Dec. ii, 1879] 



NATURE 



127 



The number of Readers to be appointed is twenty-nine, 

 distributed as follows : — 



Divinity ... ... 2 



Law 3 



Medicine ... ... 2 



Classics 4 



Language ... ... ... ... 4 



Mathematics 6 



Thysics and Chemistry ... ... 4 



Natural Science ... 2 



History ... ... ... ... 1 



Moral Science ... ... ... 2 



Of these not less than fourteen are to be appointed 

 before the end of the year 1882, and the rest before the 

 end of the year 1886. 



The University may vary the connection of the Readers 

 with the several Special Boards of Studies, and increase 

 iheir number, upon the recommendation of the General 

 Board of Studies. 



The stipend of a Reader is 400/. a year, subject to varia- 

 tion by grace of the Senate upon the recommendation of 

 the General Board of Studies, but no such variation shall 

 affect the interest of a Reader without his consent, or 

 diminish the aggregate amount of payments to the whole 

 body of Readers. 



The University is to have power to give pensions to 

 retiring Readers according to circumstances, as the Senate 

 may think fit. 



Another arrangement for increasing the teaching power 

 in the University is the appointment of University 

 lecturers. 



The General Board of Studies acting in conjunction 

 with any Special Board may choose as Lecturers in the 

 department of study for which the Special Board is 

 formed such College Lecturers as they may think fit, who 

 are willing, with the concurrence of their respective Col- 

 leges, to throw open their lectures to all students of the 

 University. 



The Lecturers so chosen are to be called University Lec- 

 turers, and each of them shall receive from the University 

 an annual stipend of 50/. 



Xo one is to be appointed to this office who does not 

 receive from his College an annual stipend of at least 

 200/. as Lecturer, irrespective of the income of a Fellowship 

 or other College emolument ; the office of University 

 Lecturer becomes ipso facto vacant if the holder of it 

 ceases to hold the office of College Lecturer or receives 

 from such office a less stipend than 200/. a year. 



The number of University Lecturers and their connec- 

 tion with the Special Boards of Studies shall be deter- 

 mined from time to time, provided that when fit persons 

 can be found the whole number shall be not less than 

 thirty [one-half to be appointed before the end of the year 

 1S82, and the rest before the end of the year 18S4]. 



There is only one other point of the Statutes which we 

 need analyse on the present occasion ; this refers to the 

 duties of Professors and Readers. 



It is laid down that it shall be the duty of everv Pro- 

 fessor and Reader as well to devote himself to research 

 and the advancement of knowledge in his department a.% 

 to give lectures in every year. 



It is impossible to estimate the good these words will 

 do to the cause of research in England, where so many 

 of our Professors sink to the level of mere traders. They 



should, though perhaps less necessary at Cambridge than 

 elsewhere, be put up in letters of gold on the Senate 

 House. 



It will be sufficiently clear from the foregoing that with 

 the great increase of teaching power which the Statutes 

 confer the University should rise phcenix-like from its 

 ashes, and that the present condition of things will be 

 entirely changed. 



How Cambridge in the new order of things will stand 

 as compared with other Universities, and the lines along 

 which future work and reforms may run, are questions so 

 interesting that we may return to them and others on a 

 future occasion. 



AURORAS 



Aurora: their Characters and Spectra. By J. Rand 

 Capron, F.R.A.S. (London : E. and F. N. Spon, 

 1879.) 



IN Mr. Gore's delightful book on the " Art of Scientific 

 Discovery," it is said that " during the prosecution of 

 an original investigation, the area of question and discovery 

 enlarges as we proceed, and the research in some cases 

 develops into such complexity and magnitude, that solu- 

 tion of its questions appears for a time hopeless. Gene- 

 rally, however, when that discouraging point is attained, 

 the subject begins to clear, and by persistent research is 

 gradually reduced to order, and is found to conform to 

 a few general laws or principles." 



The first part of this paragraph is only too apt a descrip- 

 tion of the present stage of the inquiry into the causes and 

 nature of the Polar aurora. The striking character of the 

 phenomenon itself, its evident connection with electric 

 and magnetic disturbances, its unaccountable spectrum, 

 and the relations which various observers have believed 

 they had detected with solar spots, and coronal rays, are 

 powerful stimulants to scientific curiosity. But so far 

 the most painstaking researches have failed to seize the 

 connecting link which should unite these various aspects 

 into one organic whole ; and we can only hope that the 

 concluding sentence which we have quoted may be a 

 prophesy of ultimate success. Under such circumstances 

 Mr. Capron has done good service to science by col- 

 lecting in a compact form the whole information which 

 we possess on the subject, for it is only by careful study 

 of what is already known that we can decide on the point 

 of attack which gives the best hope of further conquest. 



The first four chapters of the book are taken up with 

 descriptions of specific aurora?. Among these we are 

 sorry to miss a fuller account of the careful and accurate 

 observations made by Lieut. Weyprecht during the 

 Austrian Arctic Expedition of 1872-4. His description 

 of arctic aurora?, as quoted from Payer's " New Lands 

 Within the Arctic Circle," is exceedingly graphic and 

 picturesque, but the original paper ' as read before the 

 Imperial Austrian Academy of Science, with its accurate 

 classification of auroral forms, seems to have escaped the 

 author' s notice, as it is not even named in the list of 

 papers in the appendix. 



In Chapter V. the question of sound produced by the 

 northern lights is discussed with the result that the 

 balance of evidence is against it. Upon the height o 



* "Die Nordlichtbeobachtungenderosterreichisch-ungarischenarctischen 

 Expedition 1873-74," von Carl Weyprecht, vorgelegt 17 Mai, 1877. 



