i8o 



NA TURE 



[August 5, 1909 



The invention of " Poudre B " by Vieille marked Ihe 

 commencement of a new era in connection with the science 

 of artillery, and it was not long before smokeless powders 

 made from the violent guncotton, or of guncotton com- 

 bined with the still more violent nitroglycerine, entirely 

 superseded the centuries-old gunpowder. Modern explosives 

 are characterised by very greatly increased power, giving 

 enormously greater range to projectiles fired from both 

 rifles and artillery, thus altering entirely the conditions 

 of both land and naval warfare. 



It is at present not easy to forecast in what direction 

 further improvements in propellants will take place. It 

 is also difficult to conceive what the explosive of the future 

 will be which will produce a change as revolutionary as 

 that which took place when smokeless powders superseded 

 the old-fashioned black powders. For some time to come, 

 probably, the manufacturer of explosives will have to con- 

 tent himself with endeavours to improve them as far as 

 he can, both from a ballistic and from a stability point 

 of view, with the ingredients now at his disposal. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Dr. a. Robinson, professor of anatomy in the Uni- 

 versity of Birmingham, has been appointed to the chair 

 of anatomy in Edinburgh University in succession to the 

 late Prof. D. J. Cunningham, F.R.S. 



It is stated by the Franhftirt Gazette that the National 

 Assembly of Iceland has decided to establish a university 

 at Reikjavik, the capital of the island. The new uni- 

 versity is to have four faculties, with sixteen professors 

 and lecturers. 



Mr. Edwin Tate has presented new library buildings 

 to Battersea Polytechnic. The total book accommodation 

 is 20,000 volumes. The cost of the buildings, including 

 fittings, is estimated at about 6000!., and the whole is 

 being defrayed by Mr. Tate. 



A CORRESPONDENT informs us that the appointments to 

 the chairs of chemistry in the Technical High School at 

 Munich have just been oflFicially announced. The names 

 of the various professors are : — organic chemistry. Prof. 

 Semmler ; inorganic chemistry, Prof. A. Stock ; physical 

 chemistry. Prof. R. Abcgg. Each professor has an 

 institute of his own, and Prof. Abegg retains, at the same 

 time, his position as extraordinary professor in the Uni- 

 versity of Breslau. The Technical High School, which is 

 being built at a cost of something like five million marks, 

 is making good progress, and is to be opened officially in 

 October, 1910. 



The commencement address last June at the South 

 Dakota School of Mines, Rapid City, South Dakota, was 

 delivered by the president of the Colorado School of Mines, 

 Mr. Victor C. ."Mderson, who took for his subject " Artist 

 or Artisan — Which?" "The artisan," he said, "under- 

 stands machinery ; the artist-engineer is a master of the 

 kinematics of machines. The artisan works with his 

 hands and lets his mind rest ; the artist-engineer uses his 

 brains to relieve his hands. The artisan becomes a 

 skilled workman and no more ; the artist-engineer sees 

 beyond the mere machinery to the economic management 

 of his plant, to the percentage saving possible, to the 

 market for his product, to the efficient service of his 

 employees, to the general success of the entire plant. To 

 do all this he must have an ideal." Every young 

 engineer, he proceeded to say later, should decide earlv 

 in life whether he will become merely an artisan-engineer 

 or an artist-engineer. Mr. Alderson then gave some in- 

 spiring advice to young engineers as to the physical, 

 personal, intellectual, and moral characteristics they should 

 strive to develop. Incidentally, he said the chance for 

 the untrained or uneducated man to make a success in 

 this age is practically nil. Taking " Who's Who " as a 

 standard of national prominence in .America, it is found, 

 said Mr. Alderson, that it takes approximately 10,000 

 grammar-school pupils to produce one man worthy to be 

 enrolled in "Who's Who." Of high-school students 2^0 

 suffice, while of fifty college graduates one will, on the 

 average, rise to sufficient prominence to be enrolled in 

 this. book. 



NO. 2075, VOL. 81] 



The proceedings in connection with the celebration of 

 the 500th anniversary of the founding of the University 

 of Leipzig began on July 28, when a reception was given 

 by the University to the representatives of German and 

 foreign universities and learned societies invited to par- 

 ticipate in the proceedings. On the following day a 

 festival service in the University Church was attended by 

 the King of Saxony. A commemorative meeting in the 

 new theatre followed the service, and the 'King delivered 

 an address and presented two medallions to the University 

 to be worn in future by the rector of the University on 

 his chain of office. The medallions bear images of the 

 King of Saxonv and of the founder of the University. 

 The Saxon Minister of Education in an address after- 

 wards outlined the history of the University. On July 30 

 further commemoration speeches were delivered. Prof. 

 Wundt was the principal speaker, and during the course 

 of his speech remarked, although the German people seem 

 to be in the current of an intellectual movement in which 

 the demand for higher education is hardly less strong 

 than was the revival of learning in the Middle Ages, he 

 said, in the words of Leibnitz, " It is the past which 

 contains the future." Prof. Mahaffy spioke on behalf of 

 the British delegates. The following honorary degrees 

 were conferred among others : — Doctor of Medicine, Prof. 

 E. B. Wilson, of Columbia Universitv ; Doctors of Philo- 

 sophy, Sir Archibald Geikie, K.C.B., P.R.S., Prof. J. 

 Loeb, of California LIniversity. Prof. J. Ward, of Cam- 

 bridge University, and Mr. ' F. L. Griffith, reader in 

 Egyptology, Oxford University. 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



What the Electrician Wants, By Maurice Solomon 151 



The Thermodynamics of the Earth 152 



Archaeology at Avebury. By R. H. C 154 



Venoms and Anti-venoms 154 



The Scottish Lake Survey. By H. R. M 155 



The Old and the New Mechanics 156 



Our Book Shelf:— 



Bailey: " The State and the Farmer " 157 



" The Problem of the Feeble-minded " 158 



Watt: " The Economy and Training of Memory " . 158 

 Letters to the Editor : — 



Rate of Helium Production from the Complete Series 



of Uranium Products.— Hon. R.J. Strutt, F.R.S. 158 



A Kinematic Illusion. —W. B. Croft ... 158 

 Natural Selection and Plant Evolution. — James B. 



Johnston 159 



Musical Sand.s. — Cecil Carus- Wilson 159 



A Question of Percentages. — J. T. Cunningham . . 159 

 The Upper Cretaceous Iguanodont Dinosaurs. 



(Illiistialcd.) By H. F. 160 



Nature Studies in New Zealand and at Home. 



(Illustrated.) . 162 



Researches at the National Physical Laboratory. 



By C. H. L 163 



John Reid, 1809-1849. By Dr. D. Fraser Harris . . 163 



Notes 165 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



Movements in the Sun's Upper Atmosphere .... 170 



Search-ephemetides for Comet 1896 VII. (Periine) . 170 



Observations of Jupiter 170 



The Orbit of X Sagittarii, a Cepheid Variable . . . 170 



The Leeds Astronomical Society 1 70 



The Solar Eclipse of June 17, 1909 17' 



Recent Improvements in the Internal-combustion 



Engine. I. By H. E. Wimperis 171 



Continuation Schools and National Efficiency. By 



J. Wilson 172 



Changes in Colour among Tropical Fishes. (Illus- 



trateii.) 174 



Mineral Output of the United States, By Prof. 



Henry Louis 174 



The Institution of Mechanical Engineers 175 



Mr. Haldane on the Promise of Aviation . . 177 

 Improvements in Production and Application of 

 Guncotton and Nitroglycerine. II. By Sir 



Frederic L. Nathan, R.A 17S 



University and Educational Intelligence iSo 



