ago to consider the question whether the peak which Mr. Hodgson called Devadhunga was identical with the peak which Sir A. Waugh called Mount Everest; from the geographical evidence available they concluded that the two peaks were not identical, and their conclusion has been found correct. In those early days there had arisen no such subtle questions as whether Mount Everest formed part of a certain range, or whether it belonged to a certain group of peaks, or whether it was just visible to those who knew where to search for it. To the clear minds of our predecessors, to Hodgson and Waugh and Schlagintweit and Walker, there was but one question at issue, namely, the identity of Hodgson's and Schlagintweit's peak with the Mount Everest of the Survey.

This question has now been answered, and after fifty years of discussion the Hindu and Nepalese names have been proved to be inapplicable; let us, then, close a controversy that has fulfilled its purpose, and let us suffer the English name to rest on our maps in peace.

S. G. BURRARD.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
INTELLIGENCE.

OXFORD.-The Vice-Chancellor has appointed Prof. Ray Lankester, hon. fellow of Exeter College, to be Romanes lecturer for 1905.

Sir John Burdon Sanderson, Bart., hon. fellow of Magdalen College, late regius professor of medicine, has been constituted a perpetual delegate of the university

museum.

Mr. Walter J. Barton, scholar of New College, has been elected to the geographical scholarship for 1904-5.

The executive committee of the Oxford division of the British Medical Association has had the electric light permanently installed in the Pitt-Rivers Museum as a mark of their appreciation of the generosity of the university in allowing the association to make use of their various buildings and of the help the university gave them in other ways during the meeting of the association in Oxford in July last. The cordial thanks of the university have been conveyed to the Oxford division of the association for their most acceptable gift, and the curators of the university chest have been empowered to erect a suitable record of the occasion in the Pitt-Rivers Museum.

CAMBRIDGE.-Mr. J. C. Willis, of Gonville and Caius College, director of the botanic garden at Peradeniya, Ceylon, has been approved for the degree of doctor of science.

Prof. G. H. Darwin, F.R.S., and Mr. A. E. Shipley, F.R.S., have been elected members of the council of the Senate.

Mr. A. Young, tenth wrangler in 1895, lecturer in mathematics at Selwyn College, has been elected a fellow of Clare College.

Mr. R. P. Gregory, demonstrator of botany, and Mr. E. Cunningham, senior wrangler 1902, have been elected fellows of St. John's College.

Prof. Marshall Ward, F.R.S., has been elected president, and Prof. Thomson, F.R.S., Prof. Liveing, F.R.S., and Dr. Hobson, F.R.S., vice-presidents of the Cambridge Philosophical Society.

WE learn from Science that the will of Mr. James Callanan, of Des Moines, makes bequests amounting to 27,000l. for educational institutions. Of this sum 20,000l. goes to Talladega College, Alabama.

THE chair of chemistry applied to the dyeing industry at the Paris Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, rendered vacant by the death of M. Victor de Luynes, has been given, states the Athenaeum, to M. Maurice Prudhomme, who acted as reporter of the section devoted to textile industries and dyeing at the Exposition Universelle of 1900.

THE following deans of faculties of the University of London have been elected for the two years 1904-6 :medicine, Dr. J. K. Fowler; science, Dr. A. D. Waller, F.R.S.; engineering, Prof. J. D. Cormack; economics, Mr. G. Armitage-Smith.

1 Vide Proceedings R.G.S., 1858.

MR. ANDREW CARNEGIE, who has been Rector of the University of St. Andrews for the past term of three years, was re-elected to that office on November 4.

AN open competitive examination for not fewer than twenty situations as assistant examiner in the Patent Office will be held by the Civil Service Commissioners in January next. The examination will commence on January 2, 1905, and forms of application for admission to it are now ready for issue, and may be obtained on request addressed by letter to the secretary, Civil Service Commission, Burlington Gardens, London, W.

DR. C. KASSNER has been appointed professor of meteorology at the Berlin Technical College; Dr. Maurer physicist to the German Navy; Dr. O. Lummer, from Charlottenburg, to succeed Prof. O. E. Meyer as professor of physics at Breslau; Prof. London, of Breslau, to succeed Prof. Heffter as professor of mathematics at Bonn. Dr. Augustin, of Prague, has been raised to the rank of ordinary professor of meteorology, and Dr. Karl Exner has retired from the chair of physics at Innsbruck with the title of Hofrat.

