be obtained. It is hoped that by this arrangement the difficulties which have been found to impede the prompt circulation of the journals of the society, which are of necessity published in a somewhat different manner from a regular periodical, may be finally removed. AN important contribution to our knowledge of the liquefaction of gases is contained in a paper on the liquefaction of air and its application to the manufacture of oxygen and nitrogen, by M. Georges Claude in part i. of the Bulletin of the French Physical Society for session 1906. M. Claude adopts the principle of expansion with external work instead of expansion without external work as utilised in the plant devised by Linde, Hampson, and others. The result, it is contended, is to effect a surprising economy, while it becomes possible to employ very much smaller pressures than those hitherto considered necessary and to dispense with auxiliary cooling. The liquid air, obtained in this way at very small cost, can be used as a commercial source of oxygen and nitrogen. The two elements are separated by a process of fractional distillation; in the apparatus devised for this object, M. Claude displays remarkable ingenuity. The principle of " recuperative cooling is adopted, liquid air in one vessel being caused to evaporate by means of gaseous air compressed at 2 to 3 atmospheres circulating in pipes surrounded by the cold liquid. The nitrogen distils off more readily than the oxygen from the liquid air in the one vessel, whilst in the other oxygen is liquefied before nitrogen during the condensation of the air. Finally, nearly pure oxygen and nearly pure nitrogen are obtained. A machine has been constructed capable of supplying 1000 cubic metres of oxygen, containing 96 per cent. to 98 per cent. of the pure element, per day, with the expenditure of an amount of energy equal to only 1/20th or 1/30th that required in the processes based on the electrolysis of water. It is contended that the results obtained invalidate the assumption made by Dewar and confirmed by Linde that in the liquefaction of air the two component gases condense simultaneously; in reality, the more volatile nitrogen is condensed after the oxygen, and the process of liquefaction is strictly the inverse of vaporisation. THE fourteenth volume of the Bulletin of the Philo sophical Society of Washington has now been completed by the publication of the brochure entitled " Organisation and Proceedings. This volume contains abstracts of papers and other communications brought before the society during the sessions 1900-1904. A SECOND edition of the Class List and Index of the periodical publications in the Patent Office library has been published, price 6d., at the Patent Office, 25 Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane. MR. EDWIN ANTHONY has issued through Messrs. George Routledge and Sons, Ltd., a pamphlet, price sixpence, on decimal coinage, weights, and measures, in which he discusses the question as to whether this country should adopt them, and passes in review the various arguments for and against the use of decimal coinage and weights and measures. MESSRS. CHARLES GRIFFIN AND CO., LTD., have published a fifth, revised edition of Prof. G. A. J. Cole's " 'Aids to Practical Geology." The work has been brought up to date without increasing its size, so that it will maintain the leading position it has gained among manuals of determinative geology. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. REFLECTING TELESCOPES OF SHORT FOCus.-In No. 5. vol. xxiii., of the Astrophysical Journal, Prof. Vogel discusses the relative efficiency of short-focus reflectors for astrographic work. Prompted by the discovery of the Nova Persei nebula, Prof. Vogel turned his attention to the subject of reflectors, and finally obtained an excellent parabolic mirror, of 40 cm. effective aperture and 93 cm. focal length, from Mr. B. Schmidt, of Mittweida, Saxony. With this instrument numerous problems of practical interest in reflector work have been investigated, and the results are tabulated in the present paper. Prof. Vogel also compares the efficiency of an instrument of this type with that obtained from other types of photographic telethirty minutes on the Pleiades nebula he obtained a photoscope. For instance, he found that with an exposure of graph showing all the detail seen on Keeler's plates with four hours' exposure using the Crossley reflector. The nebulæ around y Cassiopeia appear quite as distinctly in forty minutes as on the plates taken by Dr. Roberts with ninety minutes' exposure on October 25, 1895. THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF CANADA.