ance, the galvanometer points to its presence hindering the dissolution of the gold; the cause of the disagreement between the instruments he attributes to the formation of local voltaic circuits. Mr. H. A. White gave an account of a series of experiments which showed that thiocyanates in presence of such oxidising agents as ferric salts attack gold with considerable ease, and that thiosulphates exert a similar but less powerful influence. These salts are present in ordinary working cyanide solutions, and the presence of gold in mine reservoirs and in the soil under residue dumps is probably connected with their occurrence. Experiments adduced by the author indicate that in well exposed dumps thiocyanates alone are of significance in respect to the observed solution of gold. A process of residue treatment, based on these facts, is resulting in the profitable extraction of a large proportion of the gold in certain of the residue dumps on the Rand. At the second day's meeting, Dr. J. Moir discussed the law governing the solubility of zinc hydroxide in alkalis, and as the result of a quantitative research stated the conclusion that the phenomenon is essentially an equilibrium between alkali and zincic acid, which may be reached from both sides, and which depends solely on the concentration of the free alkali. It was also shown that no definite chemical compounds exist in the solution. Mr. G. W. Williams read a paper on the functions of the metallurgical laboratory, dealing with the uses of the laboratory for the testing of supplies and for purposes of research, and with the personnel and equipment of a suitable laboratory. He emphasised the necessity for a highly trained staff, and pointed out defects in the training given in the great English universities. In a valuable contribution, Mr. S. H. Pearce stated and discussed various economic problems in metallurgy on the Rand. Each stage of the whole process of gold extraction was considered from the economic as well as from the scientific standpoint, and the results of the practical experience of years were summarised in a very clear and judicial manner. Much technical information, of value to all interested in gold extraction, was given in this paper. Mr. R. L. Cousens gave an account of the experiments which led him to conclude that a radio-active substance is present in certain ore discovered in the Transvaal. If a further examination of the material confirms his belief that the radio-activity of the ore is due to the presence of radium, the result will be of interest in view of the fact that uranium is not present in the ore. a In a The third day of the meeting was devoted to agricultural chemistry. The proceedings were opened by Mr. A. D. Hall, who discussed in greater detail some of the problems touched on in his address at Cape Town. In a paper on Pretoria rain, Mr. H. Ingle stated that the rain falling at Pretoria for twelve months from February, 1904, was collected, and its content of nitrogen, existing as nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia, determined each week. The results showed that the quantity of combined nitrogen brought down in the rain at Pretoria is considerably greater than the average amounts in Europe, amounting in twelve months to 7.07 lb. of nitrogen per acre as compared with the average of 3.84 lb. per acre at Rothamsted. second paper Mr. Ingle communicated the results of the analyses of some eighty samples of soils collected in various parts of the Transvaal, and drew a comparison between European and Transvaal soils, with special reference to the interconnection of their chemical composition and fertility as indicated by field experience. He showed that to take English standards in judging of fertility from chemical analysis may lead to erroneous conclusions in the case of tropical or subtropical soils, and that if there be a sufficient supply of water a soil of apparently poor quality, from analytical results, may yield luxurious crops under the favouring conditions of growth existent in the Transvaal. Mr. E. H. Croghan, in a paper on the fuel of the midland districts of South Africa, pointed out that a large proportion of potash is found in the excreta of sheep fed in this dry and treeless region, resulting from the composition of the bushes, the foliage of which constitutes the thief food of sheep and cattle. Owing to want of water for irrigation the farmer does not use sheep excreta for manure, but for fuel, and the ashes frequently accumulate the homestead. Attention was directed to the near economic value of these ash heaps, either as a manure or as a source of potassium carbonate. Reports were presented by the committee on wave-length tables of the spectra of the elements, the committee on the study of hydro-aromatic substances, and the committtee on the transformation of aromatic nitroamines. SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN MEDICINE re servant THAT great benefits to mankind have followed the discoveries of recent years is obvious to all, especially with regard to the causes and prevention of yellow fever and malaria. Research is a word heard on all sides; it is the enemy of authority, that tyrannous spirit which has hampered