The following degrees were conferred in November last:

Doctors in Divinity-Rev. W. Jackson, late Fellow of Queen's College.

Masters of Arts-D. Vawdrey, Fellow of Brazennose; Rev. F. F. Beadon, Oriel.

November 17.

Queen's College.-In pursuance of the will of the late Kane Fitzgerald, Esq., an Exhibition of £60 a year, open to natives of Middlesex, and tenable under conditions for seven years, has been re

November 10.

The following gentlemen were elected Fellows of All Souls' College:-Frederick Anson (student), and Arthur Isham, B.A., Christ Church; and Falliott Baugh, B.A., Exeter College,

The following degrees were conferred:Bachelors of Arts-The Earl of Lincoln, Christ Church, Grand Comp; W. Howley, New College; H. Blackall, student of Christ Church; C. B. Brown, Trinity.

The following degrees were conferred:Masters of Arts-Rev. E, R. Berrens, St. Mary's Hall; Rev. T. Bell, University; Rev. E. Ashe, Balliol; Rev. R. M. Ashe, Trinity; Rev. T. Pateson, Exeter; Rev. E. Meade, Wadham;

Rev. H. Flesher, Lincoln. And in Jesus College: T. Shaw, Brazennose Grand Comp.; Rev. H. Purrier, Worcester; N. W. Goodenough, student of Christ Church.

Friday, November. 2, 1832 The Marquis of Granby; the Viscount Megland; the Hon. George Murray, eldest son of Lord Glenlyon; the Hon. Charles Maynard; Lord Claud Hamilton; Lord John Beresford; the Hon. Orlando Forrester, and Sir John Nelthorpe, were admitted members of Trinity College.

November 9.

The Cambridge Philosophical Society held a general meeting on Tuesday last, the 6th inst., for the purpose of formally accepting the charter lately granted to them by his Majesty; and the occasion was afterwards celebrated by a public dinner at the Eagle Inn,. These who have watched the progress of the society, and consulted the volumes of the original memoirs it has published, will rejoice at an event which has placed it on an honourable and permanent foundation.

The subject of the Norrissian prize essay for the ensuing year is "The conduct and preaching of the Apostles in evidence of the Truth of Christianity.”

At a congregation on Friday last, the following degrees were conferred :Honorary Master of Arts-T. Spring Rice, Trinity.

Master of Arts-Rev. R. Bond, Corpus Christi; Rev. W. Butler, Trinity;

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R. Buckley, St. Peter's; R. W. Sedgwick, Trinity.

Bachelor in Civil Law-Rev. H. J.

Williams, St. John's.

Bachelor in Physic-George Shann, Trinity.

Bachelor of Arts-William Hodgson, At the same congregation a grace passed Queen's; Jolin Crosby Umpleby, Queen's. the Senate to appoint Mr. Graham, of Jesus college, and Mr. Jackson, of St. John's college, Classical Examiners of the Questionists who are not Candidates for Honours.

At a recent meeting of the Observatory Syndicate it was stated, that at a sale of certain property, at Balsham, a short time previous, a lot consisting of two inclosures of arable land, was purchased by Mr. E. M. Smith, who found it to be situate very near the Plumian Homestall, and nearly surrounded by the land belonging to that estate. Mr. Smith therefore purchased the lot under the impression that the University might deem it a desirable addition to the Plumian estate. The Syndicate agreed that it was highly desirable that the lot should be purchased as a permanent addition to the Plumian estate, and on Friday last a grace passed the Senate, agreeing to grant the necessary sum to the Plumian Trustees from the common chest.

11. That the whole property of the body corporate be vested in the Fellows thereof; but that no disposition of any lands, tenements, or hereditaments be

longing to the said body corporate be made, except with the approbation and concurrence of a general meeting.

UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW.-On Thursday, November 15th, Henry Cockburn, Esq., his Majesty's Solicitor-General for Scotland, was unanimously re-elected Lord Rector for the ensuing year. The Lord Rector of the University is not appointed by the Senatus Academicus, but by the whole body of Matriculated Students.

UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH.-The Chair of Natural Philosophy, vacated by the death of Sir John Leslie, is in the gift of the Town Council. Sir John Herschell has been invited to become a candidate for it; but, in a communication made by him to the Lord Provost, while he expresses his deep sense of the honour done him by the invitation, he states, as the ground of his refusal, that the nature of his present pursuits requires his residence for some years in a distant settle

ment.

UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREW's.-The Rev. David Scott, M.D., Minister of Corstorphine, in the Presbytery of Edinburgh, has been appointed Professor of Oriental Languages.

UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN.-The Lord Viscount Arbuthnot has been re-elected Lord Rector of the King's College for the ensuing year; and R. W. Duff, Esq., James Urqhart, Esq., and Charles Bannerman, Esq., Assessors.

We regret to announce the death of Professor Sir John Leslie, who expired on the afternoon of the 3d inst., after a very short illness, at his seat of Coats, in Fife. The death of this distinguished philosopher will create a mighty blank in the scientific world. For original genius, profound literature, and inventive power, perhaps he had not an equal in modern times.

The University of New York was to be opened during the month of November for the reception of students. Amongst the Professors appointed, is Dr. Francis

Leiber, a German, to Lecture on the history of Commerce, Agriculture, and Manufacture.

It is our intention, in a future number, to devote some of our columns to the consideration of this National establishment. Our present limits will only permit us to notice, in a very brief manner, some facts respecting it, which may be entertaining to the public.

The Society now consists of life and honorary members, and its government is vested in the former, who have paid a certain sum in lieu of all subscriptions. The present admission fee of a member is thirty guineas. A new bye-law has just been made, which admits a class of annual subscribers, called associate annual

subscribers, at three guineas each, per annum. These subscribers have the same privileges as the incorporated members, except that they have no share in the government of the Society, and they can neither be present at its meetings, nor take a book from the library.

A new descriptive catalogue of the minerals belonging to the Society's collection, drawn up by Sir Charles Giesecke, has just been printed, and will, we understand, be sold to the members and the public at cost price.

Our partiality to the chemical department of the Society, will induce us to

give a brief notice of some interesting facts lately discovered by Professor Davy, which, we apprehend, are scarcely known among scientific men. The Society, not long since, published a paper of his, "On a new Acid (the Fulminic) and its combinations." Whilst examining these substances, he discovered a new fulminating silver, having the common properties of Howard's compound, but distinguished from it, by spontaneously exploding in Chlorine gas. A single grain of this fulminate is sufficient to produce about 100 separate explosions in this gas, and about 1000 explosions may be produced in about a half ounce phial of the gas. The fulminate is instantly exploded when dropped into mixtures of gases containing 1-100 of chlorine gas. Hence it is a delicate test of the presence of this gas, and will probably admit of application as a substitute for the fulminating compounds at present used in the percussion locks of guns. The new fulminate of silver, according to the Professor's analysis, contains two proportions of fulminic acid and one of oxide of silver, and is the bifulminate, whereas Howard's compound, contains only half as much of the same acid and is the fulminate.

In the course of some recent experiments on the new test for chlorine gas, Mr. Davy was led to examine the gases produced by the mutual action of nitric acid and different chlorides, and also of the nitric and muriatic acids on each other, by which he discovered a new gas composed of equal volumes of chlorine and nitrous gases, hence he has called it chloro-nitrous gas. It may be made by treating fused chloride of sodium, po. tassium, or calcium, in powder, with as much strong nitrous acid as is sufficient to wet it. This gas is of a pale reddish yellow colour, and has an odour somewhat resembling that of chlorine, but less pungent. From its strong affinity for moisture, it fumes when brought in contact with the air. In its ordinary state of dryness, it destroys vegetable colours, but it first reddens litmus paper, before the colour is removed. Chloronitrous gas does not support combustion, but the bifulminate of silver explodes in it. It is readily absorbed by water, and in quantity, and the acid thus obtained, resembles very closely aqua-regia or nitromuriatic acid, the common solvent of gold.

We shall, lastly, notice a paper of Professor Davy's entitled, "On a simple electro-chemical method of ascertaining the presence of different metals; applied to detect minute quantities of metallic poisons."

The voltaic arrangement used by the author, consisted of small slips of different metals, generally of zinc and platina, placed in contact, and forming a circuit with the interposed fluid containing the poisonous metal, which is presently deposited on the negative surface, in the metallic state. The zinc and platina employed were commonly in the form of foil, sometimes, however, a small platina crucible, or spatula was used. It is generally necessary to mix a drop or two of acid with the metallic compounds that are to be submitted to this test, and that are brought in contact with the platina, when on applying the zinc foil, the platina becomes coated with the reduced metal.

The author details many experiments proving the efficacy of his method to detect the different combinations of arsenic, mercury, lead, and copper; and notices the precautions to be observed in the case of each metal. He was enabled not only to detail the presence of arsenic, but to exhibit its characteristic properties, when only 1-500, and in some instances, when the very minute quantity of 1-2500 of a grain was deposited on the platina.

