October 6, 1923] 



NA TURE 



527 



University of Glasgow. He has been assistant suc- 

 cessively to Prof. Samson Gemmell and Prof. T. K. 

 Munro, of the chair of medicine at Glasgow. During 

 the War he was working for more than three years 

 as a specialist in bacteriology in Malta and held other 

 appointments in the Army Medical Service. 



On the nomination of the Council of the St. Andrews 

 Institute for Clinical Research, the Court has ap- 

 pointed Mr. Norman Maclennan to the lectureship 

 in bacteriology vacant through the resignation of 

 Lt.-Col. W. F. Harvey. 



Dr. Rohmann, professor of physics at the Munster 

 University, formerly at Strasbourg, has been ap- 

 pointed to the newly-founded chair of mathematics 

 and physics in the Forstlichen College, Hann. 



The Bocconi Commercial University, Milan, has 

 resumed this year the publication, suspended since 

 1915, of its Annuario. Its student enrolment shows a 

 steady increase from 65 in 1915-16 to 352 in 1919-20, 

 followed by a decrease to 293 in 1921-22. The 

 teaching staff comprises 31 professors and lecturers. 

 Annexed to the University are an institute of political 

 economy and a laboratory of technical and com- 

 mercial research. 



The Faculty of Medical Sciences of the University 

 of London, University College, announces for 1923-24 

 that each of the departments for the preliminary and 

 intermediate medical sciences is equipped not only 

 for the preliminary and intermediate courses for 

 medical degrees but also for more advanced work. 

 Organised courses of advanced study in experimental 

 physiology and biochemistry are provided, and there 

 are post - graduation courses in hygiene and public 

 health leading to the various diplomas and qualifica- 

 tions in public health. A special post-graduate 

 prospectus is being issued. 



State policies in regard to the financing of public 

 instruction are described and criticised by Prof. 

 Fletcher H. Swift of the University of Minnesota in 

 Bulletin 1922, No. 6 of the United States Bureau of 

 Education. The growth of expenditure on the public 

 schools since 1871 in the United States has been 900 

 per cent., varying from 750 in the North Atlantic and 

 North Central States to 1400 in South Atlantic and 

 South Central and 4000 per cent, in the Western 

 States. The professor opines that these expenditures 

 will continue to increase, and he recommends that the 

 major portion of the burden be shifted from the local 

 communities to the State. He would have the State 

 provide the cost of teachers' salaries, supervision, 

 general administration, and the supply of such 

 materials as text-books and laboratory apparatus, 

 leaving to the local communities the provision, fur- 

 nishing, repairing, operating, and maintaining of 

 school buildings, together with responsibility for fuel, 

 water, light, power, insurance, playgrounds, and play 

 apparatus. He estimates that the State would, under 

 such a distribution, have to bear from 75 to 80 per 

 cent, of the total costs. To " worshippers at the 

 shrine of the ancient fetish of local support and local 

 control " he says this system has led to " multitudes 

 of children being denied educational opportunity and 

 the herding of thousands in dismal hovels under the 

 tutelage of wretchedly underpaid teachers, while 

 hundreds of communities are able to provide luxuri- 

 ous educational facilities." One would like to 

 know whether Prof. Swift has seen Mr. Bernard 

 Holland's article in the Edinburgh Review for January, 

 in which some of the disadvantages of centralised 

 control of education are set forth. 



NO. 2814, VOL. I 12] 



Societies and Academies. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, September 10. — M. Emile 

 Roux in the chair. — M. Hadamard : Vortices and sur- 

 faces of slipping in fluids. — Louis de Broglie : Waves 

 and quanta. — MM. Mengaud and Mourie : The 

 meteorite of Saint-Sauveur (Haute Garonne) : the 

 ciicumstances of its fall. 



Cape Town. 



Royal Society of South Africa, July i8.~Dr. A. Ogg, 

 president, in the chair. — E. Newbery : On a proposed 

 modification of the cathode ray oscillograph. The 

 modification would fit the instrument better for the 

 study of over- voltages. — J. S. Thomas and R. W. 

 Riding : Note on the polysulphides of ammonium, 

 with some considerations regarding the constitution 

 of the polysulphides of the alkali metals. The action 

 of sulphur on solutions of ammonium hydrosulphide 

 in dry alcohol resulted in the formation of ammonium 

 pentasulphide only. When sodium is the metal used, 

 the tetrasulphide is formed ; with potassium the 

 pentasulphide. Ammonium pentasulphide in alco- 

 holic solutions is capable of dissolving still more 

 sulphur, and there is evidence of the existence of 

 higher polysulphides ; a heptasulphide has been 

 isolated. Pyridine and nitrobenzene react with am- 

 monium pentasulphide, giving highly coloured solu- 

 tions. There is probably in the polysulphide mole- 

 cule, two sulphur atoms in a different state of com- 

 bination from the remainder, and the disulphides may 

 be regarded as being derived from a form of hydrogen 

 disulphide represented by the formula H.S.S.H. 

 Higher polysulphides are then formed by the addition 

 of sulphur to the disulphides, compounds of the type 

 R.S.S.R, R.S.S.R., 



II II II etc., being thus obtained. This 



S SS 



view is confirmed by the decomposition of ammonium 

 pentasulphide into the disulphide and free sulphur. 

 The reaction takes place at a low temperature and is 

 quantitative in character. — M. Rindl : The active 

 principle of Homaria pallida (Yellow Tulp). The 

 active principle has digitalis-like physiological effects. 



Calcutta. 



Asiatic Society of Bengal, August i. — F. C. Fraser : 

 Zoological results of the Percy Sladen Trust Exped:i- 

 tion to Yunnan, under Professor J. W. Gregory, in 

 1922. — Dragonflies. The collection consists of nearly 

 200 specimens, the majority of which belong to the 

 sub-family Libellulinaj. The species are mostly 

 Oriental, but a few Palaearctic forms occur from 

 high altitudes. Twenty-three species are repre- 

 sented, of which seven are described as new. — 

 B. Prashad : Observations on the respiration of the 

 AmpuUariidaj. After a short survey of the previous 

 literature on the subject of the respiration of the apple 

 snails, an account of the respiration in the common 

 Indian P. globosa is given. The peculiarities noted in 

 the case of the hill-stream form Turbinicola saxea are 

 also described, and the probable causes of these pecu- 

 liarities with reference to the hill-stream habitat are 

 discussed. 



Official Publications Received. 



Proceedings of the Royal Societ.y of EdinbnrKli, Si-s.sion lit22-23. Vol. 

 43, Part 2, No. 8 : The Theory of Alternants from 1896 to 1917. By Sir 

 Thomas Muir. Pp. 127-148. 2.<. Vol. 43, Part 2, No. 9 : The Mechanism 

 behind Relativity. By Dr. W. Peddle. Pp. 149-153. 9d. Vol. 48, Part 

 2, No. 11 : Further Testa upon Dewar Flasks intended to hold Liquid Air. 

 By Henry Brij-Ks and John Mallinson. Pp. 160-lii9. Is. Vol. 48, Part 2. 

 No. 12: The Interior and KxUirior Space-Time Forms of the I'oincare 

 Electron in Weyls Geometry. By John Marshall. Pp. 170-179. l-". 



