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\_Dec. 6, I 



department which was cognizant of the secondary schools, or of 

 the character of the education which they provided. He insisted 

 that it was necessary that some kind of machinery shouM be brought 

 into existence for several specified objects, including (i) provision 

 of a sufficient number of efficient secondary schools duly related 

 to one another, and to the elementary schools beneath them, 

 and to the Universities above them ; (2) the adaptation of the 

 instruction given in these schools to the wants and requirements 

 of different towns and districts ; (3) the registration of teachers 

 employed in these schools ; (4) the utilization of the present 

 enormous secondary scholarship fund to provide free places in 

 these schools, and to enable pupils from the elementary schools 

 to receive a good secondary education, and, in certain cases, 

 higher technical or University education ; (5) the regulation and 

 inspection of all schools in receipt of funds derived from public 

 sources, and the recognition of all private schools that submit to 

 such inspection ; (6) the annual publication of reports showing 

 the number and distribution of schools, the curriculum of studies, 

 the qualifications of the teachers, the character of the teaching 

 appliances, and the general and sanitary condition of the schools. 

 The meeting almost unanimously passed a resolution, proposed 

 by Prof. Gladstone, F.R.S., to the effect that an Educational 

 Council should be called into existence, in whose hands the 

 organization of the secondary education of the country should 

 be placed. 



The yearly volume of the A'eta Bulletin for 1888 is now ready. 

 This most useful publication, as our readers are aware, contains 

 notes on the economic products of plants which have been made the 

 subject of particular study and investigation at Kew, and it serves 

 as a means of communication to persons interested in botanical 

 subjects and products in India and the colonie ■. In the December 

 number there are papers on Inhambane Copal, the cultivation of 

 rice in Bengal, silkworm thorn, Jamaica india-rubber, seedlings | 

 of sugar-cane at Barbadoes, and ramie. In the paper on seed- 

 lings of sugar- cane at Barbadoes, attention is called to the fact 

 that Mr. J. B. Harrison, Professor of Chemistry and Agricultural 

 Science at Barbadoes, acting in conjunction with Mr. T. R. 

 Bovell, superintendent of Dodd's Reformatory, has been engaged 

 during the last three years in cultural and chemical experiments 

 with various kinds of sugar-canes. A statement sent by Prof. 

 Harrison appears to prove, in a perfectly natural and circum- 

 stantial manner, that a few mature seeds may occasionally be 

 produced by the sugar-cane under certain circumstances. This 

 discovery, if it is fully confirmed, may have an important effect 

 on the practical treatment of the question whether the saccharine 

 qualities of the sugar-cane are capable of being improved on 

 the same lines as those successfully adopted with regard to 

 the beet. 



We are glad to see that a German translation of Miss A. M. 

 Gierke's " Popular History of Astronomy during the Nineteenth 

 Century " has just been issued. A most appreciative review of 

 the work appears in the current number of the Natnrwissen- 

 schaftliche Wochenschrift. 



Messrs. Cassell and Co. have begun to issue, in monthly 

 parts, a new edition of their well-known " Popular Educator." 

 This work, we need scarcely say, has been of essential service to 

 many a student who has undertaken in earnest the task of self- 

 education, and in its new form it may be even more useful in the 

 future than it has been in the past. The lessons are being 

 revised throughout, and a large portion of the work will be 

 entirely rewritten. Among the new illustrations is a series of 

 coloured plates, prepared for the benefit of students of ethnology, 

 geology, astronomy, physical geography, botany, &c. 



Messrs. Macmillan and Bowes, Cambridge, announce 

 that the first volume of the "Mathematical Papers," by Prof. 

 Arthur Cayley, will be ready in January 1889. 



A LARGE number of new fluorine compounds of the rare 

 metal vanadium have been prepared by Dr. Emil Petersen, of 

 Copenhagen. No fluoride of vanadium has hitherto been ob- 

 tained, the only compounds previously known containing fluorine 

 and vanadium being the fluoxy-vanadates of Baker, and a few 

 other oxy-compounds, recently described by Piccini and Giorgio, 

 which latter appear to have been independently obtained by 

 Petersen. The most important of the new compounds is sesqui- 

 fluoride of vanadium itself, V^Fg, which has been obtained in 

 fine large rhombohedrons of a dark-green colour, containing 

 six molecules of water of crystallization, and very soluble 

 in water. Next in importance are two probably isomorphous 

 double fluorides of vanadium with potassium and ammo- 

 nium, VaF,; . 4KF . 2H2O, and V.,F8 . 4NH4F . 2H„0 ; the former 

 was obtained in the form of a bright-green crystalline precipitate, 

 and the latter in brilliant emerald-green and tolerably large 

 octahedra. Besides this compound with ammonium fluoride, 

 another, of the composition V^^. 6NH4F, was isolated in small 

 grass-green, regular octahedra ; this salt is especially interest- 

 ing as being isomorphous with the analogous chromium and 

 titanium compounds. To complete the isomorphous group. 

 Dr. Petersen has also prepared the aluminium compound 

 Al2Fg.6NH4F. Another interesting pair of isomorphous salts 

 are the compounds V2F6. 2C0F2. 14H2O and V2F6.2NiF2. 

 14H2O, the former of which was obtained in dark-green, and 

 the latter in grass-green monoclinic prisms. The remarkable 

 similarity of the sesqui-vanadium and sesqui-chromiura com- 

 pounds is again beautifully shown by the fact that two pre- 

 cisely analogous salts containing cobalt or nickel and chromium 

 instead of vanadium were successfully prepared, containing also 

 fourteen molecules of water of crystallization and crystallizing in 

 green monoclinic prisms. In addition to these important double 

 fluorides of vanadium sesqui-fluoride, a number of oxy-fluorides, 

 derived from vanadic anhydride, V20g, and analogous to the 

 well-known oxychlorides of phosphorus, have also been obtained 

 in combination with alkaline fluorides. The two most im- 

 portant of these appear to be the oxyfluorides, VOF3.2KF 

 and VO2F . 2KF, the latter forming beautiful golden-yellow 

 hexagonal prisms. This preliminary communication of Dr. 

 Petersen, which will be found in the current Berichte, just 

 received, forms a rich addition to our information concerning 

 the element vanadium, and the details of the preparation of 

 these well-crystallized salts, a small selection of which only have 

 been described above, will be looked forward to with considerable 

 interest. 



The new Ethnological Museum in Sydney, nominally opened 

 last January, has now really been made accessible to the 

 Australian public. The collection, which includes a large 

 number of weapons and implements obtained from aboriginal 

 races, is described by the Sydney Daily Telegraph as one 

 " of absorbing interest." 



We have received Nos. 2 and 3 of vol. Ivii. part 2, of the 

 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. They contain notes 

 on Indian Rhynchota, by E. T. Atkinson ; a paper on the tornado 

 which occurred at Dacca on April 7, 1888, by A. Pedlerand A. 

 Crombie ; notes on the Amphipjda of Indian waters, by G. M. 

 Giles ; a paper on Eupetaurtis, a new form of flying squirrel 

 from Kashmir, by O. Thomas ; and notes on Indian Chiroptera,. 

 by W. T. Blanford, F.R.S. 



Mr. Thomas's account of the new form of flying squirrel 

 from Kashmir, is very interesting. In connection with its dental 

 evolution Mr. Thomas says it would be advisable for naturalists 

 and sportsmen in Kashmir to notice what its food is, as compared 

 with that of other squirrels. Judged from its blunt claws, it 

 probably frequents rocks and precipices rather than trees, and it 

 is therefore possible that its ordinary food may consist of lichens. 