-The Transactions, for 1905, of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada contain a number of papers of astronomical interest, a few of which are mentioned below. In the presidential address Mr. C. A. Chant made a summary review of the progress of astronomy during 1905, referring, among other systematically prosecuted at the Yerkes, Meudon, South things, to the spectroheliograph work which is being Kensington, and Potsdam observatories, and to the important results which these researches in solar physics may lead us in the study of terrestrial meteorology. Other papers selected for publication deal with sun-spots and magnetic storms, colour photography of the corona, stellar classification, and the new problem in solar physics recently enunciated by Dr. C. L. Poor. MAGNITUDES AND PLACES OF 251 PLEIADES STARS.-At the desire of Prof. Wolf, Herr K. Schiller has continued the researches of Dr. Dugan on the photographic magnitudes and mean places of the fainter stars of the Pleiades group, and now publishes his results for 251 stars in No. 4102 of the Astronomische Nachrichten. The places for 1900, and a formula connecting the magnitude scale of the present series with that employed by Dr. Dugan, are given in the paper. This satellite is only about 2 per cent.. or 170,000 miles, more distant from Jupiter than the sixth, but, on account of their large eccentricities, they do not approach within two million miles of each other. The inclination of their orbits to each other is 28° 1'. In addition to the foregoing elements, Dr. Ross also publishes an ephemeris, corrected for perturbations and giving the position angle and distance of the seventh satellite, for every fifth day between August 15, 1906, and April 27, 1907. OBSERVATIONS OF MINOR PLANETS AND COMETS.-The results of a large number of observations of minor planets, comets, and comparison stars, made by Dr. J. Palisa with a wire micrometer attached to the 27-inch refractor of the Vienna Observatory, are given in Nos. 4009 and 4100 of the Astronomische Nachrichten, by Prof. E. Weiss. The list of objects includes comets 1904 i and ii, and 1905 ii, iii, v and c, and 296 comparison stars. OPENING OF A NEW LABORATORY AT THE ON July 20 Earl Carrington opened the James Mason" laboratory for agricultural bacteriology at the Rothamsted Experimental Station. Sir John Evans, chairman of the Lawes Agricultural Trust Committee, presided, and among those also present were Mr. J. F. Mason, M.P., the donor of the laboratory, Sir T. H. Elliott, Sir Michael Foster, Sir R. P. Cooper, Mr. Laurence Hardy, M.P., Mr. F. A. Channing, M.P., Mr. Abel Smith, M.P., Mr. Phipson Beale, M.P., Prof. R. Meldola, president of the Chemical Society, Sir Charles Lawes Wittewronge, Dr. Hugo Müller, Dr. H. E. Armstrong, Dr. J. A. Voelcker, and Mr. J. Bowen Jones. further sum of 50l. a year toward its working expenses. The building contains a main laboratory looking north, 25 feet by 15 feet, fitted with teak-topped working tables and slate slabs to carry the incubators; a preparation room, where the working tables are covered with lead; a darkroom for photography, polariscope work, &c.; and a room for the director. The whole is floored with pitch-pine blocks, and heated by steam from the old laboratory adjoining. RECENT RESEARCHES IN REGIONAL Sir John Evans, in his introductory remarks, explained THE Geological Survey of Great Britain has issued that the building they were asking Lord Carrington to declare open was the gift of Mr. J. F. Mason, and was to be devoted to a class of work that had grown up since the original Rothamsted experiments were started, but which had become of cardinal importance in the study of the growth of crops. The difficulty of the Lawes Agricultural Trust Committee, carrying out as it was by private benefactions the work which in every other country was regarded as the duty of the State, was to find funds for such new developments, and he trusted that the President of the Board of Agriculture might soon be able to obtain a grant for the proposed council of agricultural research, and so furnish some assistance to themselves and other bodies concerned in similar investigations. Lord Carrington expressed the pleasure it gave him to find himself at Rothamsted, which had been the pioneer of agricultural research, not only in England, but in the world. Agriculture was rapidly ceasing to be a rule-ofthumb business, and as a highly skilled industry was more and more requiring the assistance of such scientific investigations as were being carried out at Rothamsted. He sincerely hoped that some money might be found for the proposed council of agricultural research, but he felt bound to remind them that the income tax still stood at a shilling in the pound; but both he and the Government of which he was a member had every sympathy with the work represented by Rothamsted. Sir