May 2 1, 1 896 J 



NA TURE 



and jurists, amongst whom were Renan, Taine, Berthelot, 

 and others. 



This led to the creation of seven complete universities, to 

 which the nearest separate faculties attached themselves. M. 

 Waddington, after having looked over the scheme, did not ask 

 for a discussion. He thought that universities could not be 

 established before university life had been founded, before the 

 material, scientific, and moral situation of the faculties had 

 been anieliorated. It is in this direction that the reforms were 

 directed. 



In 18S5, the localities of the faculties h.iving been changed, 

 their scientific instruments being complete, their courses ex- 

 tended, at the cost of great pecuniary .sacrifices, the que.stion of 

 universities was again renewed. The Minister of Public In- 

 struction, at this time M. K. (Joblet, signed two important 

 resolutions. For each group of faculties there was instituted a 

 general Council composed of two delegates of each faculty, with 

 extended functions for academic, scientific, administrative, finan- 

 cial and disciplinary matters. The Rector of the Academy received 

 the presidency. The ordinary life of the faculties of the same 

 town was thus created. Each one of the faculties received, 

 besides, confirmation of the right that they possessed since their 

 creation, but which was repealed in deed to receive endowments, 

 legacies and relief. 



The faculties became therefore civil persons, but their group- 

 ing remained extra-legal, and had no judicial unity. It is in a 

 scheme of law presented to the Senate in 1890 by M. Bourgeois, 

 then Minister of Public Instruction, that the proposition is first 

 made to confer the civil personality and the n.ime of University 

 on the groups, comprising at least the four faculties of law, 

 literature, science and medicine, and to give to the universities 

 the autonomy of their budget, by abandoning to them all the 

 receipts which they efiecled (right of in.scription, of study, 

 revenues) for covering their expenses, with the help of a State 

 subsidy. This project, rather badly received by the Senate, was 

 sent back to a Commission, which very soon gave up its ex- 

 amination. It met with the strong opposition of the senators 

 who represented the towns of the little groups of two or three 

 faculties, which could not, by the terms of the project, pretend 

 to the rank of University. 



In spite of this repulse, the Minister of Public Instruction, 

 and especially M. Liard, the eminent Director of Higher In- 

 struction, were not discouraged. They succeeded in having 

 inserted in the Finance Law of .'\pril 28, 1893, an article 

 (No. 72) which conferred civil personality on the faculties in the 

 .same academic resort. The Senate, averse to the project of 

 1S90, accepted the provision of 1893 by 212 votes against 56. 

 Thus new progress was made. 



Nevertheless, as it became more evident that the Senate would 

 never consent to sacrifice the little groups of faculties, the par- 

 tisans o( the universities had to content themselves, in order to 

 obtain anything, with demanding less. 



In 1895, .\I. R. Poincare presented the projiosition which has 

 just been voted for by the Chamber, and which he defended as 

 Reporter, at the side of his successor in Public Instruction, M. 

 Combes. 



Briefly, in the terms of the project, the bodies of faculties, 

 instituted in 1893, ^^^ 'h*^ name of University ; the general 

 councils of the faculties, created in 18S5, become councils of the 

 university. In 1898 each faculty will have a budget of its own. 



This arrangement has its importance, for it confers on certain 

 groups of the university considerable receipts— 646,000 francs at 

 Paris, 105,000 at Bordeaux, 128,000 at Lyons, 83,000 at Lille. 



By the vote of the Chamber, and that of the Senate, the uni- 

 versities, suppressed by the Revolution, will be reconstituted in 

 France and endowed with civil personification. The new law 

 is, on the other hand, but the result of the long evolution com- 

 menced twenty years ago. It perpetuates results already attained, 

 and so little contested, that in 1889 M. Clreard, in his inaugural 

 discour.se at the Sorbonne, talked of the University of Paris, and 

 the new buildings of the Faculties of Lille bear the inscription 

 " University of Lille." 



It is certainly to be regretted that the proposal of 1890 was 

 not adoped. Real universities must include four faculties. 

