February 7, 19 18] 



NATURE 



45; 



must give notice of the subject selected to the registrar 

 of the University not later than March i. They may 

 submit to the examiners any original work previously 

 done by them. 



The Committee for Anthropology reports that nine 

 fresh students entered their names on the register 

 during 1917, as against eight in 1916. Miss M. Czap- 

 licka has delivered a course of lectures on ethnology, 

 with special reference to her Siberian researches. She 

 has been assisted in the preparation of the scientific 

 results of her expedition by a grant from the com- 

 mittee. Lady Tvlor has offered the valuable scientific 

 library of the late Prof. Sir E. B. Tylor to the Rad- 

 clifTe Library on condition that such books as are not 

 needed to supplement that collection shall be placed at 

 the disposal of the Committee for Anthropology. 



The Department of Agriculture and Technical In- 

 struction for Ireland has issued the time-table of tech- 

 nical-school examinations which it will hold on various 

 dates during May next.* The Department's scheme of 

 technical-school examinations is designed to follow 

 courses of instruction extending over four years in the 

 following branches of technical knowledge: — Com- 

 merce, building trades, applied chemistry, electrical en- 

 gineering, mechanical engineering, domestic economy, 

 and art. There are, in general, two examinations in 

 each course in each of the four years, and the examina- 

 tions in each course must be taken in a prescribed order. 



It was agreed in the House of Commons on Febru- 

 ary I, in a discussion of the Lords' amendments to the 

 Representation of the People Bill, that the University 

 of Wales should be separately represented in Parlia- 

 ment. When the Bill was in the House of Lords, 

 Lord Peel, the spokesman for the Government, accepted 

 an amendment to give to the University of Wales, 

 instead of l^eing one of a group of universities return- 

 ing two members, a merhber to itself, and he appealed 

 to the Home Secretary to assent to this being done. 

 The request made on behalf of the University has now 

 been granted. The position of university representa- 

 tion is, therefore, that Oxford and" Cambridge 

 retain two members each ; London has one ; Wales 

 one ; a single constituency is formed by the group com- 

 posed of Durham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Shef- 

 field, Birmingham, and Bristol, and the Scottish uni- 

 versities form one constituency returning three mem- 

 bers. 



The report on the work of the Department of Tech- 

 nology of the City and Guilds of London Institute for 

 the session 1916^17 has now been published by Mr. 

 John Murray at the price of 6d. net. The total num- 

 ber of candidates examined in technology in the United 

 Kingdom in 1917 was exactly 1000 fewer than in 19 16, 

 viz. 7508 as against 8508. The candidates entering 

 for examinations in England and Wales in 19 17 num- 

 bered 85 per cent, of those in the preceding year, and 

 in Scotland 915 per cent. In Ireland, on the contrary, 

 there was an increase of 25 per cent, on the figures for 

 1916. In spite of this general decrease in Great Britain 

 there was an appreciable increase in the number of 

 students attending classes in certain chemical subjects, 

 such as alkali manufacture, coal-tar distillation, 

 painters' oils and colours, oils and fats, cotton dyeing, 

 leather dyeing, and dressing of skins. .Xfter a con- 

 sideration of the proposed new regulations issued by 

 the Board of Education for continuation, technical, and 

 art courses in England and Wales, the Technology 

 Committee of the institute contemplates no change in 

 its svstem of examinations, which is to be 

 continued on the same lines as heretofore. The 

 programme of the current session's -work in- 

 cludes no new subjects of examination, but a special 



NO. 2519, VOL. 100] 



vivd, voce and practical examination is announced in 

 connection with the highest tests in cotton weaving. 



In Mind. (New Series, No. 105) Mr. P. J. Hughesdon 

 discusses the relation between art and science. He 

 argues that, at a time when education reform is being 

 called for but still debated on the basis of an in- 

 adequate, and in part false, antithesis of the classics 

 versus science, a satisfactory scheme of education must, 

 whatever adaptations to tradition, etc., may be advis- 

 able, start with a correct view of the relation between 

 the various aspects of truth or spheres of knowledge. 

 He discusses the causes which have obscured the true 

 relation of art and science, causes which, by exaggerat- 

 ing the particular domain of each, have deepened the 

 gulf between them, chief among which is the erroneous 

 view that art is concerned primarily with feeling and 

 science with thought. The writer maintains that art 

 and science provide complementary and correspondent 

 conceptions of reality ; in both the freely conceiving 

 mind is active, but the organon of art is intuition or 

 imagination, through which the nexus in the context of 

 reality is divined implicitly and under the aspect of 

 fitness or harmony, while that of science is reasoning, 

 through which the nexus is recognised explicitly and 

 abstractly under the aspect of ground, or reason, the 

 essence of art lying in individualised representation, 

 that of science in generalised explanation. The article 

 is interesting, and furnishes some valuable points of 

 view to those interested in the more fundamental 

 problems underlying art and science. 



The Journal of the Board of Agriculture for Pecem- 

 ber last contains an account by Mr. A. W. Ashby of 

 some interesting features of agricultural educational ^ 

 work in connection with the State College of Agricul-. 

 ture, University of W^isconsin. It is an essential con- 

 dition of graduation in agriculture at the University, 

 that the student must have previously secured at least 

 two years' experience in farming. In order to ensure, 

 facilities for such experience to be obtained under good 

 conditions a system of examining farms and awarding^' 

 certificates of good management was established some 

 years ago, and has proved very successful. In addi- 

 tion, university honours havebeen awarded to farmers 

 who have rendered distinctive service to their profes- 

 sion or to their localities. During the past six years 

 twenty-one farmers have been honoured in this way, 

 of whom only three could claim academic training. .\ 

 further feature which is described is the annual farm 

 management contest, in which, despite the small finan- 

 cial inducement offered, competition is always keen. 

 The awards are based upon a definite scale of "points," 

 and it is specially interesting to note that no less 

 than 20 per cent, of the total is allotted to " home- 

 life," a decidedly novel item in such score-cards. The, 

 importance of this factor is apparent to the student- 

 of rural conditions, even in this country, but in a 

 country of widely scattered homesteads, where each 

 must of necessity function as a largely self-contained 

 social centre, the amenities of existence must bulk 

 largely in ensuring the permanence of labour supplies, 

 upon which a steadily prosperous agriculture must 

 depend. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, January 24.-rSir. J. J. Thomson, presi- 

 dent, in the chair.— Prof. .\. N. Whitehead : Graphical 

 solution for highrangle fire.r— Spencer Pickering : I'loccu- 

 lation. The subsidence of. suspended . matter, ^on the 

 addition of a flocculant to a mixture of kaolin and 

 water is accompanied by an increase of 100. to 200 per 

 cent, in the specific volume of the sediment deposited. 