progress and retarded the advance of scientific medicine for centuries. Experimental medicine is sponsible for the greatest advances which have been made in our knowledge of the cause, prevention, and cure of disease. Most important discoveries have exerted but a slight direct influence at their inception; their full significance has remained hidden for a time. The majority of such discoveries has been made by those engaged in research in the realms of pure science. Pure science is unselfish; its aim is not profit, yet it is the forerunner of that applied science which is more obtrusively the " of man. If we study disease, we must do so for the sake of knowledge, the scientific spirit must enter into our work. The practical man may not appreciate such ideals, but he is ever ready to use the discoveries of science for his own ends. All are not born with the instincts of research, but there are many in whom they lie dormant, and it should be the function of educational institutions to detect and foster such men and lead them on to do the work for which they are adapted. But too often from mere lack of means such men drift away into other fields of activity. To carry on research successfully a man needs an assured income. Is it possible that those who are able and willing to help human progress can continue to ignore the devotion and self-sacrifice of such men as Lazear, Myers, Dutton, Plehn, and others who have laid down their lives in the study of tropical medicine? Medical research needs endowment, and it is grievous to see that in this country, where so much is done for charity, so pitiably little is done for the advancement of learning. To teach science as it should be taught in properly equipped and organised institutions is far more expensive in the case of medicine than in that of any other professional school. It does not suffice to build laboratories; they must also be provided with sufficient funds and equipment to enable them to become working entities. Those who have watched the progress of the London School of Tropical Medicine from its inception have witnessed a struggle upward which is worthy of all praise. This, and the sister institution in Liverpool, are known throughout the world for the excellent work accomplished by the members of the teaching staff and by some of the students they have sent forth. The London School has a great mission to fulfil; it has to train men in the methods they will be called on to employ in many parts of the world, and to give them the latest and the best to take with them on their distant journeys. It is to be hoped that the public will second the noble efforts that have been made to establish a centre for the study of the diseases which affect the inhabitants of the tropical countries of this vast Empire. The Trend of Recent Investigation. A survey of recent work in tropical medicine shows us that investigation is chiefly being directed to the study of protozoal diseases. No advances of fundamental importance have been made with regard to malaria since the classical investigations were published with which the elli will ever remain associated. names of Ross and Manson, Grassi, Bignami and BastianThe earlier work has been confirmed and extended by many investigators. The and other measures directed against mosquitoes has been prevention of malaria by means of mosquito destruction tried in various localities, in some instances with success, 1 From an address delivered at the opening of the nineteenth session of the Lendon School of Tropical Medicine on October 11, by Dr. George Nuttall, F.R.S. in others with doubtful results. This is, however, only what might be expected in view of the diversified difficulties which must necessarily arise. There has been a veritable flood of malaria literature of recent years, including an annual volume of "Atti della Società per gli studi della malaria," the series commencing in 1900, which has come to us from Italy. Mosquitoes have received an immense amount of attention, after being much neglected in the past. The number of genera and species and their classification have become subjects to bewilder all but specialists. The important discoveries on sleeping sickness ushered in by the researches of Castellani, a pupil of this school, have been confirmed and extended by Bruce and his collaborators of the sleeping sickness commission. The relation of the flies belonging to the genus Glossina to the transmission of the trypanosomes is being actively studied, and many important questions we must hope are nearing their solution in connection with this most fatal malady. A contribution has just come to hand from Gray and Tulloch with regard to the multiplication of the parasites in Glossina, indicating that the belief recently expressed is warranted, namely, that the parasites undergo a cycle of development within the insects. Of importance in their bearing on the question of the development of trypanosomes in other than their vertebrate hosts are the investigations of Schaudinn on Trypanosoma noctuae in Culex, those of Brumpt on certain trypanosomes of fishes which undergo their cycle of development in leeches, and those of Prowazeck on the rat trypanosome, which he has