Michael Foster then expressed the thanks of the Lawes Trust Committee to Mr. Mason for his munificent gift of the laboratory, and explained how the bacteria, the existence of which almost was unsuspected when the Rothamsted laboratory was built, were year by year being found to be of fundamental importance, not only to ourselves directly, but to the crops and to the soil. Sir Thomas Elliott, the Secretary of the Board of Agriculture, seconded the expression of thanks, and declared that gifts like Mr. Mason's were the best argument he could have in approaching the Treasury for assistance for the work of Rothamsted. Mr. Mason then replied, and explained how he was led to establish this laboratory as the best means of securing the continuance of the work to which his father had devoted so many years and had so much at heart. He also trusted that it might be a means of stirring public opinion, both generally and in the House of Commons, to recognise the necessity of research if agriculture was to maintain its position in this country. After the meeting the company was shown round the laboratories, and afterwards visited the experimental plots, where the wheat and barley in particular were showing very interesting results. The new laboratory takes the form of a wing added on to the Lawes Testimonial Laboratory, which was built in 1855; it is built of brick from the designs of Mr. V. T. Hodgson. It owes its origin to Mr. James Mason, of Eynsham Hall, Oxon, who for many years carried out on his own estate extensive experiments on such questions as the utilisation of leguminous plants in increasing the fertility of the soil, and the unlocking of fertility stored up in the subsoil, a summary of which may be read in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society for 1904. Mr. Mason died in 1902, and in his memory Mr. J. F. Mason, M.P., presented the trust with 1000l. for the building and equipment of a bacteriological laboratory, together with a a memoir (price 1s.) by Mr. A. J. Jukes-Browne, to accompany the colour-printed geological map, Sheet 282. The country dealt with lies south and east of Devizes, and contains exposures of almost horizontal strata, from the Middle Jurassic to the Lower Eocene. The author refers the superficial clay with flints " to the weathering of Eocene material, and urges that its presence at any particular point shows that we are not far below the ancient plane of erosion on which the lowest Eocene deposits were laid down." He has sustained this position more recently in an important paper (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., 1906, p. 159). Notes are given on economic geology, including the general character of the soils. Another memoir of the survey, also issued in 1905, is by Mr. Fox-Strangways and Prof. Watts (price 2s.), on the country between Derby, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and Loughborough, included in Sheet 141. The description of Charnwood Forest will probably attract most attention, and it is to be supplemented in a forthcoming memoir. Prof. Watts, from mapping the ground, finds that the famous porphyroids " of the region are not lava-flows, but are intrusive (p. 9); they have, however, shared in the general cleavage and shearing, and thus were in place before the Charnwood mass became a mountainous knot in the Carboniferous sea. We find the term fjord" hardly a happy one when applied to the inlet of a Triassic lake (p. 11), which has become revealed by latter-day denudation. But Prof. Watts's reconstruction of the Charnwood landscapes of Triassic times has already afforded us pictures for which we should be warmly grateful (see Geographical Journal, 1903). On p. 33, Mr. Fox-Strangways refers to an interesting puzzle as to the origin of certain Foraminifera once stated to be from the Keuper Marl. The suggestion is made that similar forms occur, as derived Liassic material, in the drift, and thence became erroneously recorded from the Keuper. With so many good geologists in the neighbourhood, this question ought not to be left long in uncertainty. The point suggests itself, moreover, that the local Boulder-clay, like that of the low ground of Lancashire, may possibly contain Foraminifera of its own, imported from some neighbouring sea. On this matter, by the by, a paper has reached us from Mr. Mellard Reade (Proc. Liverpool Geological Society, vol. x., part i., 1905), who believes that the abundance of Foraminifera in the Lancashire Boulder-clay points strongly to the probability of the whole of the low-level deposit having been laid down in marine waters under fairly quiet conditions. Mr. W. Edwards, on the other hand (ibid.), in a paper on the glacial geology of Anglesey, urges that the island was not submerged