338 



NATURE 



[Feb. 5, 1880 



particular branch of post-office telegraph business with its 

 licence or consent. 



Mr. Preece in conclusion congratulated the Society on its great 

 success. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



Cambridge. — The Cambridge mathematical tripos this year 

 contains 102 names. There are 33 classed as wranglers, 33 

 as senior optimes, 33 as junior optirnes, and 3 segrotant. 

 In 1879 the list contained 91 names : 28 wranglers, 33 

 senior optimes, 29 junior optimes, and I aegrotat. The senior 

 wrangler, Mr. Joseph Larmor, of St. John's, is a native of 

 Belfast, and was born in 1857. He was educated at the Royal 

 Academical Institution and Queen's College, Belfast. In 

 1874 he graduated at the Queen's University, Belfast, obtain- 

 ing a double first in mathematical and experimental sciences, 

 with two gold medals and exhibitions. He obtained similar 

 distinction when he became M.A. In 1876 he entered the Uni- 

 versity of London, where he obtained an exhibition for mathe- 

 matics, subsequently being awarded the Arnott exhibition and 

 medal in experimental physics. At the fir.-t B.A. examination 

 in 1878 he obtained the University scholarship in mathematics. 

 He subsequently proceeded to the degree of B.Sc. In 1876 he 

 obtained an oj en scholarship at St. John's, and has been on 

 several occasions a prizeman at the college examinations. The 

 next in order are Mr. Joseph John Thomson, of Trinity College ; 

 Mr. Walter Burt Allcock, a scholar of Emmanuel ; and Mr. 

 Homersham Cox, of Trinity. It is remarkable that the senior 

 wranglers of two successive years have been from Queen's 

 College, Belfast. 



Among the wranglers (his year, if the list had been complete, 

 Miss Scott of Girton College would have been bracketed eighth 

 wrangler. Moreover, she is younger than many of the wranglers, 

 being still nnder twenty-two. Fossibly she may go in for the 

 .Smith's Prize examination, although in the present slate of regu- 

 lations it would be impossible to award it to a lady. Never- 

 theless this achievement must be one more blow to those who 

 would persistently keep ladies from having Cambridge degrees. 

 Miss Scott intends to proceed to a degree at London University 

 in physics, The fourth place in the first cla-s of the recent 

 moral sciences tripos was secured by Miss Martin of Newnham ; 

 and it is said that the only names in the first class in the histori- 

 cal tripos were tho-e of two lady students, also of Newnha a. 

 No men were placed in the first class in this tripos. 



Pr. if. Stuart reopens his workshop at Cambridge this term, 

 and there will be practical instruction in the use of tools in 

 iron and wood which will be provided, and also more advanced 

 classes for those who have already acquired a knowledge 

 of the use of tools. Classes will be formed in mechanism, 

 engineering', drawing, applied mechanics, theory of structures 

 and the application of higher mathematics to engineering. The 

 professor means to found a first-class school for civil and 

 mechanical engineering, and evidently intends to leave no stone 

 unturned to accomplish this object, as well as to teach candidates 

 for the University examinations. 



Mr. Garnett will lecture on heat in the Cavendish Laboratory 

 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, this term. 



Oxford. — In a congregation held on the afternoon of 

 February 3, Mr. Vernon Harcourt's amendment to the form 

 of statute, re ees in Natural Science came on for 



discussion. It will be remembered that the preamble of the 

 statute alone remains, enacting that it is expedient for the 

 University to grant degrees in Natural Science. When it 

 appeared by counsel's opinion that the new degree in Natural 

 Science would not confer on the graduate the privileges of a 

 member of convocation, all the clauses of the proposed statute 

 were rejected after a close division last term. Mr. Harcourt's 

 proposal was to insert a clause in the statute to the effect that 

 "every person who shall have been admitted to the degree of 

 Natural Science shall also be admitted to the degree of Ma 

 Arts." This proposal was defeated by a large majority, 27 

 voting for it, and 110 against it. 



The examiners for the Burdett-Coutts geological scholar hip 

 have given notice that the examination will commence on Monday, 

 February 16, at 10 a.m. The scholarship is tenable for two 

 years, and is open to all members of the University who have 

 d all the necessary examinations for the B.A. degree, and 

 shall not have ^ exceeded their twenty-seventh term. The 



examiners are Prof. Prestwich, Dr. Odling, and Mr. Ilatchett 



Jackson. 



