June 13, 1918] 



NATURE 



-97 



to fatigue has been brought to my notice^ According 

 lo Ferree's observations, either a yellow or a blue tint 

 is more fatiguing than a white light. The difficulty 

 of a satisfactory test for fatigue of the visual 

 mechanism arises here, and we have to deal with a 

 very complicated set of factors. Many of the tests 

 used "Seem to indicate muscular fatigue either of the 

 'Xtrinsic eye muscles or of the mechanism of accom- 

 modation. Moreover, the large question of general 

 fatigue is involved. Tests such as those used by Dr. 

 Stanley Kent would give valuable information as to 

 the effects of various systems of illumination, and 

 . especially as to what are to be regarded as defective. 

 i It may be pointed out that the present conditions are 

 t unusually favourable to investigations of this kind in 

 factories under Government control. An equally im- 

 portant series of questions has been raised by Mr. 

 Gaster, namely, the effect on school children with 

 , normal and with imperfect vision of working in 

 I adequate light. Data on all these points would be of 

 great value. 



Whatever may be the precise results obtained from 

 such investigations, there can be no doubt that children 

 should not be compelled to do their home-work in bad 

 lighting conditions, however necessary it may be to 

 effect a saving in the consumption of gas and electric 

 current. A more widely spread diffusion of information 

 as to ways in which saving may be effected without 

 injurious results is much to be desired. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 Cambridge. — A memorandum emphasising the 

 urgency of making formal provision for the en- 

 couragement of the study of geodesy and geodynamics 

 in the University, and recommending the early estab- 

 lishment of a readership in these subjects if a suit- 

 able endowment can be obtained, has been submitted 

 by the .Special Board for Mathematics to the General 

 Board -of Studies. The latter has reported that it 

 fully concurs in the importance of the early estab- 

 lishment, of such a readership. In its memorandum 

 the Special Board gives reasons why special provision 

 and formal recognition for geodesy and geodynamics 

 is particularly called for at the present time in the 

 University. The progiess on the theoretical side of 

 the science of the figure of the earth has been pro- 

 moted in the past very largely by investigators be- 

 longing to Cambridge in connection with the scientific 

 problems presented both by the British and by the 

 Indian Surveys, trigonometrical and gravitational. 

 More recently the interconnection of the Surveys of 

 different nations has made the subject an international 

 one, and for the last twenty years the headquarters 

 of the International Geodetic Association, supported 

 by subventions from the various Governments, has 

 been at Potsdam. Reconstruction is called for in the 

 near future, and this country ought to be in & position 

 to resume a large share in the direction. The estab- 

 lishment of a British Imperial Geodetic Institute, with 

 State endowment, is now being urged bv responsible 

 scientific bodies, and some institution of the kind will 

 be necessary. Whatever arrangements may be made 

 on the technical and administrative side, the theoretical 

 side, which is the foundation of ali progress, is a 

 subject of pure mathematical and dynamical science, 

 and can best be advanced by the universities. In 

 order for Cambridiye to retain' her historical position 

 in the advance of this important science, and to take 

 part in the training of the men who will be required 

 for its prosecution, some special provision and formal 

 recognition for the subject are called "Tor under modern 

 conditions. 



NO. 2537, VOL. .101] 



Oxford. — On June 8 a numerous company as- 

 sembled in tTie Sheldonian Theatre to hear Mr. Asquith 

 deliver his Romanes lecture on the Victorian age. 

 The chair was occupied by Lord Curzon of Kedleston, 

 Chancellor of the University, who took occasion to 

 denounce "the gross and gratuitous defamation of the 

 character of our public men." Mr. Asquith, after 

 speaking of the financial and commercial activity 

 which formed one of the chief characteristics of the 

 Victorian age, and the prominence of the novel among 

 the literary productions of the time, went on to offer 

 a brief appreciation of the most famous names in the 

 period under review. Towards the end of his dis- 

 course he touched upon the great scientific movements 

 initiated by Victorian chemists, physicists, and bio- 

 logists, selecting for special mention Faraday, Kelvin, 

 and Darwin. Disclaiming all qualification to speak 

 as an expert, or to hold the balance between anta- 

 gonistic views as to the method of evolution, he 

 nevertheless paid tribute to the spirit of single-minded 

 investigation manifested by Darwin and to the un- 

 selfish and generous manner in which Wallace had 

 minimised his own merits as a co-discoverer with 

 Darwin of the principle of natural selection. The 

 celebrated retort by Huxley upon the ill-judged attack 

 of Bishop Wilberforce was once more related before 

 an Oxford audience, and Mr. Asquith ended by 

 declaring his own conviction that, whatever man's 

 physical pedigree, he had reached a stage in develop- 

 ment which raised him into an essentially different 

 categorv from that of other living beings, and en- 

 dowed him with qualities which could only be appre- 

 ciated and expressed by "the poet who had 'he gift 

 of vision." 



On June ii, the anniversary of the burial of Roger 

 Bacon within the precincts of the Grey Friars at 

 Oxford, the first visitation took place of the memorial 

 tablet which was affixed to the city wall in October, 

 1917. 



Mr. p. L. Bernstein, of the Municipal College of 

 Technology, Manchester, has been appointed lecturer 

 in electrical engineering at the Hull Technical 

 College. 



A HOLIDAY course in psychology, arranged for 

 teachers and others, is to be held at Bedford College 

 for Women, Regent's Park, from August i to 10 

 inclusive. It will include lectures on psychological 

 topics, and afford opportunities for individual labora- 

 tory work. Particulars are obtainable from the 

 Ptincipal of the College. 



Tvyo Chadwick public lectures on "Our Fisheries 

 and the Food Supply " will be delivered in London by 

 Prof. D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson on June 21 and 

 28, at 5 p.m. The first lecture, on "The Catch by 

 Line and Trawl," will be given at the Mansion House, 

 and the second, on 'The Catch by Net, or the Great 

 Herring. Fishery," at the Surveyors' Institution, West- 

 minster. Admission will be free. Further particulars 

 of these and other Chadwick public lectures may be 

 obtained of the Secretary at the offices of the Trust, 

 40 (6th) Queen Anne's Chambers, Westminster. 



The serious shortage in the supply of teachers for 

 elementary schools is again dealt with in the Report of 

 the Board of Education for the j'ear 1916-17 (Cd. 

 9045), which is now available. The total number of 

 boys and girls beginning in 1917 to train for the career 

 of teaching was 6158, as compared with 6544 in 19 16, 

 and 9614 in 1908. From 1908 there was a steady 

 decline down to 1912 in the number of entrants, when 

 it had fallen to 5232. This was followed by a period 

 of recovery, the number reaching 7047 in X915, since 

 which date it has steadily fallen again. The imme- 



