psychiatric clinic was considerably in 

 excess of 200,000/. A gift of 40,ooo(. to the University of 

 Pennsylvania from an anonymous donor has been 

 announced. The sons and daughters of the late Mr. and 

 Mrs. F. C. A. Denkmann, of Rock Island, 111., have 

 promised to give a libraiy building to Augustana College, 

 Rock Island, the building to cost not less than 20,000/. 

 By the will of Dr. Gordon W. Russell, of Hartford, 

 Trinity College receives 1000/. for the natural history 

 department- and a collection of books on that subject. 



The Estimates for Civil Services for the year ending 

 March 31, 1910, show an increase compared with the 

 grants in the igo8 session. The provision made for 

 universities and colleges shows an increase of 15,000!. for 

 university education in Wales, and among increases under 

 the heading "scientific institutions, &c.," are 2000/. for 

 the National Museum of Wales and 4500/. for the National 

 Library of Wales. A building grant of 20,000/. is made 

 in aid of the building fund of the University College, 

 Bangor. The estimates for the Board of Education show 

 an increase of 60,986/. The total estimates for the British 

 Museum are 127,935/., and for the .Natural History 

 Museum, .South Kensington, 60,543/. It i* interesting to 

 notice under the estimates for the Board of Education an 

 increase of 23,550/. available for grants for secondary 

 schools and the instruction of pupil teachers, and of 

 20,oon/. for grants for technical institutions and evening 

 schools. 



On Friday evening, March 12, at the South-Wes.tern 

 Polytechnic Institute, Chelsea, the certificates and prizes 

 were distributed by Dr. H. A. .Micrs, F.R.S., principal 

 of London University. The principal of the polytechnic 

 read a report which showed that the institute had been 

 very successful in the university and other examinations. 

 After the distribution Dr. Miers delivered an address. He 

 said that twenty years ago he had taken a class in elec- 

 tricity at an evening recreative centre under the old School 

 Board in Chelsea, and he felt on this account that his 

 visit to Chelsea was particularly appropriate. His great- 

 grandfather, Francis Place, also had taken a leading part 

 in ' founding some of the original polytechnics. He said 

 that the great object of education should be to stimulate 

 intellectual effort, and he knew no better way than by 

 studies in science and art. In both it was always possible 

 to discover or to produce something new, provided the 

 student had the seeing eye. He himself had been led to 

 researches and discoveries by chance observations. At- a 

 lecture at the Royal Institution one of his experiments on 

 crystallisation had acted differently from his expectation. 



NO. 2055, '\'OI- 80] 



and this -had led him to a year's successful research. It 

 was the seeing eye, educated by scientific study, -which' 

 enabled discoveries to be made, and the more alert a- 

 student was the more likely he would- be able to 'seize 

 the opportunity when it came. Many discoveries had been: 

 made in this way, of which he gave examples. The 

 interest of scientific and artistic studies was to him akin 

 to the sporting instinct, which, is merely a sense of ex- 

 pectation and curiosity, of w-hat was about to happen. All 

 teachers should try to stimulate the spirit of research. ■- : 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, January 14. — " On the Velocity of the 

 Kathode Rays ejected by Substances exposed to the 7 Rays 

 of Radium." By R. D. Kleeman. Communicated by Sir 

 J. J. Thomson, F.R.S. 



Part of the kathode radiation from a plate exposed to 

 the 7 rays of radium consists of very soft rays which are 

 absorbed in i cm. or 2 cm. of air. 



The softness of the radiation is practically independent 

 of the thickness of the radiator, and previous sifting of 

 the 7 rays through a thick screen. 



The radiation appears to ,be considerably softer on the 

 side of the radiating plate where the 7 rays emerge than 

 on the side where they 'enter. 



Measurements of the softness of the radiation for 

 radiators _ of different .materials on the side where the 

 7 rays entered showed that it is practically independent of 

 ehe nature of the material of the radiator. 



The soft radiation pi-odticed by the and 7 rays of 

 radium together is of a riiore penetrating character than 

 that produced by the 7 rays alone. 



The penetrating kathode rays produced directly by the 

 7 rays have been shown to possess different velocities. It 

 was found that the penetrating power of the kathode 

 radiation from a plate decreases witli the increase of 

 absorbability of the 7 radiation which produces it. 



The velocity of these secondary rays as a whole is, as 

 a first approximation, equal to that of the $ rays of 

 radium. 



March 11. — Sir .Archibald Geikie, K.C.B., president, in 

 the chair. — Note on the stability of Jacobi's ellipsoid : Sir, 

 G. H. Darwin. — The wave-lengths of lines in the 

 secondary spectrum of hydrogen : H. E. Watson. A great, 

 deal of work has been done by numerous investigators, 

 with the object of discovering the causes which produce 

 two ■ hydrogen" spectra,— the "view " for which there appears 

 to be -most evidence being that the primary spectrum arises 

 from atomic hydrogen, and the secondary spectrum fro;ii 

 molecular hydrogen. On the other hand, information as 

 to the wave-lehglhs' of the lines is very scanty, the orily 

 measurements of the red and yellow lines being those of 

 Hasselberg about the year 1883. The results are based 

 on Angstrom's scale, and were made with a prism spectro- 

 scope, so that they are not very trustworthy. As it seemed 

 highly important to have accurate information on the 

 subject owing to the frequent necessity of eliminating 

 hydrogen lines from a spectrum, the present Work wa.s- 

 undertaken. About 800 of the lines in the specti-um were 

 measured by means of a Rowland concave grating, the 

 error in the case of the stronger lines being probably ndf 

 greater than 0-03 Angstrom unit. Many of the lines are 

 very, weak, and can barely be photographed even with 

 prolonged exposures. No lines have been detected which' 

 are' less refrangible than the C line, and very few appear 

 to exist beyond the theoretical limit of the primary series 

 according to Balmer's formula. In fact, of those which 

 were seen in this position, the majority appear to be due 

 to water-vapour, and it docs not seem unlikely that the 

 remaining ones are not due to hydrogen. A remarkable 

 feature is an apparently continuous spectrum, which 

 extends from the extreme ultra-violet almost to the visible 

 region. A list is also given of the wave-lengths of thirty- 

 three mercury lines which were seen in the spectrum, and 

 measured with particular care in two orders. — The 

 measurement of dielectric constants by the oscillations of 

 ellipsoids and cylinders in a field of force :' 'W. ' M.' 

 Thornton. The method used was to suspend by a quartz 



