66

mosaic of the sixth century or to Matthew Paris's thirteenth century England." The chief errors which Ptolemy had imparted to the shape of the Mediterranean are corrected. The main features of the great inland sea are presented with a correctness and a minute detail which, at the most casual glance, immediately distinguish portolan work from any preceding variety of cartography. No attempt is made to fill up the interior of the lands-continental or insular of which the coasts are portrayed; such attempts are made later, it is true, but they are obvious and confessed additions to the primitive, normal, or typical portolan. But, along the shores in question, all points important for navigation are drawn with great care; small islands, bays, cliffs, and headlands-of no great general importance, but vital to the coaster-are often depicted in disproportionate size; all the ports especially suitable for calling, watering, and revictualling are indicated with the especial honour of red colouring; even shallows are frequently marked, denoted by a sign still used at the present day; the very large number of shore-names testifies to the minute knowledge underlying the work. Thus along the north coast of the Mediterranean we have (by A.D. 1320) about 620 names; on the coasts of the Black Sea and Sea of Marmora about 260; on the coasts of Asia Minor and Syria about 160; on the north coast of Africa about 240; in all some 1280, without counting island names-which are very numerousor the names which fringe the western coast of Europe to the mouth of the Elbe, and the western coast of Africa to Cape Nun, or Non, at the extreme south-west of Morocco. In respect to these shores-let us say from Hamburg almost to the Wady Draa, and from Gibraltar to Azov, Poti, Batum, Alexandretta, Jaffa, and the Nile the portolani soon become fixed in the pattern they permanently retained, a pattern which gradually triumphs over every other-even the revived Ptolemaic, to which scholars clung So desperately and so unhappily. We may therefore regard the great mass of these works as mere copies of a few normal or typical designs which were completed (at least in all their essential parts) before the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War, and a good twenty years before the battle of Crecy. How closely the original type was followed may be guessed from the fact that the portolan colours-used according to certain definite rules-are unaltered for long periods of years, and through scores of examples. Thus red or reddish-brown is always kept for the Red Sea, and long after the Turkish conquest of Rhodes that island regularly appears in white with a black cross.

Instead of lines of latitude and longitude (or substitutes for such lines, as we find in the "Palestine of Marino Sanuto, c. A.D. 1310), a net of loxodromes is employed on (or has, at any rate, been added to) the portolani even of the earliest time. These loxodromes are straight lines in the direction of the various winds, proceeding from a number of crossing-points regularly distributed over the map. But in this loxodrome net-work, in sharp contrast to all other features of the portolan map-type, there is almost infinite variation; one seldom comes across two designs of exactly similar character in this respect.

A distance-scale, with the same unit of length, occurs on all the portolani; this unit (which has been called the portolan mile) is estimated with much care by Nordenskjöld at 5830 metres; while of all known mediæval measures, that which corresponded most nearly with the " portolan mile " seems to have been the Catalan legua. A Catalan league therefore, it is suggested, may have furnished the basis of the portolan measure, and the portolan type of map may have originated (in part at least) among Catalan mariners. Baron Nordenskjöld, indeed, does not hesitate to ascribe to the portolani an entirely Catalan parentage. But, admitting that one germ of the first true maps may have existed at Barcelona or some other centre of Catalonian trade and seamanship, I cannot but think that another germ still more active and important was to be found in Italy, and above all in the north-west-in Genoa and Pisa. For, remembering the indications in Dati's " Sfera," may agree with Theobald Fischer that map sketches of portolan type, and with the practical object of helping navigation, were almost certainly drawn in Italy, and by Italians, before 1300. Remembering, also, that of the

we

existing portolani all the earliest examples are unquestionably Italian-and that, of some 500 known, 413 were executed by the countrymen of Carignano and Vescontewe shall not be ready to deprive Italy of the first place in the creation of the oldest scientific maps. Even if that creation was, as seems probable, an Homeric feat-the piecing together (with additions and improvements) of a great number of small sectional coast-surveys yet this earlier stage, only recorded in Italian manuscripts, seems no less due to the seamen of the peninsula.

Can we throw any other light upon the origin of the portolani?

