——a' 
Fune 18, 1885 | 
Common, F R.S.; electrical influence machine, exhibited bY 
Mr. James Wimshurst ; New microscope with novel fine adjust- 
ment and sub-staze arrangements, exhibited by Mr. Crouch ; 
large Nicol prism polariscope, for projecting axes of crystals, 
&c., on the screen (improved form), exhibited by Messrs. 
Harvey and Peak ; Tate’s calculating machine, exhibited by the 
inventor. By means of this machine long operations in the 
fundamental rules of arithmetic can be performed with rapidity 
and unfailing accuracy. Eight figures can be multiplied by 
eight figures in about fifteen seconds. New forms of spectro- 
scopes, exhibited by Mr. A. Hilger ; photographs of fractures 
of railway carriage and waggon axles, tested to destruction by 
Mr. Thos. Andrews, Wortley Iron Works, near Sheffield, 
exhibited by Mr, Andrews; three cases of living animals : 
(1) Examples of the Tuatera (Sphenodon punctatus) from New Zea- 
land. This reptile is remarkable as deviating from all the lizards 
in its osseous structure, and is considered by Dr. Giinther 
(Phil. Trans., 1867, p. 620) to constitute an order by itself— 
Rhynchocephalia, (2) Large bird-eating spider of the genus 
Mygale from Burmah—probably JZ. fasciata. (3) Butterflies and 
moths, showing the way in which living insects are exhibited in 
the Zoological Society’s Insect House, exhibited by the Zoo- 
logical Society of London. A series of microscopic sections of 
vegetable tissues, prepared and lent by Mr. J. E. Sunderland, 
of Hatherlow, near Stockport, showing remarkable effects of 
double and triple anilin staining ; a series of botanical microscopic 
preparations, mounted by Charles Vance Smith, of Carmarthen, 
being part of a series prepared by him to illustrate the text- 
books of Julius Sachs and Otto Thomé, exhibited by Prof. 
Moseley, F.R.S. A series of slides with stained specimens of 
Tenia echinococcus of the dog, prepared and lent for the occa- 
sion by Dr. J. Davies Thomas, of Adelaide, Australia, in 
illustration of his paper on the artificial rearing of this parasite 
by feeding with human hydatids (to be read before the Royal 
Society, june 18); a slide showing the same species of tape- 
worm, reared by Mr. Edward Nettleship, F.R.C.S., by means 
of hydatids obtained from the lungs of a sheep (Proc. Ray. Soc., 
1866). To compare with the above :—Specimens, in bottles, 
of Tenia serrata, T. marginaia, and 7. cenurus, &c., arti- 
ficially reared by Dr. Cobbold, by feeding dogs with the scolices 
appropriate to each particular species. Also adult examples of 
Tenia cucumerina and of 7. canis lagopodis (T. litteraia), the 
latter from Iceland, prepared by Dr. Krabbe, Bothriocephaius 
dubius, and other species from the cat and dog, exhibited by 
Dr. Cobbold, F.R.S. Case of gems, including a great Indian 
diamond, the largest known opal, a series of cat’s eyes, and 
allied mineralogical specimens, exhibited by Mr. Bryce Wright, 
F.R.G.S. ; “ Frith’s Selenium Cells,” showing the alteration of 
resistance and photo-electric currents due to the action of light 
on selenium, exhibited by Prof. W. Grylls Adams, F.R.S 3 a 
sulphur cell, the electrical resistance of which, like that of 
selenium, is reduced by light, exhibited by Mr. Shelford Bid- 
well. The sulphur has been heated while in contact with silver, 
and therefore contains some sulphide of silver. The electrodes 
are of silver. The original integrating machine, invented by 
Mr. C. V. Boys ; engine-power meter which has been developed 
from the same, exhibited by Mr. Boys. 
