296 



NATURE 



[November 12, 1914 



was a good deal criticised by Australian members as 

 quite unsuited to their conditions. Mr. Frank Tate 

 described the effort made in Victoria to redeem educa- 

 tion from the charge of being too academic. 



On the third day, the section discussed the training 

 of teachers, in which Dr. Smyth, of the Melbourne 

 Training College, Prof. Findlay, and Prof. Green took 

 part. Papers were also read by Prof. Boyce Gibson 

 on moral education ; Mrs. Meredith, on domestic train- 

 ing in primary schools ; and Miss Lilian Clarke, on 

 the teaching of botany. All these papers aroused a 

 good deal of interest, and excellent discussions fol- 

 lowed. 



Prof. Perry opened the Sydney meetings with his 

 presidential address, which was published in full in 

 Nature of October i. After the presidential address, 

 the greatest local interest was roused by Prof. Netscha- 

 jeff's paper on experimental pedagogics in Russia. It 

 was chiefly devoted to a descriptive account of research 

 work in the experimental school which he has founded 

 in Petrograd under the auspices of the Ministry of 

 Commerce. The work there is mainly directed to the 

 investigation of the changes in the mental life of 

 children as depending upon age, sex, and environ- 

 ment, as well as the determination of the best methods 

 of teaching the various school subjects. The teachers' 

 judgments upon individual children have also been the 

 subject of psychological investigation. Work of this 

 kind necessitates a threefold process. It begins in the 

 laboratory itself, and passes thence to the school, 

 coming finally to the laboratory again for discussion 

 and further research. The body of workers attached 

 to the school have also been engaged in simplifying 

 and cheapening psychological apparatus. They have 

 produced a cabinet of essentials at so reasonable a 

 price that no fewer than 131 schools and teachers' 

 societies in Russia have been supplied. Prof. Netscha- 

 jeff presented a specimen collection of this apparatus 

 to the education department of the University of 

 Sydne}'. 



Another dav was devoted to the discussion of the 

 problem of the university in its relation to State and 

 school. Sir Harry Reichel made a strong plea for 

 university freedom. The whole work and spirit of a 

 university would be killed by anything like bureau- 

 cratic control. Mr. Board, Secretary for Education 

 in the State of New South Wales, gave general sup- 

 port to this view. Prof. Green urged the need for 

 greater freedom for the schools, which at present suffer 

 from the relatively rigid requirements of university 

 entrance. Intellectual keenness is commonly lost in 

 the effort to meet the demands of matriculation exam- 

 inations. Schools also have yet to learn that their 

 function is not defined by the university but by the 

 needs of the vast majority of their pupils who do not 

 intend to enter the university at all. IDr. H. B. Gray 

 read a paper on school training for public life, in which 

 he pleaded for a more liberal treatment of science in 

 the public school. Thus he would not give more than 

 from one-quarter to one-sixth of school life to the 

 classics. More geography, a thorough study of one 

 modern language, and of English literature and history 

 would then be possible, and science might get reason- 

 able treatment. Socially, too, the public schools need 

 reform. They suffer from narrowness of outlook, 

 which may serve to produce rulers of inferior races 

 but does not turn out men suited to play a great part 

 in the newer democracies. 



Prof. Mackie read a paper on the training of 

 teachers, giving an account of the conditions in New 

 South Wales. A discussion followed in which Prof. 

 Findlay, Dr. Kimmins, and Prof. Green took part. 

 All the speakers emphasised the need for greater 

 attention being given to research and experiment in 



NO. 2350, VOL. 94] 



this sphere of practical work. Dr. Kimmins gave an 

 interesting account of a London County Council 

 scheme for an Imperial interchange of teachers — a 

 plan which would enable Australian teachers to spend, 

 a year at home, at little cost to themselves, and with, 

 the great advantage of enabling them to learn some-: 

 thing of their profession as practised in London. • 

 The sectional meetings were uniformly well attended,, 

 though along with other sections it suffered consider- 

 ably at the hands of the Press on account of the war. 

 Many English visitors enjoyed the opportunity of visit- 

 ing educational institutions in the various States. 

 All were impressed by what they saw. Everywhere, 

 and particularly in New South Wales and Victoria, we 

 found evidence of a profound belief in education and 

 a readiness to make sacrifices in its behalf. Over- 

 centralisation is perhaps the greatest danger in both 

 States — a danger which is at a minimum now owing 

 to the personalities in actual control. We were all 

 greatlv indebted to the authorities for the descriptive 

 literature provided, and no better statement of the 

 general position of Australian education is to be 

 desired than that written by Prof. Anderson in the 

 handbook provided by the Commonwealth for the asso- 

 ciation. 



RECENT ASPECTS OF MUTATION.^ 



IN recent vears significant developments have taken 

 place in connection with the study of mutations; 

 indeed, these developments are so numerous that only 

 a few of them can be mentioned now. The genu> 

 Oenothera has continued to be a storm-centre around 

 which many controversies have raged, but of late a 

 number of these questions appear to have been 

 definitely settled. Among the recent development- 

 may be mentioned first the authentication of (E. 

 lamarckiana, Ser., as an endemic species of the North 

 American flora. The specimen collected by Michaux 

 some time during his travels in eastern North America 

 between the dates 1785 and 1796, which is now in 

 the Museum d'Histoire naturelle in Paris, and t( 

 which de Vries has recently directed attention, prove- 

 that this species did not originate in cultivation, as 

 has been so frequently surmised. This shows also 

 that it could not have come from Texas in i860, as 

 was stated, and it may yet be found in Kentucky or 

 perhaps in western Virginia. This belief is founded 

 on several considerations which I need not enter into 

 here. 



In order to show that CE. lamarckiana differs in 

 no respect from several other species as regards its 

 history and fate, let me trace the history of certain 

 of these species. CE. biennis, L., as it now grows 

 on the sand-dunes of Holland, where it has been 

 naturalised since early in the eighteenth centurjs i- 

 identical with a form cultivated at Oxford by Morison 

 about 1660, from Virginia. Yet this form is not now 

 known to occur anywhere in North America, though 

 search may yet reveal it in its native home. This 

 CE. bienni's was probably the first Oenothera to be 

 taken to Europe, in 1614. It has remained for three 

 centuries unmodified in its new habitat, though 

 Stomps has recently shown that it gives rise to two 

 mutations, cruciata' and sulphurea, the latter of which 

 was alreadv recognised as a distinct variety by 

 Linnseus in' 1737, as Bartlett has shown. Another 

 race of CE. biennis, obtained originally from the 

 Madrid Botanical Garden, contains several aberrant 

 forms parallel to the lamarckiana mutations, includ- 

 ing one resembling laevifolia, and it also produces 

 CE. biennis lata. 



1 From a lecture deli vt red at the M.irine Biological Laboratory, Woods 

 Hole, Mess., on August 14, by Dr. R. Ruggles Gates. 