In 1881 Fiorini suggested that West-European mariners, such as those of Italy, learnt from the Byzantines the art of making and using maps founded on careful draughtsmanship and close study of distance (i.e. portolani of a kind) as early as the eleventh century. This idea has been accepted by Theobald Fischer, and has been treated with great respect by other scholars. Yet it is surrounded by difficulties. For no Greek portolan has yet been found, nor is Greek influence anywhere to be detected in the language, legend-allusions, contours, or other details of the early portolani. Fragments of Latin, fragments of Italian and Catalan dialects, fragments of a lingua franca composed of various Romance tongues-these are the media through which the early portolan draughtsmen convey information. But of Greek they make no use, and of Byzantine geography, history, harbours, or coast routes they show no special knowledge. We may give weight to the fact that the Byzantine navy was one of the chief Christian weapons in the ninth, tenth, and early eleventh centuries; that Constantinople was then the greatest trade centre in Christendom; and that the seamen of the Greek islands were very prominent in Mediterranean navigation in the age of the Byzantine revival (c. 860-1060 A.D.). But all this is far from proving a Byzantine right to the "invention" of the portolan coast-chart, even in the primitive form of sectional pilot-maps of limited areas.

It only remains to say that all genuine progress in geographical delineation followed the lines of the portolani: that the accurate methods employed by them for coast-work were gradually applied to the interior of countries; that in spite of the contempt shown for them by most of the learned in the so-called Renaissance period, they were at last known by their fruits and vindicated by the success of their type.

Ancient classical or pre-Christian maps were not without certain merits, though we can only judge of them by the two remaining examples, the Peutinger table, originally a road-map of Augustus's Empire, and the designs illustrating the "Geography" of Claudius Ptolemy of Alexandria-both surviving only in manuscripts of the central mediæval period. After the modern age of oceanic discovery had passed through its earliest and most difficult stages, the Renaissance editions of Ptolemy (from 1474) played a very important part in delaying geographical progress and retarding the history of civilisation. But in the time of the early portolani (say from 1300 to 1400) neither the work of the Alexandrian astronomer nor the road-maps of the Roman Empire were adequately known in western Europe. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were not so innocent.

Designs of the portolan type do not seem to have existed even in the best ages of classical geography and exploring activity; the old peripli were sailing directions, not drawn, but written; and the only Arabic scheme of the sort which has yet been found is certainly copied from a Christian and Italian-original.

It is in the portolani, and especially in such a work as the Laurentian design of 1351, with its revelations of the Azores and the Madeira group, and its still more startling suggestion of the true shape of Africa, that we may find, perhaps, the chief geographical teachers of Henry the Navigator and his Portuguese. Never better than in these long-neglected charts does the history of civilisation illustrate man's change from empirical to scientific, from traditional booklearning to the investigation of nature. The portolani long

1 To Nordenskjöld's wild theory, "Facsimile Atlas," p. 48, that Marinus of Tyre is the real original portolan draughtsman, and that the Marinus maps which Masudi saw before A. D. 955 were really portolani, we need not pay attention.

suffered, in general appreciation, from the fact that-in their essential features they never attempted to gratify popular taste; that they did not, with rare exceptions, illustrate the works of fashionable writers, whether classical philosophers or mediæval prelates; that they had no connection with the legends and dreams of chivalry and romance; that they were not the work of schools or courts; and that they owed nothing to Ptolemy or Strabo. But we know their worth better now.

They first record for us the new discoveries among the Atlantic islands and along the African mainland; they guide and accompany the faltering steps of our race in the outward, oceanic, movement of European life; in them true cartography, the map-making of the civilised world, begins. C. RAYMOND BEAZLEY.

GEOLOGICAL NOTES.

STATISTICS of mineral production in India in the ten years 1894 to 1903 have been issued by the Government of India (Department of Revenue and Agriculture, 1904). In the report for 1903 satisfactory progress in the mining industry is recorded. There has been a remarkable development in the production of petroleum and manganese ore, and a continuation of the progress previously recorded for coal and gold.

