412 



NATURE 



[December io, 1914 



three years, will be awarded in connection with the 

 competitive examinations for scholarships, student- 

 ships, etc., to be held by the Board of Education in 

 May, 19 15, in naval architecture, pure mathematics, 

 applied mechanics (materials and structures), and 

 either applied mechanics (machines and hydraulics), 

 or heat engines. Applications must reach the secre- 

 tary of the Institution of Naval Architects on or 

 before January 15. 



At the last meeting of the governors of the South- 

 Eastern Agricultural College, Wye, the principal, Mr. 

 M. J. R. Dunstan, reported that no students and 

 thirteen members of the teaching staff, besides college 

 servants, farm and garden employees, had joined the 

 colours. The new college buildings have been com- 

 pleted at a cost of 12,500^., towards which the Board 

 of Agriculture has given 6000Z., whilst two grants, 

 each of 500Z., have been made by a generous anony- 

 mous benefactor towards the completion of the re- 

 search equipment, and these gifts have been met by 

 equivalent grants from the Board of Agriculture. 

 The probable financial position of the college, owing 

 to the reduction in the number of students, was con- 

 sidered, and it was decided to bring the matter before 

 the Government educational and agricultural depart- 

 ments before taking any definite steps to curtail the 

 teaching or research work. A vacuum drying plant 

 for experimenting on the drying of fruit and vege- 

 tables has been installed by means of a grant from 

 the Board of Agriculture, and it is hoped that assist- 

 ance may be forthcoming to continue the investiga- 

 tions into the economical feeding of dairy cows of 

 which a third report has just been issued. Results 

 which may prove to be of considerable practical value 

 have been obtained from the hop-breeding experi- 

 mental work. 



The report of the Commissioner of Educa- 

 tion of the United States Bureau of Educa- 

 tion for the year ended on June 30, 1913, has been 

 received from Washington. It consists of two bulkv 

 volumes running to 931 and 700 pages respectively, 

 and every department of American education is dealt 

 with exhaustively. For the academic year with which 

 the report deals, the bureau received reports from 

 596 universities, colleges, and technological schools 

 in the United States. Ninety-four of these institu- 

 tions are controlled by States or municipalities, and 

 502 are administered by private corporations. The 

 number of collegiate and resident graduate students 

 in these institutions of higher education was during 

 the year 128,644 "^en and 73,587 women, as compared 

 with 125,750 and 72,703 in the preceding year. These- 

 numbers show on analysis an increased attendance 

 of 2-35 per cent, of college students in graduate and 

 undergraduate courses, and a decrease of 11 per cent, 

 in the number of preparatory students. The Commis- 

 sioner points out in his introduction that in most 

 instances high-school work can be done better and at less 

 cost in the regular high schools than in the prepara- 

 tory classes of colleges. The? decrease in the number 

 of students in the preparatory classes of colleges is 

 due to some extent also to the more liberal practice 

 of the colleges in accepting for admission work in 

 subjects other than those heretofore required. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, December 3.— Sir William Crookes, 

 president, in the chair. — M. de Lange : The thermo- 

 phone — a new form of telephone.— Dr. G. S. Walpole : 

 Hermann's phenomenon. At the boundary between 

 two solutions of unequal specific conductivity a change 

 of reaction is developed if a difference of potential be 



NO. 2354, VOL. 94] 



maintained between them. Alkali is liberated if the 

 current passes from the better conducting solution to 

 that not conducting so well ; acid, if the current 

 passes in the opposite direction. The amounts may 

 be calculated from the potential gradients in the solu- 

 tions on each side of the boundary, the time for which 

 the ditference of potential is maintained, the resist- 

 ance constant of the vessel employed, the dissociation 

 constant of vvater, and the knowi migration velocities 

 of hydrogen and hydroxyl ions. 



Zoological Society, November 24. — Prof. E. A. 

 Minchin, vice-president, in the chair. — D. M. S. 

 Watson : (i) Description of a new reptile from the Per- 

 mian of the Cape Province, South Africa. Mr. Wat- 

 son regards this as derived from a Cotylosaurian 

 ancestor and as perhaps related to Araeoscelis and the 

 modern lizards. A new genus is founded for the 

 reception of the so-called Froterosaurus huxleyi, (2) 

 The origin of the Chelonia. A number of reasons 

 is given for supposing that they may be descended 

 from some such form as Eunotosaurus africanus, 

 Seeley. (3) The skulls of Bauria, Microgomphodon, 

 and Sesamodon. The relation of the group with the 

 Cynognathids is discussed, and a new skull of Lyco- 

 suchus, in which both the prevomers and vomer are 

 present, is described. — F. A. Potts ; Polychaeta from 

 the N.E. Pacific : the Chaetopteridae. With an account 

 of the phenomenon of asexual reproduction in Phyllo- 

 chaetopterus and the description of two new species 

 of Chcetopteridae from the Atlantic. The new species 

 of Phyllochastopterus was found in branched tubes, 

 each usually containing several individuals. The 

 origin of these colonies each from a single individual 

 is suggested by the frequent occurrence of worms in 

 various stages of regeneration. An examination of 

 these shows that autotomy first occurs in the middle 

 region of the animal's body, and a complete animal 

 is regenerated from each of the two parts. This 

 phenomenon appears to be characteristic also of 

 another new species of this genus from Plymouth, 

 which lives in small colonies in branched tubes. 

 Several points in the morphology of the Chaetopteridae 

 are also discussed.— E. Heron-Allen and A. Earland : 

 Evidence of purpose and intelligence on the part of 

 Foraminifera. 



Edinburgh. 



Royal Society, November 16. — Prof. F. O. Bower, 

 vice-president, in the chair. — Dr. D. Ellis : Fossil 

 micro-organisms from the Jurassic and Cretaceous 

 rocks of Great Britain. The paper contained a study 

 of fossil moulds from four localities — the Frodingham 

 Ironstone of Lincolnshire, the Secondary rocks in the 

 Island of Raasay (N.W. Scotland), the Dunliath 

 ferruginous Limestone, and the Gault, near Folke- 

 stone. These supplied in order a fossil mould belong- 

 ing to the Phycomycetae, with abundant examples of 

 hyphae, sporangia, and spores ; a fossil mould provi- 

 sionally named Palaeomyces a ; a fossil Actinomyces ; 

 and three members of Bacteria, two Bacilli, and one 

 Micrococcus. Evidence was given that these were 

 genuine micro-organisms, and reasons were discussed 

 why the organism in its lifetime had a chemiotactic 

 affinity for iron. — J. M'Lean Thompson : The anatomy 

 and affinity of Deparia moorei. The paper dealt with 

 the anatomical features of the axis, leaf, and sorus. 

 Comparison with Deparia prolifera showed an ad- 

 vanced type of leaf trace, the expansive lamina being 

 possessed of a few pi.inae and a reticulate venation — 

 suggesting an adaptation for life in moist shade. The 

 sori were of normally marginal origin, but occasion- 

 ally truly superficial sori appeared on the upper leaf 

 surface in D. moorei. This in no way invalided the 

 conclusion that it belonged to the series Marginales. 

 The consensus of characters justified the rejection of 



