Feb. 1 6, 1888] 



NATURE 



375 



or more particular trades. (4) For University Colleges 

 a grant similar to that made to training Colleges for 

 education afforded to persons intending to become 

 teachers. 



The resolutions are as follow : — 



1. That public funds (rates and taxes) should not be employed 

 to meet the current expenses of teaching specific trades. 



2. That it is undesirable that instruction in the use of tools 

 should be introduced into primary schools as a grant-earning 

 subject. 



3. That with a view to preparing pupils for technical education 

 later on — 



(a) The grant to day-schools should depend, to a much less 

 extent than at present, on the results of the examina- 

 tion of individual pupils in reading, writing, and 

 arithmetic, and should be largely dependent on the 

 inspector's report of the general character of the 

 teaching and the equipment of the school. 



{b) There should be greater liberty in the choice of subjects 

 in primary schools, and the same class subject should 

 not necessarily be taken throughout the school. 



(f) The grant to evening continuation schools should be 

 regulated by the report of the inspector on the 

 character of the teaching, and on the attendance list, 

 and not upon the result of the examination of 

 individual pupils. 



4. That when a technical school is combined with a science 

 and art school, the contribution to the building fund, through 

 the Science and Art Department, should exceed ;^iooo, if, in 

 the opinion of the Department, the requirements of the locality 

 demand it. 



5. That it is desirable that, when specific trades are taught in 

 technical schools, the practical teaching of each trade should be 

 under the general direction of a committee, consisting mainly of 

 members of that trade ; that the teaching should be given in the 

 evening, and be restricted to pupils actually engaged in the 

 respective trades, and that, when specific trades are taught, any 

 deficiency in current expenses should be guaranteed by the trade 

 of the district. 



6. That a certain percentage of persons preparing for appoint- 

 ments as teachers in elementary schools should be allowed to 

 attend lectures and laboratory work at Universities and Uni- 

 versity Colleges, where a curriculum satisfactory to the Educa- 

 tion Department is provided, and that the same grant should be 

 made on account of such students as in the case of ordinary 

 training Colleges. 



7. That it is desirable that University Colleges in which 

 higher scientific and technological training are cjmbined should 

 be assisted by a Government grant, provided that evening 

 instruction is given in all the subjects taught, at fees which shall 

 bring the advantages of the College within the reach of all 

 classes. The due administration of the grant should be secured 

 by the appointment of certain nominees of the Government on 

 the Executive Council of the College. 



THREATENED SCARCITY OF WATER. 



THE appendices to the Weekly Weather Reports for 

 the year 1887, recently published by the Meteoro- 

 logical Office, contain some interesting details relative to 

 the rainfall. It is shown that the mean rainfall for the 

 whole of the British Islands during 1887 was only 



2 5 8 inches, whereas the mean for the twenty-two years 

 1866 to 1887 was 35'3 inches, so that there is a deficiency 

 of nearly 10 inches over the whole area of the British 

 Islands, or 27 per cent, less than usual. In the wheat- 

 producing districts, which comprise the east of England 

 and Scotland, the south of England, and the Midland 

 Counties, the fall during 1887 was 21 inches, and the aver- 

 age value for twenty-two years is 28*5 inches, showing a 

 deficiency in these parts of the Kingdom of 7*5 inches, or 



26 per cent, less than usual. In the principal grazing 

 districts, which comprise the west of England and Scot- 

 land, as well as Ireland, the fall in 1887 was 30*5 inches, 

 and the value for the twenty-two years is 420 inches, 

 showing a deficiency of 1 1 '5 inches, or 27 per cent, less 



than the average. In the north-west of England the rain- 

 fall for 1887 was only 24*9 inches, which is 157 inches or 

 39 per cent, less than the average, and in the south-west 

 of England the fall was 28'3 inches, which is i6'6 inches 

 or 37 per cent, less than usual. Last year was the driest 

 of any year since 1866, and this feature was common to 

 all parts of the United Kingdom ; the amount of rain 

 measured was only about one-half of that recorded in 

 1872, which was the wettest year of the period. If the 

 comparison is confined to the last ten years, the deficiency 

 is nearly as marked, and 1887 is still found to be about 

 25 per cent, below the average, but the greatest deficiency 

 in this case occurs in the Midland Counties, where it 

 amounts to 36 per cent, of the average. The reports 

 issued by the Meteorological Office for the first five or six 

 weeks of the present year show the deficiency of rainfall 

 still to be augmenting, and even more quickly than in any 

 period last year. In the Midland Counties the rainfall to 

 February 6 was only o*6 inch instead of 29 inches, so that 

 the deficiency from January 3 is as much as 79 per cent of 

 the average fall ; and at Hereford,where the total fall is only 

 0*29 inch, the deficiency is 90 per cent, of the average. 

 In the east of England the deficiency is 64 per cent., in 

 the south-west of England 61 per cent., and in the north- 

 west of England 58 per cent. There has been a deficiency 

 of rain in all districts of England each week for seven 

 consecutive weeks since December 19, with the exception 

 of a single district (England N.E.) in one week, and 

 since the beginning of October there have been but four 

 weeks in which the excess of rain was at all general. Out 

 of fifty-seven weeks since the commencement of 1887 

 there have been but ten in the south-west and east of 

 England with an excess of rainfall, and only eleven in 

 the north-west of England. With these facts to hand, 

 there seems reasonable ground for alarm being felt in 

 some localities at the threatened scarcity of water. 



Charles Harding. 



PROFESSOR ASA GRA Y. 



WHEN the history of the progress of botany during 

 the nineteenth century shall be written, two 

 names will hold high positions : those of Prof. Augustin 

 Pyrame De Candolle and of Prof. Asa Gray. In many 

 respects the careers of these men were very similar, though 

 they were neither fellow-countrymen nor were they con- 

 temporaries, for the one sank to his rest in the Old World 

 as the other rose to eminence in the New. They were 

 great teachers in great schools, prolific writers, and authors 

 of the best elementary works on botany of their day. 

 Each devoted half a century of unremitting labour to the 

 investigation and description of the plants of continental 

 areas, and they founded herbaria and libraries, each in his 

 own country, which have become permanent and quasi- 

 national institutions. Nor were they unlike in personal 

 qualities, for they were social and genial men, as active 

 in aiding others as they were indefatigable in their own 

 researches ; and both were admirable correspondents. 

 Lastly, there is much in their lives and works that recalls 

 the career of Linnaeus, of whom they were worthy disciples, 

 in the comprehensiveness of their labour, the excellence 

 of their methods, their judicious conception of the limits 

 of genera and species, the terseness and accuracy of 

 their descriptions, and the clearness of their scientific 

 language. 



Asa Gray was born in Paris, Massachusetts, on 

 November 18, 1810, and took his MD. degree when 

 twenty, at the Medical College of Fairfield, Oneida 

 County. His proclivities were all scientific from a very 

 early age, and he is said to have, whilst still a student, 

 delivered lectures on chemistry, geology, and botany, in 

 private establishinents of that county. The two former 

 subjects weire at first his favourites— indeed, his earliest 



