December 15, 1910] 



NATURE 



22 



;~^istance and the donations promised and received some 

 Rs. 7,00,000 can be counted on. Further donations are 

 urgently needed. Later the Vice-Chancellor said the 

 Liiiversity may congratulate itself upon a windfall that 

 lias come to it during the year. A sum of more than 

 Rs. 75,000 has been received from the Queen \'ictoria 

 Memorial Fund as an endowment for founding readerships 

 for research work. The institution of university chairs 

 was recommended by the Universities' Commission of 1904 

 for this very purp>ose, and it has been a cherished hope 

 lor many years that .Allahabad University might be able 

 to do something for the promotion of research among its 

 graduate members. Hitherto, for lack of funds, nothing 

 could be done. Now, however, a beginning can be made, 

 and though it must be in a modest way at first, it 

 inaugurates a new and important era in development ; and 

 - time goes on it will attract other benefactions, until 

 University has at length sufficient funds for research 

 all the directions of university study. 

 The report on the work of the Department of Tech- 

 logy of the City and Guilds of London Institute for the 

 -ion 1909-10 is now available. At the recent examina- 

 .3 24,508 candidates were presented in technology from 

 - centres in the United Kingdom, and of these 14,105 

 -sed. By including the candidates from India and the 

 colonies, and those for the teachers' certificates in manual 

 training and domestic economy, the total number of 

 examinees was 26,878. These figures show an increase 

 on those of any previous year. In order to secure the 

 expert advice of trade societies and professional bodies in 

 the conduct of the department's educational work, the 

 institute has arranged for the formation of advisory com- 

 mittees, consisting of persons interested in, and with a 

 knowledge of, the technical details of different industries. 

 The functions of each committee are to suggest improve- 

 ments in the syllabuses of instruction, to recommend for 

 appointment new examiners, and generally to advise on 

 any matter connected with the course of instruction which 

 may be referred to them by the institute. Reference has 

 been made in former reports to the two main causes which 

 impede progress in the technical instruction of artisans, 

 and prevent the results of the teaching, now so liberally 

 provided by local authorities, from being as satisfactory 

 as might be desired. These causes are emphasised in the 

 special reports of several of the institute's examiners. 

 They are, first, the difficulty of finding competent teachers, 

 and, secondly, the unduly large proportion of artisan 

 students who enter technical classes without the pre- 

 liminary knowledge necessary to take full advantage of 

 the instruction they receive. While local authorities accept 

 readily the advice and assistance of the department in their 

 selection of teachers, and a higher standard of qualifica- 

 tion is now more generally required, further improvement 

 in this direction must be looked for if the money expended 

 on technical instruction is to produce its best results. 

 There can be no doubt that the teaching of technology 

 has greatly improved during the past few years, but it 

 must be noted that the examiners have still to direct atten- 

 tion repeatedly to the insufficient preliminary knowledge 

 that- some candidates possess. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Ge logical Society, November 23.— Prof. W. W. Watts, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Dr. W. F. Hume : The 



effects of secular oscillation in Egypt during the Eocene 

 and Cretaceous periods. There is evidence of the gradual 

 advance of the Cretaceous sea from north or north-east 

 over Egypt during Upper Cretaceous times. Four stages 

 in this advance are indicated by the distribution of the 

 Cretaceous deposits. The four phases are : — (a) A north 

 Egyptian type, in which the Nubian Sandstone entirelv 

 underlies fossiliferous beds of Cenomanian age. This 

 estends across Egypt from Sinai to Baharia Oasis, (b) A 

 \\adi-Qena type, developed near the head of the vallev of 

 that name, characterised by the alternation of Nubian 

 Sandstone with fossiliferous Cretaceous beds. (c) A 

 central Egyptian or Hammama tvpe, in which the Nubian 

 Sandstone forms the greater portion of the Cretaceous 

 series, only the Danian and Campanian beds being fossil- 



NO. 214.6. VOL. 85} 



iferous limestones or shales. The Campanian beds are 

 characterised by the presence of phosphatic fish-beds, 

 (d) A south Egyptian type has resemblances to the central 

 Egyptian, but in the Campanian the phosphatic beds are 

 inconspicuous. .\s regards the transition from the Creta- 

 ceous to the Eocene, the existence of two types of strata at 

 the base of the Eocene is noted : the first, the Luxor type, 

 being fossiliferous, and developed in the Western Desert ; 

 the second, or Qena type, being unfossiliferous, and com- 

 posed of white limestone similar to the Danian white lime- 

 stone below them, but structurally different. These varia- 

 tions may be due to fold-effects produced while the land 

 was gaining on the sea at the beginning of Eocene times, 

 the Qena limestones being remade Cretaceous material. 

