ii6 



NA rURE 



[December 2, 1897 



be worked on better lines. No spasmodic efforts here and there 

 to form science classes, but technical schools which led to 

 technical colleges, on a carefully graded system, were needed. 

 The Education Department would have to determine clearly the 

 lines of demarcation of the various forms of education which it 

 would support. In the United States, Germany, France, and 

 Switzerland, pulilic money was ungrudgingly given to technical 

 schools, and there was no reason why in this country there should 

 be so much hesitation. The cause of the success and progress 

 of continental industry was due to the keen sense of competition 

 and to the widespread conviction that all production must be 

 placed on a scientific ba'^is. Science there was not considered as 

 a luxury, but as a powerful agent of economic production. The 

 sooner we realised that our very existence as an industrial nation 

 was threatened the better. 



The opinions expressed by Prof. Priestley Smith in a 

 pamphlet on the " Aims and Methods of Education" (Cornish 

 Brothers, Manchester), just received, are accepted by the 

 majority of people who have given thought to educational 

 systems. The ordinary middle-class parent is content to 

 know nothing about the efficiency of the instructors in the 

 schools to which he sends his children. Happily, the times 

 are i ot without signs of the growth of a healthy interest 

 in the subject of ratirnal education, and we welcome every 

 publication which will encourage its development. All of 

 us are of much the same opinion as regards the futility of 

 learning by rote, and the truly educational value of a kinder- 

 garten system of education for the young. A kindergarten 

 may be described as a place where children learn by natural 

 instead of unn itural methods, and consequently acquire more 

 realknowledge than by any other system. But not every school 

 that is called a kindergarten justifies the title, for in many 

 of these schools, as in many private schools for the middle- 

 class, qualification to teach is often a secondary matter compared 

 with local influence. The elementary school teacher must show 

 himself qualified to teach before he can be recognised by the 

 Education Department, but we have not yet reached the stage 

 of educational progress when the master of a private school 

 must produce similar credentials. When these anomalies are 

 destroyed we may perhaps hope for the establishment of a 

 rational system of education, for we shall then have the men to 

 put it into effect. Prof Smith says many hard but true things 

 with regard to the classical veneer which effectually covers up 

 natural tendencies in the public school. "The follower of 

 nature," he remarks, " in education, adopts a different system. 

 He believes less in books, which supply information ready cut 

 and dried, than in mental exercises carried on in class by ques- 

 tion, discussion, and demonstration. He helps the boy to 

 observe and compare examples, to discover likenesses and differ- 

 ences, and to arrive at rules and principles by inferring them 

 for himself He aims at self-training, and studies the art of 

 promoting it. He declares that this system arouses a greater 

 activity of interest in the boy, and makes of his mind an in- 

 strument for observation and reflection rather than a store- 

 house." This is the system of education we should encourage, 

 because it is the one which will most benefit the child, the 

 country, and the race. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Boliettino del la Societd Sismologica lialiana, vol. iii. N. 3. — 

 An electric seismoscope of double sensitiveness, by G. Aga- 

 mennone. — An elastic pendulum for mechanical action, by C. 

 Guzzanti. — Notices of earthquakes recorded in Italy (Febru- 

 ary i8-March 20, 1897), by G. Agamennone, the most interest- 

 ing being those of distant, but unknown, earthquakes on 

 February 19-20 and March 2. 



N. 4. — The earthquake of Kishm (Persian Gulf) of the night 

 of January lo-ii, 1897, by G. Agamennone. A correlation 

 of some records of a previously unknown earthquake obtained 

 at European observatories between 9.15 and 9.32 p.m. (Green- 

 wich mean time) on January 10, with an earthquake occurring 

 at 9.30 (?) in the island of Kishm, but the times are too dis- 

 cordant to enable the velocity to be determined — Summary of 

 the principal eruptive phenomena in Sicily and the adjacent 

 islands during the half-year January-June 1897, by S. 

 Arcidiacono. — Condition of the central crater of Etna from the 



NO. 1466, VOL. 57] 



second half-year of 1895 to the 'first half-year of 1897, by A. 