WE give in another column, on the avd? alleram partlem prin- 
ciple, the first part of an address recently given by Dr. Janssen, 
putting before us the French view of the Prime Meridian ques- 
tion. It will be gathered from it that the feeling in France is 
strongly against the conclusion at which the Washington Con- 
gress arrived. ‘Taking the world as it is, however, much as a 
strictly neutral prime meridian might be to be desired, the 
general opinion will probably be that the Congress arrived at 
the only fractica/ solution. 
NATURE 
2) 
WE are glad to see that University College, Liverpool, is 
about to appoint a Professor of Engineering. An endowment 
of 375/. has been raised, and the advertisement of the Chair 
appears this week in our pages. We understand that a certain 
amount of professional work, such as is consistent with a due 
fulfilment of the duties of the Chair, will be permitted, and 
recognised as enabling the Professor to keep himself in touch 
with the life of the practical world. The College already has 
endowed Chairs of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, and 
Biology, in addition to the Literary and Medical Departments : 
it has lately become a part of the Victoria University, and in 
many ways it shows signs of health and vitality. 
In the production of the first part of the Philological Society's 
new English Dictionary, the editor, Dr. Murray, was obliged to 
advance 150/. out of his own resources, and, further, to incur a 
debt of 5007. The delegates of the Clarendon Press, who are 
publishing the Dictionary, decline to contribute more than roo/- 
towards the payment of this debt, and the Council of the Philo- 
logical Society deem it their duty, therefore, to appeal to the 
public to relieve Dr. Murray from a debt incurred on behalf of 
what is really a national undertaking. It is to be hoped that 
there will be no difficulty in obtaining the sum required ; those 
of our readers who are inclined to help should send their sub- 
scriptions to Mr. Benjamin Dawson, the Mount, Hampstead, 
London, N.W. 
THE Spanish Commission of Medical Inspection has examined 
the composition of the liquids and virus employed by Dr. 
Ferran against cholera. The opinion of the majority of the 
members is that the presence of Koch’s Baczllus virgulus cannot 
be questioned. After some opposition, the Spanish Government 
granted the necessary authorisations for inoculation, which has 
been practised on a number of doctors and four newspaper 
writers. It is said, moreover, that all the inoculated patients 
experienced during the first twenty-four hours after the operation 
all the symptoms of cholera with more or less intensity, but 
without any fatality having occurred. When twenty-four hours 
had elapsed, a favourable reaction took place. The question 
which remains to solve is the extent of the protection resulting 
from Dr. Ferran’s system. The numbers given are in favour of 
the new theory, but all the documents coming from Spain on 
cholera must be received with caution, owing to the intense 
panic prevailing in that country since the last outbreak of the 
plague was noticed in Valencia. A fact curious to notice is the 
tendency of the rural populations of this province to congregate 
in the cities in spite of all the measures taken against this 
exodus. £/ Jmfarcial states that not less than 7000 people have 
located themselves in the chief city. 
Pror. Pasteur, the Standard Paris correspondent states, has 
published an interesting letter from Dr. Ferran, concerning vacci- 
nation for cholera. In this letter Dr. Ferran asserts that the re- 
sults obtained become every day more irresistibly eloquent. The 
experience of Alcira had been confirmed in numerous other tewns. 
Anti-cholera vaccination had been practised upon all classes of 
society, but in many places the greater number of those operated 
upon belonged to the pauper class, and the results proved no less 
satisfactory. While of opinion that one inoculation is effective, 
Dr. Ferran recommends that it be repeated, in order to make 
assurance doubly sure. In reference to the official prohibition 
of vaccination for cholera (which has since been cancelled in 
deference to public opinion), Dr. Ferran intimates that the 
measure was taken in consequence of two persons belonging to 
an already cholera-visited family dying the day after vaccination. 
These casualties Dr. Ferran attributes to the use of impure 
lymph, and states that in 16,000 cases, for which he had per- 
sonally inspected the lymph, no evil results had followed. It is 