The author's electro-chemical method was found competent to detect very minute quantities of the different metals, when their compounds were mixed with a number of vegetable and animal substances. Thus, the presence of arsenic was readily discovered when mixed with the ordinary articles of food, as wheaten flour, bread, starch, potatoes, rice, peas, soup, sugar, gruel, tea, vinegar, milk, eggs, gelatine, wines; also when mixed with the principal secretions of the alimentary canal. Arsenious acid was detected with great ease, when mixed with butter, lard, oils, &c. The results were precisely similar with corrosive sublimate, the acetate of lead, and the sulphate of copper when added in very small quantities, to the most complicated mixtures of organic substances. And in instances where the common tests do not act at all, or only act fallaciously, the electro-chemical method acts with the greatest certainty.

The first meeting of the Belfast Natural History Society, in the present session, took place on Wednesday, the 20th of October, when an address was delivered by the Rev. T. D. Hincks, M.R.I.A. In commencing it, he took occasion to notice the facility with which knowledge may now be acquired, contrasted with the difficulties which formerly retarded its acquisition; then dwelt on the humble commencement of the Natural History Society here, when it consisted of only eight members; and after touching on some of the different steps by which its progress had been marked, dwelt at considerable length on the vast range of objects which the science embraces, and the elevated pleasure which it affords. This address was delivered by Mr. Hincks at the request of the Society's Council; and to all the members it appeared highly gratifying to behold the same gentleman, who had so long presided over their meetings at a former period, come forward from amidst of other engrossing avocations, as the unwearied promoter of natural science. In the course of the remarks which the address elicited, Dr. Drummond, the president of the society, mentioned that he had long conceived that a popular course of lectures, illustrative of the facts adduced in Paley's Natural Theology, would be desirable; and that he might, perhaps, take oecasion in the course of the present winter, to deliver a course of about forty lectures on those parts of the animal structure and economy alluded to in that work.

The following donations were presented : -A fine specimen of a vertical section of an orthoceratite, from Castle Espie quarry, by James Birch Gilmour, Esq., Maxwell's Court, near Comber; a number of native insects, which are now in course of scientific arrangement in the Museum, collected in the neighbourhood of Belfast, by Mr. A. H. Halliday, Dr. Templeton, Mr. G. C. Hyndman, and Mr. R. Patterson; a flying fish, and the jaws of a shark, taken on the passage from New Orleans to Belfast, presented by Mr James Vance; two alligators, both of which were living when received, from William Vance, Esq. New Orleans; the one which still survives, was exhibited, and appears about two feet and a half in length; a guana, small stuffed shark, a fine fan coral, and some shells, presented by Dr. Archer, of Liverpool. Above one hundred members and visitors were present on this interesting occasion. It was announced that the new subscriptions to the building fund since the 1st of October, amounted to 36l. 15s., and that a considerable augmentation was expected, upon the opening of the Museum for public exhibition, which will be in the course of a fortnight or three weeks. The first private meeting of the Society was fixed for Wednesday evening, the 6th November, when Mr. E. Getty read a paper on the varieties of grain lately under cultivation in the Belfast Botanic Garden. We understand that a paper was also read by Dr. H. Purdon, on the 21st November.

At a General Annual Meeting, held at their House, Lower Abbey-street, on the 18th day of October, 1832, the following officers, &c. were elected :

PRESIDENT-Martin Cregan, Esq., Professor of Painting, and Trustee, in the room of William Cuming, Esq., who resigned.

SECRETARY-George Papworth, Esq., Professor of Architecture, and Trustee. KEEPER-Thomas J. Mulvany, Esq. Professor of Perspective.

TREASURER-John G. Mulvany, Esq.
LIBRARIAN—George Petrie, Esq.,

M.R.I.A.

COUNCIL-George Papworth, Esq., Robert L. West, Esq., John G. Mulvany, Esq. Joseph Peacock, Esq.

AUDITORS George Petrie, Esq., and Thomas J. Mulvany, Esq.

HOUSE COMMITTEE-Thomas Kirk, Esq., Professor of Sculpture, and Trustee, George Papworth, Esq., Thomas J. Mulvany, Esq.

VISITERS Samuel Lover, Esq., Robert L. West, Esq., Thomas Kirk, Esq., George Petrie, Esq.

ASSOCIATES T. Bridgeford and Mathew Kendrick.