Feb. 12, 1880] 



NATURE 



361 



piles were being driven and an embankment of earth and weeds 

 was being made, while at another point, much exposed to the 

 force of the wind and water, a number of old grain junks had 

 been drawn up in line against the bank to break the force of 

 the waves. 



The just published Bulletin of the Societe Normande de 

 Geographie co of some interest on Algeria, by 



M. E. Masqueray, wh >se address on the same subject is promised 

 in the next number. 



Tin: United Slates Government are about to despatch a party 

 of military and naval engineers to examine the various routes 

 ed for an inter-oceanic ship-canal across the Isthmus of 

 Panama. 



The February number of Pettrmann's Mitthtilungtn contains 

 two important papers on South American travel. Herr Fr. von 

 Schenck describes a journey he made in 1878 in Antioquia, in 

 the United States of Columbia, and another long paper give- an 

 account of the travels 1 t -Me rs. Rogers and Ibar in South- 

 west Patagonia in 1877, to which are added the journals of A. 

 de Vicuna, in 1782, and J. H. Gardiner in 1867. 



We have to record the death of M. Capitaine, the editor of 

 V Exploration, at the early age of forty. M. Capitaine had 

 been in former years a surgeon in the national navy, and has 

 written numerous papers on subjects of geographical interest. 



OS A NEW ACTION OF THE MAGNET ON 



ELECTRIC CURRENTS ' 

 ""THE statement that "the mechanical force which urges a 

 ■*• conductor carrying a current across the lines of magnetic 

 force, acts, not on the electric current, but on the conductor 

 which carries it," has often been a puzzle to students of electricity. 

 Experiment- have beenmade at various times to prove that the state- 

 ment is not correct, I ut have hitherto uniformly resulted in failure. 

 Mr. E. H. Hall working under the direction of Prof. Rowland 

 believes himself to have been m re fortunate than his predecessors, 

 and describes an ex| erimeut which apparently proves a permanent 

 effect of a magnet on the distribution of currents in a system of 

 wires. As Mr. Hall promises a more extended investigation we 

 shall describe his experiment as much as possible in his own words 

 without comment or criticism. 



The following experiment had apparently been formetly tried 

 by Trof. Rowland, hut without success : — 



" A disk or strip of metal, forming part of an electric current, 

 was placed between the pule of an electro-magnet, the disk 

 cutting across the lines of force. The two poles of a sensitive 

 galvanometer were then placed in connection with different parts 

 of the disk, through which an electric current was passing until 

 two nearly equipotential points were found. The magnet current 

 was then turned on and the galvanometer was observed, in order 

 to detect any indication of a change in the relative potential of 

 the two poles." 



No such change could be observed and Mr. Hall now repeated the 

 same experiment substituting a piece of gold leaf, mounted on glass 

 to the metal strip. Ex] eriruenting as above he obtained on 

 October 2S a decided deflection of the galvanometer needle. 



" This deflection was much too large to be attributed to the 

 direct action of the magnet on the galvanometer needle, or to any 

 similar cause. It was moreover a permanent deflection and 

 therefore not to be accounted for by induction." 



Some rough quantitati were tried with the result 



" that with a jement of apparatus the action 



on the Thomson gab i nal to the product of 



the magnetic force by the current through the gold leaf. This is 

 not the sane a- saying that the effect on the Thoru-on galvano- 

 meter is under all circumstances proportional to thecurren. which 

 is passing between the poles of the magnet. If a strip of copper 

 of the same length and breadth as the gold leaf but \ mm. in 

 thickness is substituted for the latter the galvanometer fails to 

 detect any current arising from the action of the magnet, except 

 an induction current at the moment of making or breaking the 

 magnet circuit." A. S. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 

 There will be an examination for at least one open scholar- 

 ship in Queen's College, Oxford, on April 6 and following days. 



1 By E. H Hall. Fell w of the Johns Hopkins University (.American 

 Journal of Mathematics, vol. ii. p. 287). 



Papers will be set in Physics, Chemistry, and Biology (Compara- 

 tive Anatomy and Physiology, the study of the Animal Kii.dom). 

 No candidate w ill be expected to offer more than tw of these 

 subjects. There will also he a practical examination in one or 

 more of the above subjects, if the examiners think it expedient. 

