3H 



NATURE 



\Jan. 29, 1880 



driven by Day is Shining-hair. All the sky and earth glisten 

 with the light of his name. Jarnved, the great iron-wood forest 

 lyin<* to the east of Midgard, is the abode of a race of witches. 

 One°monster witch is the mother of many sons in the form of 

 wolves two of which are Skol and Hate. Skol is the wolf that 

 would devour the maiden, Sun, and she daily flies from the 

 maw of the terrible beast, and the moon-man flies from the wolf 

 Hate. 



The philosopher of Samos tells us that the earth is surrounded 

 by holl >w crystalline spheres set one within another, and all 

 revolving at different rates from east to west about the earth, 

 and that the sun is set in one of these spheres, and the moon 

 in another. 



The philosopher of civilisation tells us that the sun is an 

 incande cent globe, one of the millions afloat in space. About 

 this globe the planets revolve, and the sun and planets and 

 moons were formed from nebulous matter by the gradual segre- 

 gration of their particles, controlled by the laws of gravity, 

 motion, and affinity. The sun, travelling by an appointed way 

 across the heavens, with the never-ending succession of day and 

 night, anl the ever-recurring train of seasons, is one of the sub 

 jects of every philosophy. Amonu all peoples, in all times, 

 there is an explanation of these phenomena, but in the lowest 

 stage, a >ay down in savagery, how few the facts di-cerned, how- 

 vague the discriminations made, how superficial the re-emblances 

 by which the phenomena are classified ! 



In this s'a.'e of culture, all the daily and monthly and yearly 

 phenomena, which come as the direct reult of the mjvements 

 of the heavenly bodies, are interpreted a- the doings of some 

 one, some good acts. In civdisation, the philosopher presents 

 us the science of astronomy, with all its accumulated facts 

 of magnitude, and weights, and orbits, and distance-, and veloci- 

 ties, with all the nice discriminations of absolute, relative, and 

 apparent m .tions, and all these facts he is endenv mring to 

 classify in homnlogic categories, and the evolutions and revolu- 

 tions of the heavenly bodies are explained as an orderly succes- 

 sion of events. 



(To be continued.) 



UNI VERSITY A ND ED UCA TIONA L 

 INTELLIGENCE 



Cambridge. — Exactly 102 names are in the Ca nbridge 

 Mathematical Tripos list this year (including three /Egrotant 

 honour-). The signification of this is n it quite apparent, but 

 lower in the li^t wilt he found two who-e degree is allowed, but 

 who are not to count it as an honour' s degree. Thes. men did well 

 en ou/h in rhe part of the examination they took to deserve a 

 '• poll," and not an honour's degree. Trinity has passed 111 -re 

 than a score, St. John's 14, several colli-ge- eighi ; nut Jesus, 

 Sidney, and Magdalene, as usual, have tew mathematicians. 

 Christ s his picked up well, having no fewer than ten in mathe- 

 matical honour- ; Trinity Hall gets in only two, and Downing 

 has one ie iresentative. 



Prof. Hu iphry announces tht his lectures on Anatomy and 

 Phyidogv (ttie Muscular and Circulatory System-) will be re- 

 sumed ..n February 3, while his classes for the -econd M.B. and 

 for the Natural sciences Tripos recommence on Friday, Feoruary 

 6. Mr. Wherry (recently elected surge in 10 A'ldenhrooke's 

 Hospital) began a class in osteology on January 21, continuing 

 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at I P.M. Dr. Paget's 

 lecture i n the Principles and Practice of I hysic begin on Mon- 

 day, Fehruaiy 2. 



s LIEN 7 IE II HhKlALS 



The Qur 1 fy Journal of Microscopical Science, January.— - 

 H. M. Waid, on the embryo-sac and development of Gymnadenia 

 tO'topsei, pi. 1-3. — Fred. Elfving, studies on the pollen bodies 

 of the an 00 perms, pi. 4. — F. O. H. wer, 11 the development of 

 the concep tie in the Fucuce*, pi. 5. -Dr. Cu 11in_-h.ini, on 

 certain effect: of -larvation on vegetable and animal tissues. — 

 J. E Id o.iheld, on the development of si eruai -zoa ; part I, 

 l.u .Illinois, pi. b, 7 — F. M. Balfour, on the spinal nerves of 

 Am Inoxus — G. A. Hansen, the bacillus of lepio-y, pi. 8.— 

 Notes and Memoranda. — Proceed ngs ot Dublin Microscopical 

 Club, April, 1S79, to Octoiier, 1S79. 



The American Naturalist, vol. xiii. No. 12., December. 1S79. 