beneath the sea at the epoch of the formation of the well-known shell-bearing beds at Moel-yTryfan in Caernarvonshire. A pleasant addition to the publications of the Geological Survey of Great Britain is the "Guide to the Geological Model of the Isle of Purbeck, by Mr. A. Strahan, F.R.S. (1906, price 6d.). The model, on the horizontal scale of six inches to one mile, was made by Mr. J. B. Jordan, and is accessible in the museum of the survey in Jermyn, Street, Londen. Copies have also been acquired by the Government museums in Edinburgh and Dublin. The purpose of the model is educational, and the guide, by marginal notes, points out how it illustrates an escarp"anticline," a "trough-fault," and so forth, so that it serves as a companion to the ordinary text-book. For those unable to consult one of the copies of the model ment, an the photograph and coloured geological map included in the guide will give a clear impression of its features. Signor Luigi de Marchi has published, through the Reale Istituto Veneto (1905), a folio memoir on "L'Idrografia dei Colli Euganei,' in which much attention is paid to the question of the change of slope in the bed of a stream according to the grouping of the rocks successively encountered by it. An interesting result (p. 46), borne out by other evidence, is that the trachytic masses round the central tuff-cone of the Venda are found, not to lie, as Suess and Reyer have supposed, upon fragmental deposits as relics of great viscid lava-flows, but represent independent volcanic necks rising through a mantle of softer rocks. Observations are added on the limitation of human activity on the mountain-sides by the progress of denudation. In the Verhandlungen der k.k geologischen Reichsanstalt for 1905 Dr. Kerner (p. 127) gives the results of five weeks' study of the Neogene deposits of Sinj, in central Dalmatia, and (p. 593) describes the fossil plants collected. Dr. Franz Baron Nopcsa (Jahrbuch, ibid., 1905, p. 85) leads us farther south, having been able, with the aid of the Turkish authorities, to study the geology of Albania. He gives a pleasant account of the country that should attract other travellers. Not every geologist can be an artist, and we feel that some of the drawings, made by the author from his photographs, might have been well entrusted to other hands. The author believes that the so-called Flysch of Albania and Bosnia is at latest of Middle Mesozoic age, and has nothing to do with the Flysch of the Dalmatian coast-ranges and of the Wiener Wald. Baron Nopcsa writes very modestly of his results; but he has clearly felt the fascination of working, within the bounds of Europe, in a virgin field. The bibliography provided should help explorers of various tastes. In the same Jahrbuch (p. 349) Mr. W. A. Humphrey, "aus York, England," reports on the ore-deposits of the Stangalp. His remarks on the so-called Urgebirge of Styria and Carinthia are of general interest, since he finds that the gneiss and the mica-schist vary inversely in importance on the margin of a mass of alpine granite. This granite has affected even the interstitial material of the Carboniferous conglomerate, while tourmaline has been formed among the sediments far beyond the zone where they are injected with actual granite-veins. Mr. Humphrey therefore (pp. 363-5) regards the whole sedimentary and schistose mass as a continuous series, which became highly metamorphosed in its lower portions. Here we once more recognise the change of opinion, forced upon field-observers in very diverse areas, with regard to the alleged antiquity of schists in mountain-cores. Dr. Ampferer's extensive paper (ibid., pp. 451-562) on the Wettersteingebirge, among his favourite limestone Alps, introduces questions of torsional movement combined with thrust-planes. In Spelunca, Nos. 42 and 43 (1905), M. Martel deals with the subterranean aspects of limestones, in continuing his immensely valuable abstracts of recent papers upon caves. These two numbers, which are issued as one, cover the whole area outside France, and even contain references to Kerguelen Island and the Fijis. G. A. J. C. METEOROLOGICAL REPORTS. IN the Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan for February, Mr. H. Mukasa gives a summary of the temperature conditions at Chemulpo (Korea) for the years 1893-1903, from four observations daily. The mean of the daily maxima in summer is 80°-6, in winter 37°9, and the mean of the minima 67°3 and 22°.8 respectively. The absolute maximum was 995, in August, 1901, and the minimum 1°.3, in February, 1895; the greatest daily range, 40°.3, also occurred in the latter month. The Journal for April contains an interesting contribution on the management of the wet-bulb thermometer, by Mr. T. Okada. It was pointed