From the Geological Survey of India we have received part ii. of the newly re-issued Records. Mr. T. H. Holland, director, contributes a short appreciative memoir of the late General C. A. McMahon, and among other articles there is a well illustrated report by Mr. J. Malcolm Maclaren on the auriferous occurrences of Chota Nagpur, in Bengal. The conclusion is that there is little scope for the legitimate investment of capital in the recovery of gold, whether from the quartz veins or from the superficial deposits, but that the greater portion of the gold must be left to the native washer, forming for him a reserve that, though it will never raise him to affluence, will always lift him beyond the grasp of famine." Two minerals, thenardite and cancrinite, are recorded for the first time from India. We have also received a report on the geology of Spiti, by Mr. H. H. Hayden (Mem. Geol. Surv. India, vol. xxxvi., part i.). Hitherto no systematic survey had been made of the region, and the results of this work, which was carried out by Mr. Hayden with the assistance of the late Dr. von Krafft, are depicted on a map to the scale of one inch to four miles, and further illustrated by some striking pictorial views and sections. The formations represented are Cambrian, Silurian, Carboniferous and Permian, Trias, Jurassic, and Cretaceous, with also intrusive rocks. The oldest sedimentary rocks belong to the Middle Haimanta division of Mr. Griesbach; they are unfossiliferous, and are overlain presumably by the Upper Haimantas, in which Lingulella and Olenus have been found. Lower and Upper Silurian rocks are recognised, and from these and the later formations many fossils are recorded.

The ammonite fauna of the Spiti shales forms the subject of a monograph by Dr. Victor Uhlig (Mem. Geol. Survey, India, ser. xv., vol. iv.). Only the first portion of this work has at present been issued, and in it the author deals with the genera and species of Ammonoidea. With regard to the classification, the author remarks that as no universally satisfactory agreement has yet been reached, he gives the descriptions of the various forms in unclassified sequence, while indicating their approximate position. In the course of his work he has studied as far as possible all the old as well as new material, and he has found it necessary to re-figure and describe many of the species previously published.

In mineralogical notes contributed by Mr. A. K. Coomaraswamy (Spolia Zeylanica, August), reference is made to the occurrence in Ceylon of thorium-bearing minerals, of corundum-sillimanite rocks, kyanite, serendibite, &c. The same author, in dealing with the geology

1 Some of the atlases founded on portolani, such as the Carte Catalane of 1375. really illustrate the travels of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, eg. Marco Polo's. But this is strictly in the way of explanation of a great eographic text.

name

of Ceylon (Geol. Mag., August), proposes the Balangoda group for a series of granitic and pegmatitic rocks intrusive in the Charnockite series. The group includes granites with zircon, allanite, magnetite, &c.

The summary of progress of the Geological Survey for the year 1903 contains the usual particulars of the field work which has been carried on in Cornwall, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, in various parts of Ross-shire and the western highlands, in the Edinburgh coal-field, and in the neighbourhood of Cork in Ireland. Special attention is directed to the discovery in Ross-shire of a rock essentially composed of magnetite and cassiterite the occurrence of tin-ore being new; but it is stated that at present there is no reason to believe that the tin-bearing rock occurs in any large masses. In an appendix Dr. J. S. Flett contributes first notes on the petrography of western Cornwall, dealing with some of the garnetiferous greenstones, the granites and greisen veins, and the phenomena of contact alteration; Mr. H. B. Woodward writes on the Geological Survey in reference to Agriculture, with report on the soils and subsoils of the Rothamsted estate; and Mr. H. A. Allen continues the important catalogue of types and figured specimens of fossils in the Museum of Practical Geology, with a record of Oolitic Gasteropoda and Scaphopoda.

The general report and statistics on mines and quarries for 1903, part iii. (output), has been issued by the Home Office. The total value of the minerals raised during the year showed a decrease of 5 million pounds as compared with 1902-a decrease arising from the fall in price of coal. The total output of coal was the highest hitherto recorded. The outputs of ores of iron, copper, and lead show increase, while those of manganese, tin, and uranium ores show decrease.

In the Proceedings of the Bristol Naturalists' Society (n.s., vol. x., part iii.) Prof. Lloyd Morgan and Prof. S. H. Reynolds give particulars of the field relations of the Carboniferous volcanic rocks of Somerset. There is also an interesting article by Mr. W. H. Wickes on the Rhætic bone-beds, the author pointing out that there is no regular and persistent bed, but thin layers of varying extent occur on different horizons, due to the former presence and destruction of shoals of carnivorous fishes and saurians, while the occurrence of small pebbles in the bone-beds is attributed to the fact that large sea fish often have stones in their stomachs. Mr. H. B. Woodward contributes a memoir on the late Robert Etheridge, dealing more especially with his work in the Bristol area.

