114 



NATURE 



[October 9, 1919 



the surfaces of the internal fracture within the 

 plate. 



Fig. 2 is a side view, and Fig. 3 an oblique view, 

 of the internal fracture seen through the edge of 

 the plate, the lower half of each picture being the 

 image of the upper half formed bv ihe reflection of 

 Jight at the interior surface of the plate. The circular 

 area of contact from the margin of which the fracture 

 starts appears in Fig. 3 as an elliptic white disc at the 

 centre. It seems clear that the internal fracture prac- 

 tically occurs along the surface of maximum shearing 

 stress set up during the impact. C. V. Raman. 



210 Bowbazaar Street, Calcutta, .August 18. 



The Rigidity of the Earth. 



An account of an experiment to determine the 

 rigiditv of the earth was published in the Astrophysical 

 Journal and in the Journal of Geology, March, 1914. 

 This gave the ratios of the amplitudes of tides 

 observed in X-.S and E-W pipes to the amplitudes 

 computed for the same pipes on the assumption of 

 a perfectly rigid earth as 0-523 and 0-710 respectively. 



The work of reducing a new set of automatically 

 recorded observations made by an interference method, 

 which was interrupted by the war, was recently 

 resumed, and it was found that the N-S and E-W 

 ratios were very nearly equal to each other. 



It was then noted that 0-523/0-710 = 0-7366, and 

 that the cosine of the latitude of Verkes Observatory, 

 where the experiment was performed, is 07363. It 

 seemed highlv probable, therefore, that cos if had been 

 introduced erroneously into the computed formula for 

 for N-S tides. 



We have just been informed by Prof. Moulton that 

 he has gone over the old formulae used, and has 

 found that the computer introduced the factor cos (f 

 erroneouslv into the N-S computation. 



The N-S ratio should therefore have been 

 0-523/0-7363 = 0-710, which, oddly enough, is exactly 

 equal to the E-W ratio. 



The new observations point to a value of about 

 0-69 for both E-W and N-S ratios. 



A. A. MiCHF.I.SON. 



Henry G. Gale. 

 Univcrsitv of Chicago, September 10. 



The " Flying Gallop " in Art. 



In N.vrL-RK of August 21 (p. 4S9) reference is made 

 to a popular article by Mr. C. \V. Bishop on "The 

 Chinese Horse," and to the distribution of the artistic 

 motive of the flying gallop dealt with in it. It may 

 be of interest to remark that this problem was first 

 studied and discussed by the famous French archaeo- 

 logist S. Reinach in his ." La representation du galop 

 dans I'art ancien et moderne " (Paris, 1901), and 

 was afterwards expanded bv me in my book, 

 "Chinese Pottery of the Han Dynasty" (Leyden, 

 1909), where also many illustrations of the motive 

 from Chinese art-works are given. 



B. Laufer, 

 Curator of Anthropology. 



Field Museum, Chicago, September 10. 



MUSEUMS "EDUCATION, AND THE 

 BOARD. 



FOR many years a number of our provincial 

 museums have striven to make their collec- 

 tions of educational value, both to the ordinary 

 citizen through their exhibits and guides, and to 

 the schools through their exhibits and .special 

 circulating collections, as well as by talks to the 

 teachers or pupils. The response of the educa- 

 NO. 2606, VOL. 104] 



tion authorities long continued disappointing, 

 but some eight or ten years ago things began tQ 

 move more rapidly. Certain pure educationists 

 began to see that there was something of value 

 for them in the museums, and in 1913 the Educa- 

 tional Science Section of the British Association 

 appointed a strong committee to report on the 

 question. The war, though unfortunately pre- 

 venting the publication of that committee's lengthy 

 report, and hindering museum activities in many 

 directions, has had the result in some towns, 

 notably Manchester, of inducing the schools to 

 lighten their own troubles by seeking the aid of 

 the museums and their staffs. 



So well had the movement progressed, thanks 

 mainly to the insistent propaganda of museum 

 officials, individually and through the Museums 

 Association, that at last the Education Act of 

 1918 and the draft suggestions for the arrange- 

 ment of schemes thereunder (Circular 1096) took 

 museums into serious account as an educational 

 factor. Museum enthusiasts were delighted. But 

 now comes a move which gives them pause. The 

 .Adult Education Committee of the Ministry of 

 Reconstruction has issued an interim report 

 (Cd. 9237) recommending that public libraries and 

 museums should be placed under the control of 

 the local education authorities, and administered 

 by special committees' of those bodies, and urging 

 " that the powers and duties of the Local Govern- 

 ment Board regarding public libraries and 

 museums should be transferred forthwith to the 

 Board of Education." So reasonable a recom- 

 mendation would, it is doubtless expected, be 

 welcomed effusively by the institutions concerned. 

 The contrary is the case. The protests of the 

 librarians are quoted — and dismissed — in the ta- 

 terim report itself. They have just been 

 repeated at the meeting of the Library Associa- 

 tion in Southport, but we cannot consider them 

 here. As already reported (NAXtRE, July 17, 1919, 

 p. 394), the Oxford meeting of the Museums Asso- 

 ciation raised so many objections that it appointed 

 a committee to prepare a statement. And now, in 

 a discussion of the Educational Science Section 

 of the British Association, the opposition of the 

 museums found vigorous expression, and such 

 support as the proposal received from one or two 

 curators was only half-hearted. It may be well, 

 therefore, to summarise the arguments. 



The Adult Education Committee holds its 

 opinion so strongly that it has condescended to 

 very little argument. We gather more from a 

 paper laid before Section L by Prof. J. A. Green. 

 This assumes that museums are "fundamentally 

 educational in character," and infers that they 

 should form part of the educational machinery of 

 the country. This machinery should be controlled 

 by one authority, and its parts adapted to a 

 common aim. This would change the outlook of 

 the museums and lead them to display their collec- 

 tions in such a way as to dispel "museum head- 

 ache." The responsibilities of the Education Com- 

 mittees have been extended to adult education, 

 and they would be better able to bring museums 



