July 2-3, 1908] 



NA TURE 



287 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Edinburgh.— Prof. J. Walker, F.R.S., has been elected 

 10 the chair of chemistry in the University in succession 

 to Prof. A. Crum Brown, F.R.S. 



Liverpool.— Prof. Salvin-Moore has resigned the direc- 

 torship of the Liverpool Cancer Research Committee, and 

 accordingly vacates the professorship of experimental 

 cvtology in the University on September 30. 



A VOLUME about Canada in Sir C. P. Lucas's " Historical 

 Geographv of the British Colonies " will be published 

 shortly by the Oxford University Press. The author, Prof. 

 H. E. Egerton, confines himself to history. Mr. J. D. 

 Rogers, who wrote " Australasia " for the same series, 

 will deal with the geography of Canada in another part. 



The following appointments have been made at Univer- 

 sity College, London :— Mr. H. M. Hobart to the newly- 

 cre'ated lectureship in electrical design ; Dr. A. W. Stewart 

 to the lectureship in stereochemistry for the session 

 1908-9 ; Mr. 1^. C. Mathison to the Sharpey research 

 scholarship in physiology ; Mr. W. F. Stanton to ^ be 

 demonstrator in the department of applied mathematics; 

 and Mr. H. S. Bion to be demonstrator in the depart- 

 ment of geology. 



The Association of Technical Institutions held its summer 

 meeting on July 17 at the Franco-British Exhibition. The 

 I hair was taken by Sir Horace Plunkett and Dr. Friedel, 

 head of the Information Bureau of French Education, who 

 gave an address on the French educational system. Dr. 

 Friedel said that the most interesting development of higher 

 education in France is that at the Universities pupils can 

 get special instruction in their various technical pursuits, 

 including agriculture and watch-making, so that techno- 

 logical education now goes from the elementary stage right 

 up to the University. Municipalities do a great deal for 

 their Universities; they give money, found, chairs, build 

 laboratories, and endow all kinds of institutions connected 

 with the Universities. Perhaps the time will come, he 

 said, when English towns will do more than they do at 

 present in that direction. Sir Philip Magnus also spoke. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 

 Mineralogical Society, June 16. — Piof. H. A. Miers 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — \ nickel-iron alloy 

 (FejNi,) common to the meteoric iron of Youndegin and 

 the meteoric stone of Zomba : L. Fletcher. In the case 

 of the Zomba meteoric stone, the gradual increase of nickel 

 in the residue after repeated extraction of the nickel-iron 

 with mercuric ammonium chloride was previously attributed 

 to rusting. It is now explained by the presence in the 

 nickel-iron of a component not easily affected by the 

 mercuric solution and containing 38'5o per cent, of nickel. 