In the Proceedings of the Cotteswold Naturalists' Field Club (vol. xv., part i.) Messrs. J. W. Gray and G. W. S. Brewer direct attention to the evidence of a Celtic settlement on Cleeve Hill, prior to the Roman occupation of that part of the country; among the domestic animals Mr. L. were the horse, ox, sheep, pig, dog, and fowl. Richardson contributes an article on the Rhætic beds of Worcestershire.

A study of sands and sediments has been commenced by Mr. T. Mellard Reade and Mr. Philip Holland (Proc. Liverpool Geol. Soc., 1904). So far as their investigations have proceeded, they are led to believe that purely mechanical micro-sediments may constitute a much larger proportion of the rocks than has been hitherto suspected. Moreover, their experiments show the persistent retention of detrital carbonate of lime in extremely fine subsidence-matter, and suggest that deep-sea limestones may sometimes be formed as detrital accumulations.

The twenty-eighth annual report of the Department of Geology and Natural Resources, Indiana, under the direction of Mr. W. S. Blatchley, State geologist, is accompanied by an excellent geological map of the State on the scale of an inch to four miles, with explanatory descriptions by Dr. T. C. Hopkins and Dr. A. F. Foerste. The formations represented are Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Lower Carboniferous, and Coal-measures. The petroleum producing areas are specially marked, that industry having become one of the greatest in the State. Special reports are contributed on this and on the lime industry, and there is also an article on the stratigraphy and palæontology of the Niagara formation by Mr. E. M. Kindle, with twenty-five plates of fossils.

A comprehensive memoir on the geology and ore-deposits of the Bisbee Quadrangle, Arizona, by Mr. F. L. Ransome, appears as one of the " professional papers of the United States Geological Survey (1904). This district became famous for its production of copper-ore in 1880, and was connected with the railway system as recently as 1902. Hence Mr. Ransome has found himself obliged to invent names--and pleasing ones of Spanish origin-for several topographic features. His plates show how the geological structure of the country can be read on many of the hillsides with the clearness of a diagram; in several respects they remind one of the bare dry landscapes in the Mesozoic areas of the Basses Alpes. The fossiliferous beds include Middle Cambrian, Devonian (apparently conformable on these), Lower and Upper Carboniferous (both marine), and Cretaceous, resting unconformably on the preceding beds. The affinities of the strata are with those of Texas. The paper concludes with a discussion of the origin of the copperores, in which stress is laid on their concentration from cupriferous iron-pyrites, deposited in metamorphosed lime

stone.

In the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria (vol. xvii., n.s., part .) Messrs. F. Chapman and G. B. Pritchard commence an article on the fossil fish-remains from the Tertiaries of Australia. They deal with the description, range in time, and distribution of the sharks, and they observe that Asteracanthus, hitherto known only from Secondary strata, extended beyond question into the Tertiary seas round southern Australia. In other articles the Silurian Ostracoda and Phyllocarida, and the Tertiary Polyzoa and Mollusca of Victoria receive attention. Prof. J. W. Gregory contributes a paper on the antiquity of man in Victoria, and concludes (contrary to his previously expressed opinion) that, however ancient the Australian aborigines may be, there is no evidence of the long occupation of Victoria by man.

We have received the annual report of the Geological Survey of Canada for the year 1900, issued in 1903; it is accompanied by geological maps, dated 1904, of parts of British Columbia (Atlin Gold-fields), Labrador, Saskatchewan, and Quebec.

A revision of the Palæozoic Palæechinoidea, with a synopsis of all known species, has been contributed by Mary J. Klem (Trans. Acad. Science, St. Louis, vol. xiv., No. 1). She remarks that the prevailing characters which may be taken as a basis for classification are:-(1) number of columns in the ambulacra; (2) position and number of the ambulacral pores; (3) ornamentation of the plates; (4) imbrication of the plates; (5) apical system; (6) general shape of the body; and (7) geological position.

An interesting article on the occurrence and distribution of copper in the United States, by Mr. W. H. Weed, appears in the Mining Magazine (New York, September). Nearly 700 million pounds of metallic copper were produced in the States during 1903, and in the previous year nearly 300 million pounds were obtained from an area a mile long and half a mile wide at Butte, in Montana, where the Anaconda Mine produces more copper than any other mine in the world. The ores occur in well defined veins in quartzmonzonite, associated with white granite or aplite, which forms dykes and small masses. Dykes of quartz-porphyry also occur, and seem to have some genetic association with the ore-bodies. Several mines are 2200 feet deep.

