494 



NATURE 



S^March 27, 1890 



and manual instruction in public elementary schools. The 

 following are the provisions of the measure : — (i) The managers 

 of any public elementary school may provide technical or manual 

 instruction for the scholars in that school, either on the school 

 premises or in any other place approved by the inspector, and 

 attendance by the scholars of the school at such instruction 

 shall be deemed to be attendance at the public elementary 

 school. (2) The conditions on which Parliamentary grants shall 

 he made in aid of technical or manual instruction in public ele- 

 mentary schools, shall be those contained in the Minutes of the 

 Education Department and of the Science and Art Department 

 in force for the time being. (3) The expression "technical in- 

 struction" and "manual instruction" shall have the same mean- 

 ing as in the Technical Instruction Act (1889). 



Last week Dr. Farquharson asked the President of the Board 

 of Trade whether he was aware that much dissatisfaction existed 

 among scientific men as to the sufficiency of the tests used in the 

 mercantile marine for the detection of colour-blindness, and 

 whether he would appoint a committee of experts to advise the 

 Government on this important question. In reply. Sir Michael 

 Hicks-Beach said he was sensible of the importance of the 

 matter, and had been in communication with the Royal Society 

 upon the subject ; and he was happy to state that "that valuable 

 institution had appointed a committee to consider the whole 

 question of colour-blindness." 



The meetings of the Institution of Naval Architects are now 

 being held in the hall of the Society of Arts ; the chair being 

 occupied by Lord Ravensworth, the President of the Institution. 

 The following is the programme of proceedings : — Wednesday, 

 March 26, morning meeting, at 12 o'clock : (i) Annual Report 

 of Council ; (2) election of Officers and the Council ; (3) 

 alteration of rules relating to election of Vice-Presidents . 

 ^4) Address by the President ; the following papers were then to 

 be read and discussed — notes on recent naval manoeuvres, by 

 W. H. White, F.R.S., Director of Naval Construction, Vice- 

 President ; the Maritime Conference, by Rear- Admiral P. H. 

 Colomb, R.N. Thursday, March 27, morning meeting, at 12 

 o'clock : on leak-stopping in steel ships, by Captain C. C. 

 Penrose Fitzgerald, R.N. ; strength of ships, with special 

 reference to distribution of shearing stress over transverse 

 section, by Prof. P. Jenkins ; steatite as a pigment for anti- 

 corrosive paints, by Frank C. Goodall. Evening meeting at 

 7 oclock : on the evaporative efficiency in boilers, by C. E. 

 Stromeyer ; on the application of a system of combined steam 

 and hydraulic machinery to the loading, discharging, and steering 

 of steam-ships, by A. Betts Brown ; the revolving engine applied 

 on board ship, by Arthur Rigg. Friday, March 28, morning 

 meeting, at 12 oclock : on the variation of the stresses on 

 vessels at sea due to wave-motion, by T. C. Read ; spontaneous 

 combustion in coal ships, by Prof Vivian Lewes. Evening 

 meeting, at 7 o'clock : on the screw propeller, by James 

 Howden ; experiments with life-boat models, by J. Corbett. 



The Geologists' Association have made arrangements for an 

 Easter excursion to North Staffordshire. It will last from April 

 3 to 8, and the head-quarters will be the North Staffordshire 

 Hotel, Stoke-on-Trent, except on Saturday and Sunday nights, 

 when the Association will stay at the Red Lion, Leek. 



A Conference of the Camera Club, under the presidency 

 of Captain de W. Abiiey, was held last week at the Society of 

 Arts. Lord Rayleigh gave an account of instantaneous photo- 

 graphy by the light of the electric spark. He stated that he had 

 been experimentalizing in taking photographs of minute jets of 

 water as from a bottle. He exhibited on the sheet, by means of 

 the electric light, photographs of jets of water taken in less than 

 he 100,000th part of a second. In the course of the discussion 

 ollowing the demonstration and explanations by Lord Rayleigh, 



Mr. Trueman Wood spoke of the new application of electricity 

 to the photographic art in fixing for study natural phenomena. 

