142 
NATURE 
[ Kune 1, 1885 
reports of all the professors, lecturers, and heads of departments 
connected with natural science. 
Prof. Thomson (Cavendish Professor of Physics) reports that 
during the Lent term ninety students attended the demonstra- 
tions, and there were ten persons doing original work in the 
laboratory. Lord Rayleigh states that during the last five years 
about 2500/. has been spent on the Cavendish Laboratory in 
addition to the University expenditure. This has come partly 
from fees; partly from the apparatus fund raised by subscription. 
The Chemical Laboratory has been much over-crowded and 
improvements are scarcely possible until the new laboratory has 
been completed. 
The register of the mineralogical collections is completed. 
The number of students increases ; fifteen attended Mr. Solly’s 
demonstrations in the Michaelmas term and nineteen in the Lent 
term. 
The department of mechanism has continued to grow rapidly. 
During the year two new woorkrooms and a new foundry have 
been added and have met the most urgent requirements. Up- 
wards of tooo/, worth of new machinery has been added at Prof. 
Stuart’s expense during the last two years to meet immediate 
wants; and during that time the pupils have doubled in number. 
The lecture-rooms have become over-crowded, and new ones 
are much wanted. Prof. Stuart urges that the University should 
now purchase the machinery and apparatus used in teaching, 
which is his property. The undertaking is now wholly self- 
supporting, paying interest on the capital involved, and providing 
an adequate sinking fund. 
The classes of practical morphology and elementary biology 
are now much better accommodated in the new rooms. One 
hundred Zeiss’s microscopes have been purchased. The Balfour 
library has been enlarged, and proves of great value to students. 
Seven demonstrators have been fully occupied in the classes, in 
addition to two ladies who have superintended the women 
students. In the May Term, 1884, in which two years of 
students were combined, 206 men and 12 women went through 
the course of elementary biology. In the Lent term of 1885, 
128 men and 7 women attended. In Elementary Morphology 
there were 68 students in last October term, and 87 in the recent 
Lent term. 
Prof. Macalister has utilised the services of seven assistant 
Demonstrators, in addition to Mr. Hill, whose labour has been 
unremitting, Subjects for dissection have been secured from a 
wide area. Prof. Macalister has presented a series of models of 
the viscera of the body showing their proper relative positions, 
casts of frozen sections, 26 crania, and 160 specimens of bones 
showing peculiarities. No department of University work is so 
badly housed as the Department of Anatomy ; but much good 
work is done in the limited space. 
In the Museum of Comparative Anatomy and Zoology 72 
additional species from Dr. Dohrn’s collection have been re- 
mounted and displayed. An extensive collection of marine 
invertebrata from the New England coast has been forwarded 
from the National Museum at Washington, through the kind 
offices of Prof. Baird. The work of the Curator in Invertebrate 
Zoology has been principally expended upon the MacAndrew 
collection of shells. Mr. Cooke has published two extensive 
papers, and progressed with the rectification of the nomenclature 
and the catalogue. 
A fine adult Echidna from New Guinea has been presented by 
Dr. Guillemard. Both skin and skeleton have been mounted. 
A complete skeleton of the red deer in a sub-fossil state has 
been procured from Burwell Fen by Mr. W.  Stubbings, 
Assistant in the Museum; a complete skeleton of an African 
elephant, shot by Mr. W. Heape near Port Elizabeth, has been 
presented. Many other interesting acquisitions are named in 
the report. 
Dr. H. Gadow, the Strickland Curator, has been forming a 
manuscript catalogue of the skins of birds in the Museum, An 
exhibited series of specimens is being placed systematically, with 
the important anatomical parts, nests and eggs, in an educational 
series. Twenty maps have been placed in the cases to illustrate 
the geographical distribution of birds. The University collec- 
tion now consists of 9653 specimens of 3290 species. The 
Strickland collection, in addition, contains 600 specimens of 
3125 species ; and, with Mr. E. Newton’s collection, there are 
in all 17,000 specimens, representing probably 4500 species. 