The Geological Survey of Queensland has commenced the issue of Records. In No. 1 Mr. B. Dunstan, the acting Government geologist, contributes notes on the occurrence of gold nuggets near Mount Morgan, on phosphate-bearing rocks, asbestos, oriental rubies, &c. Mr. R. Etheridge records the occurrence of Halysites in the Chillagoe limestones. We have received also Publications Nos. 191 and 192, on the tin, copper, and silver mining in the Stanthorpe district, by Lionel C. Ball, and on the Herberton tin field, by Mr. W. E. Cameron.

Some Upper Devonian fish-remains, obtained by Dr. Whitman Cross from Colorado, are described by Mr. C. R. Eastman (Amer. Journ. Sci., October). The remains belong to the genera Bothriolepis and Holoptychius. In the same journal a number of fossil turtles belonging to the Marsh collection in Yale University Museum are described and figured by Mr. O. P. Hay. Many of the specimens are from the Laramie deposits of Wyoming.

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN THE
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.

THE occupation of the Philippine Islands by the United States has been quickly followed by the establishment. of laboratories, and already a large amount of scientific work has been done, and several valuable reports have been issued.

The report1 under review deals with the year ending September, 1903. The permanent buildings of the Government laboratory at Manila were completed last April, and comprise a serum laboratory for the preparation of therapeutic sera and vaccine lymph with attached paddocks and animal houses, a chemical laboratory, a biological department for the prosecution of pathological, entomological, and botanical research, a marine biological station, a bureau of weights and measures, and a library.

About one-third of the volume is occupied with a report on trypanosomiasis by Dr. Musgrave and Mr. Clegg, with special reference to the existence of surra among the horses in the Philippines. At the same time a very complete review of our present knowledge of trypanosomiasis is given, the various species are described, and the symptomatology and prophylaxis are discussed. The report, which is a very valuable one, is copiously illustrated with excellent photographs, temperature charts, &c. Several other papers of pathological interest are included in the volume; also an account of rinderpest inoculation.

Another valuable report is on the gutta-percha industry and the various gutta-percha-producing trees, and is illustrated with a number of photographs of species of Palaquium and Payena, methods of collection of the guttapercha, maps of geographical distribution, &c.

The final third of the volume contains the report of Mr. Charles Banks, the Government entomologist, and gives an account of the insect pests attacking the cacao. This, like the rest of the papers, is copiously illustrated with excellent photographs.

The volume reflects the greatest credit on the staff of the laboratory, but the complete omission of a table of contents and an index should be remedied in future issues. R. T. HEWLETT.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
INTELLIGENCE.

BIRMINGHAM.—A chair of music has been established by an endowment of 10,000l. given for that purpose by Mr. Richard Peyton, of Birmingham. The chair has been accepted by Sir Edward Elgar; but the intention of the university authorities is by no means to interfere in any way with his work as composer, and he will be left free to develop the chair gradually and on such lines as he, in consultation with other members of the Senate, may think fit.

Dr. Arthur Robinson, of King's College, London, has been elected to the chair of anatomy, vacated by the appointment of Dr. Windle to the presidency of Queen's College, Cork. The new professor will assume office in January.

A new chair of electrical engineering has been established as a supplement to the lectureship in the same subject held by Dr. D. K. Morris. The first occupant of the chair will be Mr. Gisbert Kapp, now lecturer at Charlottenburg. He is not expected, however, to return to this country until the autumn of next year, and his appointment will not take effect until October, 1905. Meanwhile, and subsequently, Dr. Morris and his staff will continue their work as before. The new and large buildings for the department will be ready by that time. A competent assistant will have to be elected to assist Prof. Kapp in the drawing office for dynamo and central station design.

Prof. Burstall will continue to occupy his chair, the title of which will be changed to Mechanical Engineering,' and he will have control over a great engineering block and the power station.

It is not improbable that a special chair of civil engineering in the narrower sense will be established.

