PHYSICS.

Examiner, JOHN STEVELLY, LL.D.

9th October, 1858.—Morning.

1. Give a succinct account of the two electrical theories which explain the phenomena, one on the supposition of a single fluid, the other on the supposition that there are two.

2. If the leaves of an electroscope diverge permanently with positive electricity, and an excited glass rod be gradually moved towards the upper plate of the electroscope, the leaves will gradually collapse, and then as the rod is brought nearer they will again expand; explain these facts.

3. In charging an electric battery by cascade, show from the laws of induction that the jars will be unequally charged, and investigate the law by which the charges decrease.

4. What are the reactions which take place when a solution of sulphate of copper is decomposed by a voltaic current--(1), when the poles are platina; (2), when the poles are copper?

5. Describe the tangent galvanometer, explain the principle on which its use is dependent, and give some of the uses to which it may be applied.

6. Prove that in multiple galvanic batteries—that is, where the plates in the several cells are connected by conductors, positive with positive, and negative with negative-the intensity of the current traversing the interpolar, or

where e and

Σ(e.)
I=-
1+r

are the electromotive force and resistance of each cell, and r is the resistance of the interpolar.

7. From the determination arrived at in the last, deduce the intensity in a multiple battery (like Hare's deflagrator) where the elements are similar to each other, and in number n, and show the importance of enlarging the cells, and diminishing the distance of the plates of a battery.

8. Describe Faraday's fundamental experiment by which he demonstrated the action of magnetism on a ray of polarized light.

9. Describe the property which Professor Stokes discovered, and which he has termed fluorescence.

10. Describe the experimentum crucis devised by Arago, and executed by Foucauld and Fizeau, by which the law of refraction is shown to be correctly explained by the wave theory; but not so by the theory of emission.

11. Describe the effect on Fraunhofer's dark lines of the solar spectrum-(1), of changing the refracting angle of the prism without changing the material; (2), of changing the material of the prism.

12. How did Melloni show that moonlight is almost destitute of thermic rays? And how have the late observations of Professor Piazzi Smith modified his conclusion on this subject?

13. Explain the fall of temperature as you ascend into the atmosphere.

14. Explain the fact that the solar heat may be concentrated so as to acquire great intensity in the focus of a large lens, or silvered concave mirror, while these glasses are not themselves much heated; but if they were placed before a fire, they would soon become hot; but the heat concentrated at their focus would be feeble.

CHEMISTRY.

Examiner, THOMAS H. ROWNEY, Ph.D.

7th October, 1858.—Afternoon.

1. Describe the process for extracting lead from its ores; and Pattinson's method of separating the silver from the lead. 2. Describe the method of obtaining silicon, the different forms in which it exists, and the properties of these forms.

3. Give the general properties and the constitution of the aldehydes.

4. How may aniline be obtained from benzoic acid?

5. Mention Hofmann's views of the constitution of the organic bases.

6. Give the characters by which a bibasic acid may be distinguished from a monobasic acid.

7. Describe the method of taking the specific gravity of a gas. 8. Explain the doctrine of substitution.

9. Describe Williamson's method of obtaining the double ethers.

10. Describe the preparation and properties of cacodyl. 11. What is meant by dimorphism? Give some examples of dimorphous bodies.

12. Describe the methods of determining the specific heat of solids and liquids.

13. Describe Boussingault's method of extracting oxygen from the atmosphere.

GROUP IV.

ZOOLOGY.

Examiner, PROFESSOR W. H. HARVEY, M.D., F.R.S.

8th October, 1858.-Morning.

1. Describe, in general terms, the modes by which the blood is aerated throughout the animal kingdom; adding the effects produced, both on the blood and on the surrounding media.

2. What difference of habits, among birds, may safely be inferred from differences in their sternum? Give examples. 3. Describe the typical structure of the mouth in an insect; and mention briefly the five principal modifications which its parts assume in the class Insecta.

4. Refer the following genera of Mollusca to their Classes, Orders, and Families :--Pecten, Eolis, Chiton, Cardium, Hyalæa, Strombus, Terebratula, Helix, and Loligo.

BOTANY.