out by Dr. Edelmann in the Meteorologische Zeitschrift for 1896, p. 334, that the kind of covering used for conveying moisture to the bulb had considerable influence on the readings of the thermometer. Prof. Tanakadate has recently found that a Japanese paper called "Yoshinogami, "made from fibres of a species of mulberry tree, was most suited for a cover for the wetbulb both for temperatures above and below freezing point, and, being quite easy in manipulation, can be changed even daily without the slightest trouble. Mr. Okada's experiments show that the bulb covered with paper is more sensitive than one with the usual muslin covering, and that in frosty weather its indications give the humidity more in accordance with that shown by the hair-hygrometer. The paper is said to be suitable for all climates. The Proceedings of the Rhodesia Scientific Association (vol. v., part ii.) contains monthly and annual means of meteorological observations made at Bulawayo (altitude about 4469 feet) from 1897 to 1904 by the Jesuit Fathers Barthélemy and Nicot. As the observations mostly refer to 9h. a.m., the results can only be taken as approximate, but the discussion by the Rev. E. Goetz, S.J., is nevertheless very useful. The absolute highest reading of the barometer was 26.171 inches (in July), and the lowest 25.397 inches (in January); the daily range rarely exceeds 0.1 inch. The temperature shows one minimum, in June, and two maxima, in October and January; the means of maximum and minimum readings for these months are 57°5, 73°7, and 72°.6 respectively. The absolute extremes were 105° in November and 33° in June (in June, 1905, not included in the tables, the temperature in the screen fell to 30°). The rainfall has two maxima, one in the beginning of December, followed by a serious break, and a second in the middle of January. Mr. Goetz states that this break in the rainfall is a very disastrous feature of the climate, as the crops are either destroyed or stunted by the burning sun. The annual rainfall averages 22.2 inches, and the rainy days seventy-four. Very little rain falls between May and September; it is very heavy during thunderstorms, and for some minutes falls at the rate of from 2 inches to 6 inches an hour. Sir Charles Todd has recently published the meteorological observations made at the Adelaide Observatory and other places in South Australia during 1902 and 1903. He states that the year 1902 must be classed as one of the driest on record, particularly during the winter season (April to October). The returns for 1903 show a general improvement; on the average, the agricultural areas had about 3 inches above the normal rainfall. A marked feature of this year was that during every month, except September to November, the mean temperature at Adelaide was below the average; the lowest air temperature on record at that place, 32°-2, was observed on July 11. The highest shade-temperature was 105°6, in February. The report of the Government astronomer of Natal for the year 1905 has been condensed; in the case of the subsidiary stations, meteorological summaries only are given, and the daily results are only published for the observatory at Durban. The rainfall for the year at that place was 44.95 inches, which is 5-6 inches above the average of the previous twenty-one years. This result was owing to one of the most remarkable hurricanes that have occurred in Natal during the last thirty years, which swept over the entire colony with extraordinary severity on May 31 and June 1. The rainfall on these two days amounted to nearly 11 inches at Durban and to 17 inches at Umzinto. The mean temperature of the year was exceptionally low; the mean of the maxima was 78.1 and of the minima 61°4, and the extremes were 90°7 and 45°-4 respectively. The only year of lower mean temperature was 1887. Captain H. G. Lyons, director-general of the Survey Department, Egypt, has published his report on the rain of the Nile basin in 1905. The Egyptian and Soudar stations at which rainfall is measured only number thirtyone, but a good many other returns showing the days on which rain fell are received, and are to some extent useful in supplementing the information supplied by the recording stations; observations are also given for neighbouring territories. On the whole, the rainfall is said to have been everywhere deficient; the volume of the Nile flood considered as the volume passing Aswan between July and October 31, was only 065 of the average for thirty four years (1869-1903), making the ninth successive year of low floods. The mean rainfall, and the oscillation of the rain-belt with the apparent motion of the sun, are very clearly shown by coloured maps, drawn for each month. The report of the Falmouth Observatory committee