Junk 4, 1896] 



NA TURE 



,117 



ihe electrolysis of this double salt in the fused state, and from 

 the oxide, by reduction with carbon in the electric furnace. All 

 three processes give good yields, the last-mentioned being the 

 best, if care be taken not to unduly prolong the heating in 

 contact with carbon, and to exclude air. 



Metallic uranium, when pure, is perfectly white, and is not 

 magnetic if free from iron. It is not hard enough to scratch 

 glass, takes a good polish, and can be filed with eiise ; in the 

 electric forge it is much more volatile than iron. 



M. Henri Hecquerel, in the same number of the Coiiiples 

 niidiis, gives an account of a remarkable property of this 

 metal, which appears to be unique, that of emitting in- 

 visible phosphorescent rays capable of producing photographic 

 effects after traversing opaque bodies such as cardboard, alu- 

 minium, copper, and platinum, and also able to discharge a gold- 

 leaf electroscope. The eflects produced are precisely similar to 

 those previously obtained from uranium salts, such as potassium 

 uranyl sulphate, except that they are nearly four times as intense. 

 The chemical behaviour of uranium depends to a certain extent 

 upon its state of division. The metal obtained by electrolysis, 

 which is finely divided, takes fire in fluorine, is attacked by 

 chlorine at i8o^ by bromine at 210", and by iodine at 260°, the 

 reactions in all cases being complete. The powdered metal is 

 completely burned in pure oxygen at 170°, and decomposes water, 

 slowly at the ordinary temperature but more quickly at 100'. 

 Uranium must be added to the rapidly increasing group of metals 

 which combine directly with nitrogen at high temperatures. 

 Fragments of the metal heated to about 1000^ in a current of 

 nitrogen become covered with a yellow layer of nitride, and 

 hence in the preparation of the metal it is necessary to work in 

 such a manner as to completely exclude air. 



SCIENCE IN THE MAGAZINES. 



""VWV. celebration of the Kelvin jubilee at Glasgow on June 15- 

 '■ 17, makes the appearance of an article on the renowned in- 

 vestigator, in the June number of Good Words, very opportune. 

 The author is the editor. Dr. Donald Macleod, once a student 

 of Lord Kelvin's, and his description of the master is a most 

 appreciative one. Illustrations of Glasgow University, Lord 

 Kelvin's class-room, laboratory, and study, and of Lord and 

 Lady Kelvin, give additional interest to the article. 



.•\n excellent illustrated article on "The Rise of the Royal 

 Society," is contributed to the Leisure Hour by Mr. Herbert 

 Ri.x, the late Assistant Secretary of the Society. Other articles of 

 scientific interest in the same magazine are " Notes on the Zoo," 

 by Mr. W. J. Gordon, with illustrations from photographs by 

 Mr Gambler Bolton ; "The New South .Vfrica," by Mr. Basil 

 Wursfold ; and " Modem Hygiene in Practice," by Dr. A. T. 

 Schofield. 



Sikiice Gossip contains the first of a series of articles upon the 

 scientific worthies at the National Portrait Gallery, illustrated 

 with sketches of the pictures by Miss J. Hensman. We under- 

 stanil from the article that there are about thirty portraits 

 of scientific men out of upwards of a thousand pictures in the 

 Gallery. 



.\n article on Africa since 1888, with special reference 

 to South Africa and Abyssinia, by the Hon. Gardiner G. 

 Hubbard, and accompanied by a striking portrait of the 

 author, appears in the National Geograpliic Magazine (.May). 

 Another paper on Africa, " Impressions of South Africa," is 

 contributed to the Century Magazine by Mr. James Bryce, 

 M.P. In the Contemporary, there is an article by Dr. George 

 llarley, !•'. R.S., on " Champagne," having medical as well as 

 gu.'-lalory points of interest. Good Words has an article on 

 '• .\luminium," by Prof. Jamieson, and on " Flowers of the 

 Forest," by Mr. Kdward Step. Mr. W. H. Hudson has an 

 article on " Ravens in Somersetshire" in Longman's li/agazine. 

 .\mong the popular articles in C/iam/iers's Journal is one on 

 •' Photography in Colours," descriptive of Mr. Ives' process, ami 

 another on the Harvey process for hardening steel. Sir Robert Ball 

 describes the planet .Saturn in the Strand Magazine. Students 

 of animal life may be interested in the .second paper on "The 

 Fvolution of the Trotting Horse," contributed by Mr. II. 