demonstrated undergoes development in the rat louse (Haematopinus spinulosus). Of recent discoveries, the one which to me appears to carry the greatest weight is that of Novy and McNeal. They have been the first to obtain pure cultures of Protozoa, maintaining trypanosomes of different species alive in vitro for many generations. There is no telling whither the methods they have given us may lead; they directly stimulated Leonard Rogers to experiments wherein he succeeded, by an ingenious method of his own, in cultivating another protozoon, the Leishmania, obtained from cases of kala-azar. The work on the tick-transmitted diseases known as the piroplasmoses (redwater, &c.) occurring in cattle, sheep, horses, and dogs has been pursued in various parts of the world with great activity. The results appear to me to indicate, what I believe also holds for human malaria parasites, that we shall in time learn to distinguish different parasites which we at present consider to represent single species. The investigations of Dutton and Todd on tick fever in the Congo Free State, announced in February, have gone to prove that this disease is transmitted by a tick (Ornithodoros savignyi) after it has infected itself with blood containing the Spirochatæ. This has been confirmed by Koch, if we may rely on what has appeared recently in German newspapers. It is, however, quite premature to assume that African tick fever and European relapsing fever are due to one and the same species of Spirochata; in fact, it is highly probable that this is not the case, although the report in question refers to the Spirochetæ as one species. In relapsing fever in Europe the bedbug (Cimex) has long been suspected to be a carrier of the infective agent, a probability which was considerably heightened by Karlinski's observation of motile Spirochatæ in the bodies of the insects up to thirty days after they had fed on relapsing fever blood. Schaudinn, moreover, informs me that he has observed the multiplication of the Spirochaeta obermeieri in Cimex. These observations, following closely upon those published by Marchoux and Salimbeni, are of greatest interest and practical import. The last named authors demonstrated that a fatal disease of the fowl in Brazil is due to a Spirochata which is transmitted through the agency of a tick (Argas miniatus), and this is capable of conveying the disease even six months after feeding on infected blood. These Spirochætæ multiply in the tick, and are present in large quantities in its body cavity throughout this period. These observations are very suggestive, since they demonstrate the long persistence of the parasites in their carriers, and render it probable that they will be found to be harboured much longer. Finally, the finding this year of Spirochaeta pallida in syphilis by Schaudinn and others in man, and by Metschnikoff and Roux in experimentally infected apes, cannot escape a passing notice. It is of some interest to note that the close bloodrelationship existing between the apes and man, demonstrated independently by means of the precipitins by Grünbaum and myself, served as a direct incentive for the experiments of Metschnikoff and Roux, Lassar, and Neisser, which proved that human syphilis is communicable to the chimpanzee and ourang outang. Of interest has also been the further discovery this year of a number of new protozoal parasites in the blood of different animals, in addition to numerous new species of Trypanosoma. I refer to new forms called "Leucocytozoa because they inhabit the white blood corpuscles of their vertebrate hosts. Leucocytozoa were first dis covered by Bentley in dogs in India, and were described, without sufficient mention of this fact, by James. Another species has been found by A. Balfour in the rat (M. decumanus) in Khartoum; and lastly, W. S. Patton informs me that he has found a species in the squirrel (Sciurus palmarum) in India, and apparently observed developmental forms thereof in a louse. Balfour has, moreover, described a new Hæmogregarine occurring in the jerboa (Jaculus jaculus), and Graham-Smith in our laboratory has found another new endoglobular parasite in the mole. This by no means exhausts the " finds" of this year, but it will suffice to show that British workers are doing their share in furthering our knowledge in this regard. Of the diseases due to Vermes I can say but little. The discovery of Catto's Schisostomum in this laboratory is familiar to you all. It is interesting to note, following on the experiments with Ankylostoma duodenale by Loos, proving that the embryo worm can infect by penetrating through the skin, that Boycott in London and Tenholt in Germany have confirmed the fact this year in two experi ments conducted on medical men who volunteered for the purpose. Again, it is apparent that the subject of immunity in relation to protozoal diseases is proving to be one of great difficulty, and the results hitherto obtained indicate that new methods will have to be devised if the problem is to be solved from a practical, and still more so from a scientific, standpoint. It is also obvious in this connection that the problems before us can only be solved by animal experiment, and this accentuates