 Candidates are requested to signify by letter to the Provost, not 

 later than March I, their intention of standing, and to state at 

 the same time the subjects they propose to offer. 



M. Jules Ferry has published a report stating that the deve- 

 lopment of primary instruction in France has progressed in pro- 

 portion to the subsidies made b\ the public treasury for tins pur- 

 po-e, and which we noticed in one of our previous numbers. In 

 the fifty years from 1827 to 1877 the number of publii 

 has been increased in the proportion of 100 to 175, and the 

 number of pupil- from 100 to 182. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



American J ournal of Science and Arts, January. — Prof. Stock- 

 well here gives a detailed account of the principal periodic 

 inequalities in the motions of the moon arising from the ol late- 

 ness of the earth. — Prof. Leconte contributes further ideas on 

 the glycogenic function of the liver. He represents thai waste 

 tissue is not burned or changed into final products at once, but 

 circulates as incombustible matter dissolved in the blood, is 

 carried to the liver, and there prepared for final combustion and 

 elimination. Only thereafter does it unite with O to form C0 2 

 and H„0. — Dr. Nichols proposes an optical method for mea- 

 surement of high temperatures ; it corresponds to one of three 

 methods proposed by M. Crova, who, however, ign >red the 

 serious practical difficulties, especially in the varying values of 

 the emissive and absorptive capacity of different bodies. — The 

 first results from a new diffraction-ruling engine (which appears 

 to be a very perfect piece of work) are given by Mr. I 

 Mr. Hill's electrodynamometer for measuring large currents has 

 been noticed in our columns, also Mr. Todd's ob ervations on 

 solar parallax from the velocity of light. — Mr. Levis m describes 

 certain curious electrolytic phenomena capable of exhibition to an 

 audience. — Prof. Marsh describes new characters of Mosa -auroid 

 reptiles, Mr. Whitfield new fossil crustaceans from the upper 

 Devonian rocks of Ohio, and there are also geological papers on 

 the Henry Mountains and the Wappinger Valley lime-tone. 



Annalen der Physik und Chemic, No. I. — Among the original 

 matter in this number we note a chemical monograph of the 

 mica-group, by Herr Rammelsberg ; accounts of a new con- 

 densation or absorption-hygrometer, by Herr Matern, of some 

 phenomena of phosphorescent light produced by electric dis- 

 charges, by Herr E. Wiedemann, and of the phenomena, in 

 polarised light, of a plate of magnesium platinum cyanide, cut at 

 right angles to the optic axis, by Herr Lommel ; a paper by Herr 

 Kortewe", proving that, by the theory of dielectric polai 

 volume-changes of a dielectric body under the action of an 

 electric force may be anticipated and calculated ; one by Herr 

 Edlund, controverting Helmholtz's views as to the cause of 

 electric currents produced in flow of liquids through tub 

 one by Herr Herwig, defending his conclusions regarding the 

 electric conductivity of mercury vapour. We also not. 

 papers (communicated to Academies) on the conducts 

 for heat, by Herr G. Kirchhoff and Herr Hansemann ; • n the 

 differences of the two electric states, by Herr Mach and Herr 

 Doubrava ; and on a direct measurement of the work of induc- 

 tion and a determination therefrom of the mechanical equivalent 

 of heat, by Herr von Waltenhofen. 



The Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, Normal and 

 Pathological, vol. xiv., part 2., January.— Dr. A. II. Y ung, 

 the intrinsic muscles of the marsupial hand (pi. 7), and 

 on the myology of Viverra cizetta. — Mr. W. R. Williams, the 

 anatomy of the knee-joint. — Dr. D J. Hamilton, devel pm'ent 

 of fibrous tissue from the hepatic parenchyma in 

 liver (pi. S). — Dr. P. McBride, contributions to the 

 of the internal ear (pi. 9). — S. G. Shattock, 

 human anatomy, togetherwith an investigation into tl 

 logical significance of the so-called internal lal 

 the human low er jaw. — Dr. G. T. Beatson, H 

 sturdy in sheep, in its relation to cerebtal local 

 Carmichael, two cases of lesions of the tempore 

 of the brain, with pathological examination by Mr. D. J. 

 Hamilton (pi. io).— Dr. Osier, two cases of striated myosarcoma 

 of the kidney. — Dr. G. A. Gibson, the sequence and duration of 



