January 12, 1922] 



NATURE 



61 



Two main groups are represented, a sub-Antarctic 

 (Patagonian-Andine) and a sub-tropical, the latter 

 being the more important. The present work has 

 increased by 50 per cent, the number of genera and 

 species belonging to the sub-tropical group. Mr. 

 Hauman also supplies a number of floristic notes, 

 which conclude the series of memoirs he has already 

 published on the Monocotyledons of the Argentine, 

 in which he has added some seventy species to the 

 flora, about one-third of which are new. The volume 

 concludes with a revision by Mr. Carlos Spegazzini 

 of the .Argentine Laboulbe'niales, that remarkable 

 ^roup of minute fungi which live parasitically on 

 insects. The enumeration includes 213 species, each 

 of which is carefully figured ; a large proportion are 

 described for the first time. The volume is a verv 

 important contribution to our knowledge of the botany 

 of temperate South America. 



University and Educational Intelligence. 



Dr. a. Smith Woodward will give a lecture on 

 fossil man, with special reference to the Rhodesian 

 skull, on Tuesday, January 24, at 5.30 p.m. at 

 University College, London. ' Tickets for the lecture, 

 at 55. and 25. 6d., can be obtained from the Secretary 

 of the college. The proceeds will be devoted to the 

 St. Christopher's Working Boys' Club in Fitzrov 

 Square, which is largely worked by students and 

 members of the stafT of University College. The 

 chair will be taken at the lecture by the Right Hon. 

 the Earl of Plymouth, who is president of the club. 



The second term at University College, London, 

 begins on Tuesday next, January 17. The following 

 are some of the public lectures to be given during the 

 term :—" Industrial Unrest," by Mr. B. Seebohm 

 Rowntree; "The Bridges of London," by Mr. A. T. 

 Walmisley; "The Preservation of Ancient Buildings," 

 by Mr. A. R. Powys ; "The Evolution of Man " (four 

 lectures), by Prof. G. Elliot Smith; "The University 

 of London : Its History, Present Resources, and 

 Future Possibilities," by the provost. Sir Gregorv 

 Foster; and two lectures by Sir George Aston on 

 "Some Principles of Amphibious Warfare" and 

 "War History and its Application." A copy of the 

 full programme may be obtained bv sending a stamped 

 addressed envelope to the Secretary, University Col- 

 lege. London, W.C.i. 



The annual general meeting of the Incorporated 

 Association of Head Masters was opened on January 4 

 at the Guildhall, and the new president, Mr. C. M. 

 Stuart, delivered his inaugural address. Mr. Stuart 

 stated that the two most revolutionary changes in 

 education — the introduction of the schemes for 25 per 

 cent, of free scholars and advanced courses — were 

 instituted without consultation with secondary school 

 representatives. In consequence, the original schemes 

 had already required several modifications. The 

 whole scholarship system needed reform based upon 

 the study of the capacities of boys. In making 

 awards it was of no use to go below the first 10 per 

 cent., for this meant rewarding mediocrity, and it 

 was by no means certain that the best from among 

 the mediocrity were selected. The following resolu- 

 tion was carried unanimously by the meeting : — 

 "That this meeting, while recognising the need for 

 economy in every department, is of opinion that the 

 recently awakened public interest in education demands 

 that no hindrance of any kind shall be placed in the 

 way of educational progress.' 



NO. 2724, VOL. 109] 



Calendar of Industrial Pioneers. 



January 13, 1890. Daniel Adamson died. — A pioneer 

 in the use of Bessemer steel for boilers, in the ap- 

 plication of hydraulic power for riveting, and in the 

 use of high-pressure steam, Adamson in 1861 built 

 one of the earliest triple expansion engines. He 

 became the head of the Penistone Ironworks, served 

 as president of the Iron and Steel Institute, and was 

 one of the chief promoters of the Manchester Ship 

 Canal. 



January 14, 1908. John Macfarlane Gray died. — 

 When manager of a works at Liverp>ool Gray in 1866 

 constructed for the s.s. Great Eastern the first suc- 

 cessful steam steering engine, thus enabling one man 

 to do what had previously required as many as one 

 hundred. He was well known for his writings on 

 thermo-dynamics and his advocacy of the application 

 of scientific principles to engine construction. 



January 14, 1830. Joiian Georg Repsold died. — 

 The founder of the famous firm of instrument makers, 

 Repsold was born in 1771, and was long connected 

 with the Hamburg Fire Brigade. He introduced im- 

 provements in meridian circles and supplied many 

 instruments to the large observatories. 



January 15, 1900. Thomas Egleston died — After 

 graduating at Yale, Egleston studied for some years 

 at the Ecole des Mines in Paris, and in 1863 initiated 

 the plan for the School of Mines of Columbia Uni- 

 versity, New York, where he held the chair of 

 mineralogy and metallurgy for thirty-three years. 



January 17, 1909. Francis Elgar died — Trained in 

 Portsmouth Dockyard, Elgar became one of the first 

 fellows of the Royal School of Naval Architecture and 

 Marine Engineering at South Kensington. He was 

 assistant to Reed, Adviser to the Japanese Govern- 

 ment, John Elder professor of naval architecture at 

 Glasgow, Director of Dockyards, and head of the 

 Fairfield Shipbuilding Company. 



January 17, 1833. Friedrich Konig died — At the 

 age of thirty-two, in 1806 Konig removed from Leipzig 

 to London, and in 181 1 with Andreas Friedrich Bauer 

 (1783-1860) patented the printing machine in which 

 the paper was pressed against the type by a revolving 

 cylinder. On November 28, 1814, the Times was 

 first printed on one of Konig 's machines driven by a 

 steam engine, "a memorable day in the annals of 

 typography." 



January 18, 1861. John Heathcoat died. — A journey- 

 man frame-smith, Heathcoat at Loughborough in 

 1808-9 brought out his lace-making machines. The 

 first square yard of plain net sold for 5^. ; the price 

 in 1890 was 5d., while the annual value of the trade 

 had grown to 4,000, oooL Heathcoat's factory at 

 Loughborough was destroyed by the Luddites in 1816 

 and he removed to Tiverton. 



January 18, 1865. James Beaumont Neilson died — 

 While in charge of the Glasgow Gasworks, where he 

 introduced clay retorts and the use of sulphate of 

 iron as a purifier, Neilson experimented on the air- 

 supply for blast-furnaces, and in 1828 patented the 

 "hot blast," which enormously increased the pro- 

 duction of iron and made available the black band 

 ironstone discovered by David Mushet. It has been 

 said Neilson did for iron manufacture what Arkwright 

 did for the cotton industry. 



January 18, 1873. Pierre Charles Francois, Baron 

 Dupin, died — A student of the" Ecole Polytechnique. 

 Dupin first gained distinction by his papers on naval 

 architecture and engineering. He made a profound 

 study of the industries of Great Britain and was one 

 of the first in France to raise statistics to the rank 

 of a science. E. C. S. 



