330 



NATURE 



[November i8, 1915 



A VERY useful summary of the recent literature bear- 

 ing on the application of psychology to problems of 

 childhood and adolescence is given in the Psychological 

 Bulletin (vol. xii., No. lo). In a summary it is difficult 

 to note any one section in particular, but in view of its 

 extreme importance both to educationists and social 

 workers of all grades, the work of Woolley and Fischer 

 in a mongraph entitled " Mental and Physical Measure- 

 ments of Working Children " is important. As a 

 result of an investigation of 800 working children they 

 found that about 85 per cent, were retarded at the age 

 of fifteen in height, weight, lung capacity, and the 

 mental processes of memory and reasoning-. Such 

 studies giving evidence of the detrimental effect of a 

 particular environment ought not to pass unnoticed. 



From the issue of Science for October 15 last we 

 learn that Mr. J. H. Schiff, a member of the board 

 of trustees of Barnard College and its first treasurer, 

 has given ioo,oooZ. to the college for a woman's build- 

 ing. The University of California has received 2o,oooZ. 

 from an anonymous donor to endow the " Dr. C. W. 

 and Mrs. Fox Memorial Beds" in the University of 

 California Hospital. The beds are to be maintained 

 in the new University Hospital, now being erected in 

 San Francisco through the gift of 123,000^. by friends 

 of the University. The superior court of San Fran- 

 cisco has just decided in favour of the University a 

 suit for 29,000/. brought by the regents against the 

 heirs of the late Mr. J. M. Keith, who had refused to 

 pay the balance of 29,000/. due under a subscription 

 made toward this new hospital by Mr. Keith, of which 

 but loooZ. had been called for at the time of his death. 

 The will of the late Anna Yarnall creates a trust fund 

 of 5000Z., which is placed in the hands of the trustees 

 of the University of Pennsylvania for the support of 

 the botanic gardens of that institution. 



The recently issued report of the University of teeds 

 provides a noteworthy example of the scientific assist- 

 ance which the universities have been able to give in 

 the prosecution of the war. In August, 1914, at the 

 instance of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, 

 the Agricultural Department of the University pre- 

 pared a handbill of suggestions for the management 

 of gardens, allotments, and poultry, for the guidance 

 of the population of Yorkshire, to enable the best use 

 to be made of the remaining weeks of the summer in 

 increasing the stock of food stuffs. This handbill was 

 distributed throughout the three Ridings of Yorkshire. 

 When the Government appointed a Chemical Trades 

 Committee to investigate the question of dyestuffs and 

 of explosives, the resources of the Department of 

 Tinctorial Chemistry and Dyeing-, founded bv the muni- 

 ficence of the Clothworkers' Company, were placed at 

 the disposal of the Committee. The Textile Depart- 

 ment was able to render service in testing the strength 

 and elasticity of cloths made for army contracts, and 

 to advise members of the textile trades as to the 

 methods of producing special fabrics hitherto manu- 

 factured in Germany. The Departments of Chemistry 

 "have been engaged in the preparation of products 

 needed for the medical treatment of wounded soldiers, 

 and experimental research has been carried out in 

 •connection with the treatment of those suffering from 

 gaseous ganirrene. Experiments have been made in 

 the University laboratories to devise means of protec- 

 tion for the troops against poisonous gases. The staff 

 of the Engfineering Department, with the help of the 

 Department of Physics, have been engaged in special 

 work in connection with the war, and the resources 

 of the laboratories have been placed at the disposal of 

 the authorities for this purpose. And all this has been 

 in addition to the noble work done by the Medical 

 Department and the provision of 917 men for the 

 Forces of the Crown. 



NO. 2403, VOL. 96] 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, November 11. — Sir William Crookes, 

 president, in the chair. — Sir Ronald Ross : Studies on 

 a priori pathometry.^ — Part i. The object of these 

 studies is to determine the nature of the - functions 

 according to which the number of individuals infected 

 with some disease should vary from time to time, on 

 the supposition that the laws governing the rate of 

 transference of the considered disease are already 

 known a priori ; and it is hoped that a future com- 

 parison of the curves so obtained, with the numerous 

 statistical curves of epidemics already on record, will 

 enable us to check the accuracy of the said a priori 

 suppositions and to obtain light on the causes of the 

 rise and fall of epidemics. The fundamental problem 

 under consideration is the following :— If a population 

 is divided into two groups, namely, those who arc- 

 affected by some kind of happening-, such as an infec- 

 tious disease, and those who are not so affected ; and 

 if in unit of time a constant or variable proportion of 

 the non-affected become affected, while simultaneously, 

 a constant proportion of the affected become non- 

 affected (that is, revert or recover) ; and if 

 at the same time both the affected and the 

 non-affected are subject to different birth-rates, 

 death-rates, and rates of immigration and of 

 emigration, so that the whole population may be 

 incessantly varying during the period under considera- 

 tion ; then what will be the number of affected indi- 

 viduals and also the number of new cases at any 

 moment during that period? — J. Barcroft and T. Kato': 

 Effects of function activity in striated muscle and the 

 submaxillary gland. — W. L. Balls and F. S. Holton : 

 Analyses of agricultural yield. Part ii. — The sowinj;- 

 date experiment with Egyptian cotton, 1913.- — H. H. 

 Thomas : Williamsoniella, a new type of Bennettitalean 

 flower. — T. Lewis : The spread of the excitatory pn)- 

 cess in the vertebrate heart. Part i. — The toad's ven- 

 tricle. Part ii. — The tortoise ventricle. Part iii.- - 

 The dog's ventricle. Part iv. — The human ventrick'. 

 Part v. — The bird's heart. 



Faraday Society, October 19.— Sir Robert Hadfield, 

 president, in the chair.— F. Powis : The transference 

 of electricity by colloidal particles. An attempt is 

 made to calculate the charge carried by the particles 

 of a colloidal solution produced by sparking (i) from 

 a modification of Stokes's formula, (2) from the in- 

 crease in conductivity on making the solution. The 

 second method gives a value much greater than the 

 first. Anions and kations are adsorbed in such a way 

 that the concentration of each gradually decreases 

 with increasing distance from the particle, until each 

 finally becomes equal to that in the bulk of the sur- 

 rounding medium. — F. H. Jeft'ery : Electrolysis of (a) 

 nitric acid, (b) sulphuric acid, (c) orthophosphoric acid, 

 using a gold anode. The platinum kathode was en- 

 closed in a porous pot and the acid used for katholyte 

 was of the same concentration as that used for anolyte. 

 In all cases the soluble gold compounds formed con- 

 tained the gold as complex anion ; no gold was de- 

 posited on the kathode. — J. H. Jeffery : Electrolysis of 

 concentrated hydrochloric acid using a copper anode. 

 The platinum kathode was enclosed in a porous pot, 

 and all experiments were performed in nitrogen or 

 carbon dioxide. The copper dissolved in the cuprous 

 condition and as complex anion alone, there being no 

 deposit of copper on the kathode. No chlorine was 

 evolved at the anode. — W. Clayton : The thermal de- 

 composition of hydrog-en peroxide in aqueous solution. 

 Preliminary note. The rate of thermal decomposition 

 of aqueous solutions of hydrogen peroxide is extremely 