to

be

In view of the importance of German to students of science, the University College of North Wales founded a lectureship in German, to which was attached the duty of conducting a beginner's class in that language, with especial reference to the needs of students qualifying for science degrees, and Mr. Rea, of Belfast, was appointed lecturer. The experiment bids fair a complete success. about thirty students having joined in the first year of the new venture. The institution of classes of this kind in our university colleges will, it is hoped, remove anomaly which, in the natural order of events, has grown up in Britain, viz. the turning out of graduates in science who are debarred from efficiently engaging in post-graduate work by their inability to assimilate readily the subjectmatter of Continental scientific literature.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. LONDON.

an

Royal Society, June 2.-"Studies on Enzyme Action: The Effect of Poisons on the Rate of Decomposition of Hydrogen Peroxide by Hæmase. By George Senter, Ph.D., B.Sc. (Lond.). Communicated by Prof. E. H. Starling, F.R.S.

In a former paper (Zeit. physikal. Chemie, xliv., p. 257. 1903) the author investigated the relation of the reaction velocity to peroxide concentration and amount of enzyme present, as well as the acceleration caused by rise of temperature; the results correspond almost exactly with those obtained by Bredig in his experiments on the decom. position of hydrogen peroxide by colloidal platinum. In the present paper, assuming that hæmase is also a colloid in solution, it is suggested that the velocity of reaction between the catalysor and hydrogen peroxide is great in comparison with the rate of diffusion of the peroxide to the colloidal particles, so that what is measured is really a diffusion-velocity. This would account for the analogous results obtained with platinum and hæmase, since the nature of the catalysor would be of secondary importance.

The hæmase catalysis of hydrogen peroxide, like the platinum catalysis, is retarded by small quantities of many substances, more especially by those which act as poisons towards the living organism. Thus mercuric chloride, sulphuretted hydrogen, and hydrocyanic acid, in the concentration of 1 gram-molecule to 1 million litres, reduce the reaction-velocity to half its value; they are just the substances which have the greatest retarding effect on the platinum catalysis. Iodine, mercuric cyanide, and aniline have a much smaller effect. Arsenious acid, sodium lysis; although powerful antiseptics, they have little effect fluoride, and formaldehyde do not greatly retard the cataon enzyme actions in general. Carbon monoxide, although an active poison for the platinum catalysis, does not affect hæmase. Hæmase, like other enzymes, but unlike platinum, is very sensitive even to minute quantities of acids and alkalis. The retarding effect of acids is, in most cases, proportional to the concentration of hydrogen ions, in other words, to the strength of the acid. The ways in which

poisons may act are discussed in the paper, and it is suggested that in many cases they enter into chemical combination with the enzyme.

Royal Microscopical Society, October 19.-Dr. Dukinñeld H. Scott, F.R.S., president, in the chair.-A communication from Mr. W. D. Colver described the antennæ of Pulex irritans, on the terminal joint of which Mr. Wm. Jenkinson, of Sheffield, had discovered a lamellated structure that he believed to have an olfactory function. Mr. Jenkinson had found similar structures in several other members of the family Pulicidæ. A slide showing the entire antenna, and another showing the terminal joint, were exhibited under microscopes, and photographs of the latter slide were exhibited in the room and on the screen. -Part xvii., being the concluding part, of Mr. Millett's report on the recent Foraminifera of the Malay Archipelago was taken as read.-The President then gave a demonstration on the reconstruction of a fossil plant. The plant selected was Lyginodendron Oldhamium. The growth of our knowledge of its construction was illustrated by a number of actual sections and lantern slides shown on the screen. The identification of the stem of a Pinites, the tern-like petiole of Rachiopteris aspera, and the foliage of Sphenopteris Höninghausi as being corresponding parts of Lyginodendron was demonstrated. It was discovered that the stem was frequently branched, and certain fossil eds are now, on structural evidence and association, considered to be the fruit of this plant. The reconstruction of the plant is, however, still incomplete, for the male organs have not yet been identified with certainty. The position of Lyginodendron as a seed-bearing plant allied at once to cycads and ferns was now established. A picture of the reconstructed plant was shown on the screen, and models of the seed lent by Prof. F. W. Oliver were exhibited. Physical Society, October 28.-Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, F.R.S., president, in the chair.-An interference apparatus for the calibration of extensometers: J. Morrow and E. L. Watkin. The paper describes an apparatus for calibrating extensometers and similar instruments by comparison with the wave-length of sodium light. The apparatus is selfcontained and easily made ready for use. It consists sentially of two metal cylinders of equal diameter, with their axes in the same straight line, but with a small gap between their adjacent ends. The gap is increased or decreased by the movement of a lever actuating a screw, and the alteration in its amount is measured by the interference rings produced in an optical system situated inside the gap. --A sensitive hygrometer: Dr. W. M. Thornton. instrument is made by enclosing the cooled surface of a Regnault's hygrometer in a glass globe so that only the mass of vapour contained in the vessel is available for condensation. The cooled surface is made much smaller than sal about 1 sq. cm. The surface-density of the deposited Pasture depends on the total quantity of water-vapour pre****i. If this is more than a minimum to be determined later, it will be visible either by the loss of brightness by attering, or by observing, as in the Dines hygrometer, the scattered light itself. Little is known as to the manner which moisture is deposited on smooth cold surfaces. Dr. Park has shown that the thickness of the deposit is of the same order as that of the black spot in interference