Prof. Foster reports that the number of students of elementary 
physiology has risen from 77 in the Easter term, 1884, to 141 in 
the recent Lent term, exclusive of women students. Twenty- 
eight have attended advanced lectures also. Several important 
additions, such as a gas-engine, a centrifugal machine, recording 
and other apparatus, have been made to the Laboratory, by the 
aid of a gift of 500/. by an anonymous donor. The inadequacy 
of accommodation, both for practical work and for lecturing, is 
severely felt. 
Prof. Ray has been successful in organising extended practical 
courses, as well as systematic lectures. The fost-mortem ex- 
aminations at Addenbrooke’s Hospital have been placed under 
his superintendence. At present the only laboratory space 
available is obtained by encroaching on Dr. Foster's already 
overcrowded rooms. 
Prof. Babington reports that the arrangement of the general 
Herbarium is now complete. The plants have been placed in 
orders and genera, according to Bentham and Hooker. The 
arrangement of species has not as yet been attempted. Mr. 
Potter and Mr. Gardiner have commenced the formation of a 
small Botanical Museum similar to that of Comparative 
Anatomy. Mr. Vines finds the new rooms very suitable both 
for class purposes and for research. Last term there were 29 
advanced and 30 elementary students working in the laboratory. 
The Geological Museum has acquired a fine collection of 
fossils from the Oolites of Dorset, chiefly by the liberality of 
Prof. Henry Sidgwick. Messrs. Roberts and Small brought 
useful additions from the Jura. Mr. Marr has added largely to 
the Cambrian and Silurian series. Mr. Keeping has collected 
and restored many specimens from Pliocene and Pleiostocene 
deposits. Mr. J. Robarts has worked most energetically as 
Prof. Hughes’ assistant, in the museum, in teaching and col- 
lecting. Work is much hindered by the want of a lecture room 
and class-room. 
Mr. Walter Gardiner, whose original work in vegetable 
histology is so well known, has been elected to a Fellowship at 
Clare College. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 
Royal Society, May 6.—‘‘Oncharging Secondary Batteries,” 
by William Henry Preece, F.R.S. 
Mr. Preece said he had for some months past been experi- 
menting with secondary batteries with a view of getting an 
efficient, uniform, and constant source of current for electric 
lighting his house. The cells are of the Planté type, manufac- 
tured by the Elwell Parker Company of Wolverhampton. Fach 
cell contains fourteen plates of plain sheet lead 17” X 11”, which 
are suspended in well-insulated wood boxes filled with diluted 
sulphuric acid in the proportion of about 1 to 19. These plates 
are grouped in two groups of seven, each group being soldered 
to a lead strip, forming alternately the positive and negative 
poles of the cell. The plates of the respective poles are pre- 
vented from touching each other by ebonite grids or separators 
introduced by Mr. Charles Moseley to prevent short-circuiting 
through the buckling of the plates. Each plate offers a surface 
of I°3 square feet, so that the total surface of lead of each group 
opposed to each other is 9°1 square feet ; that is, 9°1 square feet 
of peroxidised lead is opposed to 9°1 square feet of spongy lead. 
Mr. Preece employs 24 of such cells. The charging current 
varies from 3 to 34 amperes per square foot, while the current 
of discharge used in lighting his house varies from 1 to 14 ampere 
per square foot. The total weight of each cell is r20lbs. The 
plates are prepared by the Parker-Planté process before insertion 
in the cell, those forming the positive pole being well peroxi- 
dised, while those forming the negative pole are well coated 
with spongy lead. This process consists in immersing for a few 
hours the lead plates in a solution of nitric and sulphuric acids 
in the proportions— 
Nitric acid 500 6 oe oe ic OF 
Sulphuric acid ... oe of ae i. # a 
Water ; aco a 
before fixing in the cells. This not only chemically cleans the 
lead surfaces, but it favours the formation of sulphate of lead in 
such a way as to be readily converted into lead peroxide and 
spongy lead on the passage of a strong current through the 
cells. The formation of the cells is thus expedited. They are 
thus, when put together, prepared at once to be charged. If 
they are not at once charged, local action sets in, and lead 
sulphate is injuriously formed. 
A hydrometer, having a scale graduated from 1°050 to 1°10, 
