256 



NATURE 



[November 29, 191 



times of peace in the future. Inevitably connected 

 with the present distribution of gas as fuel, the chief 

 ' i-esidual, coke, though not valued as it deserves to be, 

 is a useful smokeless fuel, and can be converted into 

 water-gas, and so made use of as a fuel. Ammonia, 

 when fixed by the acid from our sulphur, is of great 

 value as a fertiliser, and is wanted everywhere for the 

 land. Tar yields chiefly pitch, which is also a fiiel, 

 but is needed for the repair of our roads. It is also 

 the parent of many useful by-products. In the past 

 it has been almost a drug in the market, chiefly, it 

 is feared, through our own supineness in allowing the 

 recovery processes largely to leave this country, 

 although the country itself is a large buyer of most 

 of the developed products. The sub-products can, for 

 simplicity, be shortly grouped as follows :■ — There are 

 ten products which, by their energetic combustion, are 

 capable of explosion for war or motor fuel ; there are 

 nineteen various colour dyes of great brilliancy ; there 

 are nine drugs and antiseptics, among which are sac- 

 charine and aspirin ; there are eight perfumes and 

 flavourings; there are ten salts of ammonia and 

 cyanogen, and one sulphur for acid-making and fixing 

 ammonia and cyanogen ; altogether fifty-seven, and 

 these may be brought out by further permutations into 

 an almost endless number of interesting and prob- 

 ably, in the future, most valuable products. For war 

 purposes the first ten products and the last eleven are 

 especially useful ; but I must not tell you how or why, 

 at any rate at present. 



Most of these products, such as the drugs and dyes, 

 have sprung into unexpected importance lately, owing 

 to the limitation of imports due to the war. Their 

 manufacture previously had been very largely appro- 

 priated by the Germans, who bought the raw products 

 extensively in this country. Now, more wisely, the 

 larger gas undertakings and newly formed British com- 

 panies are. increasing their production at home. 



When the full value of these products is realised 

 under peace conditions steps must be taken to prevent 

 — as has long been done in Germany — the inevitable 

 loss of these values where raw coal is burned to de- 

 struction, as in ordinary grates and furnaces under 

 steam boilers. To this end there are important in- 

 quiries going on into the question of the conservation 

 of coal as a national asset. 



With regard to the general question of the destruc- 

 tion of 'fuel and of meeting other general needs, con- 

 sidering the now universal demand for gas and coke 

 fuel, pitch for roads, benzol for motor transport, and 

 ammonia for the land, to say nothing of the lesser 

 products, it is surely wise to distribute their production 

 where the population exists, and it is clear that the 

 existing supply of gas, as at present arranged, lends 

 itself to that distribution, as the population lies around 

 the works. This will be true also, in a less degree, 

 of even scattered rural populations, as they eagerly 

 avail themselves of gas as a fuel, the distribution of 

 coal being difficult and expensive in such small quan- 

 tities. Through the extended use of gas already a 

 very large amount of coal has been displaced for 

 domestic and trade use, to the great improvement of 

 the atmosphere and to the cleanliness of buildings. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 London. — The following doctorates have been con- 

 ferred : — D.Sc. in Chemistry: Mr. W. H. Gibson, an 

 internal student, of University College, for a thesis 

 entitled "The Products of Nitration of Toluene." 

 D.Sc. in Geology: Mr. C. B. Horwood, an external 

 student, .for a thesis entitled "The Gold Deposits of 

 the Rand," and other papers. D.Sc. in Physiology : 

 Dr. N. C. Lake, an external student, for a thesis 



NO. 2509, VOL. 100] 



entitled " Report upon an Investigation into the Effects 

 of Cold upon the Body," and other papers. 



By his will the late Dr. Archibald Carmichael, who 

 died in . February of last year, has bequeathed the 

 residue of his estate, subject to certain life-rents, to 

 the University of Aberdeen. The value of the residue 

 is estimated at about i2,oooi., and the incom^ thereof 

 may be applied " for the advancement of the work of 

 the medical side of the said University in such manner 

 and subject to such regulations as the Senatus 

 Academicus of the same University may from time 

 to time determine and think fit." The late Dr. Car- 

 michael was a graduate of Aberdeen University. 



The Bureau of Education, India, has issued the 

 seventh of its " Occasional Reports." It deals with 

 the methods of school inspection in England, and is 

 by Mr. H. G. Wyatt, inspector of schools in the Rawal- 

 pindi Division. There is much in the volume which 

 will be of practical value in India, where the historv 

 of school instruction and of inspection has passed 

 through phases similar to those in England. The re- 

 spective functions of general and specialist inspectors 

 are explained with considerable clearness, and the 

 author points out that in India, where specialists are 

 already being employed for certain subjects, such as 

 science and handicraft, the chief lessons from the 

 English experience are that the specialist should keep 

 in close contact with the general territorial inspector 

 and consult him in formulating his general recom- 

 mendations ; that he should see something of the 

 general work of the school, and not confine his atten- 

 tion .to his special subject. In the particular case of 

 the inspection of secondary schools, Mr. W^att urges 

 that the danger of specialist inspections is that they 

 tend to disregard the aims and character of the school 

 as a school, and consider it too much as an aggregate 

 of classrooms. It is satisfactory to find that India 

 has witnessed a revulsion from "grind" and from 

 examination, and that inspection has ceased exclusively 

 to regard the pupil and the results of instruction, and 

 has tended to focus rather on the class and the 

 teacher's methods. 



A COPY has been received of an essay by Mr. Fletcher 

 Durell on the "Reform of the Princeton University 

 Curriculum," which was awarded the Philip Le Bou- 

 tillier prize in February, 1916. Among other subjects 

 discussed is the function of a college. The view gener- 

 ally held, the essay maintains, is that it is the principal 

 aim of the secondary school to train the mind, so that 

 it shall be a good working machine; that the leading 

 function of the college is to have the pupil use his 

 mind after it is thus trained so as to obtain a general 

 world view ; and that it is the essential aim of univer- 

 sity education, or of other training subsequent to col- 

 lege work, to master some specialty or life-calling. In 

 other words, after the school has laid the foundation, 

 the college is to teach something about everything, 

 and the university everything about something. But 

 the functions of these three periods of education must 

 overlap. During the secondary-school stage the pupil 

 should assimilate large stores of varied information ; 

 at college the development of thought-power should 

 continue, and as comprehensive a grasp as possible of 

 the world's affairs should be secured. The American 

 elective system of deciding a student's course of work 

 is examined, and the treatment of the problem at 

 Princeton University explained. The essay then sug- 

 gests that to assist students in the choice of a faculty 

 each department should work out a concise statement 

 of the vital principles and most representative facts in 

 Its domain, and that in drawing up these statements 

 attention should be directed to the efficiency or value 

 aspects of the principles and facts. Princeton should, 



