98 



NATURE 



[November 8, 19 17 



studied so thoroughly as in Drosophila, and no other 

 t)ody of men have been more tlioroughgoing upholders 

 of mutationism and of the multiple factor explanation 

 of the effects of selection than the students of Droso- 

 phila — Morgan and the others. We may therefore 

 turn to tfie evidence from Drosophila with confidence 

 that it will be presented with fairness to the muta- 

 tionist point of view. We shall first ask (i) what we 

 learn from the work on Drosophila as to the possi- 

 bility of finding finely graded variations in a single 

 unit character. Next w:e shall inquire (2) as to the 

 relation of the assumed modifying factors to changes 

 in hereditary constitution ; to the nature of the effects 

 ■of selection. 



(Jo be continued.) 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge.— Mr. F. C. Bartlett and Mr. G. M. 

 Bennett have been elected to fellowships at St. John's 

 College. Mr. Bartlett, who was placed in the first 

 class in the Moral Sciences Tripos, 1914, is assistant 

 in experimental psychology, and is acting as interim 

 director of the psychological laboratory during the 

 absence of the director. Mr. Bennett was placed in 

 the first class of the Natural Sciences Tripos, both 

 in Part I. in 1914 and in Part II. (chemistry) in 1915. 



Leeds. — The University has received with great 

 regret the resignation by Prof. A. S. Leyton of the 

 chair of pathology and bacteriology in the University. 

 In accepting this resignation, the University Council 

 has taken the opportunity of recording its high appre- 

 ciation of the valuable services which Prof. Leyton 

 rendered to the University during his tenure of the 

 ■chair. 



A COURSE of eight lectures on the philosophy of 

 mathematics is being given this term by the jion. 

 Bertrand Russell at Dr. Williams's Library, Gordon 

 Square, W.C.i. The lectures (of which the first was 

 delivered on Tuesday, October 30) are given on Tues- 

 days at 5 p.m. The present course, which deals with 

 the theory of order, cardinal numbers, and formal 

 deduction, will probably be followed after Christmas 

 by one on the philosophy of the proposition. Applica- 

 tions for tickets should be made to Miss D. Wrinch, 

 Girton College, Cambridge. 



The recently established Department of Technical 

 Optics of the Imperial College at South Kensington 

 has now begun its work. It will be remembered that 

 on the initiative of the London County Council a 

 general scheme for providing instruction in this highly 

 important national work was agreed upon by the several 

 parties concerned in the earlv part of the vear when 

 an Advisory Committee to the County Council repre- 

 sentative of the trade, the workers, and other interests 

 concerned was appointed, under the chairmanship of 

 the Rt. Hon. A. H. Dyke Acland. An important part 

 of the scheme was the establishment of the above 

 department, which is administered under the governors 

 of the college by the same committee. In June Prof. 

 F. J. Cheshire was appointed director of the new- 

 department; in July Prof. A. F. Conrady was ap- 

 pointed to the chair of optical design, and other subor- 

 dinate appointments are in hand. During the summer 

 two courses of lectures were given on the designing 

 and computing of telescope systems, and attended by 

 sixty-six students, of whom forty-two came direct from 

 the workshop— a gratifying indication of the recogni- 

 tion by the manufacturers of the importance of this 

 work. About twelve of these were men of academic 

 distinction. The Ministry of Munitions, the National 

 Physical Laboratory, the Royal Observatory, and 

 Woolwich Arsenal were well represented. This session 



NO. 2506, VOL. 100] 



well-attended courses are being given in optical design- 

 ing and computing, practical optical cornputing, the 

 construction, theory, and use of optical measuring in- 

 struments, theory of the microscope, and microscope 

 technique. Every effort is thus being made to meet 

 the more immediately urgent demands arising in con- 

 nection with the war. A complete curriculum for 

 optical students will be introduced as soon as the 

 exigencies of the time permit. 



The current issue of the Quarterly Review includes 

 two contributions on educational subjects. One, by Mr. 

 Edward Porritt, not only reviews the condition of agri- 

 cultural education in the United States, but also pro- 

 vides an interesting historical survey of the steps taken 

 to bring the work of the Department of Agriculture 

 to its present high degree of efficiency. The Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture at Washington has been a depart- 

 ment of first rank in the executive branch of the 

 Government of the United States — a department pre- 

 sided over by a Cabinet Minister — since 1889. In the 

 fiscal year 1916-17 approximately 6,8oo,oooi. was being 

 expended by the U.S. Government on the department, 

 on the agricultural colleges and experiment stations, 

 and on extension work, the object of all these branches 

 of the work being to improve all departments of farm 

 economy, to ameliorate conditions on the farms and in 

 the farm homes, and thereby to retain in rural pur- 

 suits the men, women, and children who are now on 

 the six million farms of the United States. Mr. 

 J. E. G. de Montmorency writes on national educa- 

 tion and national life, and shows in a convincing 

 manner that much useful guidance can be obtained 

 from history in considering current suggestions for 

 educational reform. One of our earliest historical docu- 

 ments, he tells us, for example, is an edict of the 

 Emperor Gratian regulating the salaries of teachers. 

 The proposals of Mr. Fisher's Education Bill are 

 examined in the light of the- experience of 

 previous centuries, and after his criticisms Mr. 

 de Montmorency comes to the conclusion :■ — 

 "It would be a sad thing if a great scheme 

 of educational reconstruction, which at last brings to 

 the doors of the people the larger hope that is essential 

 to a great democracy, were to fail because, in a com- 

 paratively small matter of money, the Government 

 lacked that courage which is needful for the conduct 

 of peace as it is for the prosecution of war." 



On October 18 the President of the Board of Educa- 

 tion received an influential deputation t-epresentative 

 of the North-East Coast Institution of Engineers and 

 Shipbuilders and other technical societies and educa- 

 tional interests in the same district. It will be re- 

 membered (Nature, August 23, vol. xcix., p. 519) that 

 this institution has elaborated an excellent scheme for 

 the training of apprentices, and the object of the depu- 

 tation, which was headed by the Duke of Northumber- 

 land, was to lay before Mr. Fisher its reasoned 

 opinion regarding the organisation of junior day 

 technical schools. The most suitable school for the 

 prospective engineer is of this type, and the institution 

 has already demanded that adequate provision of these 

 schools should be made in the North-East Coast area, 

 which has about 14,000 marine engineering and ship- 

 building apprentices, and that these schools should be 

 regarded as in no sense inferior to secondary schools., 

 Mr. Rowell referred in detail to the Board's regula- 

 tions for junior day technical schools, and expressed 

 the view that the declaration in the regulations that 

 they were " not intended to promote the establishment 

 of courses planned to furnish a preparation for the 

 professions, the universities, or higher full-time tech- 

 nical work " was open to grave exception, as viewing 

 the work of such a school as lying within a blind-alley. 

 The point was, surely, one of spirit rather than of 

 administration, for he could not imagine that the 