The

The reflection of light from such a clear layer of un.form thickness backed by a bright surface is considered in the paper, and it is shown that the loss of light due to The thinnest possible films can be perceived. The opposite to that of a smooth layer is that of clear spherical particles resting on the surface. This is also considered, and the surface-density to give a visible deposit is calcuIn connection with this an interesting note was received from Lord Rayleigh in reply to an inquiry, in which shows that the maximum brightness of a cloud is about 410- that of the sun. Comparing all values, it is taken at 10-grams per sq. cm. can be detected by unaided sson with diffused light. The time taken for moisture to 4luse from a state of uniform distribution throughout the globe towards the centre is then calculated, and found to less than ten minutes for a sphere of 20 cm. diameter. The paper is an attempt to make the somewhat neglected Regnault hygrometer an instrument of precision in the detection of small quantities of moisture.-Note

on

a property of lenses: Dr. G. E. Allan. A well known method of testing the concavity or convexity of a lens consists in holding the lens at arm's length and, while looking through it, moving it from side to side or up and down, when the image in the convex lens is found to move in the opposite direction to that of the lens, whilst in the case of the concave lens it moves in the same direction. The above facts hold if, instead of the naked eye, we employ a microscope.

PARIS.

64

Academy of Sciences, October 31.-M. Mascart in the chair.-Presentation of vol. xi. of the Annales de l'Observatoire de Bordeaux": M. Loewy.-Trypanosomiasis in French West Africa: A. Laveran. The sleeping sickness is endemic in several regions of Senegal; an examination of six specimens of biting flies from this district showed that they were all Glossina palpalis, the fly which, according to the researches of Dr. Bruce, propagates human trypanosomiasis. In the blood of horses from French Guinea, in two cases numerous trypanosomes were encountered. In the flies from this region, Glossina palpalis predominated. On the Ivory Coast, sporadic cases of human trypanosomiasis are common; here one specimen of G. palpalis was found, together with several G. morsitans. Round Lake Tchad numerous trypanosomes, having the characteristics of Trypan. Brucei, were found in the blood from infected horses; G. tachinoides here appears to be the characteristic tsetse fly.-On a case of long phosphorescence emitted by the wood of a cherry tree: M. Clos.-The rotation of Venus: P. Lowell. The results of spectroscopic observations show a velocity of about 0.005 kilometre a second, which favours a long period of rotation. For a twenty-four hour period, the velocity would be 0-450 kilometre a second. The rotation of Mars:

P. Lowell. The spectroscopic measurements give a velocity of 0.228 kilometre per second, as against 0.241 kilometre calculated from the previous eye observations.

On a new micrometer. History of the question: G.

Millochau. An account of previous applications of the use of parallel glass plates as a micrometer.-On a new safety arrangement for electrical mains at high tension: L. Neu. Each line is furnished at its source with an interrupter which works automatically in the case of a wire breaking, of a bad insulation, or in the event of an accidental contact between the high tension wire and a telegraph or telephone wire. On the atomic weight of aluminium: M. KohnAbrest. Aluminium, the impurities in which had been determined by analysis, was treated with acid, and the evolved hydrogen burnt to water. The mean of seven experiments gave 99-15 parts of water from 100 parts of the pure metal, corresponding to an atomic weight for the aluminium of 27.05 (oxygen, 15.88).-The action of halogen derivatives of the metalloids on halogen alkyl compounds: V. Auger. The alkyl iodides, bromides, and chlorides react with phosphorus iodide, giving alkylphosphinic acids. No reaction occurs with the chloride of arsenic; chloride of bismuth simply gives rise to an exchange of halogens, whilst with chloride of antimony the quantity of antimony-alkyl was too small to separate. The tetrahydride and decahydride of naphthalene Henri Leroux. These addition products were obtained from naphthalene by means of the Sabatier and Senderens reaction. Their properties and those of some halogen derivatives are described. The action of the chlorides of phosphorus on the organomagnesium compounds of the aromatic series: R. Sauvage. The action of phosphorus oxychloride upon organomagnesium compounds of the aromatic series leads to the production of compounds of the type R, P: O and R2 = POCI, the latter, after treatment with water, giving acids R1 = PO.OH. The tetraoxycyclohexane-rosanilines: Jules Schmidlin. The author quotes some experiments of Lambrecht and Weil as affording a new confirmation of his views on the quinonic structure of these compounds, and also as showing that the benzene ring of the carbinol passes through the hexahydrobenzene ring before forming the quinone ring.-The density of nitrous oxide and the atomic weight of nitrogen: Philippe A. Guye and Alexandre Pintza. The nitrous oxide used in these experiments was prepared from sodium nitrite and hydroxylamine sulphate. After weighing the flask full of the gas, the latter was condensed by connecting the flask with a

