Mar. 2, iS 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



and that in this last, three " specific " subjects take the 

 place of the " three R's " as compulsory subjects. 



4. That in both schedules, musical drill or cahsthenics, 

 singing, art hand-work for boys and girls, and cottage 

 needlework for girls be extras, for which half the 

 present grant be allowed, viz., is. 6d. Also that cookery 

 be allowed as an extra, and that 6d. or is. be allowed 

 to schools for the use of lanterns, objects, experiments, 

 and applied teaching generally. 



THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 

 At the meeting held on the 6th ult., Sir William 

 Thomson, president, in the chair, Professor Crum Brown 

 exhibited an apparatus designed to show the action of 

 the semi-circular canals. The apparatus consists of a 

 rotary frame mounted on a platform. Two wheels, 

 turning upon axes parallel to the frame, and moving, the 

 one in a positive and the other in a negative direction, 

 represented the canals. Each of the wheels was sup- 

 plied with a stopcock on its axle. A supply of gas was 

 led into the axles. The platform being rotated, the 

 action of the wheels represented the action of the semi- 

 circular canals, and the effect was made visible in the 

 action of the gas. 



Mr. John Murray submitted a series of observations 

 on the temperature and currents in the lochs of the west 

 of Scotland as affected by winds. The investigations 

 were made within the last nine months. Mr. Murray stated 

 that in one loch he found, within two days, a difference of 

 something like 16 degrees of temperature, owing entirely 

 to the effect of the wind. In Loch Fyne, on a day in 

 January, when the wind was blowing across the loch, 

 the temperature was at one place 48 degrees, and three 

 miles further off, towards Inveraray, the temperature at 

 the surface was 43 degrees. The conclusions of many 

 observations was that there were large oceanic 

 phenomena which could be explained by the action of 

 the winds on the waves and water. One action of 

 the wind was to bring the warm water towards the 

 surface. 



Mr. John Aitken explained a series of experiments 

 for counting the dust particles in the atmosphere. He 

 found 521,000 dust particles in a cubic inch. This is in 

 what the author termed " clean " air, the experiment 

 being made after r rainy night. In a room matters 

 were worse, for there it was found that there are 

 1,860,000 dust particles per cubic centimetre, or 

 30,000,000 per cubic inch. 



Dr. Milne communicated a paper by Mr. W. G. Reid 

 on the solution of carbonate of lime in sea water under 

 pressure. The author finds that the chemical activity of 

 carbonate of lime is greater at a depth than on the sur- 

 face of the ocean. 



Mr. John Murray read a paper on the distribution of 

 carbonate of lime on the floor and in the waters of the 



THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 

 At the ordinary meeting on Tuesday, the 7 th of Feb- 

 ruary, the president, Mr. Bruce, being in the chair, the 

 paper read was on "The Alexandra Dock, Hull," by 

 Mr. A. C. Hurtzig, M. Inst. C.E. 



The Alexandra Dock was commenced on the 15th of 

 January, 1881, and was completed and opened for traffic 

 on the 1 6th of July, 1885, and during this period the 

 works were for five months practically stopped. The 



dock was essentially a foreshore dock, some four-fifths 

 of the site being below the high-water mark of the 

 Humber, and a considerable portion below the low-water 

 mark, the range of tides at springs being 2 2| feet. The 

 works included a dock of 465 acres with two miles of 

 dock-walls from 52 to 62 feet in height, two large 

 graving-docks, a lock 550 feet long by 85 feet wide, a river 

 embankment 40 feet high and 6,000 feet long, the 

 dredging of an artificial channel through the Hebbles 

 Shoal, erecting pumping machinery, the construction of 

 sheds, and various minor works. Great difficulties were 

 experienced in the course of the construction, owing to 

 water breaking in through the clay foundations. The 

 methods employed to overcome these interruptions are, 

 however, too technical for description in our columns. 



EDINBURGH BOTANICAL SOCIETY. 

 At the meeting held on the i8th ult., a paper "On the 

 Fruits of the genus Anemone" by Prof. Edward Jancze- 

 roski, Cracow, was read by the secretary. Dr. M'Farlane, 

 as was also " Notes on Junas Alpiniis, with an exhibition 

 of specimens," by Dr. Buchanan White. Mr. S. Grieve, 

 on behalf of Mr. A. Bennett, read a paper on " Additions 

 to the Scottish Flora during 18S7, with a resume of the 

 year's work." Mr. P. Geddes read a paper " On the 

 Origin of Evergreens." 



LIVERPOOL GEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION. 

 At the monthly meeting of this association, held on 

 the 6th ult., Mr. Charles Potter read a paper entitled, 

 " Notes on some points in local geology." In it the 

 author referred to various ideas that had been and were 

 entertained as to the configurat'on of the Mersey estuary 

 in past times, showing how impossible of acceptance 

 were the theories that the Mersey had discharged its 

 waters into the sea by any other channel than the pre- 

 sent one since the deposition of the boulder clay. No 

 traces of any other post glacial channel had ever been 

 found in Wirral, and it was not unreasonable to suppose 

 that had such ever existed, it would long since have been 

 discovered. Certainly the route lately proposed for the 

 Mersey, by way of the Great Float and Leasowe, seemed 

 equally impracticable with others that had been proposed. 

 The series of deposits on either side of Leasowe, on the 

 Cheshire shore, were practically continuous, and showed 

 no signs of having been deeply cut into by the waters of 

 a great river. 



GLASGOW PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 

 At the meeting held on the 8th ult., Prof M'Kendric 

 exhibited and described (i) E. von Fleischel's spectro- 

 polarimeter, for the estimation of grape sugar; (2) a gas 

 pump for the removal of gases from the blood ; (3) a 

 centrifugal apparatus for the separation of the red blood 

 corpuscles ; and (4) Kronecker's electro-myographion, 

 for the study of muscular contraction. Sir William 

 Thomson exhibited and described a new composite 

 electric current balance. The peculiarities of this balance 

 are that it combines in one instrument the means of 

 measuring small currents or potentials (a Volt meter) 

 the rate of working in an electric circuit (a Watt meter), 

 and strong currents, say from half an ampere to five 

 hundred amperes. For the measurement of strong cur- 

 rents a constant current of a tenth to half an ampere is 

 kept flowing through the coils fixed to the beam of the 