There will be an election to at least one junior studentship hi 

 natural science at Christ Church, on February 21. Candidates 

 must not have exceeded the age of twenty on January I, 1880. 

 Papers will be set in chemistry, biology, and physics, but no 

 candidate will be allowed to offer himself in more than two of 

 these subjects. The examination begins on February II, 



The composition of the governing body of the French Uni- 

 versity has been the occasion of protracted and violent debates 

 in the French Senate. It was only by a few votes that M. 

 Ferry obtained its secularisation and expelled all ministers of 

 every denomination. 



The Geneva University numbers now 525 students and assist- 

 ants, 134 more than last year, of whom 106 are in the faculty of 

 science, 208 in that of literature, 35 in philosophy, 15 in theo- 

 logy, 54 in law, and 107 in medicine; 125 are Swiss, strangers 

 to Geneva, and 200 foreigners. 



We learn from a paper just published in the jfournal of the 

 Russian Ministry of Public Instruction that the number of 

 scholars in all Russian colleges (gymnasia) reached 53,072 in 

 1S7S. But the figures as to the number of scholars who have 

 terminated their studies in colleges are very unsatisfactory. Out 

 of 57,917 scholars who entered the colleges during six years 

 (1S72 to 1877), only 6,511, i.e., 2'5 per cent, terminated their 

 studies, 51,406 having left the colleges without having received 

 attestations of maturity. In " Real" schools, where the whole 

 education is based on the study of natural science instead of that 

 of language, the percentage is far more satisfactory. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftlic/ie Zoologie, 33 Bd. 3 Heft, 

 December, 1879, contains : — Conrad Keller, studies on the 

 organisation and development of Chalinula fciiilis, pi. 18 to 

 20. — Dr. G. Haller, contributions towards a know ledge of the 

 Lamodipodes filijormes ; commencing with a very careful and de- 

 tailed account of the anatomical details to be met with in that 

 group, it proceeds to an account of the life-history of the species, 

 with a paragraph on their mimicry, under the heading " Dar- 

 winia " : among the epizootic animals described is a very curious- 

 new species of Podophrya, with a long tapering and transversely 

 striated stalk, and p ssessing a nucleus, with nucleolus, and to 

 this follows the systematic portion, in which several new species 

 of Proto, Caprella, and Podalirius are described and figured, 

 pi. 21 to 23. — Olga Met-chnikoff, on the morphology of the 

 pelvic and shoulder girdles in cartilaginous fishes, pi. 25 and 26. 

 — A. Gruber, on new infusoria, describes a number of new genera 

 of fresh water infusoria. — Prof. Selenka, on a siliceous sponge 

 with an octoradiate structure, and on the development uf sponge- 

 offsets, pi. 27 and 28. 



Nyt Magazin for Naturvidenskaberne, 25de Binds, 2det 

 Hefte, 1S79.—D. C. Danielssen and J. Koren, the echiuoderms 

 of the Norwegian North Sea Expedition. Several very remark- 

 able new genera and species belonging to the Holothuriadsc are 

 described and excellently figured in this part. — Leonard Stejneger, 

 contributions towards the Western ornithological fauna. 



Journal Je Physique, January. — On the thermal laws of the 

 electric es, by Prof. Villari. — Projection of images 



formed bet een two plane mirrors, by Prof. Bibart.— On the 

 compressibility of air and carbonic acid at 100°, according to M. 

 Regnault's ex peri nents, by M. Bouty. —Chloride of lime Lattery, 

 by M. Niaudet. — Photometric researches on coloured flames, by 

 M. Gouy. — New producer of electricity based on capillarity, by 

 M. Debrun, 



Reale htituto Lombardo di Scienze e Letlere, Rendiconli, 

 vol. xii., fasc. xx.— On the structure of the peripheric and 

 central medullated nerve fibres, by Prof. Golgi.— On the tempe- 

 rature and humidity of the air, and the formation of dew in the 

 neighbourhood of great lakes, by Prof. Cantoni.— On the 

 conditions of most suitable form and exposure of evaponmeters, 

 by the same. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 

 Royal Society, January 15.—" Results of an Inquiry into 



the Periodicity of Rainfall." By G. M. Whipple. 