of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society for the year 1905 (one of the principal observatories subsidised by the Meteorological Office) shows that a record reading of the barometer for that part of the British Islands occurred on January 28, viz. 31-097 inches (corrected and reduced to sea-level). The next highest reading at Falmouth during the last thirty years was 30.981 inches, on January 18, 1882. Another interesting point is the mean temperature of the sea-surface, taken one mile outside the harbour, viz. 533, being 23 above the mean temperature of the air. The mean monthly sea-temperature was only below that of the air in June, July, and August. Much attention is given to magnetic observations, and the instruments are not affected by electric tramways. During a display of aurora borealis on the night of November 15, an easterly movement in the declination took place at Sh. 53m. p.m. which in twelve minutes reduced it about 33', while in the subsequent twenty minutes the declination increased about 41', which was 8' west of its position before the movement occurred. the The Jahrbuch of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute for 1905 contains hourly observations for Christiania, with tri-daily readings and summaries for other stations. The results are given according to international scheme, as before, the only change being that mid-European time has been introduced (one hour earlier than Greenwich), so that the observations at telegraphic reporting stations, which were previously taken by Christiania time, are now made seventeen minutes earlier than in previous years, while at the ordinary stations the time of taking observations has not been altered. Accompanying the Jahrbuch is part xiv. of the valuable series of climatological tables for Norway, containing the average monthly amount of cloud for the various directions of wind (cloud windroses "); at most of the stations the averages are for a period of twenty years (1876-95). form a mantle on each side of the body, and unite on the lower part of the back. The culmination of this type is formed by the white-tailed guereza (C. caudatus) of the Kilimanjaro district, in which the pendent white mantle is still longer, and the tail, which is wholly white except for a small length at the root, is clothed with long pendent hair; the cheek- and throat-tufts, however, have been lost, so that the head is short-haired, with the face and throat white. The West African white-thighed guereza (C. vellerosus) appears to exhibit a kind of retrograde development in these respects, the body having lost the mantle of long white hair and the tail its white " flag," while the white of the perineal patch has spread on to the hinder and outer sides of the thighs. In this case we find practical reversion to the type of the black guereza, with the exception that the band on the forehead, the sides of the face and throat, the thighs, and almost the whole tail have become white, while the long hair has disappeared from the face. In the opinion of the author the colouring and special develop FIG. 1.-White-tailed Guereza (Cololus caudatus). The trigonometrical branch office at Dehra Dun has published a valuable series of daily rainfall observations for each of the thirtysix years 1868-1903. The mean annual fall is 84-72 inches, of which 65 per cent. falls in July and August. The maximum yearly amount was 122-47 inches, in 1894, and the minimum 41.69 inches, in 1877. The greatest fall in one day was 12.47 inches, on August 10, 1896. From a summary of the highest and lowest temperatures in the shade, for the same years, we observe that the mean of the annual extremes was 104°.3, the absolute maximum being 108°.4, on May 19, 1892 (108-3 on June 5, 1890), and the minimum 31°.8, on January 13, 1874, the next lowest being 33°-9, on February 5, 1876. COLOURING OF GUEREZA MONKEYS. IN vol. ii. of the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of the current year, Mr. Lydekker contributes a paper on colour-evolution in the black or black and white tropical African monkeys of the genus Colobus commonly known as guerezas. Starting with a wholly black monkey, like the West African C. satanas, in which, although there is a fringe of long hair round the face, the body is comparatively short-haired and the tail not tufted, the author shows how a gradation can be traced through species like C. palliatus and C. sharpei of East Central Africa, in which tufts of long white hair (larger in the second than in the first of the two species named) make their appearance on the sides of the face and shoulders, as well as on the terminal third of the tail, to the Abyssinian C. guereza, in which the white shoulder-tufts extend backwards to Zoological Society. From