October 7, 1920] 



NATURE 



179 



We might do better if we concentrated our atten- 

 tion on tTie successful execution of what ostensibly 

 we attempt. Let us give up arranging meetings at 

 a time when we Icnow, from the circumstances of 

 the case, people cannot and will not attend, and give 

 up also the formality of voting on questions which 

 have been neither read nor circulated. If the popular 

 evening lecture has ceased to be attractive, let us 

 devise some other form of after-dinner appeal with 

 scientific accessories ; the Red Lions ought not to lag 

 behind the kinema. If we wish to address an audi- 

 ence, let us address the audience ; if we have some- 

 thing to say, let us say it ; if we wish to make our- 

 selves heard, let us make ourselves heard or know 

 the re.ason why; and, finally, if the proceedings are 

 reported, let the Sections make skilled reporting a part 

 of their business. The word recorder seems to have 

 got adrift from its moorings lately. Machinerv in 

 motion always has an irresistible attraction; if the 

 meetings of the British Association presented examples 

 of scientific purpose, perfectly managed and scien- 

 tifically executed, thev would bo acceptable in manv 

 large towns, although the subject-matter might not 

 all of it appeal to the man in the street. It ought 

 not to be forgotten at this particular time that in 1903 

 Sir Norman Lockyer endeavoured to strengthen the 

 hold of the British .Association by keeping its organisa- 

 tion in operation throughout the year, and when the 

 Association declined the suggestion, sought other 

 means of giving expression to his views. 



October 3. Napier Sh.wv. 



If you do not consider the subject of the British 

 Association, which has been so fully discussed in 

 recent issues of Nature, to be now- exhausted, I 

 should like to state briefly how it appears to me. 



The As.sociation had at first six "Committees of 

 Sciences." They were in 1835 converted into .Sections. 

 The following year another Section w^as added for 

 Mechanical Science. The Sections continued to be 

 s«-ven only for \\w next fifty years, when H (or 

 .\nthropology) became a separate Section. Botany, 

 Physiology, Educational Science, and Agriculture 

 have since been added, making up the twelve existing 

 Sections. 



The Association was not in a hurry, for it was well 

 aware of the practical diflficultios arising from a multi- 

 plicity of Sections, but these added Sections have cer- 

 tainly not detracted from its popularity. The Con- 

 ference of Delegates is another modern development 

 of the work, and keeps interest in that work alive in 

 many parts of the countjy. 



A still more recent extension of the activities of 

 the Association is the Citizens' lectures, which were 

 very successful at Cardiff. The meeting there was a 

 good one, and would have been much larger but for 

 the exorbitant railway fares. The address of the 

 president, Prof. Herdman, was both brilliant and 

 practical, and will, I hope, be fruitful in the near 

 future. Edward Brabrook. 



October i. 



The Examination System. 



Prof. H. E. Armstrong's address on the universitv 

 problem in London, published in Natirb of Scptcm'- 

 l)er 23, induces me to make the following remarks 

 with sf>ecial reference to the examination system in 

 England. 



The chief defects are : 



(i) Expecting a candidate to remember detail:* 

 necessary for giving a complete answer to an essay 

 ijuestion. 



NO. 2658, VOL. 106] 



(2) E.xpecting him to answer a lot of questions in 

 three hours. 



This has been improved on recently by giving 

 highest honours for five questions out of ten. But, 

 in my opinion, at most four essay questions in three 

 hours are all that should be expected ; and in the case 

 of difficult mathematical or siniilar questions not 

 more than three. 



It is notorious that the best men do not always 

 come out at the top, partly because some hate to t)e 

 hustled, others think slowly, and others still are not 

 walking encyclopaedias even in their own subject. 



I know of an institution where the exammations 

 are quite as well managed as in other educational 

 institutions, though I admit the syllabus is so large 

 for the time allowed that there is a good deal of 

 ■■ cram " necessary. As a rule, a student who is good 

 at any subject seldom comes out very high up, 

 whereas others who often have no taste or gitt for a 

 subject are placed at the top Also, there is a student 

 who can come out top of nearly every examination 

 because he is good at examinations. 



I suggest the following improvements : 



(i) That students be continuously examined through- 

 out the period of their instruction by weekly or monthly 

 papers and practical work. 



(2) That there be fewer questions M;t in essay or 

 problem papers. Details I have already suggested. 



(3) That manuscript note-books of any kind be used 

 by students in all theoretical as well as practical 

 e.xamlnations, particularly in scientific subjects. 



Oxford M.A. 



An Awkward Unit. 



There has lately been introduced on the Daily 

 Weather Report a small map showing barometric 

 tendency. Ihe barometric change from 4h. to 7h. 

 is given as " a multiple of the half-millibar, that unit 

 having been found convenient for reading the baro- 

 grams and adopted for telegraphic reporting " {Meteor. 

 Mag., August, 1920, p. 150). 



It is to be regretted that European meteorologists 

 appear to be unaware of the fact that the megadyne 

 or megabar atmosphere was correctly defined by Prof. 

 Theodore Richards in his classic paper on " New 

 Methods of Compressibility," published by the Car- 

 negie Institution in 1903, and in later papers. The 

 bar is a pressure unit expressed in terms of force, 

 and is equal to one dyne per square centimetre. This 

 is the bar of .American chemists and physicists,' and 

 has been in use at Blue Hill Observatory since 1914. 

 The term "millibar" which meteorologist? hastily 

 adopted in 1913 appears to us to be a misnomer for 

 "kilobar." 



There are many solid arguments in favour of the 

 use of a megabar atmosphere. The.se will not be 

 repeated here, but it may be pointed out that the 

 expression "multiple of a half .millibar" is awkward. 

 It is so much easier to use the proper definition 

 "500 bar." 



Isaliobars can then be drawn for any desired value, 

 while it would be rather troublesome to express the 

 same values in fractional parts, such as "one-fifth 

 millibar," meaning a 200-bar change. 



.Xi.EXANDER Mc.XDIE. 



Harvard Universii\. HIu. Hill Observatory, 



R<-.-i'KilIi', Mass., .September 23. 



Absorption Spectrum of Hydrogen Chloride. 



The uii.\|K(ted satollitfs whirh Inies {Aslrophysical 

 Journal. November, 1919) found beside each line in 

 the HCI absorption band at i-76/», and which measure- 

 ments of his curves show to have an avera^ wave- 