 Ricco. — Notices of the earthquakes recorded in Italy (March 20 

 -April 27, 1897), by G. Agamennone, the most important 

 being the Umbrian earthquake of March 21-22, the Roman 

 earthquakes of April 3, the Lucano earthquake of April 16, and 

 the Abruzzi earthquake of April 26-27. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, November 25 — " On the Geometrical 

 Treatment of the ' Normal Curve ' of Statistics, with especial 

 Reference to Correlation and to the Theory of Error." By 

 W. F. Sheppard, LL.M., formerly Fellow of Trinity College, 

 Cambridge. 



The object of the paper was, in the first place, to simplify and 

 extend the treatment of normal correlation as expounded by 

 Francis Galton and Karl Pearson ; and in the second place to 

 obtain general formulae in the theory of error, and to apply them 

 to questions which arise in relation to normal distributions and 

 normal correlation. The method was, throughout, elementary, 

 the use of the differential and integral calculus being avoided, 

 though geometrical infinitesimals were to a certain extent 

 employed. 



Physical Society, November 26.— Mr. Shelford Bidwell, 

 President, in the chair. — Mr. Rollo Appleyard read a paper 

 on the failure of German-silver and platinoid wires. The 

 mechanical defectiveness, and the consequent electrical in- 

 stability of alloys used for electrical wires, may be discussed 

 from two points of view : (i) as to the constitution and metal- 

 lurgy of the alloy; (2) with regard to the subsequent treatment 

 and environment of the wire. In stating the case, the author 

 gives instances of the failure of German-silver and platinoid 

 wire that have occurred among several thousands of resistance- 

 coils distributed over widely different latitudes. In periods of 

 time, varying from six weeks to several years after manufacture, 

 the wire on some of the bobbins became brittle and bsoke, not 

 only on the outer layers, but also within the coils. The towns 

 where the faults appeared are all within the tropics, and included 

 nearly within the isotherm of 25° C. Other coils, of nominally 

 the same material, manufacture, and environment, have retained 

 their original good condition. It follows that metallurgical 

 differences exist between different samples of the same nominal 

 quality of alloy. Examples are given to prove that failure 

 sometimes occurs with platinoid through which no electricity 

 has passed. Provided that the wire is good, the effect of 

 environment is almost insignificant, i.e. the question is one of 

 metallurgy, rather than of instrument-making. The author 

 introduces a distinction in regard to brittleness. He discrim- 

 inates between "primary" and "secondary" brittleness. 

 "Primary" brittleness is characteristic of certain alloys (foif 

 instance, of gold-lead, or of gold-bismuth) from the moment of 

 their solidification. But the brittleness of German-silver and of 

 platinoid is of a different order ; it is a subsequent phenomenon. 

 "Primary" brittleness is thus an accident of birth, and 

 " secondary " brittleness is a disease that develops with age and 

 circumstance. The fracture of bad specimens of German-silver 

 and platinoid shows patches of dark metal, crevices, and 

 fissures. It may be supposed that, during the process of cool- 

 ing, "liquation" occurs — the metals that first solidify, re- 

 jecting yet molten portions, as ice rejects foreign matter. 

 Consequently, the strength of the final alloy varies 

 from point to point of its mass, and in passing after- 

 wards through the die, the weaker portions give way, and 

 the general structure is loosened : moisture can then intrude 

 through the capillary channels. At all fissures and crevices the 

 electric current produces undue heating ; this accounts for the 

 failure of resistance-coils on arc-light and other circuits. As 

 regards the protection of coils against moisture, paraffin- wax is 

 of no use whatever ; it is highly absorbent. Shellac varnish is 

 greatly to be preferred. Ebonite does not seem to have any 

 deteriorating effect, but it may be well to keep the alloys out of 

 actual contact with it. In conclusion, Mr. Appleyard expressed 

 a hope that British metallurgists would give electrical alloys 

 special consideration. Already, British cable-manufacturers are 

 importing thousands of tons, annually, of sheathing-wire from 

 Germany ; this is sufficiently to be regretted ; he had good 



