October 25, 1917] 



NATURE 



159 



building and equipment of new departments for coal- 

 tar colour chemistry and for dyeing ; the addition to the 

 textile department ot new sections for (i) carding and 

 spinning, and (2) cloth finishing, providing at the same 

 time improved facilities for weaving and testing, along 

 with a textile museum ; the extension of the depart- 

 ments of mechanical and electrical engineering, espe- 

 cially as regards facilities for practical and experimental 

 work. Space would thus become available for neces- 

 sary extensions in other departments. To carry 

 through these proposals it is estimated that a sum of 

 85,000/. will be required. The Technical College 

 should then be in a position to deal adequately with the 

 varied educational needs of the leading industries of 

 the district, both for advanced teaching and for re- 

 search. The principal donations promised to date 

 are: — British Dyes, Ltd., 5000L ; Sir J. F. Ramsden, 

 Bart., 30ooi. ; Mr. J. A. Brooke, loooL ; Mr. J. E. 

 Crowther, loooL ;- Messrs. Simon-Carves, Ltd., loooi. ; 

 Messrs. Walter Sykes, Ltd., loooL Furthermore, the 

 Huddersfield engineers have undertaken to provide the 

 complete equipment of the new engineering section. 



Last February, by the passing of the Smith-Hughes 

 Act, the United States embarked on a national scheme 

 of State-aided vocational education. We learn from 

 the Scientific American of August 25 that the Act is 

 similar in its features to the Agricultural Extension Act 

 of 1914. There is the same provision for increasing 

 grants, beginning with 340,000/. in 1917, and rising to 

 1,440,000/. in 1925. The available money will be dis- 

 tributed among all States which agree to contribute 

 sums equal to their share of the grants and to conform 

 to the terms of the Act. The grant provides for the 

 creation of three distinct funds, viz. for paying salaries 

 of teachers, supervisors, or directors of agricultural sub- 

 jects ; for paying the salaries of teacher^f trade, home 

 economics, and industrial subjects ; and for training 

 the teachers and other educational workers concerned. 

 The Act creates a Federal Board for Vocational Educa- 

 tion, consisting of the Secretaries of Agriculture, Com- 

 merce, and Labour, the U.S. Commissioner of Educa- 

 tion, and three other members, to be appointed by the 

 President, of whom one is to represent manufacturing 

 and commercial interests, one agricultural interests, and 

 one labour interests. The board, besides administering 

 the Act, will carry out investigations relating to voca- 

 tional education, co-operating with the Departments of 

 Agriculture and Commerce and the Bureau of Educa- 

 tion. There has been some fear in the United States 

 that the spread of vocational training may disturb the 

 principle of compulsory general education But every 

 boy and girl will be required to get the same minimum 

 amount of " book learning " as at present, and those 

 who, under conditions now prevailing, would, enter the 

 trades and industries as unskilled labourers will, for 

 the future, receive specialised training that will enable 

 them to command higher w^ges and make them more 

 useful members of society. 



The address delivered to the members of the United 

 Tanners' Federation at the Leather Sellers' Hall, Lon- 

 don, on July 17 last by Dr. Sadler, the Vice-Chgncellor 

 of the University of Leeds, deserves the serious con- 

 sideration not only of the protagonists on classical 

 versus scientific education, but also of all who are 

 engaged in industries in which science is a prime 

 factor. It puts with force and precision the necessity 

 of an all-round general education in which science, 

 broadly conceived, shall take its due place in the e^yca- 

 tion of all classes of the people, and especially that it 

 shall be made " a stimulating and energetic force in the 

 education of every boy and girl in our secondary 

 schools." and that whilst not claiming that science, as 

 ordinarily understood, should have the last word in 

 NO. 2504, VOL. 100] 



settling our view of life, yet that it should be a power- 

 ful ingredient in the intellectual ferment which deter- 

 mines the final judgment. It insists that technical 

 education must be preceded by a good general educa- 

 tion, and that it "' should include three elements — 

 scientific discipline, a study of processes of manufac- 

 ture, and the study of the relationships, moral and 

 economic, which should be established between the em- 

 ployer and his subordinates and between the industry 

 and the community as a whole." In short, the address 

 conceives the possibility of such a training being itself 

 the core of a liberal education. The importance of 

 scientific research and of a much closer relationship 

 between the industries and the scientific resources of 

 the universities is strongly stressed. "The gulf be- 

 tween the practical man and the scientific investigator 

 is not yet bridged. To span it will be a costly busi- 

 ness." In no country is there need for a more intimate 

 union, for the solution of the grave industrial and 

 social problems which beset us, between those prac-. 

 tically engaged therein and the patient, scientific inves- 

 tigator. We are "rich in shrewd experience, but almost 

 barbarous," says Dr. Sadler, in our "conception of 

 the service that science can render to practice." 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, October 8.— M. Camille Jordan 

 in the chair. — E. Branly : The electrical conductivity 

 of mica. A detailed account of experiments proving 

 the conductivity of mica in thin sheets (0-003 mm-) 

 when under the electromotive force of a single thermo- 

 element (0004 volt). A special method of testing the 

 mica sheets for holes is described.— G. A. Boulenger : 

 Considerations on the Permo-Triassic reptiles of the 

 order of the Cotylosaurians. — W. H. Young : The 

 theory of trigonometrical series. — M. Guillemiaot : 

 Dosimetry and X-rac^io-therapy in the services of the 

 Army. — G. Sizes : The Pythagorean scale from the 

 point of view of musical acoustics. — M. Guiilery : The 

 Brinell hardness test of metals. For this test it is 

 necessary that the conditions, size of ball, total pres- 

 sure, and duration of the pressure should be rigorously 

 defined. The last condition, not fewer than five 

 minutes, is practically impossible under works condi- 

 tions where some 10,000 tests a day have to be carried 

 out. The author has worked out a method by means 

 of which the time is reduced from five minutes to two 

 seconds, the imprint being the same as if working' 

 under the standard conditions. This is secured by 

 working with an excess pressure above the standard 

 3000 kg., and a machine is figured and described by 

 means of which the desired pressure is automatically 

 realised; 600 tests per hour can be made with one 

 machine, and data are given proving the accuracy of 

 the results to be within one per cent, of the Brinell 

 standard. — L. F. Navarro : The Flyde peak and Cafiadas 

 cirque of Teneriffe. — R. Anthony : The primitive em- 

 bryonic circulation of the Teleostean fishes ; study of 

 the embrvo of Gasterosteus gymnuriis.- — E. Bondage : 

 The transformation phenomena of larval tissues in 

 reserve tissues observed during the metamorphosed of 

 insects. — MM. Baudisson and A. Marie : The spondylo- 

 therapy of asthenic and post-traumatic vasomotor or 

 commotional troubles. 



Cape Town. 

 Roval Society of South Africa, August 15. — Dr. L. 

 Crawford in the chair. — Sir Thomas Muir : Note 

 on the resolvability of the minors of a com- 

 pound determinant. — J. Moir : Colour and chem- 

 ical constitution (part ii.) : the spectra of the 

 mixed phthaleins and of the sulphonephthaleins. 