 —George 11. Perkins, archrcolugy of the Champlain Valley. — 



G. de Mortillet, the origin of the domestic auimals.— F. Brendel, 

 historical sketch of the science of botany in North America 

 from 1635 to 1840. — E. D. Cope, on the extinct American 

 rhinoceroses and their allies. — Recent Literature ; General 

 Notes ; Scientific News. 



Vol. 14, No. 1, January.— Henry J. Rice, observations on 

 the habit-, structure, and development of Amphioxus lanceolatui. 

 — Elliot Coues, sketch of North American ornithology in 1S79. 

 — F. Brendel, historical sketch of the science of botany in 

 North Americi from 1840 to 1S58. — The Editor, notes on the 

 present position of affairs in the Philadelphia Academy. — Recent 

 Literature ; General Notes ; Scientific News. 



Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 

 1879. Part 2, April to October. — Thos. Meehan, on hybrid 

 fuchsias ; on special fecundity in plants ; do snakes swallow 

 their young ? on Lonas inodora ; on sex in Castanea amtricana ; 

 Variations in Thuja and lidinospora. — Kev. H. C. M'Cook, tbe 

 adoption of an ant-queen; mode of depositing ant-eggs; on 

 the marriage flights of Lasius flavus and Myrmiea Lbricornis ; 

 pairing of LinypHia marginata ; on mound-making ants ; notes 

 on Tetramonum caspitum ; on Myrmecocvstus mcxicanus. — 

 John A. Ryder : on a newPauropod and its larva (Eur)pauropus 

 spinosus) ; on a new Chirocephalus, C, holmami ; on honey 

 glands on Catalpa leaves ; description of Sireptocephalus sealii, 

 sp. nov. — Dr. Chapman, on Amphiuma ; placenta of A/acaais 

 cyxomol^us.- -Dr. Dercum : the lateral sensory apparatus of 

 fishe-. — Dr. Leidy : on rhizopods in Sphagnum; fossil foot- 

 tracks of the anthracite coal-measures ; expl ision of a diamond ; 

 on Orgy a ; on some coast animals of New Jersey; on Cris- 

 tatelfa idee ; on Amccba blattce. — E. Potts : on the supposed 

 sensitive ch iracters of the glands of the Asclepiadaceae. — E. 

 Goldsmith, on amber containing fossil insects.— Angelo Heilprio, 

 on some new eocene fossils from the Claiborne marine formation 

 of Alabama, plate 13. 



Rnme drs Sciences Naturelles, 2nd ser., tome I, No. 3, 

 December 15, 1879. — L. Tillier, contributions to a memoir on 

 the geographical distribution of marine fish (conclusion). — A. 

 de Saint-Sim in, anatomical notes on some species of Pomatias. — 

 Ph. Thomas, note on some species of horses found fossil in the 

 neighbourhood of Con^tantine.— M. Leymerie, a sketch of the 

 Pyrenees if the department of Aude. — Scientific Review, con- 

 taining notices of French works on zoology, botany, and geology, 

 publi-hed in 1S79. — Bulletin. 



ux/Z-.TlES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 

 Royal Society, November 27, 1879. — " On certain Definite 

 Integrals," N .. 6. By W. II. L. Russell, F.R.S. 



January 6. — "On certain Definite Integrals," No. 7. By 

 W. H. L. Russell, F.R.S. 



"On a Pos ible Mode of Detecting a Motion of the Solar 

 System through the Luminiferous Ether." By the late Prof. J. 

 Clerk Maxwell. In a letter to Mr. D. P. Todd, Director of the 

 Nautical Almanac Office, Washington, U.S. Communicated 

 by Prof. M 01 e , Sec. K.S. 



Mr. Todd Ins been so good as to communicate to me a copy 

 of ihe subjoined letter, and has kindly permitted me to make any 

 use of it. 



As the notice referred to by Maxwell in the Encyclopadia 

 Brilanmca is very brief, being confined to a single sentence, and 

 a- the subject is one of great interest, I have thought it best to 

 communicate the letter to the Royal Society. 



Fro, n the researches of Mr. Huggins on the radial component 

 of the relative velocity of our sun and certain stars, the coefficient 

 of the inequality which we might expect as not unlikely, would 

 be only something comparable with half a second of time. 

 This, no doubt, would be a very delicate matter to determine. 

 Still, for anything we know a priori to the contrary, the motion 

 migh, be very much greater than what would correspond to this ; 

 and the idea has a value of its own, irrespective of the possibility 

 ot actually making the determination. 



In hi^ leit. r to me Mr. Todd remarks, " I regard the commu- 

 nication as one of extraordinary importance, although (as you 

 will notice if you have access to the reply which I made) it is 

 likely to be a longtime before we shall have tables of the satellites 

 of Jupiter sufficiently accurate to put the matter to a practical 

 te^t." 



