58 



NATURE 



[March 21, 1918 



stand together to stop aggression and to guarantee to 

 the world the peaceful development for which it is 

 waiting. 



The Board of Education announces, in Circular 1034, 

 that the following examinations have been recognised 

 for the calendar years 1918 and 1919 as approved exam- 

 inations, under the Board's scheme for the better 

 organisation of examinations in secondary schools : — 

 As First Examinations : (i) The SchoolCertificate Ex- 

 ^imination of the Oxford and Cambridge Schools Exam- 

 ination Board; (2) the Senior Local Examination of the 

 Oxford Delegacy for Local Examinations ; (3) the 

 Senior Local Examination of the Cambridge Local 

 Examinations and Lectures Syndicate ; (4) the School 

 Certificate Examination of the University of Bristol; 

 (5) the First School Certificate Examination of the Uni- 

 versity of Durham ; (6) the General School Examina- 

 tion of the University of I^ondon ; (7) the School Cer- 

 tificate Examination of the Northern Universities Joint 

 Matriculation Board. As Second Examinations : (8) 

 The Higher Certificate Examination of the Oxford and 

 Cambridge- Schools Examination Board; (9) the Higher 

 School Certificate Examination of the Oxford Delegacy 

 for Local Examinations; (10) the Higher School Cer- 

 tificate Examination of the Cambridge Local Examina- 

 tions and Lectures Certificate; (i.i) the Higher School 

 Certificate Examination of the University of Bristol (a); 

 (12) the Higher Certificate Examination of the Univer- 

 sity of Durham; (13) the Higher School Certificate Ex- 

 amination of the University of London (a); (14) the 

 Higher Certificate Examination of the Northern Uni- 

 versities Joint Matriculation Board, The examinations 

 marked (a) will be held for the first time in 1919. The 

 Board will pay to each school on the grant list an 

 additional grant not exceeding 2Z. on each pupil entered 

 for any of the above-named examinations held during 

 the years 19 18 and 19 19. 



The Times Educational Suppietnent (February 21) 

 publishes an article entitled "The Universities and the 

 War," which discusses the position of well-educated 

 boys on attaining the age for military service, and 

 ■suggests that the universities should be more fully 

 used for the education and military training of young 

 officers for the Army. It is pointed out -that public- 

 school boys who are members of the Officers Training 

 Corps remain at school until attaining the age of 

 eighteen and a half, when they are sent to officer cadet 

 units for further training for commissions, whereas 

 well-educated boys from all other secondary schools 

 must enlist at about the age of eighteen, unless they 

 go to a university and join an O.T.C. there. Those 

 who enlist receive no special training for commissions 

 for six months. The writer of the article therefore 

 suggests that boys suitable for commissions should be 

 encouraged by the War Office to join the universities 

 and to receive military training in the O.T.C. Mr. 

 Macpherson, in dealing with the question of the supply 

 of officers in his statement in the House of Commons 

 on February 20, admitted that invaluable work was 

 done at the beginning of the war by the Officers Train- 

 ing Corps, but the War Office now expected a man to 

 have served abroad before obtaining a commission, 

 save in a few exceptional cases, and to have attained 

 the rank of corporal, thereby having shown signs of 

 leadership. For the Regular Army the period of train- 

 ing at Sandhurst and Woolwich had been extended. 

 " It was not always the case that a boy who was able 

 to pass with flying colours examinations in languages 

 and mathematics made the 'best officer." The chances 

 were that a boy who was captain of his school Rugby 

 fifteen, who found it difficult to pass such an examina- 

 tion, had all the qualities of leadership, and should be 

 given scope for the display of these qualities in the 

 NO. 2525, VOL. lOl] 



Regular Army. "The authorities at Woolwich con- 

 sidered the nominated candidates [those not entering 

 by competitive examination] far and away the best, 

 most capable, and hard-working, and they often pro- 

 duced the best officers." It appears extraordinary that, 

 at this stage of the war, Mr. Macpherson should offer 



i official encouragement to boys training for commissions 



i not to apply themselves to their studies. 



! SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 

 Royal Society, March 7. — Sir J. J. Thomson, presi- 

 dent, in the chair.— Prof. E. T. Whittaker : The 



numerical solution of integral equations. The present 

 communication is concerned with integral equations of 

 Abel's type 



i r<p(s)K{x-s)ds=f(x), 



j and of Poisson's type, 



<>>(->-)- 



jy(s)K( 



x-sWs=f{x), 



where K{x) and f{x) are given functions, and <^(.v) is 

 the unknown function which is to be determined. The 

 object of the work is to obtain solutions of these equa- 

 tions in forms which can be made the basis of numer- 

 ical calculation.— Prof. W. H. Young : (i) The Cesaro 

 convergence of restricted Fourier series. (2) Non-har- 

 monic trigonometrical series.^ — Prof. G. A. Schott : The 

 electromagnetic inertia of the Lorentz electron. For a 

 perfectly conducting oblate spheroid with speed feC, 

 eccentricity k, and axis in the direction of motion, 

 G. W. Walker (Roy. Soc. Proc, A 93, p. 448) finds 

 Longiiiidinal electromagnetic mass=§^'-'a~^C^"-^( I -|/('"'^)( I --^^)~"-, 

 Transverse electromagnetic mass=§e'-'a""^C~^(i+^i/C''^)(i -^)~^'-. 

 Walker appears to regard this spheroid as a model of 

 the Lorentz electron. If this be so, there is an obvious 

 contradiction with the theory of relativity which de- 

 mands investigation. The author has recalculated 

 Walker's results on the basis of the general mass 

 formulae given in "Electromagnetic Radiation," Ap- 

 pendix D. The agreement between Walker's results 

 and those of the paper, so far as it goes, indicates that 

 his spheroid is not to be regarded as a model of the 

 ■Lorentz electron. — Sir J. C. Bose : Researches on 

 growth and movement in plants by means of the high 

 magnification crescograph. 



Linnean Society, February 21. — Sir David Prain, presi- 

 dent, in the chair.— J. B. Gatenby : Notes on the bio- 

 I nomics, embryology, and anatomy of certain Hymeno- 

 ptera Parasitica, with special reference to Microgaster 

 I connexus, Nees. The author remarked that Micro- 

 , gaster connexus, a parasite of Potthesia similis, was 

 I hvperparasitised by Mesochorus pallidus. The anatomy 

 ' of Microgaster had been investigated ; the larva has 

 the posterior end of the body enlarged into the form cff 

 ! a spherical vesicle ; the latter was thought by previous 

 workers to be the ninth abdominal segment, but from 

 i anatomical and other evidence it is now considered 

 I to be the evaginated proctodaeum. The embryonic 

 membranes in Microgaster were also described, and 

 notes were given on the various Hymenoptera parasitic 

 on Aphidae, and the embryonic membrane of an 

 Aphidius was descri])ed. It was stated that internal ento- 

 mophagous hymenopterous larvae do not feed during 

 practically the first third of their growth, but live by 

 means of highly developed embr^'onic membranes; in 

 their middle and later life they do not defecate; later 

 larval and puoal stages were found to be generally 

 normal. — W. B. Brierley : Experimental studies in the 

 specific value of morphological characters in the fungi. 

 In all systematic treatn.ent of the fungi there is implied 