the need of our giving an increasing amount of attention to comparative pathology as we push on toward the alleviation of the ills to which our own flesh is heir. My Many matters have necessarily been left untouched, including even such important diseases as yellow fever and Malta fever, on which active work has been done. object has been to seize upon a few salient facts with the view of showing how much has been accomplished within a short period, and how great are the opportunities of the workers in this school who are destined to labour in new fields in different parts of the world. Perhaps what I have said-in no spirit of presumption-will serve as an incentive to some of my hearers. Let me conclude with some wise words from the Talmud: "The day is short and the work is great. THE MECHANICS OF THE ASCENT OF SAP IN TREES.1 THE following remarks, relating to one of the most powerful and universal of the mechanical operations of organic nature, are based mainly on the numerous experimental results reported in Dr. A. J. Ewart's recent memoir. Their chief object is to assert the view that we are not compelled to suppose the sap, in the column of vessels through which it rises, to be subject to th great actual pressure, amounting in high trees to many atmospheres, that is sometimes postulated. It is hardl 1 By Prof. J. Larmor, Sec R.S. Paper received at the Royal Society an June 29. 2 Roy. Soc. Proc., vol. lxxiv. p. 554 ; Phil. Trans., B, vol, excviii p. 4a necessary to remark that the problem of the rise of sap is one of mechanics, in so far as concerns the mode of the flow and the propelling power. Contrary to the view above referred to, it seems not unreasonable to consider that the weight of the sap in each vessel is sustained in the main by the walls and base of that vessel, instead of being transmitted through its osmotically porous base to the vessels beneath it, and thus accumulated as hydrostatic pressure. This We could in fact imagine, diagrammatically (as happens in ordinary osmotic arrangements), a vertical column of vessels, each provided, say, with a short vertical side-tube communicating with the open air, in which the pressure is adjusted from moment to moment, and yet such that the sap slowly travels by transpiration from each vessel to the one next above, through the porous partitions between them, provided there is an upward osmotic gradient, i.e. if the dissolved substances are maintained in greater concentration in the higher vessels.' difference of density must be great enough, between adjacent vessels, to introduce osmotic pressure in excess of that required to balance the head of fluid in the length of the upper one, into which the water has to force its way. Thus, in comparing vessels at different levels, the sap must be more concentrated in the upper ones by amounts corresponding to osmotic pressure more than counteracting the total head due to difference of levels, in order that it may be able to rise. As osmotic pressure is comparable with gaseous pressure for the same density of the molecules of the dissolved substance, the concentration required on this view is considerable, though not very great. Yet Such a steady gradient of concentration could apparently, on the whole, become self-adjusting, through assistance from the vital stimuli of the plant, for concentration in the upper vessels is promoted by evaporation. pressures in excess or defect of the normal atmospheric amount might at times accumulate locally, the latter giving rise to the bubbles observed in the vessels, through release of dissolved gases. It may be that this assumes too much concentration of dissolved material in the sap, as it exists inside the vessels of the stem, to agree with fact. In that case the capillary suction exerted from the nearest leaf-surface might be brought into requisition, after the manner of Dixon and Joly, to assist in drawing off the excess of water from the vessels. The aim proposed in this note is not to explain how things happen, which is a matter for observation and experiment, but merely to support the position that nothing abnormal from the passive mechanical point of view need be involved in this or other vital phenomena. As regards estimating the amount of flow, at first sight it may not appear obvious, a priori, that the transpiration through a porous partition or membrane, due to osmotic gradient, is equal or even comparable in amount to what would be produced, with pure water, by a hydrostatic pressure-head equal to the difference of the osmotic pressures on the two faces of the partition. But more exact consideration shows that, on the contrary, osmotic pressure is defined by this very equality; it is that pressure-difference which would produce such an opposite percolation of water as would just balance the direct percolation due to the osmotic attraction of the saltsolution. 