1. What are the chief causes of the death of leaves; and what organic changes precede their fall?

2. What is meant by chorisis or deduplication? Give examples of floral irregularities which it professes to explain.

3. Give examples of ovaries in which some of the loculi normally become obliterated, and of some in which the loculi are multiplied by the formation of additional septa.

4. Contrast, in a tabular form, the Orders Labiata and Boragineæ, giving, in separate columns, the characters of Stem, Phyllotaxis, Inflorescence, Corolla, Stamens, and Embryo, which distinguish each.

Examination for Honors.

ZOOLOGY.

Examiner, PROFESSOR W. H. HARVEY, M.D., F.R.S.

8th October, 1858.—Morning.

1. Define, with precision, the meaning of the following terms, as applied in Zoology:-Analogy, Homology, Affinity, Function, Representation, Type, Differentiation.

2. Name some invertebrate, as well as vertebrate animals, which have branchial respiration at one period of their lives, and pulmonary at another; and describe the changes that accompany the transition.

3. Describe the structure of the spinneret in the Spider, and the process of web-making.

4. State what is specially remarkable in the structure and development of the teeth in the Elephant.

5. How does the foot of a Swift (Cypselus), differ from that of a Swallow (Hirundo)?

BOTANY.

1. State the principles on which the natural arrangement of plants is grounded.

2. What peculiarity of structure distinguishes the frond of a Lichen from that of other cryptogamous plants?

3. It is well known that the radicle points to the micropile of the seed; state the structural peculiarities of the ovule upon which this depends.

4. Refer the plants before you to their Natural Orders; and write a botanical description of any two of them, according to the following formula :

(a) Stem, General character.

(b) Leaves, Arrangement.

(g)

Stipulation.

Composition.

Form.

Margin and incision.
Venation.

(h) Inflorescence, General character.

(k)

(1)

(m)

(n)

(2

Bracteal appendages.
Flower, Peculiarities of calyx.

Disk.

corolla.

stamens, noticing insertion.

Pistil; as to ovary, style, stigma, and placentation.

(0) Fruit, General character, dehiscence, placentation.

Arrangement of embryo in seed.

Reasons for referring a specimen to a particular Order; general characteristics of the Order, and its geographical distribution.

MINERALOGY, GEOLOGY, AND PHYSICAL
GEOGRAPHY.

Examiner, PROFESSOR WILLIAM KING.

8th October, 1858.-Afternoon.

1. Give an outline sketch of the geology of the district you reside in, or of any other you may be acquainted with; also notice its mineral resources.

2. In county Clare the carboniferous limestone lies in nearly horizontal beds, which are intersected by two sets of joints, the principal one running N.N.E. by compass, and passing downwards, with an inclination to the west, at 10° from the perpendicular; the other set runs about east and west. Conceive these beds- -as some of the same formation are, near Cork--to be standing in a nearly vertical position, with a northerly dip; in what direction would the principal joints run; and what would be the position of the secondary set?

3. At Liscannor, county Clare, the rock is separable into thin flags, having their surfaces corresponding to the planes of deposition. At Valentia, the rock may also be separated into thin flags, but their surfaces intersect the planes of deposition; which of these divisional structures is superinduced? State your views as to the origin of both.

4. Make a section across the valley of the Thames, with the rocks consisting of greensand, London clay, and chalk, and the most recent one in the centre. The centre of such a section re

presents a stratigraphical axis; what is this axis called?

5. Make a section from London to the west of Brighton, supposing it to cross the elevated district of the Weald (the rocks to be the same as in the last section, but the oldest to occupy the centre); and state the name of the axis in the present section.

6. Give a sketch of the paleontological differences between the primary, secondary, and tertiary classes of rocks.

7. Describe the orders into which Agassiz divided the class Pisces; and give the geological distribution in time of the class.

8. Suppose you had a fragment of a fossil shell, and another of a fossil echinoderm, but neither of them exhibiting the least external character as to which class in the animal kingdom they belong; how would you be able to settle this point?

9. Give an outline sketch of the principal points in the physical geography of the Atlantic.

10. Describe the minerals of most commercial importance in the production of lead, copper, iron, zinc, and tin.

11. Describe the axial systems in crystallography, naming a mineral type for each.