June 22, 1911] 



NATURE 



575 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



On July 15 the King will lay the foundation stone of the 

 new Welsh National Library at Aberystwyth. 



Dr. Shand, of the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, 

 has been appointed by the council of Victoria College, 

 Stellenbosch, South Africa, to the recently instituted chair 

 of geology. 



It is proposed to start in September next, at the Horti- 

 cultural College, Swanley, Kent, a year's course in natural 

 history for intending teachers of nature study and garden- 

 ing. The course is designed to give students an insight 

 into field work in natural history based on sound labora- 

 tory instruction, and enable them to impart their know- 

 ledge to others in simple and intelligible language. The 

 work will be thoroughly practical, and students will be 

 shown how to prepare their own material and construct any 

 necessary apparatus. The course will extend over one 

 session of three terms, thus giving opportunities for field 

 work in all seasons. 



Prof. W. A. Herdman, F.K.S., will hold a vacation 

 course on oceanography at the Port Erin Biological Station 

 in September this year, probably in the two weeks follow- 

 ing the meeting of the British Association. The exact 

 dates and further particulars will be announced shortly. 

 The practical work of the course will, as last year, be 

 conducted by Dr. W. J. Dakin (as zoologist) and Dr. H. E. 

 Roaf (as physiologist). Prof. Herdman's new steam-yacht 

 Runa, which is being fitted up for oceanographical work, 

 will by that time have returned from her contemplated 

 plankton cruise in the Hebrides, and will be available for 

 demonstrations of apparatus and method on board in Port 

 Erin Bay. 



The second volume of the 19 lo report of the U.S. Com- 

 missioner of Education shows that 494 of the institutions 

 of higher learning which report to the Bureau at 

 Washington admit men students, 352 admit men and 

 women, and 108 women only. The report includes much 

 interesting information as to the property and income of 

 the various colleges and universities. We notice that the 

 494 colleges admitting men students have libraries valued 

 at 3,850,000?. The value of their scientific apparatus, 

 machinery, and furniture is given as 6,550,000?. ; of their 

 grounds, 3,538,000?. ; and of their buildings, 42,300,000/. 

 The productive funds of these institutions amount to 

 51,875,000?. Their income for 1910 reached 16,088,000?., of 

 which 2,320,000 was from productive funds. From the 

 same source much can be learnt concerning the growth of 

 secondary education in the United States. For twenty 

 years the rate of increase in the number of secondary- 

 school pupils has been greater than the rate of increase in 

 population. In 1890 the number of secondary-school pupils 

 was 367,003, or 5900 to the million of population ; in 1900 

 the number was 719,241, or 9500 to the million; and in 

 1910 it was 1,131,466, or 12,300 to the million. The per 

 cent, of increase in population since 1890 has been nearly 

 47, while the per cent, of increase in secondary-school pupils 

 has been 208. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 

 Royal Meteorological Society, June 14. — Dr. H. N. 

 Dickson, president, in the chair. — Dr. C. Chree : Dis- 

 cussion of the barograph records kept by the late Mr. P. 

 Bell at Castle O'er, Dumfriesshire, during the seven 

 years 1902-8. The records show a well-marked principal 

 maximum and minimum at 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. re- 

 spectively. Every single year agrees in this except 1908, 

 which puts the maximum at 7 a.m. The existence of a 

 secondary maximum and minimum is unmistakable, but 

 while the hour of occurrence of the former is clearly 

 11 a.m., that of the latter is less distinct. It seems to be 

 4 p.m., but a longer series of observations would have 

 been necessary to confirm this. — Spencer C. Russell : Ex- 

 periments carried out at Epsom during the last two years 

 in order to obtain a permanent record of the variations in 



NO. 2173, VOL. 86] 



the size of raindrops as and when they occurred. The 

 first method employed was the exposure of a number of 

 ruled slates divided into 5-inch sections, and gently brushed 

 over with an even coating of oil. This was not altogether 

 satisfactory, as during heavy rain the drops impinged 

 upon the slate with such force as to become broken up 

 into a series of drops composed of one large and a number 

 of small ones. The most satisfactory results, however, 

 have been given by the use of plaster of Paris. Mr. 