2 1 Thus, in an ordinary osmotic experiment with a U-tube, the percolation of water through the plug gradually produces a difference of hydrostatic pressure on its two faces, which is sustained by the fixity of the plug itself, but would be at once neutralised if the plug were free to slide in the tube. This increase of volume of the salt-solution, by the percolation of pure water into it, is on the van 't Hoff analogy correlated with the free expansion of the molecules constituting a gas. It goes on with diminished speed under opposing pressure, until a definite neutralising pressure is reached, inaptly called the osmotic pressure of the molecules of the solute, which just stops it, while higher pressures would reverse it. The stoppage is due to the establishment of a balance between the amounts of water percolating one way under osmotic attraction, and the opposite way under hydrostatic pressure. The pressure established, e.g. in an organic cell immersed in salt-solution, is thus really the reaction which is set up against the osmotic process. That process itself is perhaps more directly and intelligibly described as the play of osmotic affinity or attraction, even though it must be counted as of the same nature as the affinity of a gas for a vacuum. Cf. Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc., January, 1897, or Whetham's Theory of Solution," p 109. 2 See preceding footnote. It would, however, appear that the great resistance to flow offered by what botanists call Jamin-tubes, viz. thin liquid columns containing and carrying along numerous broad air-bubbles, is conditioned mainly by the viscosity of the fluid, and involves only indirectly the surface-tension of the bubbles. In fact, the resistance to flow may be expected to remain much the same if each bubble were replaced by a flat solid disc, nearly but not quite fitting the tube. Its high value arises from the circumstance that the mass of liquid between two discs moves on nearly as a solid block when the flow is steady, so that the viscous sliding has to take place in a thin layer close to the wall of the tube, and is on that account the more intense, and the friction against the tube the greater. The increased curvature of the upper capillary meniscus of the bubble is thus merely a gauge of the greater intensity of the viscous resistance instead of its cause, and modification of the surface-tension cannot be involved as a propelling power. The experimental numbers given by Dr. Ewart show that, even where the vessels are largely occupied by bubbles, the greater part of the resistance to active transpiration still resides in the partitions between them. If the osmotic gradient, assisted possibly by capillary pull at the leaf-orifices, is insufficient to direct a current of transpiration upward, capillary alterations inside the vessels, arising from vitally controlled emission and absorption of material from the walls, cannot be invoked to assist rather it must be osmotic alterations from one vessel to the next, of, so to speak, a peristaltic character, that might thus come into play. But any such alteration (of either kind) will involve local supply of energy. Is there a sufficient fund of energy, latent in the stem, to provide permanently the motive power for the elevation of the sap? In what form could this energy get transported there? The energies of the plant-economy come from the sunlight absorbed by the leaves. The natural view would appear to be that the work required to lift the sap is exerted at the place where the energy is received, and that it operates through extrusion of water by evaporative processes working against the osmotic attraction of the dissolved salts; while the maintenance of equilibrium along the vessels of the balanced osmotic column, with its semi-permeable partitions, demands that an equal amount of water must rise spontaneously to take the place of what is thus removed. The subject might, perhaps, be further elucidated by observation of the manner in which the flow is first established at the beginning of the season, or possibly by experiments on the rate at which water would be absorbed by a wounded stem high above the ground. EXPERIMENTS WITH THE THE experiments undertaken LANGLEY by the Smithsonian Institution upon an aerodrome, or flying machine, capable of carrying a man have been suspended from lack of funds to repair defects in the launching apparatus without the machine ever having been in the air at all. As these experiments have been popularly, and of late repeatedly, represented as having failed on the contrary, because the aerodrome could not sustain itself in the air, I have decided to give this brief though late account, which may be accepted as the first authoritative statement of them. It will be remembered that in 1896 wholly successful flights of between one-half and one mile by large steamdriven models, unsupported except by the mechanical effects of steam engines, had been made by me. In all these the machine was first launched into the air from ways," somewhat as a ship is launched into the water, the machine resting on a car that ran forward on these ways, which fell down at the extremity of the car's motion, releasing the aerodrome for its free flight. در In the early part of 1898 the Board of Ordnance and Fortification of the War Department allotted 50,000 dollars for the development, construction, and test of a large aëro1 Abridged from a paper by Dr. S. P. Langley in the Smithsonian Repo:t for 1904. drome, half of which sum was to be available immediately and