1 Report of the Superintendent of Government Laboratories in the Philippine Islands for the Year ended September 1, 1903

EDINBURGH.-Sir Donald Currie has subscribed the sum of 25,000l. toward the fund which is being raised by the university to enable a site to be purchased on which laboratories and other educational buildings could be erected, and for making further financial provision for an extension of the teaching staff and for the promotion of research in the university. To the principal, Sir William Turner, Sir Donald Currie stated that he wished the revenue from this money to be applied by the university court to the remuneration of a staff of lecturers, such as the authorities of the university might find it advisable from time to time to appoint. An option was also given to the university court to apply 5000l. of the amount towards the purchase of a site for the new laboratories, should it be necessary to use a portion of his gift for that purpose. In addition to this gift, subscriptions amounting to 15,000l. have been promised by other friends of the university.

ACCORDING to a report mentioned in Science, it is proposed to move the Western University of Pennsylvania from the suburbs of Allegheny to Pittsburg proper, near the new Carnegie Technical School. About fifty acres of ground, sufficient for twenty large university buildings, are being secured at a cost of about 400,000l., and the work of construction will be begun before long. Fifty citizens of Pittsburg have agreed to give each from 8000l. to 20,000l. for the school. From the same source we learn that the general assembly of the State of Vermont has appropriated 12,000l. for the use of the agricultural department of the university. The money is to be expended in the erection and equipment of a building to be known as Morrill Agricultural Hall, in memory of the father of the agricultural colleges of the country, the late Senator Justin S. Morrill.

Ir may be remembered that the authorities of University College, Sheffield, were informed by the committee of the Privy Council that, subject to a substantial realisation of the hopes entertained in connection with the movement for the establishment of a Sheffield University, their Lordships would be prepared in due course to recommend to His Majesty the grant of a charter. We learn from the calendar of the University College for 1904-5 that of the sum of 170,000l., which efforts are being made to raise, 54.1341. has been promised since 1903. In addition, 52,9081. was promised in 1902 to the new buildings fund, so that some 107,0421. has been raised for higher education in Sheffield within a short period. It is to be hoped that little difficulty will be experienced in securing the amount which must be provided still before the University of Sheffield can be incorporated.

Two technical State scholarships have been just placed at the disposal of the local government of the Punjab, says the Pioneer Mail. These scholarships will enable natives of India to pursue a course of study in Great Britain or other western countries with the object of qualifying them to assist in promoting the improvement of existing native industries and the development of new industries wherever this may be possible. In the case of the Punjab the industries allowed to be taken up are tanning, metalwork, and pottery, and the local government has decided to confine its efforts to the first two, at any rate for the present. The value of each scholarship has been fixed at 150l. a year, and it will be tenable for two years, but it will be open to the Government of India to increase the value of any scholarship, and to extend the period during which it will be tenable. Commissioners and superintendents of divisions have been asked to make the scheme publicly known, and to enlist in its behalf the interest of the commercial classes.

THE annual prize distribution and students' conversazione at the Northampton Institute, E.C., was held last week, when the prizes and certificates were distributed by Lord Reay. The principal's report showed that the work of the institute has in several important departments overtaken the accommodation, and that there is urgent necessity for extension. A special note was made of the recent recognition of the work of the institute by the Board of Education; and the necessity for a 66 British Institute of Technical Optics was pointed out. Lord Reay, in his address, dwelt upon the desirability of reviving, so far as modern conditions would allow, the old system of apprenticeship,

and pointed out how the polytechnics and technical institutes could be made useful in connection therewith. The vote of thanks to Lord Reay was moved by Mr. Alexander Siemens. After the distribution the various laboratories and workshops were thrown open, and a series of lecturettes, exhibits, and demonstrations was given. The most interesting demonstration was perhaps that of a new submersible boat in the swimming bath. These boats, invented by Mr. Middleton, of Brighton, are propelled, directed, controlled, and governed by fins actuated by prime movers, in such a fashion that they can move any way in tri-dimensional space in the fluid in which they are immersed. By altering the inclination of the plane of the fins, these can be made to propel the boat forwards or backwards, to sink it below the surface, to raise it again, and, in fact, to direct it along any course, whether inclined to the horizontal or otherwise.