 Russell exhibited to the meeting a number of these rain- 

 drop models. He stated that the sizes of the drops which 

 he had already collected were : — 7 of 6 mm., 44 of 5 mm., 

 73 of 4 mm., 222 of 3 mm., 257 of 2 mm., 175 of i mm., 

 and 107 of less than i mm. — A. J. Makower, Dr. W. 

 Makowwer, W. M. Gregrory, and H. Robinson : Experi- 

 ments carried out at Ditcham Park to investigate the 

 electrical state of the air at different heights above the 

 ground by means of kites and balloons. 



DUBUN. 



Royal Irish Academy, June 12.— Rev. Dr. MahafTy, presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — R. Lloyd Praeger : Phanerogamia 

 and Pteridophyta. Part I. Dispersal and distribution. 

 (Clare Island Survey.) In connection with the study of the 

 vegetation of Clare Island, particular attention was paid 

 to the questions of the origin and the age of the flora. 

 The . question as to whether the flora could have 

 immigrated across the existing strait which separates it 

 from the mainland was decided in the negative, on the 

 grounds, among others, of its variety and complexity in 

 relation to that of the mainland, the equal abundance of 

 species with or without dispersion devices, and the non- 

 applicability in this case of certain usually potent methods 

 of dispersal. The influence of man upon the flora was 

 also dealt with fully. 



New South Wales. 

 Linnean Society, March 29. — Mr. C. Hedley, president, 

 in the chair. — C. Hedley : Presidential address, a study 

 of marginal drainage. Previous to the present cycle, 

 it is believed by geologists that a peneplain ex- 

 tended from New Guinea in the north to Tasmania 

 in the south. Probably this peneplain extended eastwards 

 beyond the limit of the present coast, and was continued 

 seawards by a broad continental shelf. The theory is 

 advanced that the present cycle commenced by the sinking 

 of the ocean-floor, and by pressure upon the border of the 

 continent. In the zone of compression folding ensued, by 

 which the continental shelf was depressed and the coastal 

 range elevated simultaneously. Where the margin of the 

 shelf approaches the coast, so does the divide. From this 

 it is inferred that a broad shelf serves as a buttress to 

 that portion of the continent that lies behind it. Sheltered 

 by this buttress, radial rivers persist as relics from the 

 peneplain epoch. To show that the continental shelf is 

 still being diminished, an instance is furnished by Captain 

 Sharp of how the shelf has retreated from five to ten 

 miles within forty years near Break Sea Spit. A feature 

 of many rivers of our Pacific slope is that, for part of 

 their course, they run in valleys parallel to the shore. 

 Then they are apt to break away and run direct to the 

 sea. Of where and what were the rivers of the preceding 

 cycle, the peneplain times, there is no record. It is 

 obvious that no peneplain could have carried such crooked 

 rivers as the Clarence or the Shoalhaven. Of necessity 

 the peneplain rivers were longer, slower, and straighter 

 than these. How were those peneplain rivers succeeded 

 by an entirely diverse scheme of drainage? The explana- 

 tion offered is that the crooked rivers lie in a zone of 

 compression ; that movements from the pressure-trough 

 threw the coastal area into irregular folds ; that these 

 broke and caught the radial rivers, which, turning aside, 

 flowed along their furrows ; then at once denudation played 

 on elevation. At every opportunity the river burst through 

 the obstacle which held it back from the shortest way to 

 the sea. Finally, the old channel, chopped in lengths by 

 cross-streams, appears as an empty river-bed. Every stage 

 in this performance is illustrated hv the rivers of New 

 South Wales. It is clear that as these great meridional 

 valleys, marginal to the coast, are undergoing rapid dis- 