the remainder when required. The flying weight of the machine complete, with that of the aeronaut, was 830 pounds; its sustaining surface, 1040 square feet. It therefore was provided with slightly greater sustaining surface and materially greater relative horse-power than the model subsequently described which flew successfully. The brake horse-power of the engine was 52; the engine itself, without cooling water, or fuel, weighed approximately 1 kilogram to the horse-power. The entire power plant, including cooling water, carburettor, battery, &c., weighed materially less than 5 pounds to the horse-power. Engines for the large machine and for a model of the large machine one-fourth of its linear dimensions were completed before the close of 1901, and they were immediately put in their respective frames, and tests of them and of their power-transmission appliances were begun. A test of the quarter-size model in actual flight was made on August 8, 1903, when the machine worked most satisfactorily, the launching apparatus, as always heretofore, performing perfectly, while the model, being launched directly into the face of the wind, flew directly ahead on an even keel. The balancing proved to be perfect, and the power, supporting surface, guiding, and equilibriumpreserving effects of the rudder also. The weight of the model was 58 pounds, its sustaining surface 66 square feet, and the horse-power from 2 to 3. This was the FIG. 1. Reproduction of an instantaneous photograph, taken from the boat itself and hitherto unpublished, showing the aerodrome in motion before it had actually cleared the house boat. On the left is seen a portion of a beam, being a part of the falling ways in which the front wing was caught, while the front wing itself is seen twisted, showing that the accident was in progress before the aerodrome was free to fly. first time in history, so far as I know, that a successful flight of a mechanically sustained flying machine was made in public. Serious delays in the testing of the small machine were caused by changed atmospheric conditions, but they proved to be almost negligible compared with what was later experienced with the large one. On October 7, 1903, the weather became sufficiently quiet for a test. In this, the first test, the engineer took his seat, the engine started with ease and was working without vibration at its full power of more than 50 horse, and the word being given to launch the machine, the car was released and the aerodrome sped along the track. Just as the machine lett the track, those who were watching it, among whom were two representatives of the Board of Ordnance, noticed that the machine was jerked violently down at the front (being caught, as it subsequently appeared, by the falling ways) (Fig. 1), and under the full power of its engine was pulled into the water, carrying with it its engineer. When the aerodrome rose to the surface it was found that while the front sustaining surfaces had been broken by their impact with the water, yet the rear ones were comparatively uninjured. As soon as a full examination of the launching mechanism had been made, it was found that the front portion of the machine had caught on the launching car, and that the guy post, to which were fastened the guy wires which are the main strength of the front surfaces, had been bent to a fatal extent. The machine, then, had never been free in the air, but had been pulled down as stated. On December 8, 1903, a test was made at Arsenal Point, quite near Washington, though the site was unfavourable. The engine being started and working most satisfactorily, the order was given by the engineer to release the machine, but just as it was leaving the track another disaster, again due to the launching ways, occurred. This time the rear of the machine, in some way still unexplained, was caught by a portion of the launching car, which caused the rear sustaining surfaces to break, leaving the rear entirely without support, and it came down almost vertically into the water. Entirely erroneous impressions have been given by the account of these experiments in the public Press, from which they have been judged, even by experts, the impression being that the machine could not sustain itself in flight. It seems proper, then, to emphasise and to reiterate, with the view of what has just been said, that the machine has never had a chance to fly at all, but that the failure occurred on its launching ways; and the question of its ability to fly is consequently, as yet, an untried one. There have, then, been no failures so far as the actual test of the flying capacity of the machine is concerned, for it has never been free in the air at all. The failure of the financial means for continuing these expensive experiments has left the question of their result where it stood before they were undertaken, except that it has been demonstrated that engines can be built, as they have been, of little more than one-half the weight that was assigned as the possible minimum by the best builders of France and Germany; that the frame can be made strong enough to carry these engines, and that, so far as any possible prevision can extend, another flight would be successful if