 This component is identical with the "tS'nite," containing 

 about the same percentage of nickel, which was separated 

 from the Youndegin iron by its insolubility in dilute hydro- 

 chloric acid. — Kaolinisation and other changes in West of 

 England rocks : F. H. Butler. The author pointed out 

 tha^ the gaseous emanations of a granitic magma, which 

 are carried upwards and discharged e-Kternally, gradually 

 bring about considerable pneumatolytic changes. Notable 

 among these are increased vcsicularity in the quartz of the 

 peripheral part of granitic intrusions and their offsets, the 

 elvans, also the assumption by that mineral of the 

 idiomorphic form, and the production of tourmaline. The 

 occurrence of tourmaline in rocks exemplifying various 

 stages in metasomatism indicates long-continued supply of 

 boron compounds from abysmal regions. The primary, 

 usually brown, tourmaline in the altered acidic rocks is 

 commonly found to have been eroded, doubtless owing to 

 alkalinity of the kaolinising solution, before dekaolinisation 

 and the consequent formation of acicular schorl ushered in 

 a final deposition of quartz. The view of Prof. Y'ogt and 

 other authorities that kaolinisation was effected by the rise 

 of solutions of carbon dioxide from among calciferous rocks 

 receives support from the occurrence of calcium sulphate in 



NO. 202^, VOL. 78J 



underground waters and of numerous calcium compounds 

 in mineral veins and lodes. The unchanged condition of 

 some topaziferous granite is one of various indications that 

 the action of hydrofluoric acid on rocks has been low down 

 rather than superficial. It or hydrofluosilicic acid appears 

 to have played a part in the following sequence of events 

 in the west of England ;— (i) Decomposition of deep-seated 

 calcite-bearing rocks, and consequent kaolinisation of neigh- 

 bouring granite bv evolved carbon dioxide ; (2) local and 

 variable dekaolinisation, fluorisation, and tourmalinisation 

 of china-clay rock and china-stone by borated waters carry- 

 ing dissolved fluor-spar, resulting in the formation of 

 schorlaceous rocks and greisen. (3) Lastly, supply to the 

 metasomatised rocks of tinstone and wolfram from solu- 

 tion, and then of silica. The author concluded with a 

 brief summary of facts subversive of the popular notion 

 that the kaolin of commerce is the result of subaenal 

 action upon granite.— Schwartzembergite, and the drawing 

 of light-figures : G. F. Herbert Smith. The author de- 

 scribed the crystals occurring on three specimens in the 

 British Museum, the locality being San Rafael, Chili. 

 They are formed of four low pyramids, above and below, 

 eight in all, with nearly square contour, the angle from 

 the centre averaging 20°, with range i5°-25°, and simu- 

 late tetragonal symmetry ; steep pyramids are occasionally 

 present also. The mean refraction is 2-350. The optical 

 characters are remarkable ; through each pyramid face 

 appears in convergent light a biaxial interference-figure 

 (2E=i6°) with negative birefringence, the axial plane being 

 parallel to the edge of the contour, but through inter- 

 mediate sectors appears another biaxial interference-figure 

 with larger angle {2E = 33°), the axial plane being in this 

 case radial ; the number of different directions of single 

 refraction in the crystal is, however, only four. The 

 pyramids give with pin-hole object a continuous band of 

 light. Since there was no well-defined image from which 

 to measure, it was necessary to draw these figures direct 

 on to a proiection. The author described a camera-lucida 

 attachment "for the goniometer which would allow of the 

 preparation of projections of different sizes and of the 

 relative variation required by the distortion in a projection. 

 — The chemical composition of seligmannite : G. T. Prior. 

 The results of two analyses show that this new mineral 

 from the Binnenthal is a sulph-arsenite of copper and lead 

 (PbCuAsS,) corresponding to the sulph-antinionite, 

 bournonite, with which it is crystallographically similar. 



DUBLI.N. 



Royal Dublin Society, June 16.— Prof. Sydney Young, 

 F.R.S., in the chair. — On the quantitative spark spectra 

 of titanium, uranium, and vanadium: Dr. J. H. Pollok. 



Tables were given showing the rate of disappearance of 

 the various lines of the spectra of each element on dilution, 

 and reproductions of the spectra were shown in which the 

 most characteristic and persistent groups of lines were 

 marked. A second paper, " On the Spectrographic 

 Analysis of a Sample of Commercial Thallium," illustrated 

 the most convenient method of using quantitative spectra 

 for the identification of small quantities of impurities in 

 metals or minerals. — The secondary /3 radiation excited by 

 y rays : F. E. Hackett. The method used was to measure 

 the ionisation produced by the 3 radiation emitted from 

 the back of a plate when 7 rays were incident on the 

 front, care being taken that the intensity of the 7 rays 

 issuing from the'^different plates was the same. The plates 

 were thick enough to absorb the rays present in the 

 incident pencil, so that the secondary radiation measured 

 was due solely to 7 rays. For substances of atomic weight 

 less than 130, the secondary radiation measured in this 

 way is almost constant, and equal to 70 on the scale used. 

 For higher atomic weights the secondary radiation in- 

 creases, reaching the value of 100 for lead and 120 for 

 uranium. The paper contains a theoretical discussion of 

 the subject, deducing the radiating power per unit volume 

 and per atom of the substances examined when subjected 

 to the same intensity of 7 rays. The paper also contains 

 some measurements of the penetrating power of the 

 secondary rays. — The occurrence of deposits of unbroken 

 marine shells at high levels on the Curraun Peninsula, 

 CO. Mayo : T. E. Gordon and Prof. A. F. Dixon. The 

 authors described several deposits of unbroken marine shells 



