igo 



NA TURE 



[June 25, 1908 



V'iruiii taleni preconio eodeni dignum esse crediderim, quo 

 populi Americani praeses quidam niagnus, professoris nostri 

 in anno prime munus suum ingressus, populi sui a poeta 

 eximio postea est laudatus : — 



En vir benigne intentus, fortis, providus, 

 Sagax patiensque, laudem non culpam timens.' 



On June 17, Lord Rayleigh was formally installed as 

 Chancellor of the University in succession to the late Duke 

 of Devonshire. At a luncheon given by the master and 

 fellows of Gonville and Caius College to the Chancellor, 

 the recipients of honorary degrees, and a large party of 

 guests. Sir Andrew Noble announced that several of Lord 

 Rayleigh's friends, non-resident members of the University, 

 proposed, in order to express the gratification of the scien- 

 tific world at his election, to offer to the University a fund 

 large enough to provide an annual award to be associated 

 with the name of the Chancellor. 



The Harkness scholarship for 1908 has been awarded to 

 T. O. Bosworth, and the Wiltshire prize to W. C. Smith. 

 The John Winbolt prize has been awarded to L. B. Turner, 

 for his essay on " The Elastic Breakdown of Materials 

 submitted to Compound Stress." The examiners were also 

 of opinion that the essay sent in by E. T. Busk was 

 deserving of honourable mention. 



The special board for biology and geologv has approved 

 a grant of 200/. from the Balfour fund made bv the 

 Balfour managers to J. Stanley Gardiner, in aid of re- 

 searches in the Seychelles, Aldabra, and the neighbouring 

 islands. 



_ The professorship of chemistry is vacant by the resigna- 

 tion of Prof. Liveing. The electors will meet for the pur- 

 pose of electing a professor on Saturday, Julv 25. Candi- 

 dates are requested to communicate with the Vice- 

 Chancellor on or before July 13. 



Oxford. — The Drapers' Company has offered to make 

 a grant of 22,000?. for a new electrical laboratorv at the 

 University, and to contribute loooi. toward its equipment. 

 This generous offer will be brought before Convocation in 

 October. 



Liverpool. — The council of the L'niversitv has instituted 

 two new chajrs, one of Celtic studies and the other of 

 mediaeval archajology. Prof. Kuno Mever, who already 

 holds the endowed chair of German in the University, has 

 been appointed to the first of these new chairs, and' Mr. 

 F. P. Barnard to the second. 



A COURSE of lectures and demonstrations on the scientific 

 study of fisheries has been started this summer session in 

 the University of .Aberdeen. It is being conducted by Dr. 

 T. Wemyss Fulton, scientific adviser to the Scottish Fi'^herv 

 Board. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, April 30.—" A Phntograohic Determinaiion 



of the Elements of the Orbits of Jupiter's Satellites." By 

 Bryan Cookson. Communicated bv H. F. Newall, F.R.S. 



During the opposition of Jupiter in 1902, the author 

 was engaged in making a series of measurements of the 

 relative positions of the four Galilean satellites with the 

 7-inch heliometer at the Cape Observatory. Simultaneously 

 with these visual observations, photographs were taken 

 with the astrographic telescope. This paper contains a 

 short account of the work done in connection with the 

 photographs; a detailed account has appeared as vol. xii., 

 part iv., of the " Annals of the Cape Observatory." 



The investigation with the heliometer was undertaken 

 with the object of determining the mass of Jupiter and 

 correcting the best available elements of the orbits of the 

 satellites, which observation showed were considerablv in 

 error. 



The mass of the system of Jupiter, in terms of the sun's 

 mass, was determined with great care from the helio- 

 meter observations. The value finally deduced is 

 I : 1047-30 + 006. 



^ (Abraham Lincoln), 



"The kindly-e.irnest, brave, foreseeing man. 

 Sagacious, patienr. dreading praise, not blame." 



Lowell's " Commemoration Ode," vi. a(/ finem. 



NO. 2017, VOL. 78! 



In the case of the second satellite, which has an orbit 

 at an inclination of o°-48 to Jupiter's equator, the node 

 retrogrades 12° per annum, and of this motion 82 per cent, 

 is due to the compression of Jupiter, 4 per cent, to the 

 influence of satellite I., 13 per cent, to that of III., and 

 I per cent, to that of IV. 