 Whereas in southern Egypt Lower Eocene strata directly 

 overlie the Danian strata, in northern Egypt unconformi- 

 ties exist between the Middle Eocene and the Cretaceous 

 beds. The palaeontological differences between the Cre- 

 taceous and the Eocene are recorded, the principal feature 

 being the sudden incoming of the foraminifera Nummulites 

 and Operculina. The distribution, zonation, and variation 

 of the Eocene series are considered. The apparent uni- 

 formity of the fossiliferous Lower Eocene strata wherever 

 developed is noted. The lack of uniformity in the Middle 

 Eocene strata. The nature of the Eocene beds between 

 Baharia Oasis and the depressions of Moela and the 

 Fayum are described, zoned, and compared with the Middle 

 Eocene in other parts of Egypt. The influence of the 

 gain of land over sea is traced through the Upper 

 Moqattam beds. The Cretaceous period in Egypt is 

 marked by the gradual gain of sea over land ; during the 

 Eocene land appears to have been steadily gaining on the 

 sea, probably accompanied by gentle fold-movements, which 

 account for the minor differences in the nature of the 

 Eocene deposits. — A. R. Horwood : The origin of the 

 British Trias. During the Triassic period in Britain, de- 

 position, it is maintained, was brought about solely by 

 the action of water, and the British Trias is a delta- 

 system, for during Carboniferous, Permian, and Triassic 

 times depKJsition was mainly in the same area. There is 

 a gradation from the Bunter to the Rhaetic. The Bunter 

 is known to be of fluviatile origin, and there is a con- 

 tinuity from Lower to Upper Trias, with an unconformity 

 due to the new mode of formation and change in sedi- 

 mentation. Oscillation and overlapping are admittedly 

 due to aqueous agency. The Triassic outcrop and the 

 delta-area of the river Mississippi are closely similar. 

 Coloration is original, from below upwards, and not 

 coincident with bedding. The thickness of the Bunter is 

 an argument for a subsiding area. The ferruginous types 

 in the Carboniferous, Permian, and Trias are alike due to 

 delta conditions. The Trias is horizontal now, as origin- 

 ally, away from any ancient hills which it covers. It is 

 only the skerries that are rippled. Screes occur mainly 

 to the south-west of submerged hills. Sandstones thin out 

 eastward, marls westward, and the skerries are on the 

 hills. Rock-salt and gypsum are also horizontal and con- 

 tinuous in a linear direction. The Keuoer gradually 

 merges into the Rhaetic phase, and the latter into the Lias. 

 Since the Bunter sediments came from the north-west into 

 the Midlands, so probably did the Upper Trias. Local 

 metamorphic and volcanic rocks may have provided some 

 of the heavier minerals, but, as a whole, their source was 

 more distant. The flora and fauna can be grouped in 

 provinces around the delta-head of the Trias. These con- 

 siderations point to an aqueous mode of sedimentation in 

 a moist and equable climate. 



Physical Society, November 25. — Prof. H. L. Callendar 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Dr. A. Russell : The 

 electric stress at which ionisation begins in air. Prof. 

 J. B. Whitehead has published the values of the electric 

 stress at which ionisation begins in air. His electrodes 

 consisted of a metal tube and a cylindrical wire coaxial 

 with it. Alternating pressures were employed, and the 

 inner wires had diameters from 0089 to 0475 cm. If a 

 be the radius of the inner wire, the expression 32+i3-4'\/a 

 gives all Whitehead's experimental results for the maxi- 

 mum electric stress in kilovolts per centimetre with a 

 maximum inaccuracy of less than i per cent. Experi- 

 ments show that the electric stress at which ionisation 

 occurs is independent of the metals used for the electrodes 