side tube, well cooled, and containing charcoal. The effect of some of the impurities in the gas was thus eliminated. The atomic weight deduced for nitrogen from these experiments is 14-013. Previous values obtained in the author's laboratory by different methods are, from the limiting density of nitrogen, 14.004; by weighing nitrous oxide, 14.007; by the volume analysis of the same gas, 14.019. The mean of the four methods gives 14.011.-On the oxidation of ethyl and methyl alcohols at the temperature of their boiling points: René Duchemin and Jacques Dourlen. The rapid deterioration of some alcohol lamps had been attributed to the presence of some acid impurities in the alcohol used. It is now shown that these alcohols are rapidly oxidised at their boiling points in the presence of copper, and the effects noticed are possibly due to this action. On the anatomy of some fishes of the genus Orestias: Jacques Pellegrin. The difference in the pharyngeal apparatus in these fishes is caused by a special adaptation due to the special food, small molluscs with very hard shells.-Contribution to the study of resorption of the vitellus during the embryonic development: H. Dubuisson. On the coincidence between the geosynclinals and the great circles of maximum seismicity: de Montessus de Ballore. On the continuity of the tectonic phenomena between the Ortler and the Hohe Tauern: Pierre Termier. -On the pit of Trou-de-Souci, Côte-d'Or : E. A. Martel.

DIARY OF SOCIETIES.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10

INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 8.-The premiums awarded for papers read or published during the session 1903-4 will be presented. and the president, Mr. Alexander Siemens, will deliver his inaugural address.

MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY, at 5.30.-Annual General Meeting.-Presidential Address on the Theory of Waves on Liquids: Prof. H. Lamb.Note on the Application of the Method of Images to Problems of Vibrations: Prof. V. Volterra. -On the Zeros of Certain Classes of Integral Taylor's Series: G. H. Hardy.-The Linear Difference Equation of the First Order: Rev. E. W. Barnes.-Curves on a Conicoid: H. Hilton.--Remarks on Alternants and Continuous Groups: Dr. H. F. Baker. On the Expansion of the Elliptic and Zeta Functions of K in Powers of q: Dr. J. W. L. Glaisher. -Examples of Perpetuants: J. E. Wright.-Two Simple Results in the Attraction of Uniform Wires obtained by Quaternions, with, for comparison, their Verification by the Geometry of the Complex: Prof. R. W. Genese-On the Reducíbility of Covariants of Binary Quantics of Infinite Order P. W. Wood.-On some Properties of Groups of Odd Order: Prof. W. Burn. side.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11.

ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, at 5.-Note on the Variation of Aurigæ : Col. E. E. Markwick.-On a very Sensitive Method of Determining the Irregularities of a Pivot; on the Pivot Errors of the Radcliffe Transit Circle, and their Effects on the Right Ascensions of the Radcliffe Catalogue for 1890: A. A. Rambaut.-The Determination of Selenographic Positions and the Measurement of Lunar Photographs: Third PaperResults of the Measurement of Four Paris Negatives: S. A. Saunder.Discussion of the Long-Period Terms in the Moon's Longitude: P. H. Cowell.-A Determination of the Apex of the Solar Motion and the Constant of Precession from a Comparison of Groombridge's Catalogue (1810) with Modern Greenwich Observations: F. W. Dyson and W. G. Thackeray.-Magnetic Disturbances 1882 to 1893, as Kecorded at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and their Association with Sun-spots: E. W. Maunder.-Ephemeris for Physical Observations of the Moon, 1905: A. C. D. Crommelin.