THE proceedings of the Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain and Ireland for 1904, which have now been published, show that the council of the institute has had under consideration the recommendations of the Consultative Committee to the Board of Education for a scheme of examinations for school certificates. It will be remembered that it is proposed that these school certificates should take the place of the many professional preliminary examinations now held; that a central board should be constituted for England, consisting of representatives of the Board of Education and of the different examining bodies, to control the standard of the examinations for school certificates ; and that the proposed examinations should be under the control of independent external examiners, although conducted by internal and external examiners jointly. The council of the Institute of Chemistry has informed the Board of Education (a) that the council considers it desirable to substitute some such system as is proposed in lieu of the various professional preliminary examinations now held; (b) that if such a system be established, the council will be prepared to accept the proposed senior certificate examination, passed in the subjects required by the regulations of the institute; and (c) that the council will be pleased to be represented on the proposed central board. A scheme for school certificates submitted by the University of Birmingham has also met with the approval of the council of the institute, and it has also been decided to accept the matriculation examination held jointly by the Victoria University, the University of Liverpool, and the University of Leeds, as an approved preliminary examination, provided the certificate include the subjects required by the regulations of the institute.

A DEPUTATION from the Association of Chambers of Commerce of the United Kingdom waited upon Lord Londonderry, President of the Board of Education, on Monday to urge that increased Government aid should be given to higher technical and higher commercial education. The views of the deputation were expressed in the following resolution, which was passed at the meeting of the association on September 28, and was now laid before Lord Londonderry :-"That, in order to retain our industrial position and to introduce into this country such further industries as may be profitably developed, this association is of opinion that it is absolutely necessary to establish or acquire public secondary schools of the highest standard, where efficient ineans of such education do not exist, with fees low enough to make them accessible to all grades, and to provide sufficient inducements by bursaries, exhibitions, scholarships, or otherwise to make the efficient boys stay long enough in these schools in order to thoroughly train and adequately prepare a very much larger number than is at present available for taking full advantage of the provisions made for higher technical and higher commercial education, the facilities for which ought also to be largely extended and the standard considerably raised." In introducing the deputation, Sir W. H. Holland, M.P., said the chambers of commerce might be fairly taken to represent the organised commercial opinion of the country, and they were convinced that the Board of Education would encourage them to take a keen interest in secondary and technical education. Mr. Ivan Levinstein said the want of secondary education was the cause of our present most deplorable position. What we wanted, in the first instance, was a far larger number of

high-class public secondary schools. We must be prepared to face a great financial sacrifice, for some years at any rate, if we were to put secondary education in this country on anything like the level it had reached in America, Switzerland, and Germany. After other speakers had put forward similar claims for consideration of the subject, Lord Londonderry, in reply, said that he felt the weight of the arguments put forward, but the opinions of his colleagues of the Board of Education and himself on this vitally important matter were expressed in such detail and so definitely in the reply forwarded by Mr. Morant to the chamber on September 26 (see NATURE, October 13, p. 595) that on the present occasion he proposed to devote attention rather to the question of commercial education than to that of technical education. The whole matter was one to which the Board were fully alive, and he was very glad to learn from the representations which they had made that day that there was on the part of the chambers of commerce a keen appreciation of the value of that special advanced instruction in the several sections of mercantile practice which the Board had felt it their duty to encourage in the evening schools serving the more important commercial

communities.

SOCIETIES AND ACADemies.

LONDON.

Royal Society, February 11.-" On Certain Properties of the Alloys of Silver and Cadmium." By Dr. T. K. Rose. Attention was directed to these alloys on account of the advantages of using them as the material for trial plates for testing the fineness of silver coin and plate. An examination of the curves of equilibrium between the liquid and solid states of the alloys proved the existence of several compounds of silver and cadmium, some of which have already been recognised in other ways. Horizontal branches of the curve mark the solidification of the compounds Ag,Cd,, AgCd, and AgCd,, and the solidification of Ag,Cd, corresponds to a cusp on the curve of initial freezing points. There is a strong tendency for mixtures of the compounds to form solid solutions. This is strikingly shown in the case of alloys containing more than 80 per cent. of silver. At temperatures in the short range of a few degrees between the initial and final freezing points of these alloys, two bodies exist side by side, but at a lower temperature they coalesce to form a single solid solution provided that sufficient time is allowed for complete mixing by diffusion. For example, in the standard alloy, which contains 7.5 per cent. of cadmium, solidification begins at about 945°, and is completed at about 913°. If the alloy is maintained at some temperature between these points a network of a silverpoor body is gradually formed surrounding crystals of a silver-rich body. If the alloy is subjected for some hours to a temperature a little below 913°, large crystals with regular boundaries are formed occupying the whole area of the field. These alloys are remarkably ductile.

