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NATURE 



[June 13, 1918 



diate cause of the decline which has again set in is 

 to be looked for in the war, though, as the report 

 points out, the end of the war cannot of itself be 

 expected to remedy the evil. A specially serious 

 feature of the present situation is that the progressive 

 decline now going on comes at the end of a series of 

 years, during which the number of entrants has been 

 altogether insufficient for the needs of the country. 

 The report states emphatically that there is no hope 

 of meeting this shortage except by a substantial in- 

 crease in the salaries of adult teachers and by a general 

 improvement in the prospects of the teaching profes- 

 sion. There is little hope at present of securing an 

 increase in the length of the school-life of elementary- 

 school pupils or of reducing the size of classes — two 

 measures of crying importance — because both improve- 

 ments depend upon an increased supply of teachers. 



An interesting and suggestive address on "A Lon- 

 doner's Opportunity in Commerce," under the auspices 

 of the Education Committee of the London County 

 Council, was recently delivered in the Kingsway Hall 

 to the students of the educational institutions in 

 London by the Minister of Labour, the Rt. .Hon. 

 G. H. Roberts. The address dealt with the much- 

 increased facilities now offered in London for the due 

 education and training of those engaged in commerce, 

 and it appeared that there were now in attendance as 

 many as 100,000 students in fifty-nine senior and 

 ninety-eight junior institutes. The Minister pleaded 

 that full opportunity of a generous education based 

 upon liberal lines should be available for all the 

 children of the nation. Talent was widely diffused, 

 and was centred in no particular stratum of society. 

 The future abides with those peoples whose standard 

 of education, both technical and moral, is of the 

 highest order. The State must devise some means 

 of ensuring that no child is wasted. Scientific train- 

 ing, not only vocational, but to fit the child for his 

 full duties as a citizen, ' was indispensable if the 

 nation is to be in a position to meet successfully the 

 crucial problems and the severe competition which will 

 inevitably arise at the close of the war. There must 

 be a closer union and identification of interests be- 

 tween employer and employed and of Government 

 departments concerned with the problems of labour 

 and education, since the one reacts upon the other. 

 If this be ensured, along with the diffusion of educa- 

 tion amongst all classes of the community, the future 

 of the country will give no cause for anxiety, since 

 the British people, with their great traditions, and 

 keen to exercise their great qualities, need not fear 

 the rivalrv of any existing race in the world. Out of 

 the horrible evil which the war has brought in its 

 train some good has at least arisen, since it has 

 awakened our people to the value of education and 

 to the necessity for measures to give it full and fruit- 

 ful effect. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, May 30.— Sir J. J. Thomson, presi- 

 dent, in the chair.— Prof. J. Joly : Method of avoid- 

 ing collision at sea. The method of avoiding, collision 

 at sea now proposed involves the determination of 

 distance between ship and ship at regulated intervals 

 by means of synchronised signals (preferably wireless 

 and submarine). The principle involved is that ships 

 which are advancing so as to collide approach one 

 another with constant velocity, i.e. the relative velocity 

 is constant. If they are going to pass clear the rela- 

 tive velocity is not constant, diminishing to nothing 

 when the vessels are at the passing distance, and then 

 NO. 2537, VOL. lOl] 



changing sign. The paper embodies tables and curves 

 showing the variations of relative velocity for different 

 passing distances. Assuming that a quarter of a sea- 

 mile is distinguishable by the use of synchronised 

 signals, the method appears to be certainly available 

 for a passing distance of half a mile. Mechanical aids 

 towards increasing the trustworthiness of observafions 

 and facilitating them are described. The advantages 

 of the method are chiefly that it involves no special 

 inter-communication between ship and ship (other than 

 the regulated synchronised signal supposed to be 

 emitted by all vessels navigating in fog or thick 

 weather), and that the distance separating the vessels 

 is necessarily kept under observation throughout. — 

 Dr. R. A. Houston : A statistical survey of colour 

 vision. The colour vision of seventy-nine students 

 was tested by the method of Dr. Ed ridge-Green's 

 colour-perception spectrometer. Three of the seventy- 

 nine were found to be colour-blind. The number of 

 observers containing a given number of patches was 

 plotted against the latter, and a frequency curve 

 obtained. If the Young-Helmholtz theory is true, this 

 cuive should have two maxima, one for normal colour 

 vision and one for dichromatism. The results show, 

 however, that normal colour vision has quite enough 

 "scatter" to explain colour blindness as an outlying 

 portion of itself, and that it is not necessary to assume 

 the existence of a separate maximum. Various points 

 of interest in connection with the observations are 

 discussed, and it is suggested that a more extensive 

 survey made on similar lines at different places might 

 settle definitely once for all the vexed question of 

 colour-vision theory. — Dr. A. E. Everest : The pro- 

 duction of anthocyanins and anthocyanidins. Partiii. 

 The paper is a continution of the author's previous 

 work, and deals with the mode of formation, in 

 Nature, of the anthocyanin pigments. Available data 

 concerning the co-existence of anthocvans and flavonol 

 derivatives are discussed, and preliminary experiments 

 with a view to the elucidation of the manner in which 

 the anthocyanin pigments are formed in plants are 

 described. For the first time direct chemical evidence 

 is recorded which supports the prevailing view that 

 the anthocyanin pigments are produced in Nature via 

 flavonol derivatives, it being shown, with a very con- 

 siderable degree of certainty, that in the flowers 

 examined (purple-black viola) the anthocvanin pig- 

 ment exists side by side with a glucoside of the 

 flavonol derivative, from which the anthocyan would 

 be produced bv reduction. The isolation, from the 

 purple-black viola. (Sutton's 'Black Knight") of n 

 pigment identical with Willstatter's violanin, and 

 experiments to show the presence of a myricetin 

 glucoside in the same flower, are described. 



Physical Society, Mav 10.— Prof. C. H. Lees, presi- 

 dent, in the chair.- — Dr. S. Chapman : The times of 

 sudden commencement of magnetic storms. The paper 

 is a discussion from a new view-point of the data, 

 collected by Dr. Bauer, for fifteen magnetic storms. 

 Maunder's work on the recurrence of magnetic storms 

 at intervals equal to the rotation period of the sun 

 suggests that storms are due to some solar agent trans- 

 mitted along narrow, well-defined streams issuing from 

 and rotating with the sun. This suggests the view 

 that the relative time of commencement of a storm 

 at different stations depends mainly on the orientation 

 of the latter at the time relative to the sun, i.e. on 

 the local time at the station. This forms the basis 

 of the classification in the paper.- — Dr. H. S. Allen : 

 The entropy of a metal. An expression for the entropy 

 of one gram atom of a substance in the solid state 

 has been given bv Ratnowsky. In a communication 

 to the Phvsical Societv in iqi6 the author gave the 

 correct form of the approximation required for high 



