794 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 100. 



We learn from Nature that arrangements are 

 being made to commemorate the sixtieth year 

 of the reign of Queen Victoria by an exhibition 

 at the Crystal Palace, to be opened on May 24, 

 1897. It is proposed to illustrate by models 

 and practical examples the famous inventions 

 in arts and industries during the past sixty years, 

 and also the progress of other sides of national 

 development. As a sort of prologue to this ex- 

 hibition, a series of popular lectures, dealing 

 with the advancements in science made dur- 

 ing Her Majesty's reign, will be delivered dur- 

 ing March and April next. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



The Pope has appointed the Rev. Dr. 

 Thomas J. Conaty, rector of the Church of the 

 Sacred Heart, Worcester, Mass., to succeed 

 Bishop John J. Keane as rector of the Catholic 

 University at Washington. Dr. Conaty is a na- 

 tive of Ireland and is supposed to be more con- 

 servative than his predecessor. 



Prof. William M. Sloane, of Princeton 

 University, has been elected to the Seth Low 

 professorship of American history in Columbia 

 University. 



Haverfobd College will soon come into 

 possession of property valued at nearly $500,- 

 000, bequeathed by Jacob P. Jones in 1885, sub- 

 iect to a life estate for his wife, who died a few 

 days ago. 



Colonel C. S. Venable, for thirty-one years 

 professor of mathematics in the University of 

 Virginia, has retired. 



According to the Academische Rundschau, the 

 additional yearly appropriations granted to the 

 French universities under the new laws, to 

 take effect January 1, 1898, will be approxi- 

 mately as follows: Lyons, 130,000 fr. ; Bor- 

 deaux, 100,000 fr.; Toulouse, 80,000 fr. There- 

 maining universities will receive sums varying 

 from 20,000 to 50,000 frs. The amount of the ap- 

 propriation to the University of Paris has not 

 yet been decided, but it is expected that the 

 five Paris Faculties, with their large number 

 of students, will receive four or five times the- 

 amount appropriated to the Faculty at Lyons. 



The following foreign appointments are an- 

 nounced : Professor Lenard, director of the 

 physical laboratory, Polytechnic Institute, at 



Aachen, has been called to the University of 

 Heidelberg ; Dr. Czapek, Privatdocent at the 

 University at Vienna, has been made associate 

 professor of botany in the Polytechnic Institute 

 in Prague ; Dr. Seeliger, Privatdocent in zool- 

 oly at Berlin, and Dr. Karl Mez, Privatdocent 

 in botany at Breslau, have been promoted to 

 professorships. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 

 AN OPTICAL ILLUSION. 



To the Editor op Science : I reproduce, in 

 one of the accompanying diagrams (A), the ar- 

 rangement used in a research published in the 

 Psychological Review (II., May, 1895, p. 244), 

 and reprinted in the Princeton Contributions to 

 Psychology (No. 2, Sept., 1895), the result of 

 which was to show that the judgment, i. e., of 

 the midpoint between two such squares as those 

 of Fig. A, is subject to illusion. The actual 

 midpoint, marked by the short line on the line 

 of connection between the squares, is regularly 

 judged to be too far toward the larger square, 

 the real midpoint being judged farther toward 

 the smaller. I should like to gather further re- 

 sults by the use of the Figures A and B, and 

 your readers may be willing to assist as follows : 



Ask people of both sexes, but recording the 

 difference of sex, the following questions 

 strictly in the order named, first of Fig. A. They 

 should be entirely ignorant of the experiment 

 and its results. 



Question 1. Holding the figure before the 

 eyes with the bottom of the page down, is the line 

 connecting the squares bisected by the short 

 line or not, and if not, is the real midpoint 

 further to the right (R) or to the left (L) ? 



Question 2. Holding the page with the bottom 

 of it turned to the right hand, ask whether the mid- 

 point is marked by the line or whether it is 

 farther up (U) or farther down (D). 



Question 3. Holding the figure with the bot- 

 tom of the page upwards, ask as in question 1. 



Question 4. Holding the figure with the bot- 

 tom of the page toward the left hand, ask as in 

 question 2. 



Then taking figure B., ask the same questions 

 in the same order, being careful to have the per- 

 son still altogether uninstructed as to the re- 

 sults of the first series and also to connect the 



