146 



NA TURE 



[December 6, 1900 



from devoting his holidays to study when he ought to be gaining 

 physical strength and enjoying mental relaxation ? 



The Emperor of Germany has given his consent to further 

 reforms in the educational systems of the higher schools of 

 Prussia, and a summary of the edict is given in the Times. The 

 general education received in the three kinds of schools, the 

 Gymnasium, the Realgymnasium and the Oberrealschule, is to 

 be regarded as of the same value, and as only requiring to be 

 supplemented in so far as for several branches of study and for 

 several professions special preliminary knowledge is necessary 

 which is not included in the curriculum of all three institutions. 

 In accordance with this consideration, the desirability of extend- 

 ing the privileges of the Realgymnasien and the Oberrealschulen 

 is to be kept in view. By this means it is hoped to raise these 

 schools in public estimation, and to render an acquaintance with 

 modern subjects more general. In view of the great importance 

 of a knowledge of English, his Majesty lays stress upon the neces- 

 sity of giving more attention to that subject in the Gymnasium. 

 English is to be taught as an alternative subject to Greek in all 

 the classes of those schools, except the three highest. Where 

 the local conditions are favourable to the alteration, English is to 

 take the place of French as a compulsory subject in the three 

 highest classes. French, however, is to be retained as a volun- 

 tary subject wherever this change is made. The Emperor 

 further regards it as advisable that more time should be given to 

 geography in the higher Realschulen than has hitherto been the 

 case. In the teaching of modern languages importance is to be 

 attached to fluency in speaking and to the understanding of cur- 

 rent authors. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 

 Btdletin of the American Malhematical Society, November. 

 — The only paper in the present number is a note on geometry 

 of four dimensions, by Prof Lovett, which was read before 

 this society on April 28 of this year. The writer indicates 

 nine well-defined " trends" which the speculations relative to the 

 geometry of ^-dimensional space have followed, and directs his 

 work to following up two out of these, viz., the interpretation of 

 this geometry in the light of the theory of groups as exhibited 

 by Lie, Klein and Poincare and the extension of the methods 

 of ordinary differential geometry to general spaces, i.e. as 

 worked out by Christoftel, Beltrami, Cesaro, Darboux and 

 others. This he does by constructing four dimensional space 

 by the method of Lie's theory of continuous groups, and studying 

 curves of triple curvature by the intrinsic analysis developed by 

 Cesaro in his Lezioni di geometria intrinseca. — An account of 

 the proceedings at the recent International Congress held at 

 Paris is furnished by Miss C. A. Scott, in which she abstracts 

 the addresses by Prof. Cantor, sur I'historiographie des mathe- 

 matiques, and Prof. Volterra, trois analystes italiens, Betti, 

 Brioschi, Casorati. Several of the papers communicated are 

 lightly but clearly handled, and M. Poincare's presidential 

 address, du role de ^institution et de la logique en mathe- 

 matiques, is concisely analysed. She plainly speaks her mind on 

 many points of detail. — Dr. G. A. Miller gives an account of 

 the 49th Annual Meeting of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science so far as it relates to the work of the 

 society. The meeting was held at Columbia University, June 

 23 — 30, and from the point of view of scientific work it is said 

 to have been one of the most successful that has been held by 

 the association. About twenty papers were read in section A., 

 some of which are given in brief abstract. — In the "notes" 

 additional particulars (to those given in the October number) 

 are given of the mathematical courses to be followed in the 

 coming winter at British ind Continental colleges. — Personal 

 details as to deaths and new appointments, with the usual " new 

 publications," close the number. 



' In a paper on new and critical British Algae, in \}at. Journal 

 of Botany iox October, Mr. E. A. L. Batters describes no less 

 than three new genera of sea-weeds : — -Neevea, belonging to the 

 Bangiacea;, represented by N. repens, endozoic on Flustra 

 foliacea at Deal ; Rhodophysema (Floridese), founded on R. 

 Georgii, growing on Zostera marina off the Scilly Islands ; and 

 Erythrodermis (Floridese), represented hy E. Alleni, dredged up 

 from 4 — 6 fathom water at Plymouth. — In the number for 

 November Mr. Pearson describes and figures a new liverwort, 

 Lejeunea Macvicari, from Inverness-shire ; and Mr. E. S. Salmon 

 a new parasitic fungus belonging to the Erysiphese, Uncinula 

 sefitata, from Japan. 



NO. 1623. VOL. 63] 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, November 15. — " Data for the Problem of 

 Evolution in Man. VI, — A First Study of the Correlation of 

 the Human Skull," by Alice Lee, D.Sc. , with some assistance 

 from Karl Pearson, F. R. S., University College, London. 



