May 14, 1S96] 



NATURE 



45 



than has hitherto been usual of the mathematical questions pro- 

 posed to be set in the University examinations." The following 

 resolutions were also carried. (l) That a special Committee of 

 thirteen members, including the Cliairman of Convocation, be 

 Dominated to prepare for presentation to any Statutory Com- 

 mission which may be appointed a memorandum of points in the 

 scheme of the Royal Commis.sion in which modification is 

 desirable, and with power to confer with such said Statutory 

 Commission, and with the Senate or any Committee thereof. 

 (2) That this special Committee consist of the following 

 members : — The Chairman of Convocation, Dr. AUchin, Dr. 

 Benson, Mr. Bompas, .Mr. Stanley Boyd, Dr. Cave, Mr. Cozens- 

 Hardy, Mr. Thiselton-Dyer, Dr. lieber Hart, Dr. Napier. Mr. 

 Blake Odgers, Dr. Sansom, Prof. S. P. Thompson. (3) That 

 the new and enlarged special Committee recommended for 

 appointment in the report of the special Committee on the 

 memorandum to be presented to such said Statutory Commission 

 should have full powers, if it thinks fit, to prepare amendments 

 to the London University Commission Bill and to have them 

 proposed on behalf of Convocation in either House of Parlia- 

 ment. 



At a special meeting of the Technical Instruction Committee 

 of the Cheshire County Council the following resolutions were 

 adopted, and instructions given for them to be forwarded to the 

 President and Vice-President of the Council. 



(1) "That in the opinion of this Committee the Education 

 Bill of this Session, as printed, will have the effect, by 

 adding new subjects (not technical nor manual) for assist- 

 ance out of the Customs and Excise grant, of making it 

 impossible for the successors of this Committee, without 

 recourse to a rate in aid, to continue the maintenance 

 grants to those Science and Art Committees which their 

 predecessors have, in good faith, on the assurance of her 

 Majesty's Ministers in the past that the grant or its equivalent 

 would not be withdrawn, fostered, or created. That the financial 

 clauses of the Bill, confirming only a rate of one penny in the 

 pound, in addition to the local taxation {Customs and Excise) 

 grant, are inadequate for the work of secondary and technical 

 education it is proposed the new Education Committee shall 

 undertake." 



(2) "That this Committee would respectfully urge upon her 

 Majesty's Government that a County Council may have the 

 option of nominating two school committees, one an elementary 

 school committee, and the other a secondary school committee, 

 with a view to secure for service in each committee members 

 specially qualified for the work of each grade who would not 

 have leisure time to attend to the two combined, and ventures to 

 express a hope that for the purpose of education other than 

 elementary the cost thereof may be wholly borne by the 

 Imperial Exchequer, or, failing that, the Education Committee 

 may have the benefit of at least a rate of 2d. in the pound." 



(3) " That, in the opinion of this Committee, Clause II., Sub- 

 section 3, relating to the performance by the education 

 authority of the work of the numerous school attendance 

 committees in the county, is impracticable, and cannot be 

 undertaken by the education authority." 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 

 American yoiirnal of Siieine, April. — The morphology of 

 Triarthriis, by C. E. Beecher. .Most of the recent advances in 

 the knowledge of trilobite structure have come from the study 

 of Triarthrus. Much time was spent by the autlmr in carefully 

 working out the numerous specimens from the abundant material 

 in the Vale Museum. Altogether upwards of five hundred 

 individuals with appendages more or less com|ilete have been 

 investigated; and at the present lime all the important exoskeletal 

 features have been seen and described. The appendages of 

 Triarthrus are exceptionally long. It must have been a sort of 

 " Daddy Long-legs " among the Trilobites, as Si :i/ igerah among 

 the Myriapoda. The delicacy of the appendages and ventral 

 membrane of trilobites and their rarity of preservation are 

 sufficient demonstration that these portions of the outer integu- 

 ment were of extreme thinness, and therefore perfectly capable 

 of performing the function of respiration. The paper is accom- 

 panied by a plate showing a dorsal and a ventral view of a 

 specimen fully restored. — Climatic zones in Jurassic times, by 

 A. E. Ortmann. The author proves that the argument given by 



NO. I3S5, VOL. 54] 



Neumayr for the non-existence or non-action of topographical 

 differences upon the distribution of the Jurassic faunas is a com- 

 plete failure. Only one point may be granted, that a separation 

 by land was not present in an extensive manner. On the other 

 hand, it is highly probable that on the one side differences of 

 depth of the seas, on the other differences of facies, are the laws 

 governing the faunistic differences. The first cause applies 

 especially to the distinction of the Mediterranean and Middle- 

 European provinces, the second to that of the Middle-European 

 and Russian (Boreal) provinces. — Metamorphism of a gabbro 

 occurring in St. Lawrence County, N.Y, , by C. H. Smith, junr. 