the launching were successful; for in this, and in this alone, so far as is known, all the trouble has come. The experiments have also given necessary information about this launching. They have shown that the method which succeeded perfectly on a smaller scale is insufficient on a larger one, and they have indicated that it is desirable that the launching should take place nearer the surface of the water, either from a track upon the shore or from a house boat large enough to enable the apparatus to be launched at any time with the wings extended and perhaps with wings independent of support from guys. But the construction of this new launching apparatus would involve further considerable expenditures that there are no present means to meet and this, and this alone, is the cause of their apparent failure. Failure in the aerodrome itself cr its engines there has been none; and it is believed that it is at the moment of success, and when the engineering problems have been solved, that a lack of means has prevented a continuance of the work. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. CAMBRIDGE. The number of first-year students matricuulated on Saturday, October 21, was 1008. Last year at the same date the number was 884. With those matriculated during the Lent and Easter terms, the total for the civil year 1905 is 1039; but this number will be slightly increased, as several freshmen were unable to attend on Saturday. Hitherto the largest entry has been 1027, in the year 1890. The number of medical students is 117: there is also a large entry of engineering students and of candidates for the economics tripos. The professor of mineralogy has, with the consent of the Vice-Chancellor, re-appointed Mr. A. Hutchinson, of Pembroke College, to be demonstrator in mineralogy and assistant curator for five years from January 1, 1906. The special board for biology and geology has nomin ated Mr. F. A. Potts, of Trinity Hall, to use the university table at Naples for six months as from October 1, 1905. A university lectureship in mathematics is vacant by the resignation of Mr. Jeans, who has accepted a professorship at Princeton University, New Jersey. The general board of studies will shortly proceed to appoint a lecturer to hold office from Christmas, 1905, until Michaelmas, 1910. The annual stipend is 5ol. The lecturer will be expected to lecture on applied mathematics. Candidates are requested to send in their applications, with statements of the branches of mathematics in which they are prepared to lecture, and with testimonials if they think fit, to the Vice-Chancellor on or before November 6. Science announces that New York University has received 5000l. by the will of the late William A. Wheelock. SOME excellent views of the plant and equipment of the workshops and laboratories at Birmingham University are given in illustration of a series of articles by Mr. C. Alfred Smith in Engineering. DR. ALEXANDER MCKENZIE, lecturer and senior demonstrator in the University of Birmingham, has been appointed head of the chemical department at the Birkbeck College in succession to Dr. John E. Mackenzie, who has accepted the appointment of principal of the Technical Institute, Bombay. THE Ontario Government has selected, says Science, the following men to compose a commission to report on the proposed reorganisation of the University of Toronto:Prof. Goldwin Smith, Sir William Meredith, Messrs. A. H. N. Colquhoun, Byron E. Walker, J. W. Flavelle, the Rev. Canon Cody, and the Rev. D. B. Macdonald. THE classes in craft instruction in photography and process work at the Regent Street Polytechnic were inaugurated by a social re-union on October 17. We notice the time-table for the present session includes classes in practical and technical photography, studio operating, retouching, finishing in colours, photo-engraving, and in colour photography. THE Bishop of Birmingham, delivering the presidential address to the members of the Midland Institute at Birmingham on October 3, took for his subject "What is an Educated Man?" He said the uneducated man is without an ideal, consciously held and deliberately striven after. He may be a specialist of trained faculty, but, if he has no general ideal enabling him to give his special subject its place in human progress as a whole, he remains a trained specialist rather than an educated man. The educated man knows something of modern scientific method and achievement. Then the world becomes to him the scene of great constant forces which admit of being guided and directed and combined to promote the purpose of human progress. A man to become educated need not have time to read much, if he reads the right books. He ought to know some one other language than his own, and enlarge his study in some other literature. A man who has read carefully any one of the works of Darwin will know what real scientific caution is, coupled with the widest power of hypothesis. A COPY of the annual report of the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College has been received. The total expenditure to date on the site, building, and equipment of the first section of the new building, the memorial stone of which was laid by the King