the Proceedings of th ment of the long hair in the white-tailed guereza form a protective modification, but the purport of the colouring of the intermediate forms between this and the black guereza is left undecided. A ELECTRICITY IN MINES. VERY great development has taken place during the past two years in electrical machinery and apparatus for working colliery plant. Manufacturers seem at last to have realised that machines and accessories must be adapted and made to suit the conditions existing in collieries, and that the collieries cannot be adapted to suit their standard machines. Consequently, in the colliery exhibition which has just taken place, the result of experience in colliery work was clearly put before us in entirely new designs of motors and switchgear specially adapted for this work. The details of colliery requirements have been most carefully studied and gone into, and the designs prove the tremendous development that has taken place. Whereas a few years ago contractors simply attached their standard machine to a haulage-gear or coal-cutter, and supplied the ordinary switch-gear as for everyday use, to-day we find that it is the general rule for motors to be designed and built for the particular work for which they are intended, and to be made part and parcel of the machine they have to drive. The same applies to the switch-gear, and a lorge supply of different forms of specially enclosed swit use in very fiery mines proves how thoroughly the manufacturers have interested themselves in the matter. The automatic and electrical devices for regulating and signalling in connection with electrically driven winding engines were quite the most interesting and valuable introduction in this year's exhibition, and the fact that by far the greater number of coal-cutters and drills which were exhibited were fitted with electric motors should go far to prove that electricity is fighting its way successfully against the older established methods of colliery procedure. Other arrangements of colliery machinery showing the adaptability of electric motors were well represented by motor-driven pumps, fans, hoists, heading machines, and elevators, and among interesting signs of the times were the electrically driven air compressors. This development in colliery work is quite in keeping with the expansion of the use of electricity for power purposes which is taking place at the present time. The many power schemes now in hand or being brought before Parliament also show that, although it has been a long time coming, electricity as a motive power for general use may now be said to have "arrived." UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. THE annual meeting of the Midland Agricultural and Dairy College will be held on Monday next, July 30, when the certificates gained during last session will be distributed, and the report on the year's work presented. MR. P. FRASER has been appointed lecturer in mathematics at University College, Bristol, in succession to Mr. S. B. McLaren, who has resigned to take up an appointment in the University of Birmingham. The University of Liverpool has conferred the degree of Doctor of Engineering on Mr. J. Morrow, lecturer in engineering in University College, Bristol. 66 DR. JAMES STEWART, of Rickmansworth, who died on June 2 last, left more than 25,000l. to the University of Melbourne, Victoria, to found and endow in perpetuity three scholarships, each of an annual value of not more than 5ol., and tenable for two or three years, to be called the Stewart Scholarships," one to be awarded for anatomy, one for medicine, and one for surgery. In addition to this, more than 3000l. is left to the Ballarat School of Mines for a "Stewart Fund " to be applied to the augmentation for ever of the salary of a teacher of mineralogy, and about 1500l. to the Ballarat Mechanics' Institute for replenishing the library. THE new regulations of the Board of Education for the training of teachers and for the examination of students in training colleges have been published. No very substantial alterations have been made in the present issue. It is satisfactory to find that no single detailed syllabus of elementary science is included in the schemes of work regulating the instruction in the compulsory subjects of the examination to be conducted by the Board in 1908. After a consideration of the needs of the students and of the facilities which the training college offers for science teaching, the authorities are to draw up a scheme of instruction in science and to submit it to the approval of the Board. This instruction will in the main be tested by inspection, and the students will be expected to be able to carry out experiments selected from that portion of the approved syllabus