676 



NATURE 



[February 17, 19 16 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for 

 opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither 

 can he undertake to return, or to correspond with 

 the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for 

 this or any other part of Nature. No notice is 

 taken of anonymous communications.] 



The Place of Science in Education. 



The memorandum regarding the neglect of science 

 to which you refer in your leading article last week 

 fails in my judgment by its moderation. The pro- 

 posal that at least as many marks in the 

 Civil Service examinations shall be allotted to science 

 as to classics, may be a step in the right direction, 

 but it is a halting one, for it affects only a limited 

 class of the community and does not insist on the 

 paramount importance of st'ience in general education. 

 What should be stated is not the least, but the whole 

 of what is necessary. What ought to be made clear 

 is that science must form not a mere adjunct but 

 the actual foundation of the education given in 

 secondary schools. In a word, what is wanted is a 

 revolution in our educational system. 



Unless the public appreciates the necessity for the 

 change no such revolution is possible ; when it does, 

 the mechanism of converting the proposition into 

 action will be simple. If the democracy once under- 

 stands that we have no chance of keeping our place 

 in the sun unless we are prepared to recognise that 

 whether in peace or war science must be the dominant 

 factor in education all difficulties will disappear. But 

 if this idea fails to take root our place will be lost; 

 and such a place once lost can never be regained. 

 The revelations which have come to light in the 

 course of this bloody war will, we hope, do at least 

 this good, that the people may be induced to appre- 

 ciate the necessity of basing education upon natural 

 science instead of upon the classics. 



The appointment of a Minister of Science which is 

 advocated in the memorandum would under existing 

 conditions be of little use. W^hatever qualifications 

 he might be selected for, we may safely prophesy that 

 entire ignorance of the subject he is to administer 

 would be one. It might, however, be argued that 

 this would be a useful asset, for he would at least 

 be gloriously impartial in the various branches of 

 science which would come under his administration. 



E. A, SCHAFER. 



University of Edinburgh, February 14. 



Relations between the K and L Series of the High- 

 Frequency S^pectra. 



KossEL has shown that for the K and L lines in the 

 high-frequency spectra the following relation holds 

 good : — 



VLtL = vk^ - VKa where v is the frequency. 



This relation is deduced on the assumption of 

 the Bohr-Rutherford's atomic model. As the result of 

 new measurements, J. Maimer in his inaugural dis- 

 sertation, Lund, 1915, states that the K series consists 

 of four lines, called Oi, 02, ySi, Pt, and that Kossel's 

 relation must take the form — 



»'l.a —VkBi- "Kaj- 



An investigation of the spectra of the L series, which 

 has been carried out by E. Friman and the writer, has 

 shown that there is in reality an additional line near 

 the Lo, with a slightly greater wave-length. Further, 

 the L series contains two lines, called by Moseley the 



NO. 2416, VOL. 96] 



j8 and y lines, which I will denote by /!J, and /S™, as thejr 

 seem to be a doublet. The lines observed by Mose- 

 ley are probably due to some impurities, as they fit 

 fairly well in a series if they are ascribed to other 

 elements. For antimony, we have, according to 

 Maimer, the following relative results : — 



The values in the last column are those given bjr 

 Moseley for La, and L/3,, and the values for La. and 

 LjSj are extrapolated. Manne Sieghahn. 



Physical Laboratories, Lund, Sweden, 

 January i. 



Educational Work in Museums. 



In view of the decision of the Government to close 

 the national museums and art galleries and its prob- 

 able influence on those responsible for provincial insti- 

 tutions of the same kind, it would perhaps be useful ta 

 direct attention to its effect on a branch of museum 

 work which has been started in Manchester as a 

 direct result of the effects of the war. 



Owing to the taking over of their buildings for 

 military hospitals, several schools in the Manchester 

 district found themselves temporarily without homes. 

 In order to meet this emergency, the education authori- 

 ties have instituted what might be termed a half-time 

 system in certain of the remaining schools in order 

 that the scholars from the dispossessed schools should ' 

 have at least some instruction. The problem then i 

 arose of what to do with the scholars for the other ' 

 half of their time. The Museujn Committee was con- , 

 suited, and asked what help it could render in the I 

 emergency, and the keeper of the museum, in con- i 

 sultation with the education authorities, drew up a 1 

 scheme under which the scholars are now receiving 

 instruction in natural history and Egyptology in the 

 museum buildings. 



The education authorities appointed two teachers,. | 

 already on their staff, to take charge of the work at 1 

 the museum, one to teach biology and the other j 

 geology.- The committee, placed -two rooms at the dis- : 

 posal of the teachers and provided them with duplicate . 

 specimens from the reserve collections which could be 

 used and handled freely by both teachers and scholars. 



Courses of lessons in geology and natural history- 

 were drawn up by the teachers in consultation with- 

 the staff of the museum, framed according to the time 

 available and the number of scholars to be dealt with. 



Eight classes — of one hour's duration — are held [ 

 daily, four by each teacher : two in the morning and 

 two in the afternoon. Each lesson consists of from 

 thirty to forty minutes' instruction in the classroom,, 

 followed by a tour of the cases in the museum dealing 

 with the particular subject taught, and each course 

 consists of about nine lessons. 



In addition to the instruction in natural history the 

 assistant in charge of the Esfyptian department gives 

 short courses of lessons in Egyptology to school classes, 

 and four such classes are held weekly. 