November 22. — "On the Restoration of Co-ordinated 

 Movements after Nerve Crossing, with Interchange of Func- 

 tion of the Cerebral Cortical Centres." By Robert Kennedy, 

 M.A.. D.Sc, M.D. 



Zoological Society, November 20. — Dr. W. T. Blanford, 

 F.R.S., Vice-President, in the chair. — Mr. Sclater stated that 

 during a recent short stay at Gibraltar he had visited the haunts 

 of the Barbary Ape {Macacus innitus), at the top of the Rock, 

 and had ascertained that the herd of these animals was in a 

 flourishing condition, and had considerably increased during 

 the last few years.— An extrjict was read from a letter from Sir 

 Harry Johnston, K.C.B., containing indications of a supposed 

 new species of the Horse-family (Equidse) which appeared to 

 inhabit the Great Congo Forest, near the Semliki River, East 

 Africa, — Mr, G. A. Boulenger, F.R.S., exhibited and made 

 remarks on one of the type-specimens of a new species of Pro- 

 topterus from the Congo, for which he had proposed the name 

 o\ Protopterns dolloi.—T)x. W. T. Blanford, F.R.S., exhibited 

 and made remarks upon a very fine pair of horns and some 

 skins of the Central-Asiatic Wapiti, lent to him for examination 

 by Mr. Rowland Ward.— Mr. F. E. Beddard, F.R.S., read a 

 paper on the Osteology of the Pigmy Whale {Neobalaena 

 marginata), based mainly on an examination of one of the 

 specimens of this animal in the British Museum. A detailed 

 description of the skeleton was given, and the features in which 

 it differed from that of other known forms of the Cetaceans were 

 pointed out. — Prof. Howes, on behalf of Prof. Baldwin Spencer, 

 F. R.S., gave a description of Wynyardia bassiana, a fossil 

 Marsupial from the Tertiary Beds of Table Cape, Tasmania, It 

 was remarkable as being the first fossil Marsupial obtained from 

 the Tertiaries of Australia, and appeared to be a Polyprotodont, 

 having affinities with the Didelphyid, Dasyurid, and Phalang- 

 istid series, which had probably struck off from the rootstock at 

 the period at which the Diprotodonts were in course of evolu- 

 tion, — A communication from Mr. L. A, Borradaile contained 

 an account of a collection of Arthrostracans and Barnacles from 

 the South Pacific. — Mr. Oldfield Thomas read a paper on the 

 Mammals obtained by Dr. Donaldson Smith during his latest 

 expedition from Somaliland by Lake Rudolf to the Upper Nile. 

 Twenty-three species were enumerated, and five forms described 

 as new. Dr. Smith had also obtained some fine examples of 

 the true Bohor of Ruppell { Cervicapra bohor) and of the Bush- 

 buck described by Heuglin as Tragelaphus bor, which proved 

 to be a tenable sub-species of T. scriptus. — Mr. W. L. Distant 

 read a paper on the Rhynchota belonging to the family Penta- 

 tomidae in the Hope Collection at Oxford. It constituted a 

 revision of the catalogue of the Hope Collection written by the 

 late Prof. Westwood in 1837. All the specimens had been 

 examined by the author, and the species relegated to modern 

 genera and much synonymy removed, while several new genera 

 were described in the paper. — A communication was read from 

 Mr. R. C. Punnett, containing an account of the Nemerteans 

 collected by Prof. Haddon in Torres Straits. They comprised 

 examples of seven species, four of which had been previously 

 described, whilst the remaining three were new. 



Royal Meteorological Society, November 21. — Dr. 

 C. Theodore Williams, President, in the chair. — A com- 

 munication was read from the International Meteorological 

 Committee inviting observations of the form, amount and direc- 

 tion of the clouds on the first Thursday of each month during 

 1 901, as well as on the preceding and following days. These 

 observations are to be made in connection with the balloon 

 ascents which will be carried out under the direction of the 

 Aerostation Committee. — Mr. R. H. Curtis exhibited an im- 

 proved mounting for the lens and bowl of the Campbell-Stokes 

 sunshine recorder, by means of which the glass ball can be 

 quickly and accurately placed centrally in the bowl, where it is 

 secured by clamping screws.— Mr. W. H. Dines read a brief 

 paper on the weekly death-rate and temperature curves, 1890-99. 

 He exhibited diagrams showing the death rate of the thirty- 

 three great towns of England, and also curves of the tempera- 

 ture at Greenwich. The author is of opinion that, from the 

 health point of view, the English climate is one of the best in 