which has been worked through up to the date of the inspector's visit, or to perform such experiments of similar character as the inspector may consider suitable. Encouragement is to be given to students proposing to teach in country schools to take up what is called " rural science," which includes nature-study and the broad principles of agriculture. The whole tendency of these regulations is to discountenance a mere text-book acquaintance with the facts of science; the Board is to be congratulated upon its recognition of the value to teachers of a practical training in the methods of science. ON Wednesday, July 18, the new buildings of the SouthEastern Agricultural College, Wye, were opened by Lady Carrington in the unavoidable absence of the Minister of Agriculture. At the same time the diplomas, certificates, and prizes were presented by her to the students before a large assembly of persons interested in agriculture, including Lord Ashcombe, Mr. Laurence Hardy, M.P., and Mrs. Laurence Hardy, Mr. Henniker-Heaton, M.P., Mr. Marsham (chairman Kent County Council), Major Craigie, C.B. (Board of Agriculture), the Poet Laureate, Lady Theobald Butler, Dr. Clowes, and others. The new buildings have increased the size of the college by about one-third its present extent. The additions include a veterinary and bacteriological laboratory, a large new drawing school, a new zoological research laboratory, a chemical research room connected with a greenhouse, new offices and students' common room, and a large detached gymnasium, the latter and the drawing school both anonymous gifts. The additions have permitted the enlargement of the biological laboratory and one of the lecture rooms to nearly double their former size, and the formation of a mycological research room. Electric light has been installed throughout. The college may now be said to be the most completely equipped agricultural institution in the country. The principal, in addressing the meeting, and also Mr. Laurence Hardy, in seconding the vote of thanks to Lady Carrington, both spoke of the importance of research work and urged strongly that national financial aid should be given to the college, which has opportunities for such work as cannot be found elsewhere. HIGHER education will benefit greatly by the handsome bequests detailed in the will of the late Mr. Alfred Beit. The college of technology (including mining and metallurgy) in connection with the University of London receives 50,000l. and 5000 preferred shares of 21. 10s. each in De Beers Consolidated Mines (Limited). The sum of 200,000l. is left to the University of Johannesburg to be applied in or towards building and equipping university buildings on the site of the property recently given by Mr. Beit to Johannesburg (including the construction of a tramway connecting the property with Johannesburg), the income of such 200,000l. to be applied meanwhile for educational projects as the Board of Education at Johannesburg may determine; but if at the expiration of ten years the 200,000l. shall not have been applied in such building and equipment, then the legacy is to lapse. 200,000l. is to be distributed within two years after Mr. Beit's death by a board of trustees, of whom the present Bishop of Mashonaland is to be one, for educational, public, and other charitable purposes in Rhodesia. Mr. Beit also bequeathed 25,000l. to the Institute of Medical Sciences Fund, University of London, and 25,000l. to the Rhodes University, Grahamstown, Cape Colony; 20,000l. to his firm of Eckstein and Co., of Johannesburg, to be applied for educational, public, and other charitable purposes in the Transvaal Colony; 15,000l. to his firm at Kimberley, to be applied for educational, public, and other charitable purposes in or near Kimberley; and 15,000l. to Dr. Jameson, Prime Minister of Cape Colony, and Sir Lewis L. Michell, to be applied for educational, public, and other charitable purposes in Cape Colony (excluding Kimberley). SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Chemical Society, July 5.-Prof. R. Meldola, F.R.S., president, in the chair.-Saponarin, a new glucoside coloured blue with iodine: G. Barger. This substance has been isolated from Saponaria officinalis. It crystallises in microscopic needles and is hydrolysed by acids yielding glucose, vitexin, and a colouring matter, apparently isomeric with vitexin, for which the name saponaretin is suggested. The constitution of umbellulone: F. Tutin. Umbellulone occurs in the essential oil of Umbellularia Californica, and has the formula C,,H,,O. Its reactions indicate that it has the constitution CH-CH- CH2. CH(Me) 10 -CO CH- -C(Me)==CH The action of ethyl iodide and of propyl iodide on the disodium derivative of diacetylacetone: A. W. Bain.-A |