 The extreme effect of metamorphism on this gabbro has been to 

 produce complete recrystallisation, yielding a granulitic struc- 

 ture. This metamorphism takes place in three stages. The 

 first is marked by the formation of scapolite and some scaly 

 hornblende, with little or no sign of crushing, the probable 

 agents of change being pressure, heat, and solutions. In the 

 second stage the effects of crushing are pronounced. All of the 

 constituents are granulated, and the rock becomes more or less 

 gneissoid. At the same time the scaly hornblende increases in 

 quantity, seeming to reach its maximum in this phase of the 

 rock. Finally, in the third stage, the rock undergoes complete 

 recrystallisation, the newly-formed constituents being arranged 

 normal to the pressure that has crushed the rock, and thus pro- 

 ducing a pronounced gneissoid structure. — An occurrence of free 

 gold in granite, by G. P. Merrill. A piece of quartz described 

 as "gold ore, Sonora, Mexico," was found to be not super- 

 ficially impregnated with gold, but to contain flecks of tree gold 

 throughout its substance. There is no other way of accounting 

 for it other than by considering it a true constituent of the rock, 

 crystallised from the original magma. It is completely embedded 

 in the clear grassy quartz and unfissured felspars. No pyrite or 

 other sulphides could be detected. This is believed to be a 

 unique occurrence. 



Wiedemann^ s Annakii der Physik tiiul Cheniic, No. 4. — On 

 the nature of the X-rays, by D. A. Goldliammer. The author 

 believes the X-rays to be not longitudinal light waves, but ultra- 

 violet rays of extreme shortness. The absence of refraction 

 would be quite consistent with this view, since in several 

 theories of dispersion the index of refraction for infinitely short 

 waves is unity. The absence of reflection would be due to 

 the smallness of the waves compared with the unevenness of 

 ordinary polished surfaces. This also explains the absence of 

 polarisation. As regards the variation of absorption with the 

 density simply, this is analogous to the absorption of light by 

 aniline and other solutions, which simply depends upon their 

 concentration. The author gives no reason against these rays 

 consisting of longitudinal vibrations. — On the determination of 

 overtones, by C. Stumpf. Careful investigations show that 

 wherever overtones may influence the result of an experiment, 

 the source of sound must always be specially tested as regards 

 its composition, and that theoretical proofs of the simplicity of 

 a tone are often misleading. Wherever simple tones are to be 

 produced, the sound must be as faint as possible, or the over- 

 tones must be excluded by interference. — On the origin of con- 

 tact electricity, by C. Christiansen. To establish a difference 

 of potential between mercury and either zinc, cadmium, lead, 

 or tin amalgam, the presence of oxygen is essential. Further 

 experiments were made with hydrochloric and sulphurous acids, 

 carbon bisulphide and nitrous oxide. Hydrochloric acids gave 

 a polarisation effect with all the amalgams for which it was 

 found in the case of oxygen, and for copper in addition. SO^ 

 gave effects with zinc and cadmium. The other gases gave no 

 effect. — Polarisation and resistance of a galvanic cell, by Franz 

 Streintz. The author shows that the determination of galvanic 

 polarisation in an electrolytic cell in a closed circuit is an im- 

 possibility, since the "resistance" of the cell is an unknown 

 function of the current strength. — The iron sphere in a homo- 

 geneous magnetic field, by O Grotrian. By induction experi- 

 ments made with coils of wire laid over an iron sphere so as to 

 cut oft" segments of various sizes the author shows that the 

 sphere is evenly magnetised throughout its substance, as pre- 

 dicted by theory. The result is not affected by the direction of 

 "grain" of wrought iron. — Diminution of the intensity of 

 sound with the distance, by K. L. Schaefer. Sound does not 

 diminish in intensity strictly with the square of the distance, 

 but at first more slowly, and then more rapidly. This was 

 proved by means of a telephone attached to a clock and brought 

 to different degrees of sensitiveness. 