The fifth satellite discovered by Barnard is so near to 

 the primary that the node of its orbit revolves through 

 about 912° per annum, and second-order terms begin to 

 make themselves felt. A careful measurement of this 

 motion would be of much value, for a comparison of the 

 compression of Jupiter, deduced from the motion ,pf the 

 node of V. with that deduced from the motion of the 

 node of II., might provide information concerning the 

 distribution of mass in Jupiter. 



June 4. — " On the Decay of the Radium Emanation 

 when dissolved in Water." By R. B. Moore. Com- 

 municated by Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., F.R.S. 



The results obtained by Ramsay and Cameron on dis- 

 solving radium emanation in water and in copper sulphate 

 solution have made it advisable to investigate the behaviour 

 of the emanation, when dissolved in such solvents, from 

 a radio-active standpoint. The present note deals with 

 the rate of decay of the radium emanation when dissolved 

 in water. The emanation accumulated by no milligrams 

 of radium bromide in two days, with the accompanying 

 oxygen and hydrogen, was collected in a gas burette over 

 mercury. After exploding, a small amount of water was 

 run into the burette, and the solution of the emanation 

 thus obtained, together with the slight excess of hydrogen, 

 was transferred to a glass tube 2 inches long and 5 mm. 

 in diameter, which had previously been exhausted. The 

 solution filled about five-si.\ths the volume of the tube. 

 The latter was sealed, and the decay curve of the emana- 

 tion was obtained by means of the 7 rays, sheet lead 

 being used to cut down the rays to the required amount. 

 The half-time period found was 38 days. It may, there- 

 fore, be assumed that the emanation decays at the same 

 rate when dissolved in water as it does in air. 



Geological Society. June 3.— Prnf. W. J. Sollas. F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — The fossiliferous rocks of the 

 southern half of the Tortworth inlier : F. R. Covvpei* 

 Reed and Prof. S. H. Reynolds. This paper is a con- 

 tinuation of that on the igneous rocks of this area pub- 

 lished in 1901 (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. Ivii., p. 267). 

 The rocks are affected by the Hercynian fiexures which 

 produced the Bristol coal-basin, and the outcrop of the 

 beds in the main follows the horseshoe-shaped outcrop of 

 the Old Red Sandstone. This regularity is lost at Daniel's 

 Wood and Middlemill. Two important transverse faults 

 traverse the outcrops, which are further obscured by the 

 overlap of unconformable Trias. The trap-bands are found 

 to be confined to the Llandovery, the number of recorded 

 fossils has been largely added to, and previous statements 

 as to the thinness and imperfect development of the Lud- 

 low rocks and as to the probable exposure of the district 

 to erosion in Ludlow and Lower Old-Red-Sandstone times 

 are confirmed. 



Chemical Society. June 4. — ^ir W. Ramsay, K.C.B., 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — The interaction of copper 

 and nitric acid in presence of metallic nitrates considered 

 with reference to the existence of hvdrates in solution : 

 E. H. Rennie, A. J. Higgin, and W. T. Cooke. The 

 authors consider that the acceleration caused by some 

 nitrates and the retardation induced by others on the 

 dissolution of copper in nitric acid are due to the with- 

 drawal by the salts of water or nitric acid from the solu- 

 tion, and the consequent concentration or dilution of the 

 acid. — The triazo group, part iv., allylazoimide : M. O. 

 Forster and H. E, Fierz. Allylazoimide prepared in small 

 yield and with some difficulty from allyl chloride and 

 sodium azide is a mobile refractive liquid which boils at 

 76°-s under 760 mm. pressure. — .Aromatic arsonic and 

 arsinic acids : F. L. Pyman and W. C. Reynolds. The 

 following new substances are characterised : — bis-2-amino- 

 tolyl-5-arsinic acid, bis-2-acetyIaminotolyl-5-arsinic acid, 

 bis-/i-aminophenvIarsinic acid, and bis-/)-acetylaminophenyI- 

 arsinic acid. — Condensation products from aminopinene- 

 dicarboxylic acid : W. Godden. — .\ delicate test for 

 bromides alone or in solution w'th chlorides : J. S. 



