December 9, 1915] 



NATURE 



415 



not that emitted from these eye-spots, but originates 

 from another light organ at the base of the abdomen. 

 This organ is usually concealed between the abdomen 

 and thorax, and is only exposed when the elytra are 

 open so that the abdomen can be bent back. The 

 light is of a redder, or yellower, colour than that 

 « mittcd from the thoracic spots; and is intermittent 

 instead of continuous, the flashes being caused by 

 slight movements of the abdomen, whereby the light 

 is alternately concealed and exhibited. The bionomic 

 value of the light in these insects is not at all under- 

 stood, but it does not seem to have any sexual function 

 in this case. 



The larvag of these fireflies are also luminous. They 

 are of typical elaterid form and live in rotten wood. 

 In the young larvae the light is emitted from the junc- 

 tion of the head with the body, but in the older larvae 

 it is emitted also from the junctions of the segments 

 .ill along the body. The eggs also are stated to be 

 luminous. 



Various beetles of other families have been recorded 

 as luminous, but all these records want confirmation, 

 and some of them were certainly only accidental. 



To sum up, nearly all the cases of luminous insects, 

 and all those that are in any way well known and 

 (oinmon, belong to the order Coleoptera, and even here 

 almost entirely to the family Lampvridce. An excep- 

 lion to this statement is found in the elaterid genus 

 Pyrophorus, but other records all require confirmation. 

 In the Lampyridae the light pla3^s an important part in 

 -(■curing the mating of the sexes, but its functions 

 in other luminous beetles have not been satisfactorily 

 txplained. 



In other orders of insects luminosity is rarely met 

 with, at any rate in the normal condition of health ; 

 little or nothing is known of the part that it plays in 

 the life of the animal; indeed its very existence, apart 

 from what we may call accidental causes, is usually 

 more or less problematical. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 OxiORD.^ — The Romanes lecture — subject, " Science 

 .nid the Great War " — was delivered by Prof. E. H. 

 Poulton on December 7 before a large audience, which 

 fullowed with marked interest and frequent applause 

 the scathing indictment brought by the lecturer against 

 the ruling powers of this country for their neglect of 

 the teachings of science with regard to the conduct of 

 the war. Prof. Poulton showed how by their refusal 

 lo benefit by the expert knowledge which might have 

 heen at their command for the asking, the Government 

 had actually played into the hands of the enemy. This 

 was especially apparent in the case of the materials for 

 the manufacture of high explosives and in that of the 

 importation into Germany of foodstuffs. The evil had 

 to some extent been stopped, thanks, in the matter of 



< otton, to agitation by the Press; but it was still far 

 from being at an end. The most deadly kind of war 

 was one waged by a ruthless enemy employing to the 

 full all the resources of modern science. Such an 



< nemy we were now being called on to face, and our 

 only hope of success lay in using those means which 

 were ready to our hands if the authorities could be 

 induced to apply for information and assistance in the 

 proper quarters. 



SnEKKiKLO. — At the annual meeting of the court of 

 governors of the University, it was announced that 

 one outcome of the war was the establishment of a 

 department in the scientific teaching of glass-making. 

 The industry, an important one for the rougher kinds 

 of work in south Yorkshire, had previous to the war 

 to cope with serious German competition. The time 



NO. 2406, VOL. 96] 



is suitable to encourage this industry when it is re- 

 lieved from German rivalry, and it is hoped that the 

 University's efforts will be directed towards the finer 

 kind^ of glass work in which this country did but 

 little in the past. A lecturer and a demonstrator in 

 glass manufacture have already been appointed. 



The great demand for medical men and the un- 

 desirability of discouraging suitable students, especially 

 women, has resulted in the University deciding that 

 Latin is no longer required as a subject in the matricu- 

 lation e.xamination for the medical degree. The new 

 regulation continues until the University shall other- 

 wise determine. 



The list of past and present students and staff of 

 the Imperial College of Science and Technology serv- 

 ing with H.M. Forces, issued in May last, has been 

 corrected so far as possible up to May 27. An analysis 

 of the roll gives the total in connection with each of 

 the constituent colleges. The grand total of present 

 and past students and members of the staff was, in 

 the case of the Royal College of Science, i6r, the Royal 

 School of Mines, 305, and the City and Guilds 

 (Engineering) College, 719, being 1185 in all. Of this 

 total 376 were present students, 739 past students, and 

 70 members of the staff, 715 of the total being officers. 



As has been already noted in these columns, Columbia 

 University received by the will of the late Mr. A. F. 

 Eno the residuary estate. It is now announced in 

 Science that Columbia University also receives a re- 

 versionary interest in certain bequests, and bequests of 

 5o,oooi. each are made to New York University, the 

 American Museum of Natural History, and the Metro- 

 politan Museum of Art. Our contemporary also re- 

 cords that Mr. and Mrs. Norman W. Harris, of 

 Chicago, have increased their gift of 5000^. to Mount 

 Holyoke College made at the time of the seventv-fifth 

 anniversary, to lo.oooZ., for the endowment of the 

 chair of zoology. 



The annual meeting of the Mathematical Association 

 will be held on Wednesday, January 5, at the London 

 Day Training College, Southampton Row, London, 

 W.C. The following addresses will be given :■ — (i) 

 The aims of education, a plea for reform, (2) The 

 allowance for the earth's rotation in the theorv 

 of projectiles. Prof. A. N. Whitehead; The 

 results of an investigation into the degree 

 of accuracy that may be expected in simple 

 arithmetical work in boys' schools, G. W. Palmer. 

 There will be a discussion on (a) the use of mathe- 

 matical tables in schools, and (b) desiderata in a 

 book of such tables for school use, to be opened by 

 Mr. A. Lodge. 



In a recent publication of the Department of Agri- 

 culture and Technical Instruction for Ireland (Dublin, 

 19 15) Mr. E. P. Barrett deals with suggestions for the 

 teaching of the first year's syllabus in experimental 

 science in secondary schools. The proposals mainly 

 refer to the use of graphs, with special application to 

 the experimental determination of the relations be- 

 tween connected quantities. Unfortunately, however, 

 the author overlooks the necessity of drawing graphs 

 between quantities of the same kind in their proper 

 proportions, and his figure makes the circuinference 

 of a circle appear to be about one and a half times its 

 diameter, a mistake for which hundreds of marks are 

 probably lost every year by examination candidates. 



A COPY has reached us of the prospectus of the 

 School of Tropical Agriculture, Peradeniya, Ceylon, 

 of which the Director of .Agriculture is the Principal. 

 The school is situated close to the Botanic Gardens, 

 and is intended for boys of seventeen years of age 

 and over who have passed the eighth standard of the 