MALACOLOGICAL SOCIETY, at 8.-Descriptions of Three New Species of Opisthostoma from Borneo : E. A. Smith, I.S.O.-Two Apparently New Species of Planispira from the Islands of Java and Gisser: Rev. R. Ashington Bullen.-The Anatomy of Siliqua patula, Dixon: H. Howard Bloomer.-On the Genus Tomigerus, with Descriptions of New Species: H. von Ihering.-Notes on Some New Zealand Pleurotomida: Henry Suter.-Notes on Some Species of Chione from New Zealand: Henry Suter.

SOCIOLOGICAL SOCIETY, at 4.-Relation between Sociology and Ethics: Prof. Höffding.

PHYSICAL SOCIETY, at 8.-Investigation of the Variations of Magnetic Hysteresis with Frequency: Prof. T. R. Lyle. The Determination of the Mean Spherical Candle Power of Incandescent and Arc Lamps : G. B. Dyke.-Exhibition of Physical Apparatus: Robert Paul.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15.

INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS, at 8.-Discussion of Papers--Coast Erosion: A. E. Carey, and Erosion on the Holderness Coast of Yorkshire : E. R. Matthews.-Succeeding Paper :-Distribution of Electrical Energy: J. F. C. Snell.

ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY, at 8. 30.-(1) On Mammals from the Island of Fernando Po, collected by Mr. E. Seimund; (2) On Hylochorus, the Forest-pig of Central Africa: Oldfield Thomas, F. R.S.-On the Species of Crowned Cranes: Dr. P. Chalmers Mitchell.-On the Mouse-hares of the Genus Ochotona: J. Lewis Bonhote.

MINERALOGICAL SOCIETY, at 8. - Anniversary Meeting.- New Localities for Gyrolite and Tobermorite: J. Currie.-Occurrence of Brookite with Anatase in the Cleveland Ironstone: C. R. Lindsey.-(1) Some Applica

tions of the Gnomonic Projection to Crystallography; (2) The Construction of Crystallographic Projections: H. Hilton.-Some New Forms of Quartz-wedge and their Uses: J. W. Evans.-(1) On Three New Minerals from the Binnenthal; (2) On some Curious Crystals of Blende: R. H. Solly.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16.

CHEMICAL SOCIETY, at 5.30.- The Isomerism of the Amidines of the Naphthalene Series: R. Meldola and J. H. Lane.-Theory of the Production of Mercurous Nitrite and of its Conversion into various Mercury Nitrates: P. C. Ray.-Amide Chloroiodides: G. D. Lander -A New Synthesis of Isocaprolactone and some Derivatives: D. T. Jones and G. Tattersall.-The Influence of Substitution in the Nucleus on the Rate of Oxidation of the Side-chain, II. Oxidation of the Halogen Derivatives of Toluene: J. B. Cohen and J. Miller. The Halogen Derivatives of Naphthacenequinone : S. S. Pickles and C. Weizmann.-Constitution of Pyrazolidone Derivatives: B. Prentice.

ROYAL MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY, at 8.-Theories of Microscopic Vision (a Vindication of the Abbe Theory): A. E. Conrady. ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY, at 8.

KOYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY, at 7.30.-Meteorological Observing in the Antarctic: Lieut. Charles Royds, R. N. -Decrease of Fog in Londǝt. during recent Years: F. J. Brodie. -Hurricane in Fiji, January 21-22, 1904 R. L. Holmes.

SOCIETY OF ARTS, at 8.-Inaugural Address by Sir William Abney, K.C.B.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17.

ROYAL SOCIETY, at 4.30.
LINNEAN SOCIETY, at 8.-On the Structure of the Stems of Plants: Lord
Avebury, F. R.S.-Observations on Undescribed or Little Known Species
of Membracidae: G. B. Buckton, F.K.S.

Recent Philosphical Works

26

27

The Christian Century in Japan. By F. Victor Dickins 27 Our Book Shelf:

Hutchison: "Lectures on the Diseases of Children". 28
Riggs: "Elementary Manual for the Chemical Labora.
tory."-C. S.

Wegner : "Die Einheit der Naturkrafte in der Thermo-
dynamik

Jones: "The Science and Practice of Photography."-
C. E. Kenneth Mees.

Forel and Wheeler: "Ants and Some Other Insects.
An Inquiry into the Psychic Powers of these Animals"
Letters to the Editor :-

The Definition of Entropy.-Prof. G. H. Bryan, F.R.S.

Misuse of Words and Phrases.-A. B. Basset, F.R.S The Coming Shower of Leonids.-W. F. Denning; John R. Henry.

30

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31

THE

AWARDED MEDALS WHEREVER EXHIBITED, including 9 at the great Paris Exposition of 1900.

8, 9 & 10 HATTON GARDEN, LONDON, SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENT MAKER

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