January 4, 19 12] 



NATURE 



;2i 



Mr. Reynolds has reminded us that it was in 1869 

 that Scott Russell wrote "Systematic Technical Educa- 

 tion for the English People" in order to "move the 

 minds of English statesmen." Since that date we 

 have nationalised elementary education, and the pro- 

 cess of nationalising secondary education proceeds 

 apace. Signs of further reaUsation of that national 

 organisation of which Sir Norman Lockyer has long 

 been an advocate are to be seen in the Minority 

 Report of the Poor Law Commission and in the recent 

 transfer to the Board of Education of the control of 

 ENchequer grants to universities. The Continued 

 Education Bill introduced by Mr. Runciman fails as 

 a practical measure by reason of the absence of finan- 

 cial provision and of the too-early age for leaving 

 school ; but its introduction is welcome as evidence 

 that educated public opinion calls for Governmental 

 action. The London University Commission can 

 scarcely fail to throw light on many of the difficulties 

 which beset the subject. The proposed Teachers' 

 Council will bring together in one national organisa- 

 tion teachers in universities, technical institutions, 

 secondary and elementary schools. All these 

 phenomena afford evidence of an awakening national 

 spirit in matters educational, and the main purpose 

 of this article is to urge all interested to bend their 

 backs to the work of nationalising technical education. 

 By so doing we may advance an important step 

 towards the realisation of Scott Russell's ideal, viz. 

 " to show how to form a nation of well-educated 

 Englishmen, where each workman shall thoroughly 

 know his work ; where each foreman shall thoroughly 

 understand the right principles and best methods of 

 executing that work ; and where each master of a 

 manufactory, and each member of a profession, shall 

 have received the highest education in the philosophical 

 principles and modern methods of his art, science, or 

 profession.'.' G. F. Daniell. 



ATOMIC WEIGHTS. 



THE issue of the Proceedings of the Chemical 

 Society for October 30, vol. xxvii., No. 390, con- 

 tains the report of the International Committee on 

 Atomic Weights for 1912. At the request of the society 

 the committee wisely acceded to the suggestion that 

 the annual report should be published prior to the 

 beginning of the academic year in order that teachers 

 and students during any given session may not be 

 exposed to the possible inconvenience of having to 

 deal with two sets of numerical values during their 

 lecture or laboratory courses. 



There is no doubt that the annual review of the 

 state of contemporary knowledge respecting the values 

 of the fundamental constants known as the atomic 

 weights of the elements acts as a constant stimulus 

 in securing the attention of workers to the importance 

 of the subject ; and the critical examination to which 

 the various contributions to the more accurate ascer- 

 tainment of these values is yearly subjected bv the 

 members of the committee tends to raise the standard 

 of what should now be demanded as regards precision 

 and validity of method. The consequence is that all 

 the atomic weights of the commoner elements are now 

 known to a degree of accuracy which stamps these 

 values as among the best determined of all physical 

 constants. They have been ascertained by a great 

 variety of methods and by the use of a great varietv 

 of combinations in order to eliminate so far as pos- 

 sible the influence of constant errors. This is especiallv 

 so in the case of elements such as oxygen, hvdrogon, 

 the halogens, nitrogen, carbon, sodium, potassium, 

 silver, &c., which are themselves the bases upon 



NO. 2201, VOL. 88] 



which the determinations of the atomic weights or 

 the other elements ultimately depend. 



There is, however, still much to be done before the 

 whole of the atomic weights of the eightv or so 

 elementary bodies are known to this degree of accu- 

 racy. In a large number of cases, methods of obtain- 

 ing suitable combinations of the elements have still 

 to be worked out. It is not always easv to be sure 

 of the purity, individuality, or constancy of composi- 

 tion of such combinations. Methods, too, of quantita- 

 tive determination may be faultv, or mav rest 

 upon a doubtful basis. The efforts of chemists are 

 therefore at the present time mainly directed to 

 attempts to remove these conditions of uncertainty, 

 since they constitute by far the chief sources of error 

 —far greater, indeed, than any uncertaintv due to the 

 operation of weighing, for, thanks to the combined 

 efforts of mechanicians and instrument makers, the 

 modern chemical balance, intelligently and skilfullv 

 used, if not unsurpassed as an instrument of pre- 

 cision, is fully equal to the demands which modern 

 atomic weights work, at least in its present stage 

 of development, demands of it. 



M. J. B. EDOUARD BORNET. 



DOTANISTS will learn with regret that the death 

 -*-' of the eminent phycologist, M. Edouard Bornet, 

 occurred at Paris on December 18, 191 1. Born at 

 Gu6rigny in 1828, Bornet began by studying medicine, 

 but early in his career turned his attention to crypto- 

 gamic botany, and under the direction of Tulasne and 

 Leveill^ devoted his energies to the study of algae and 

 lichens. On this subject, which he continued to 

 pursue throughout his life, he published important 

 papers and memoirs, whilst the garden at Antibes 

 became during his supervision celebrated as a centre 

 of phycological research. 



Bornet 's work was specially characterised by the 

 care with which he unravelled the life-history of cellu- 

 lar plants, and in his numerous systematic papers the 

 value of this fact is always apparent. His investiga- 

 tions in conjunction with Thuret on the fertilisation 

 of algae (especially of the Florideae) were most valu- 

 able, and the two large volumes, " Notes Algolo- 

 giques " and " £tudes Phycologiques " have been the 

 admiration of all subsequent workers. Bornet also 

 tackled the lichen problem, and the strong support 

 which he gave to Schwendener's views as to the dual 

 nature of these plants led to the early recognition of 

 the accuracy of Schwendener's position. He isolated 

 and specifically determined the algae which enter into 

 the composition of a large number of lichens, and 

 described the method by which the hyphae envelop the 

 algae, as well as the mutual benefit derived from the 

 intimate association of the algae and fungi. He came 

 to the conclusion that every gonidium of a lichen can 

 be referred to a species of alga, and that the connec- 

 tion of the hypha with the gonidia is of such a nature 

 that it excludes the possibility of one organism being 

 produced by the other. Amongst his systematic works 

 the account of Schousboe's Mediterranean algap and 

 the joint revision with Flahault of the Nostocacoae are 

 the most important. 



Bornet was " Oftlcier " of the I.«gion of Honour, and 

 was awarded the gold medal of the Linnean Society 

 in 1891. In 1910 he was elected a foreign member of 

 the Royal Society. British algologists often appealed 

 to Bornet for aid in taxonomic questions, and always 

 found correspondence with htm a pleasure, not only 

 on account of his characteristic thoroughness, but bv 

 reason of his appreciative interest and unfailing 

 courtesy. •^- ^- C. 



