July ii, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



21 



Castelli in 1639, although usually a later date is quoted. The 

 discovery of the Torricellian tube, in 1643, is too well known to 

 require special remark. These are only a few of the very inter- 

 esting points referred to in Dr. Hellmann's instructive investiga- 

 tions. 



— At the regular monthly meeting of the American Institute 

 of Electrical Engineers, held June 17, 1890, the following resolu- 

 tions, recommended by the council, were introduced by Mr. 

 Francis B. Crocker, with the request that they be taken up for 

 action at the next meeting of the institute in September: "Whereas 

 it has bpen the custom in the nomenclature of electrical units to 

 perpetuate the names of men who have contributed most to elec- 

 trical science ; and whereas, in the names thus far adopted, the 

 eminent services of Americans have not been recognized: there- 

 fore resolved, that, in the opinion of the American Institute of 

 Electrical Engineers, a just distribution of the honors thus be- 

 stowed necessitates a recoenition of the splendid contributions to 

 electrical science of one or both of America's great electricians, — 

 Benjamin Franklin and Joseph Henry; that this institute will 

 gladly co-operate with other bodies in this country and abroad to 

 secure the general adoption of these names for electrical units ; 

 that the name of • Henry ' should be given to the practical unit of 

 self-induction, since he was the discoverer and greatest investiga- 

 tor of this phenomenon, and because this unit at the present time 

 is called a quadrant, which is merely a numerical value, and not 

 a suitable name ; and that this institute recommend to electrical soci- 

 eties and electrical engineers the general use of the name ' Henry ' 

 for the unit of induction as being the quickest and surest way to 

 secure its final adoption." It is unfortunate that the name of 

 " Henry " for the unit of induction was not adopted at the Paris 

 Electric Congress of 1889. If the attention of the congress had 

 been forcibly called to the fact that Henry discovered self-induc- 

 tion, and that his work on both self and mutual induction was of 

 the greatest importance, his name would probably have been 

 adopted then. Henry's discovery of self-induction, which is, of 

 course, the fact that gives the strongest claim, was made in 1833, 

 and published the same year in Silliman's Journal. In that paper 

 he described experiments showing that the spark obtained by 

 breaking a circuit composed of battery and a long wire is greater 

 than with a short wire, and that the spark is further increased by 

 coiling the wire. He then clearly states that the phenomenon is 

 due to the action of the current on itself, all of which is perfectly 

 correct, and would be a good statement of the facts even at the 

 present time. 



— The thirty-ninth meeting of the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science will be held at Indianapolis, Ind., 

 beginning on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 1890, at noon, by a meeting of 

 the council at the Denison House, where will be the hotel head- 

 quarters of the association. By special favor of the State author- 

 ities the general sessions and the meetings of the sections will all be 

 held in the new and commodious State House, where also will be 

 the offices of the local committee and of the permanent secretary. 

 This meeting will be the fiftieth anniversary of the organization 

 of the Association of Geologists and Naturalists, the parent of the 

 American Association, which will add to the intere=it of the meet- 

 ing. The arrangements made by the local committee for the 

 comfortable entertainment of the large number of members and 

 their friends expected to be present, and the unusual accommoda- 

 tions offered, by which all the sections will meet in large halls 

 under one roof, will probably make this the most important 

 meeting ever held in the West. Indianapolis is as comfortable 

 in August as any city away from the seacoast. Its streets are 

 wide and well shaded, and its hotels are large and comfortable: 

 so members need not be deterred from going there by the fear of 

 extra heat and discomfort. On Wednesday, Aug. 20, the first 

 general session of the meeting will begin at ten o'clock in the 

 forenoon in the House of Representatives. After the adjourn- 

 ment of the general session, the several sections will organize in 

 their respective rooms. In the afternoon the vice-presidents will 

 give their addresses before their respective sections: and in the 

 evening there will be a general session, when the retiring presi- 

 dent, Professor T. C. Mendenhall, will deliver his address. The 



sessions will continue until the Tuesday evening following; and 

 on Wednesday morning, Aug. 27, a meeting of the council will be 

 held. Saturday, Aug. 23, will be given to excursions. The 

 meeting will close with excursions extending to Aug. 30. A 

 special circular in relation to railroads, hotels, excursions, and 

 other matters, will be issued by the local committee; and mem- 

 bers who are about changing their address for the summer should 

 notify the local secretary at once, and he should be addressed 

 upon all matters relating to local arrangements and in relation to 

 transportation. For all matters ptrtaining to membership, pa- 

 pers, and business of the association, address the permanent 

 secretary at Salem, Mass , up to Aug. 15. From Aug. 15 until 

 Aug. 30, his address will be The Denison House, Indianapolis, 

 Ind. 