 The chairman, in giving the thanks of the meeting to Lord 

 Rayleigh, referred to some photographs taken in less than the 

 100,000th part of a second under the name of a "photographic 

 untruth." Captain Abney dealt with the untruth of form, 

 which photography gave when judged by light and shade, a 

 subject which could only be explained by series of drawings on 

 the black-board and shadows cast upon the sheet. 



The Royal Microscopical Society has received from Dr. E. 

 Abbe, of Jena, one of the new apochromatic ^Vth microscope 

 objectives recently produced at Zeiss's optical works, Jena, 

 under Dr. Abbe's superintendence. The aperture is the highest 

 hitherto attained, being i'6 N.A., whereas the highest point 

 previously reached by Dr. Zeiss was 1*4 N.A., so that the clear 

 gain of aperture is 20 per cent. The advantage of this increase 

 is shown by the perfection of the images obtained in photomicro- 

 graphs produced by the new objective in the hands of Dr. Henri 

 Van Hewick, Director of the Jardin Botanique, Antwerp, 

 specimens of whose work were exhibited at the last meeting 

 of the Royal Microscopical Society. At this meeting it was 

 announced that Dr. Dallinger, F.R.S., had consented to join a 

 committee appointed by the Council of the Royal Microscopical 

 Society, to make a special report on the new objective. 



At the fortnightly meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society, 

 on Tuesday, M. Henri de Vilmorin, President of the Botanical 

 Society of France, delivered a lecture on salads, mentioning 

 that in England we neither eat nor grow so many plants for 

 salad as in France. He dwelt upon the nutritive value of salads 

 due to the potash salts, which, though present in vegetables 

 generally, are eliminated in the process of cooking. He then 

 enumerated the various plants which are used in salads in France 

 — namely, the leaves of lettucef corn-salad, common chicory, 

 barbe de capucin, curled and Batavian endives, dandelion in its 

 several forms of green, blanched, and half-blanched, water- 

 cresses, purslane in small quantities, blanched salsify-tops of a 

 pleasant nutty flavour, witloof or Brussels chicory, the roots of 

 celeriac, rampion, and radish, the bulbs of stachys, the stalks 

 celery, the flowers of nasturtium and yucca, the fruit of cap- 

 sicum and tomato, and, in the south of France, rocket, picri- 

 dium, and Spanish onions. Various herbs are added to a French 

 salad to flavour or garnish it, such as chervil, chives, shallot, 

 and borage flowers. In addition, many boiled vegetables are 

 dressed with vinegar and oil. M. de Vilmorin then showed 

 specimens of dandelion, barbe de capucin, and witloof, both 

 varieties of chicory, which he recommended to the notice of 

 English gardeners as most useful and palatable. He mentioned 

 that from a ton to a ton and a half of witloof is daily brought to 

 the Paris market from Brussels, where it is grown in the greatest 

 perfection. Specimens of English salads grown in the month 

 of March, and consisting of corn-salad, lettuce, and blanched 

 chicory, were sent from the Marquis of Salisbury's gardens at 

 Hatfield. Among the other exhibits was a quaint orchid 

 {Ccelogyne panduratd), a native of Borneo, sent from Kew 

 Gardens. The flower is bright green, like the colour of forced 

 lilac-leaves, with a dull jet black blotch and lines on the lip. 



At the meeting of I he Royal Botanic Society on Saturday, 

 it was announced that the donations received included an 

 interesting collection of seeds from the gardens of Mr. Thomas 

 Hanbury, at Mortola, on the coast near Ventimiglia, Italy, with 

 printed catalogues of the great variety of plants and trees from 

 all climes growing in the garden — more than 4000 named 

 species. 



Baron de Lissa, the pioneer planter of British North 

 Borneo, arrived at Sandakan in January last. The official 

 Gazette of British North Borneo says that the Royal Geographical 



