47^ 



NATURE 



[February 14, 1918 



a definable quantity havinj^ definite dimensions, was 

 one to which the attention of physicists could profitably 

 be devoted. Another such question was that of the 

 oiliness of lubricants. This appeared to depend on 

 something other than viscosity. Animal and vegetable 

 oils lubricated better than mineral oils of the same 

 viscosity. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Dr. VV. Boxwell has been elected professor of 

 pathology and bacteriology in the schools of surgery 

 of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. 



A RESKARCH Scholarship in mental affections has been 

 instituted at the Western Asylums' Research Institute, 

 Glasgow. Its annual value will be 250L, but no ap- 

 pointment will be made during the war. 



The Board of Education announces, in Circular 1026 

 of February 5, that after this year it will discontinue to 

 hold its general examinations in science and tech- 

 noloigy. The higher general examinations will be held 

 this year for the last time, and will be conducted in 

 accordance with the " Regulations and Syllabuses for 

 Examinations in Science and Technology, 1915," so far 

 as they are still applicable. This intention to discon- 

 tinue these general examinations was announced in the 

 prefatory note -to the 1915 regulations, and the decision 

 was arrived at after consultation with representative 

 educational and administrative bodies directly interested 

 in the examinations. The present announcement marks 

 the final stage in the gradual elimination of the per- 

 sonal examination of students in its classes by the 

 Board. In 19 12 the old elementary stage examinations 

 in science, instituted by the now defunct Science and 

 Art Department, were discontinued, and lower and 

 higher examinations took the place of elementary, ad- 

 vanced, and honours stages. In 1909 the special exam- 

 inations, which had for many years been held for young 

 students attending day classes in science, were discon- 

 tinued, as for some years the number of papers worked 

 at day examinations had steadily diminished as the 

 conditions of work in secondary schools improved. It 

 is reasonable to hope that the abolition of these official 

 examinations will strengthen the development of initia- 

 tive of local education authorities and encourage them 

 to promote schemes of instruction designed to meet 

 local requirements. 



The main measure to be brought forward in the 

 eighth session of the present Parliament, opened by 

 the King on Tuesday, is the Education (No. 2) 

 Bill. The British Science Guild has just circulated a 

 memorandum in which cordial approval is expressed 

 of the provision made in the Bill for the following :■ — 

 (i) The general development and organisation of all 

 forms of education other than elementary; (2) prac- 

 tical instruction for all elementary-school children, pro- 

 vided that such teaching does not involve direct in- 

 struction for a trade ; (3) continuation schools and 

 compulsory attendance thereat for 320 hours per 

 annum ; (4.) co-operation of local education authorities, 

 particularly by means of the formation of federations, 

 chiefly because manv local education authorities are 

 obviously unable to deal adequately with higher educa- 

 tion, e.^. university and higher technological work and 

 the training of teachers ; (5) the removal of the 2d. 

 rate limit for higher education in county areas ; (6) 

 abolition of exemption from attendance at school be- 

 tween the ages of five and fourteen ; (7) further re- 

 strictions as to employment of children ; (8) school 

 holiday camns, centres for phvsical training, playing- 

 fields, school baths, school swimming-baths, etc. ; (9) 

 the extension to secondary schools and other provided 



NO. 2520, VOL. 100] 



schools of the powers and duties of local education 

 authorities respecting medical supervision and treat- 

 ment; (10) aiding teachers and students in carrying on 

 research; (11) the collection of information respecting 

 schools and educational institutions not in receipt ot 

 grants from the Board of Education. The British 

 Science Guild recommends that provision be also made 

 in the Bill (a) to compel local education authorities to 

 provide nursery schools in those districts where the 

 Board of Education deems such schools necessary ; 



(b) for the inspection, by an approved authority, of all 

 schools not now liable to inspection, whether a request 

 for inspection is made by the school authorities or not; 



(c) for the adequate registration of all schools and 

 other educational institutions. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, January 31. — Sir J. J. Thomson, presi- 

 dent, in the chair.— A. Mallock : The growth of trees. 

 An account is given of some recent observations of the 

 growth of trees. The observations consisted in the 

 measurement, at short intervals of time, of the varia- 

 tion of the girth of the trees at a height of 4 ft. or 5 ft. 

 above the ground. The measures were made by an 

 '"interference" method, which is described. The re- 

 sults showed a well-marked daily period in the varia- 

 tion of girth, different for different species of tree, but in 

 all cases having a maximum at night and a minimum 

 shortly after noon. Diagrams of sets of observations, each 

 extending over several days, are included, showing the 

 growth of a black poplar, an oak, and a Douglas fir. 

 From twenty to thirty readings were taken in the 

 course of each twenty-four hours. — Prof. B. Moore and 

 T. A. Webster : Action of light rays on organic com- 

 pounds and the photosynthesis of organic from inorganic 

 compounds in presence of inorganic colloids. The results 

 are recorded under three sections : — (a) Photosynthesis 

 by inorganic transformers ; (b) action of sunlight and of 

 ultra-violet light upon concentrated solutions o!" form- 

 aldehyde ; (c) the general formation of formaldehyde by 

 the action of light upon organic substances of bio- 

 chemical origin. In the concluding section a general 

 reversible reaction is described as a result of which 

 formaldehyde rises in all intense reactions of light upon 

 substances of biochemical origin. This reaction in pre- 

 sence of excess of light is an interesting reversal of the 

 process by which all organic matter has been built up 

 from inorganic sources. The bearing of this process 

 upon the germicidal action of sunlight, and upon the 

 destruction of living organisms by ultra-violet light, is 

 discussed, and it is pointed out that the simple organic 

 products so formed are incompatible with the life- 

 processes of living organisms and so lead to their de- 

 struction. Taking such a reaction as travelling in the 

 reverse direction, it is shown that the building up of 

 organic matter from inorganic must have been a neces- 

 sary precedent to any existence of living organisms on 

 the earth, and that all accumulations of reduced sub- 

 stances possessing stores of chemical energy must have 

 arisen in this manner from storage of the energy of 

 sunlight. — Capt. W. J. Tulloch : The isolation and sero- 

 logical differentiation of Bacillus tetani. (i) More than 

 one variety of non-toxic endosporing bacillus resembling 

 B. tetani in morphological characters can be recovered 

 from wound-exudates in cases of the disease. (2) 

 There are at least three different types of toxic B. 

 tetani. (3) The "U.S.A. type" of the bacillus — that 

 commonly used for the preparation of antitoxin^is not 

 frequently obtained from wound-exudates in cases of 

 the disease occurring among men who have received 

 prophvlactic inoculations of antitetanic serum. (4) Cul- 

 ture in a selective medium, followed by agglutination 