— The death-rate in England in 1889, according to Medical News 

 of July 5, was 17.9 per 1,000; in 1888, 17.8 per 1,000. For each 

 of the nine years 1881-89 the rate was lower than in any year 

 prior to 1881, and the average annual rate for that period was 

 only 18.9 per 1.000. For the ten years 187 1-80, the average annual 

 rate was 21.4 per 1,000. This shows asaving of 2.5 in every 1,000 

 of the population, comparing the last two decades with each other. 

 The registrar-general of England estimates that not less than 

 6i 0,000 people in England and Wales at present survive by reason 

 of the declining mortality rate; that is, if the rate 21.4 per 1,000 

 had persisted in the past nine years instead of falling to 13.9, there 

 would have been 600,000 more deaths. This improvement is no 

 doubt largely referrible to the improved sanitary condition of the 

 United Kingdom, more especially in the great cities. One proof 

 of this is seen in the decreasing mortality frem zymotic diseases, 

 such as small pox, scarlet- fever, and typhoid-fever. Infant mor- 

 tahty, also, has shown a marked decline, and is another index of 

 the life-saving results of an improved sanitation. 



— Miss Fawoett's triumph in the mathematical tripos puts the 

 crown on a long series of successes by lady students at Cambridge. 

 There have now been lady "seniors" in all the important tri- 

 poses (except law). Here is the list: —Moral science tripos: in 1880 

 Miss Jones was bracketed senior, in 18S1 Miss Moberly was senior, 

 and so in 1884 was Miss Hughes. Historical tripos: in 1886 Miss 

 RoUeston (daughter of the late Oxford professor of zoology) was 

 bracketed senior, and in 1887 Miss Blanche Paul was similarly 

 placed. MediEeval and modern languages tripos: here there have 

 been four lady seniors. In 1886 two ladies and no men were 

 placed in the first class. The ladies, who were placed in 

 alphabetical order, were Miss Chamberlain and Miss Skeat 

 (daughter of Professor Skeat). In 1887 Miss Harvey was senior; 

 and in 1888, Miss Tuke (whose father is well known in connection 

 with schemes of Irish emigration). Finally, there are the suc- 

 cesses of Miss Ramsay in the classical tripos (1887), and of Miss 

 Fawoett in the mathematical (1890). Of these eleven lady seniors, 

 two came from Girton (Miss Jones and Miss Ramsay) , the rest 

 from Newnham. It is often asked what becomes of lady stu- 

 dents when they leave college. A few particulars about some of 

 these lady seniors may therefore be added. Miss Ramsay is now 

 Mrs. Montague Butler, the wife of the master of Trinity; Miss 

 Moberly is head mistress of the Tunbridge Wells High School for 

 Girls; Miss Hughes is head of a training-college at Cambridge; 

 Miss Chamberlain is instructor in German at Bryn Mawr College, 

 Philadelphia; and Miss Jones is moral science lecturer at Girton. 

 Promptly to repair the apparent neglect of legal studies came the 

 news of the success of women law-students at Paris, where Mile. 

 Belcesco, a Roumanian girl, has just taken her degree as doeteur 

 en droit after obtaining the highest place in the licentiates' ex- 

 amination. A French lady and two of Russian birth also did 

 well. The London Daily News tells us one or two interesting 

 facts about Mile. Belcesco, — that she means to practise at the 

 bar at Bucharest, confining herself to the cases of poor women 

 who cannot pay counsel; and that her thesis for admission to the 

 Paris faculty contained seven hundred pages, of which two hun- 

 dred were, with an exercise of prudence on the part of the lady, 

 not read. The fact that not Portia herself would be allowed to 

 practise in England no doubt explains why women have not 

 yet carried off the honors of the law tripos at Cambridge. 