 Busbey to Serihner. 



In addition to the periodicals mentioned, we have received 

 the Humanitarian, Fortnightly, and the Sunday Magazine, but 

 no articles in them call for notice here. 



NO. 1388, VOL. 54] 



UNIVERSITY AND EUUCA TIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Mr. H. J. Heintz has given 10,000 dols. to the Kansas 

 City University, the corner-stone of which has just been laid. 



The Technical Instruction Committee of the Middlesex County 

 Council have decided to offer a scholar.ship, worth £.i,o per year 

 for two years, tenable at the City and Guilds of London Institute. 

 This scholarship is to be competed for by boys to whom scholar- 

 ships at secondary schools were awarded in 1893. I' '* ''^ 

 include school fees, railway fares, and maintenance. 



The following are among recent announcements: — Dr. Otto 

 F'ischer to be Extraordinary Professor of Mathematics in 

 Leipzig University; Prof. L. M. Underwood to be called to 

 the chair of Botany in Columbia University ; Dr. George A. 

 Dorsey to be Curator in the Department of Anthropology in the 

 Field Columbian Museum at Chicago ; Dr. Franz Boas to be 

 Lecturer on Physical Anthropology in Columbia University ; 

 Prof. Harold B. Smith to be Professor of Electrical Engineering 

 in the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. 



For news of the following gifts to education and research in 

 America, we are indebted to Seience : — Mr. Thomas McKean 

 has offered to give 100,000 dols. to the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania upon condition that i ,000,000 dols. be collected. Mr. 

 McKean, who is a trustee and an .alumnus of the University, 

 gave 50,000 dols. about a year ago. — Mr. Charles M. Dalton 

 has given the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 5000 dols. 

 for a scholarship in chemistry for graduate students, ['reference 

 will be given to those undertaking chemical research applicable 

 to textile fabrics. — Real estate and securities valued at 

 215,000 dols. have been presented to the North-western Uni- 

 versity by William Deering, of Evanston, who had previously 

 given the University about 200,000 dols. 



We have to record another attempt to divert part of the funds;, 

 available under the Local Taxation (Customs and E.xcise) .'\ct, 

 1890, to the General County Fund. This time it is the Isle of 

 Ely County Council. At their meeting held at March, on May 

 20, it was proposed " that ^1000 of the Imperial grant be allo- 

 cated to the General County Fund, instead of the .^"150 recom- 

 mended by the Committee." The proposal was eventually 

 rejected, it is true, but only by a majority of two in a meeting 

 of forty. The argument which was used in the North Riding 

 County Council a short time ago, and to which we called atten- 

 tion, was again repeated — tjiat it was never the intention of 

 Parliament for the whole of these funds to be devoted to the 

 purposes of technical education. No stronger reason than such 

 occurrences as these could be found for the necessity of the 

 provision in the Education Bill that these funds must be devoted 

 to educational purposes. 



We are glad to learn from Scicme that an efl'ort is now under 

 way in connection with the National Educational Association to 

 bring about greater interest in the teaching of science than has 

 hitherto been shown by American botanists, zoologists, chemi.sts, 

 physicists, &c. The new Department of Natural Science In- 

 struction is intended to bring together the teachers of the natural 

 sciences who are interested in science as a means of culture, and 

 to stimulate thought and discussion as to how this end may 

 best be obtained. What r6le should botany, zoology, chemistry, 

 physics, &c. , play in the mental development of man ? In what 

 way may the study of plants, animals, chemical compounds and 

 physical forces be made an efficient factor in a man's mental 

 training ? When and how shall such study be made a part of a 

 man's training ? These are some of the questions which will be 

 discussed in the Department of Natural Science Instruction in 

 the Buffalo meeting of the National Educational Association, 

 on Thursday and Friday afternoons (July 9 and 10). 



The Technical Instruction Committees of the Oxfordshire 

 County Council have decided to devote £^60 to scholarships 

 during the next year. Of this amount ^^'294 will be absorbed on 

 .account of the scholars already elected. The balance is to be 

 devoted to further developing the .scholarship scheme. Amongst 

 other arrangements, we notice that it is proposed to elect three 

 sons of tenant farmers to County Council scholarships of an 

 annual value of ^^15. The candidates must have been under 

 fourteen years of age on December 31, 1895, and must have lived 

 in the county for two years previously. The scholar.ships will be 

 held at Burford Grammar School for the first two years. Sums of 

 £i(>() and ;^3I4 have been respectively allotted for capitation 



