April i8, 191 8] 



NATURE 



139 



also the lower industrial training suitable for the 

 actual workers. These appear to be essential if any 

 progress is to be made, but India has lagged behind 

 in most industrial matters. The existing system of 

 family industrial training from generation to genera- 

 tion. Which finally merges into the "caste" system, 

 might be worked upon as the groundwork of the 

 lower industrial training; but the higher technical 

 education has been entirely neglected, possibly be- 

 cause, as Mr. Tipple points out, higher or university 

 education in India has largely fostered courses which 

 provide persons mainly equipped for Government ser- 

 vice as lawyers, clerks, etc., but not for practical 

 pursuits. He also deplores the fact that education in 

 Indian schools has been arranged to lead up to uni- 

 versity education of a literary type. He suggests that 

 an Indian secondary-school career, instead of ending 

 with an examination which is intended as an "en- 

 trance" into the existing universities, should end with 

 a "school final examination." In such a school final i 

 a varied preliminary training suitable for diverse 

 careers, such as industrial, commercial, and trade pur- 

 suits, might be provided for. This reform has 

 been strongly urged during at least the last twenty 

 years, and is essential if India is to hold its own in 

 industrial work. It is to be hoped that the Indian 

 University Commission, which has been taking evi- 

 dence in different parts of India for some months, 

 will give a much-needed lead towards more practical 

 forms of education in India in the future. 



A COPY of the annual statement of the Rhodes Trust 

 for 19 16-17 has been received from the secretary of the 

 trust. It is recorded that the war has interfered in- 

 creasingly with the operation of the scholarship system. 

 At the close of 19 16 the American section of the 

 scholarships was still barely affected; but on the entry 

 of the United States into the war the difference be- 

 tween American and Colonial Rhodes scholars natur- 

 ally ceased to exist. The trustees have decided to post- 

 pone for the present all further election to scholarships. 

 This will not, however, interfere with the holding ot 

 the annual qualifying examination in the United States, 

 or in Colonies where qualification is not obtained 

 through affiliation of local universities with the Uni- 

 versitv of Oxford. Altogether, there were in residence 

 at Oxford for some part of the year eighty-five Rhodes 

 scholars, of whom seventy-one were American and 

 fourteen Colonial. Of the seventy-one Americans, the 

 great majority are now serving in the United States 

 Army. For 1917-18 there are at present eight Rhodes 

 scholars in residence— six Colonial and two American. 

 Of the six Colonials, five are medical students; and 

 of these five, two have already seen service. Of the 

 two Americans, one has returned from a year's ambu- 

 lance work on the French front, and is temporarily 

 engaged in Government work in the University chem- 

 ical laboratory, while the other has been rejected, on 

 medical grounds, for military service. In addition, 

 one ex-scholar has returned after three years' military 

 service in France, to complete his medical course. The 

 scholarships set free under the Act of Parliament 

 cancelling the German Rhodes scholarships have been 

 allotted as follows :— One to the Transvaal ; one to 

 the Orange Free State; one to Alberta and Saskatch- 

 ewan (which have hitherto had only one between 

 them) ; and one to Kimberley and Port Elizabeth alter- 

 nately (Kimberlev to select in the first year). Four- 

 teen scholars and ex-scholars have given their lives in 

 the service of the Empire during the year, and others 

 have won manv militar)^ honours. Five scholars were 

 admitted in the vear to read for advanced degrees. 

 The address of the trust is Seymour House, Waterloo 

 Place, London, S.W. i. 



NO. 2529, VOL. lOl] 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Optical Society, April 11. — Prof. F. J. Cheshire, 

 president, in the chair. — J. \V. French : The 

 balsam problem. For cementing optical parts together 

 Canada balsam is almost invariably employed. 

 Although starting or starring of the balsam layer, 

 actual separation of the parts, or deformation of the 

 optical surfaces frequently occurs, there is no appre- 

 ciably better substance known. Optical parts may be 

 combined with an air space between the surfaces, by 

 optical contact with or without sealed edges, by optical 

 welding, or by cementing. The disadvantages of the 

 various methods were enumerated, the loss of light at 

 transmission surfaces being particularly discussed. A 

 considerable number of balsamed specimens of ages 

 varying up to ten years had been opened and photo- 

 micrographs of the balsam layer were exhibited. In 

 all cases there were fluid layers between the harder 

 balsam and the glass surface, and the photographs 

 demonstrated particularly the smallness of the adhesion 

 to the glass. Specimens artificially produced were also 

 exhibited. In many cases the age of the specimen 

 was shown to be deducible from the configuration. 

 So-called granulation of balsam was stated to be due 

 to the action of moisture on the balsam surface. No 

 trace of crystallisation of glass-quality balsam was 

 found in anv of the experiments, but a number of the 

 photographed specimens showed definite right-angled 

 fractures occasionally observed in torn gelatine films. 



P.ARIS. 



Academy of Sciences, March 25.— M. Paul Painlev^ 

 in the chair. — A. de Gramont : The spectrum test for 

 boron. The bands obtained in the Bunsen flame, with 

 or without the addition of hydrochloric or sulphuric 

 acid, are diffuse and insensitive ; the use of the oxy- 

 acetylene flame gives additional bands, but still 

 diffuse. The lines of boron given by the condensed 

 spark are characteristic and more delicate, and the 

 presence of three lines only in the ultra-violet shown 

 by Sir William Crookes is confirmed. The line 

 A = 249782 will just detect i in 100,000 of boron. Appli- 

 cations to metallurgy and mineralogy are given.— 

 C. Dep6ret : An attempt at the chronological co-ordina- 

 tion of quaternary times.— S. Lattis : The repetition 

 of rational fractions.— M. de PulUgny : Some values of 

 the approximate quadrature of the circle.— G. Claude : 

 The industrial preparation of argon. A method of 

 fractional condensation and distillation of air is de- 

 scribed by means of which a mixture is obtained con- 

 tinuously' containing argon 75 to 80 per cent., nitrogen 

 I to 2 per cent., the remainder being oxygen. The 

 oxvgen is readilv removed bv burning with the correct 

 proportion of hydrogen. ^M. Travers : The estimation of 

 tantalum in its allovs with iron. The impure tantalic 

 acid obtained bv the usual method is freed from iron 

 by fusion with caustic potash, and after igniting and 

 weighing the tantalic acid", the silica still remaining 

 is determined bv volatilising the tantalic acid in a 

 current of hvdrochloric acid at 900° C— F. Zambonini : 

 The identi'tv of shattuckite and plancheite.— A 

 Gu^bhard : The notion of " geosynclinal."— A. Polack : 

 Inversion of the Purkinje phenomenon in congenital 

 hemeralopv.— Ch. J. Gravier : A new copepod, Fla- 

 hcllicola neapolUaua. parasite of a polychetal anne- 

 lid, Flabelligera diplochaitos.—L. Binet : The cerebral 

 pulse in emotional states. 



April 2.— M. Paul Painlev6 in the chair.— L. E. 

 Bertin : Obituarv notice on Lord Brassey.— P. Appell : 

 The notion of fixed axes and of absolute movement.— 

 P. Termier : Contributions to the knowledge of the 