The alloy corresponding to the formula Ag,Cd is finegrained and apparently homogeneous. If heated for some time to a temperature of 750°, somewhat below its point of solidification, the cadmium from the surface is volatilised, leaving a layer of pure silver. On removing this during the operation of polishing a black layer is met with, coloured by oxide of cadmium, and underneath this the original alloy is found to exist. The layers are not everywhere of the same thickness, so that in the course of polishing alternate rings of black and white are produced, resembling the well known Japanese decorative metal-work called Mokumé, which is used in jewellery.

The alloy containing about 50 per cent. of silver consists of crystals of a silver-rich body, often pinkish in colour, set in a white matrix composed of AgCd,. The 40 per cent. alloy is a hard, brittle substance, the compound Ag Cd,. As the percentage of silver decreases, a matrix, consisting mainly of AgCd,, makes its appearance surrounding the crystals of Ag2Cd,, and specimens containing less than 25 per cent. of silver consist of crystals of AgCd, set in a matrix of cadmium.

Several similarities to the silver-zinc series of alloys have been noted.

November 24." The Refractive Indices of the Elements." By Clive Cuthbertson.

In a letter addressed to NATURE in October, 1902, attention was directed to the fact that the refractivities of the five inert gases of the atmosphere, He, Ne, A, Kr, and X, as determined by Ramsay and Travers, were, within narrow limits of accuracy, in the proportion of 1, 2, 8, 12 and 20; or, more simply, of 1, 1, 2, 3, and 5.

In a second letter it was shown that the refractivities of the halogens, Cl, Br, and I, stand also in the relation of 2, 3, and 5 to the same degree of accuracy; but it was pointed out that the figures for P, As, and S, as measured by M. Le Roux in 1861, did not show any similar relation; and it was observed that a re-determination of them would be interesting.

With a Jamin's refractometer, adapted for use with high temperatures, results have now been obtained for Hg, P, and S, which differ widely from those of M. Le Roux. The index of mercury, calculated for a molecule containing two atoms, is placed at 1.001857, a number which agrees closely with the value given by the refractive equivalent of GladThe index of P, is found to be 1001197, and that of S, is 1.001101.

stone.

In all three cases it is estimated that the margin of error does not exceed 1 per cent. Comparing these values for P, and S, with those of N, and O,, it is shown that the simple relations found in the case of the inert gases and the halogens also hold in the case of nitrogen and phosphorus, oxygen and sulphur; and that an atom of phosphorus retards light four times as much as an atom of nitrogen, an atom of sulphur four times as much as an atom of oxygen.

Efforts have also been made to measure the index of fluorine in the gaseous state, but, owing to the experimental difficulties, success has not yet been attained.

It appears then, that, out of fourteen elements the index of refraction of which has been measured in the gaseous state, twelve conform to the rule that in each chemical group the refractivities of the elements are in the ratios of small integers. The other two, Hg and H, have no allied elements with which they can be compared.

It is pointed out that N, O, and Ne are each followed, in their respective families, by an element the refractivity of which is four times as great, and that, consequently, there are reasons for believing that the elements composing the series N, O, F, and Ne, and P, S, Cl, and A are, in some sense, homologous. Comparing the refractivities of the latter series we see that the power to retard light appears to be closely connected with the valency, increasing as it increases, in spite of the decrease in atomic weight, as shown in the following table :—

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December 1.-" On the Structure and Affinities of Fossil Plants from the Palæozoic Rocks.-V. On a New Type of Sphenophyllaceous Cone (Sphenophyllum fertile) from the Lower Coal-measures. By Dr. D. H. Scott, F.R.S. The class Sphenophyllales, of which the fossil described new representative, shows on the one hand clear affinities with the Equisetales, while the other it approaches the Lycopods; some botanists have endeavoured to trace a relation to the ferns. The nearest allies among recent plants are probably the Psilotaceæ, which some writers have even proposed to include in the Sphenophyllales.

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The new strobilus appears to find its natural place in the type-genus Sphenophyllum, as at present constituted, but it possesses peculiar features of considerable importance, which may probably ultimately justify generic separation. The specimen, of which a number of transverse and longitudinal sections have been prepared by Mr. Lomax, is from one of the calcareous nodules of the Lower Coal-measures