April 21, 1898] 



NATURE 



587 



conspicuous objects on nights when the seeing is good, 

 and the times of their passages across the planet's central 

 meridian are easily secured. The following are the 

 longitudes of a few of these formations as computed 

 from System II. of the ephemerides : — 



Long. 



1. Dark elongated spot in Lat. + 15 ... 120 



2. „ ,, Lat. - 35 ... 150 



3. » M Lat. + 15 ... 254 



4. „ ,, Lat. + 33 ... 268 

 5- .. M Lat. + 39 ... 282 

 6. ,, „ Lat. + 15 ... 298 



Nos. I, 3 and 6 are placed in the bright tropical zone, 

 and immediately outlying the northern edge of the 

 north equatorial belt. They are moving somewhat 

 faster than the red spot, as their longitude appears to be 

 decreasing at the rate of about 10° per month. Nos. 

 4 and 5 in the north temperate zone are moving at 

 approximately the same velocity as the red spot. 



There are some well-defined irregularities in the north 

 side of the northern equatorial belt, which exhibits both 

 white and dark spots. Their motion is evidently con- 

 trolled by a rapid current similarly to that of the white 

 and dark equatorial spots, but not, perhaps, quite so 

 extreme. 



Bright spots appear in the zone south of the red spot, 

 and several of these are being attentively followed with 

 the object of determining their periods. 



On the whole the planet's appearance is now singu- 

 larly replete with detail, and will compare favourably 

 with that exhibited at any previous opposition. The 

 great red spot has, it is true, long since lost the intense 

 brick-red colour it displayed in the years 1878-81 ; nor 

 have we now the exceedingly brilliant white equatorial 

 spots of the period named. But appearances are now 

 visible on the disc which were absent then, and among 

 the most interesting of these are the elongated dark 

 spots situated just outside the margin of the north 

 equatorial belt. 



Though past observation has fully demonstrated the 

 proper motions of the different markings and the de- 

 creasing velocity of several of them, it is highly im- 

 portant that the rate of the various currents should be 

 redetermined every year. The character and number of 

 the spots found in them should also be recorded, and 

 measures made to determine the latitudes of the belts. 

 Pursued through a long series of years, such data might 

 ultimately give us the proof of periodical variations in 

 the character and number of the spots, and possibly 

 also in their rates of motion. W. F. Denning. 



THE LONDON UNIVERSITY BILL. 



'X'HE friends of education and many friends of the 

 -*• Government are disappointed at the postponement 

 of the second reading of this Bill in the House of Com- 

 mons. The cynics are saying that aristocratic Govern- 

 ment and University representation are either jointly 

 or severally responsible for this recurrent paralysis in the 

 treatment of a question of the greatest importance to the 

 greatest city of the world. 



Nature is not a political organ, and these points need 

 not therefore occupy us ; we can only express regret that 

 the way in which all matters connected with science and 

 education are handled in this country is so vastly different 

 from that meted out to them in France or Germany. The 

 Times writes as follows : 



It is no longer denied in any quarter that the absence of a 

 teaching University in the capital of the British Empire and the 

 greatest city in the world is an anomaly and almost a scandal. 

 The alternative which commends itself to Mr. Moulton and the 

 anti-reform party is that a new teaching University should be 

 set up alongside of the present examining University, but this 



NO. i486, VOL. 57] 



scheme has been rejected by the vast majority of intelligent mei* 

 who have taken even the slightest pains to look into the sub- 

 jett. What the Government desire — in accordance, we believe, 

 with the immense preponderance of authority on this questioiv 

 — is to connect a teaching University, under which degrees will 

 be given as the hall-mark of a systematic intellectual training, 

 with the existing system of examination pure and simple. The 

 latter, it is pointed out, is left entirely untouched, though there- 

 is a strong and growing conviction that it never can be, even ii> 

 part, a true development of the highest education, but must 

 lend, more and more, to pass under the dominion of the 

 crammer. But the preservation of the existing method of 

 giving degrees makes it imperative, if the teaching work of 

 the University is to be a reality and not a sham, that 

 there should be a double system of examinations, the 

 one for "internal" and the other for "external" students.. 

 The Bill provides, necessarily and inevitably, for this distinc- 

 tion, but the most careful securities are adopted that no unfair 

 advantage shall be given to the former class, and, especially,, 

 that the examination of students by the teachers who have 

 trained them shall be supplemented and checked by the admis- 

 sion of an independent element. It would seem to be forgotten 

 that the medical degrees of the London University, which un- 

 doubtedly stand highest in public estimation and of which the 

 standard is rigorously high, are granted on the reports of 

 examiners many of whom are teachers in the medical schools.. 

 The cry for identity of examinational tests is irrelevant and in- 

 consistent. It is, as JDr. Allchin urges, "an attempt to sub- 

 ordinate the examinations to the requirements of those who 

 have neither been trained nor educated in the fullest sense of 

 the word." This is the very essence of the bondage from which 

 for many years past the higher education in London has been, 

 struggling, under the guidance of such men as Huxley, to- 

 escape, and from which deliverance is now in sight, if Ministers 

 will only have the courage of their opinions and be true to their 

 pledges. 



Whether the paralysis comes from want of knowledge 

 or want of courage, it is very clear that there is at the 

 present a great gap in our administrative machinery, and 

 one which a Scientific and Educational Committee of the 

 Privy Council might easily fill if the right men were 

 appointed to it. 



NOTES. 

 The death is announced of Prof. Aime Girard, member of 

 the Section of Rural Economy of the Paris Academy of Sciences. 

 Referring to the deceased investigator at the meeting of the 

 Academy on April 12, M. Th. Schloesing remarked : M. Aime- 

 Girard was the highest authority on chemical and agricultural 

 industries in the Academy. After some valuable scientific 

 work he was nominated professor of industrial chemistry at the 

 Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, in succession to Payen. His- 

 teaching revealed the dominating object of his efforts. Affable 

 and cheerful, loyal and entirely disinterested, he possessed all 

 the attributes required to gain the confidence of manufacturers. 

 The producers whose places he visited, in France and in other 

 countries, became and remained his friends ; they gave to him a. 

 large amount of information which he used to enrich his attractive 

 lectures, and in return M. Girard offered them advice suggested 

 by his experience and his own investigations. In a few years his 

 masterly researches on vegetable fibres, wheat, farinas, sugars and 

 woods had made him the first authority upon these matters, and 

 he was frequently consulted by the Government on subjects con- 

 cerning the great industries of paper, alcohol, sugar, fiour, and 

 bakery. The study of these products led to inquiries as to crops. 

 In this new direction M. Girard rendered valuable services, 

 and, after his researches on the cultivation of sugar-beet and the 

 improvement of the potato, he obtained among agriculturists the 

 same position and the same sympathies which he enjoyed in the 

 industrial world. Though weakened in recent years by illness, 

 and saddened by repeated troubles, he nevertheless continued 

 his work. He died while occupied in applying to wheat of various. 



