December 8, 1923] 



NATURE 



849 



The Annual General Meeting of the Association of 

 Women Science Teachers will be held on Saturday, 

 January 26, at "University College, London. In the 

 afternoon Miss Elles will lecture on " The Scientific 

 Interpretation of Scenery " and the meeting will be 

 open to all who are interested in the subject. 



In London, Ontario, the corner stones of the new 

 arts and science buildings of the University of 

 Western Ontario (formerly known as the Western 

 University of London) were laid on June 18 last 

 by the Premier of the Province. The cost of the 

 buildings, more than a million dollars, is being provided 

 for chiefly by grants from the provincial and county 

 governments. The University has grown rapidly in 

 recent years, its student enrolment (610) being three 

 times as large as before the War. 



A PROFESSOR of botany and director of the bio- 

 logical laboratories in the University College, Colombo, 

 Ceylon, is required. Candidates should hold a first- 

 class honours degree of a British University, with 

 botany as the principal subject, or equivalent quali- 

 fications, and have a competent knowledge of plant 

 physiology, with an acquaintance of botany as 

 applied to agriculture either as plant pathology or 

 genetics, or soil biology. Further information of, 

 and application forms for, the appointment are 

 obtainable until December 15, from the Assistant 

 Private Secretary (Appointments), Colonial Office, 

 Downing Street, S.W.i. The completed application 

 forms must be returned by January i. 



Among " significant movements in city school 

 systems " described in Bulletin No. 8 of 1923 of the 

 I nited States Bureau of Education is the increase in 

 size of the school buildings and grounds. In the 

 larger cities buildings with 24 or more rooms are 

 beginning to appear. This movement is partly due 

 to the insistent modern demand for adequate pro- 

 vision in connexion with city schools for recreation, 

 for physical training, and for practical work. In 

 many cities it has been found that the expense 

 involved in providing for these activities the re- 

 quisite gymnasiums, auditoriums, manual training 

 shops, home-economics and science laboratories, 

 drawing and modelling studios, and playgrounds, 

 while maintaining class rooms on the same scale as 

 before for ordinary class instruction, is prohibitive. 

 ' he " platoon," or " work-study-play," or " duplicate 

 < hool " plan divides the school children of all grades 

 into two groups — A and B. While those of group 

 A are in the class rooms those of group B are in 

 the playgrounds, auditorium, laboratories, or other 

 specially ecjuipped rooms, and vice versa, so that the 

 school can be run with half the number of class rooms 

 required under the ordinary system. Such schemes 

 have been introduced in 53 cities, and in one of these 

 more than 50 " platoon " schools are established. 



The Cincinnati public-schools psychological labora- 

 tory is responsible for an interesting attempt to trace 

 the causes of failure in first and second-grade work 

 of children not classified as mentally deficient. The 

 txperiment was carried out in an " observation 

 (lass " of sixteen children from 1917 to 1921, and a 

 detailed account of it has just been published in 

 " Diagnosis and Treatment of Young School Failures " 

 — Bulletin No. i of 1923, of the Washington Bureau. 

 Diagnosis should, the writer declares, take account 

 of the child's mental level (as indicated by the various 

 intelligence tests), school history, state of health, 

 ■ "neral mental tone and attitude {e.g., obsessions, 

 liobias, or anxiety-states), and heredity. Treat- 

 .iient in the observation class resulted uniformly in 



improvement as measured by mental tests notwith- 

 standing that operative correction of physical defects 

 such as removal of diseased tonsils and adenoids was, 

 owing to parents' objections, in no case effected and 

 unfavourable home conditions remained unchanged. 

 Pleading for a widely extended development of 

 psychological and medical clinics and other extra- 

 class-room resources, the writer remarks, " The 

 community-wide contacts of the school and its hold 

 on the family through the child give it a strategic 

 position for the discovery and diagnosis of mental, 

 physical, and social ills which no other agency can 

 possibly equal." 



The annual meetings of the Geographical Associa- 

 tion will be held in Birkbeck College, London, on 

 Wednesday. Thursday, and Friday, January 2, 3, and 

 4, 1924. The programme includes the following 

 items: — Jan. 2, Prof. P. M. Roxby will open a dis- 

 cussion on " Regional Study in the University and 

 the publication of its results " ; Jan. 3, Mr. L. Mac D. 

 Robison will give an address on Ceylon ; Sir Richard 

 Gregory will give his presidential address on " British 

 Climate in Historic Times " ; joint conference be- 

 tween the Royal Meteorological Society, the Geo- 

 graphical Association, and the Science Masters' Asso- 

 ciation, to consider the place of meteorology in 

 education. Sir Napier Shaw will preside. Subjects 

 of discussion : " The Place of Meteorological Observa- 

 tions in the School Course," and " The Teaching of 

 Meteorology and Climatology in Schools from (i) the 

 physical arid (2) the geographical standpoint " ; and 

 M. Em. de Martonne, professor of geography in the 

 University, Paris, will speak (in English) on "A 

 Study of Transylvania" : Jan. 4, conference on rail- 

 way geography. Mr. Alexander Bell, Assistant Gen- 

 eral Manager," L. and N.E. Railway, in the chair. 

 Opened on behalf of the Geographical Association by 

 Mr. LI. Rodwell Jones and Mr. C. B. Fawcett. 



In 1919, arising out of a suggestion put forward by 

 the Universities Bureau of the British Empire as to 

 the desirability of establishing a scheme for the inter- 

 change of students between the Universities of Great 

 Britain and America, the Imperial College of Science 

 and Technology, S. Kensington, with the generous 

 assistance of two of its governors. Sir Arthur Acland 

 and Sir Otto Beit, initiated as an experiment a project 

 designed to afford to selected Imperial College students 

 a year's post-graduate study either at an American 

 university, or in American works. The hope of the 

 founders was that the awards might not only prove 

 mutually advantageous to the students of the two 

 countries, but also that a closer acquaintance would 

 tend to foster a spirit of good fellowship and mutual 

 understanding between the students of the two 

 countries and the countries themselves. The original 

 scheme contemplated 6 scholarships of 300/. each for 

 one year, which the Imperial College made 400/. a 

 year, and later Sir Alfred Yarrow generously con- 

 tributed a sum sufficient to provide 4 additional 

 scholarships. In all 12 scholars were sent to America, 

 10 with, and 2 without emoluments ; 6 of these went 

 to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2 to 

 Columbia University, i each to Cornell, Harvard, and 

 Yale Universities, and i spent the year with the 

 Tennessee Iron Coal and Railroad Co., and other 

 works. Five of the .scholars were awarded the degree 

 of master of science at the conclusion of the year, and 

 arrangements were made in three cases by the American 

 institution for the students to remain for a second year. 

 Judging from the reports which have been received, 

 the experiment has been an undoubted success. The 

 awards have been discontinued as the funds have been 

 exhausted. 



NO. 2823, VOL. I 12] 



