37S 



NATURE 



[January io, 191 8 



A COURSE of nine lectures on " The Practical Appli- 

 cations of the Study of Weather " has been arranged and 

 will be given at the Meteorological Office, by Sir 

 Napier Shaw, on Fridays at 3 p.m., beginning on 

 January 25. Each lecture will be followed by a con- 

 versation class for the discussion of practical details. 

 The fortnightly meetings at the Meteorological Office 

 for the discussion of contributions to current meteoro- 

 logy in colonial or foreign journals will be resumed at 

 5 p.m. on Monday, January 14, and will be continued 

 on alternate Mondays untifMarch 25. Students wish- 

 ing to attend should communicate with Sir Napier 

 Shaw at the Meteorological Office. The lectures are 

 for advanced students and others interested in the sub- 

 ject. Admission is free, by ticket, to be obtained on 

 application at the Meteorological Office, South Ken- 

 sington, S.W.7. 



The University of London has arranged for the 

 second term of the current session a series of public 

 lectures in Imperial studies. A course of ten lectures 

 on some biological problems of to-day will be given 

 at Universitv College, Gower Street, beginning on 

 January 21, at 4 p.m., when Prof. W, M. Bayliss will 

 lecture "on the problem of food. Lectures will be given 

 on future Mondays on other problems by distinguished 

 authorities in biology. At King's College, Strand, and 

 at King's College for Women, nine lectures on animal 

 life and human progress will be given at 5.30 p.m. on 

 the Wednesdays beginning January 30, when Prof. 

 Arthur Dendy will take for his subject " Man's Account 

 with the Lower Animals." In later weeks lectures on 

 other matters of biological importance will be given 

 by other well-known zoologists. Seven public lectures 

 on "The Empire: its Commerce and Commercial Re- 

 quirements," will be delivered at the London School of 

 Economics, beginning at 5 p.m. on January 18, when 

 Sir Alfred D. Hall, K.C.B., will speak on artificial 

 manures. 



The Association of Sc'ence Teachers held its annual 

 business and open meetings in connection with the 

 Education Conference at University College, London, 

 on January 3. At the business meeting a project was 

 discussed for starting branches of the association in 

 various parts of the country, and a committee was 

 elected to draw up a scheme. A resolution was passed, 

 and forwarded to the Headmistresses' Association, 

 urging the necessity for allotting more time to science 

 in girls' schools, and suggesting that physics be made 

 the basic science. The growing tendency to limit the 

 science in girls' schools to little more' than botany 

 was deprecated. At the open meeting, both the address 

 from Prof. Davidge, of the Ordnance College, Wool- 

 wich, and the discussion in the afternoon opened bv 

 Prof. Womack, dealt with physics. Prof .' Davidge 

 described field telephones used 'on the battlefield, and 

 exhibited a visible buzzer similar to one captured from 

 the Germans, which solved the problem of the " ring- 

 off" in the trench exchange. His audience was in- 

 terested in what he had to say of the ignorance of 

 science among men who came to him at the Ordnance 

 College, an ignorance which suggested that the "fairy- 

 tales of science" have not been making a wide appeal. 

 Prof. Womack dealt with the teaching of phvsics in 

 girls' schools. He advocated humanistic treatment; 

 mechanics, which he cogsidered specially important, 

 should not be treated as a mathematical" subject, but 

 experimentally, with direct reference to the environ- 

 ment. In the discussion which followed, the views of 

 Prof. Womack were supported by Miss Lees and other 

 science teachers in girls' schools. 



One serious omission in most recent schemes for 

 educational reform is the absence of any proposal for 

 ascertaining what educational facilities are at present 

 NO. 2515, VOL. 100] 



in existence. Similarly, in Mr. Fisher's Bill the local 

 authorities when preparing schemes of educational 

 organisation are instructed to consult with other local 

 education authorities, but no mention is made of auto- 

 nomous institutions, such as private schools. Yet the 

 various types of private schools and cognate institu- 

 tions provide for a large number of boys and girls, 

 and a recognition of this fact is important for many 

 reasons. Lady Napier Shaw has therefore done good 

 service by directing attention in the December number 

 of the Journal of the British Science Guild to the need 

 for a register of all existing schools. She gives the 

 text of a draft Bill which has been considered by the 

 Guild, intended to secure the formation and mainten- 

 ance of a register of all colleges and schools in Eng- 

 land and Wales, giving particulars of their constitu- 

 tion, staffs, pupils, accommodation, and provision .for 

 recreation. This draft Bill differs from Clause 24 in 

 Mr. Fisher's Bill in that it provides that each educa- 

 tion authority shall compile its own register, which 

 is then to be forwarded to the Board of Education. 

 Further, schools are to be induced to register by the 

 denial to unregistered schools of the right to recover 

 fees from pupils, and by the liability of such pupils 

 to be proceeded against under the Compulsory Educa- 

 tion Act. No one knows at present how many schools 

 there are in England or how many of them are reason- 

 ably efficient, and some such measure as that proposed 

 by Lady Shaw is urgently required. We ought to 

 know the relevant facts before proceeding to take 

 action. 



Our readers will remember that in the summer of 

 19 15 the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, 

 became the possessor of the library and lifelong col- 

 lections of the late F. W. Rudler, who was professor 

 and dean of the college in the years 1876-80, and after- 

 wards became curator of the Museum of Practical 

 Geology, Jermyn Street, London. His library, con- 

 sisting of about 2000 volumes and 4000 pamphlets, has 

 been tabulated and cross-indexed, and his extensive 

 collection of rocks, fossils, etc., carefully labelled. The 

 mineralogical collection has been made available for 

 teaching and demonstration purposes, while the 

 archaeological and other specimens have been added 

 to the college museum. The additions thus made to 

 the college collections, further assisted by the founda- 

 tion of the " F. W. Rudler Geological Research 

 Scholarship," have greatly increased the facilities for 

 research work, particularly in the subiect of geology. 

 M. Jules Bernaerts, the eminent Belgian sculptor (of 

 the Roval Academv of Brussels), has executed a life-size 

 medallion of Prof. Rudler, which has been framed in 

 oak and placed in the wall of the college quadrangle, 

 and below it a brass tablet bearin^^ the inscription : — 

 "In memory of F. W. Rudler, I.S.O., F.G.S., 1840- 

 IQ15. Professor in this College 1876-80, and Founder 

 of the College Museum," has been affixed to a' polished 

 slab of Welsh marble specially cut for the purpose from 

 the Narberth Quarries, Pembrokeshire. Prof. Rudler's 

 numerous friends and all concerned in the welfare of 

 the college will be pleased to know that the collec- 

 tions which he formed with so much abilitv have thus 

 been rnade available for the furtherance of those studies 

 in which he was so deeplv interested, and to which he 

 devoted the labours of a lifetime. 



At the annual meeting of the Geographical Associa- 

 tion the president. Sir W. M. Ramsay, gave an address , 

 entitled "The Great Goddess Mother Earth," and as' 

 arising out of it various speakers from the Classical 

 and Geographical Associations urged the closer co- 

 operation of these mutuallv complementary lines of 

 teaching and research. It is honed that the classical 

 geographers will be studied afresh, and that new in- 



