SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 20I 



or outside. They should be provided in every available recess for 

 the storage of books, loose maps, etc. 



\V.\LL FINISHINGS. 



The inside wall plaster should be painted to a light subdued 

 tint of grey with a permanent washable waterproof material in 

 preference to distemper. The latter is easily soiled, is absorbent, 

 and needs complete removal before a fresh coat can be applied, 

 which is a dirtv and expensive job, whereby the floors suffer 

 considerablv. 



DADOS. 



Dados should be of specially hard and impermeable material, 

 and where pressed asbestos slabs, dull glazed tiles or earthenware 

 cannot be adopted, good smooth cement plaster should be applied, 

 and, after being painted, a finish of dull " flat " varnish should be 

 applied. Dados with highly glazed and reflective surfaces are 

 very objectionable in class rooms, but not so in corridors, halls 

 or cloak rooms. 



SCIENCE CLASS ROOMS AND LABORATORIES. 



Science class rooms and laboratories open up such a tremen- 

 dous field that I cannot find time to touch upon them on this 

 occasion, but hope to do so on a future one. 



NOVA LACERTAE.— A new red star, of 7.5 magnitude 

 (visual), was discovered by the Rev. T. E. Espin at Towlaw, 

 Durham, on the 30th December. The star is within the southern 

 border of the Milky Way, and may be regarded as the apex of 

 an approximately equilateral triangle, whereof Alpha and Beta Lacer- 

 tae form the basal angles. The spectrum of the nova shows bright 

 lines, and the lines of hydrogen and helium have been specially 

 noted. A bright line in the red, apparently the C line of hydrogen, 

 was observed by Mr. Espin, and there were two other conspicuous 

 lines, the stronger of which seemed to be F, while there was 

 also a yellow line, probably D3 Three bands were observed 

 between F and D, and a strong band on the more refrangible side 

 of F, beyond which a bright band was visible. At Cambridge 

 Observatory seven or eight bright lines have been noticed in the 

 nova's spectrum. The star is now evidently diminishing in bright- 

 ness, for reference to photographic plates taken a month earlier 

 show it as of the fifth magnitude. Prof. Max Wolf announces in 

 Astronomische Nachrichten that a 13th magnitude star occupied 

 the present position of the nova on some plates taken at the 

 Konigstuhl Observatorv a few years ago, but photographs taken 

 at Harvard in 1887 show no trace of the new star. 