two and a half years ago, has been 163,060l.; the building and equipment fund now stands at 209,7631., of which 198,8451. has been received. The small balance available after payment of the liabilities already incurred is not sufficient to enable the governors to proceed with the remaining section of the building, but it is hoped that they will soon be placed in a position to complete the scheme originally proposed. In addition to the subscriptions to the building and equipment fund, the college will receive a legacy of 20,000l. under the will of the late Mr. James Donald, and also the residue of his estate. This welcome addition to the resources of the college is to be used in the development of the facilities already existing for the study of chemistry and mechanics. The scheme for the coordination of certain of the continuation classes conducted by the school boards of Glasgow and Govan with the corresponding classes in the college was in force during last session, but did not work so satisfactorily as was anticipated. The necessity for a closer linking together of the two systems was felt, and an officer of the college has been appointed as superintendent of the continuation classes concerned, whose principal duty is to keep in close touch with the teachers, both of the college and the school boards, and whose active mediation will, it is hoped, secure the carrying out of the scheme of work agreed upon. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. LONDON. Entomological Society, October 5.-Mr. F. Merrifield, president, in the chair.-Mr. E. Harris showed living larvæ of Cordylomera saturalis, taken from a log of mahogany imported from the Sekondi district of the Gold Coast, together with the perfect beetle, which was dead at the time the discovery was made.-Mr. A. T. Rose exhibited a remarkable melanic specimen of Catocala nupta, taken by Mr. Lewis in his garden at Hornsey, N., in September. The coloration of the lower wings was of a dull brown, and all the markings of the upper wings were strongly intensified.-Mr. N. H. Joy brought for exhibition Coleoptera taken during a three days' trip to Lundy Island in August, including Melanophthalma distinguenda, Con., a species new to Britain; Stenus ossium var. insularis, a variety apparently new to science; and Ceuthorrhynchus contractus var. pallipes, Crotch, peculiar to the island. One hundred and sixty-three species were taken on the island, about eighty of which are not recorded in Wollaston's and F. Smith's lists of Lundy Coleoptera.-Mr. A. Sich showed examples of Argyresthia illuminatella, Z., two of the four specimens taken near Hailsham, Sussex, on June 15 this year. They were beaten off Pinus, and until examined with a lens were supposed to be Ocnerostoma piniariella, of which species two were also exhibited for comparison.—Mr. W. J. Lucas exhibited the larva, cocoon, and the subsequent imago of anant-lion," Myrmeleo formicarius, from two Spanish larvæ given him by Dr. T. A. Chapman last autumn. The difference in size between the small larva and the large perfect insect was remarkable. He also showed a living of the rather scarce grasshopper Stenobothrus rufipes, taken in the New Forest at the end of August, and kept alive by feeding on grass.-Mr. G. C. Champion exhibited several examples of Lymexylon navale, L., from the New Forest, where it was not often found.-Mr. A. H. Jones showed series of Lycaena argus (aegon, Schiff.), var. hypochiona, taken on the North Downs this year, approaching the form of L. argyrognomon taken not uncommonly in the Rhone Valley. Together with these he had arranged for comparison typical British L. argus, L., L. var. corsica, from Tattone, Corsica, and a series of L. argyrognomon, Brgstr. (argus, auctorum), from Chippis, near Sierre.-Colonel J. W. Yerbury exhibited specimens of Hammerschmidtia ferruginea, Fln., from Nethy Bridge, the first authentic British specimens; also Microdon latifrons, Lw., a specimen of which, taken at Nethy Bridge June 18, 1900, he had wrongly identified as M. devius, and under this name it was recorded in Verrall's "British Flies"; and of Chamaesyrphus scaevoides, Fln., a single specimen swept on June 15 in the Abernethy Forest Forest Lodge.-Mr. H. J. Turner exhibited series of four species of the genus Coleophora, C. alcyonipennella, C. lixella, C. albitarsella, and C. badiipennella, together with the larval cases mounted in situ on the ruined leaves of their respective food plants. He also exhibited living larvæ and their cases, of Goniodoma limoniella on Statice limonium, Coleophora obtusella on Juncus maritimus, and C. glaucicolella (?) on Juncus glaucus, found in the Isle of Wight.-Commander J. J. Walker read a paper by Mr. A. M. Lea entitled "The Blind Coleoptera of Australia and Tasmania," and exhibited specimens of Illaphanus stephensi, Macl., from Watson's Bay, Sydney, N.S.W., and Phycochus graniceps, Broun, and P. sulcipennis, Lea, from Hobart, Tasmania. MANCHESTER. near Literary and Philosophical Society, October 17.-Sir William H. Bailey, president, in the chair.--The " shadow bands seen during the total eclipse observed at Burgos, in Old Castile, on August 30: T. Thorp. - Inaugural address: the President (see p. 637). |