 And, as the Rector of the Catholic Institute of Paris, M. 

 d'Hulst, has said at the Chamber, it is a delusion to call the 

 union of i>nly two or three facultiesla university. It maybe 

 presumed that the incomplete groups, in order to maintain their 

 new name and the concurrence of the complete groups, will try 

 to give themselves the faculties which are wanting. If they do 



NO. 1386, VOL. 54] 



not .succeed, they will remain, of necessity, in the shade ; 

 and it is better, in short, to see the faculties of Paris become a 

 university, even if tho.se of Clerniont-Fenaud receive the same 

 title, than to see the ambiguous situation, created in 18S5, 

 continued. 



There are fifteen groups of faculties in France ; there would, 

 therefore, be fifteen univer.sities, of which seven are complete : 

 Paris, Lyoas, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Montpellier, Lille, and Nancy. 

 It is to be remarked that the southern half of the country will 

 possess four of the seven universities. The incomplete uni- 

 versities are Aix-Marseilles, Rennes, Caen, Poitiers, Cirenoble, 

 Dijon (law, science, and literature), Clermont, and Besan9on 

 (science and literature). 



The above-mentioned towns, Clermont and Be.san9on ex- 

 cepted, contain a preparatory school of medicine. Many of 

 these schools will probably be turned into faculties. 



NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.— 

 WASHINGTON MEETING. 



T^IIE recent annual meeting of the National Academy of 

 ■*■ Sciences in Washington brought together an unusual 

 number of members ; and the papers read during the first 

 three days of the meeting included several of special interest 

 and value. 



Naturally the Rontgen rays have been the prominent topic, and 

 it is fortunate that most of the successful investigators have at- 

 tended and read papers, or participated in the discussions. Some 

 errors which have gained credence and wide publication have been 

 corrected, and perhaps the most satisfactory feature of the 

 discussion has been the elimination of these errors, and the 

 correction of too hasty generalisation from experiments conducted 

 without sufiicient care. 



What the rays are Prof. Rowland frankly admits we do not 

 know, nor are we perceptibly nearer a solution of the problem 

 than when Rontgen first launched his epoch-making essay. 



Prof. Rowland presented to the .\cademy some notes on the 

 rays, in which he said in part that investigators of the source 

 of these rays generally overlook the fact that electrical currents 

 are almost invariably accompanied by oscillations, so that each 

 pole is alternately anode and kathode, thus vitiating any 

 generalisations as to the anode or the kathode being the source of 

 the rays. He mentioned that the rays are developed to the 

 greatest extent when the kathode rays fall on the anode, and 

 hence a kathode ground to a reflecting surface focused on the 

 anode gives the best results. This fact is utilised in the con- 

 struction of the "focus-tubes" now largly used in Rontgen 

 photography. 



Prof. Rowland has obtained good results by using perfect 

 vacuum tubes in which the electrodes are brought within one 

 millimetre of each other. The source of rays here is less than 

 i/iooo of an inch in diameter. This throws a shadow with 

 remarkably sharp outline, being less than i/iooo inch. The 

 width of the image gives the limit of w-ave-length — if it is indeed 

 an undulation, and not the projection of material particles — not 

 greater than 1/8 the length of waves of yellow light. 



A paper on the source of the Rontgen rays was read by Prof. A. 

 A. Michelson and S. W. Stratton. Prof. Michelson maintains 

 that these rays are not essentially different from those of Lenard. 

 The latter produce their effect mostly within the tube, the 

 former without ; but Lenard also found an actinic efl'ect outside 

 the tube. He also brought forward evidence to show that 

 Rontgen rays radiate in all directions from the surface first en- 

 countered by the kathode rays, and do not start from the anode. 



Prof A. M. Mayer read several papers. He showed that 

 investigations of polarisation of these rays must be made with 

 some very thin substance of low density, herapalhite being the 

 best ; but this substance, which is an iodo-sulphate of quinine, is 

 difficult to obtain. He described the process, already com- 

 municated by him to Nature (April 2). On using plates 

 of herapathite with three different (exposures of half-hour, 

 one hour, and three and a half hours, no polari.sing effect 

 was produced. He remarked that calc-spar was utterly un- 

 available as a test of polarisation of these rays, because it could 

 not be procured of sufficient thinness for the rays to penetrate. 

 Hence the researches of some experimenters, though widely 

 published, were of no value whatever. He has determined the 

 density of herapathite with great accuracy and by repeated 



