514 



NATURE 



[January 15, 1920 



of Intelligence " before the Association of University 

 Women Teachers, wherein he pointed out the depend- 

 ence of efficiency of intelligence upon its environment, 

 and the well-marked distinction that tests had revealed 

 between knowledge and capacity ; educational attain- 

 ments did not hide lack of intellectual ability. 



Within the artistic sphere of the conference were 

 embraced play, music, dancing, and the drama, all 

 popular and suggestive topics. Prof. James Shelley 

 gave a thoughtful lecture on "The Seriousness of 

 Play" before the Froebel Society; Dr. Somervell 

 treated of "The Place of Music in Education " before 

 the Girls' School Music Union, as did Mr. Stewart 

 Macpherson before the Association of Head Mistresses, 

 before which also Mr. Burret Carpenter lectured on 

 "The Place of Art in Education." Very popular, too, 

 were the lecture, with demonstration, on "Folk 

 Dancing" by Mr. Cecil Sharp before the English Folk 

 Dance Society, and that on "Eurhythmies" by M. 

 Jaques-Dalcroze, and held at the Lyceum Theatre ; 

 whilst the British Drama League drew a crowded 

 house to hear Mr. Ben Greet 's account of the great 

 work being done in London in introducing the acted 

 Shakespeare play to children from the elementary and 

 secondary schools in school-time. 



Altogether it was a very full conference, but those 

 who attempted the whole course could only save them- 

 selves from "mental indigestion" by applying to the 

 lectures Mr. Fisher's dictum about books given in his 

 opening address. "Some books live to be skimmed; 

 others claim to be studied minutely in whole or in part. 

 The true reader discerns his proper food by intuition." 



Geographical Association. 



The annual meetings of the Geographical Associa- 

 tion were held in London on January 9-10. Sir 

 C. P. Lucas, in his presidential address, opened out 

 fresh lines of thought concerning islands as centres 

 of preservation of human diversities and their relations 

 to peninsulas, all in connection with the development 

 and fate of empires and commonwealths. He sug- 

 gested that the giving of self-government to British 

 Colonies and Dominions might be due to home experi- 

 ence of diversities within the British Isles and of the 

 need for giving each group opportunities of develop- 

 ment in its own way. 



Dr. R. N. Rudmose Brown emphasised the develop- 

 ment of the coal export trade from Spitsbergen, and 

 estimated that next year 250,000 tons of coal would 

 be shipped. He referred to the extra-territorial rights 

 of British, Swedish, and Russian estates within the 

 new Norwegian dominion of Spitsbergen created by 

 the Paris Conference. 



The educational side was dealt with by Mr. T. W. F. 

 Parkinson, who urged that the Board of Education 

 should do more to encourage geography in the higher 

 forms of secondary schools, and that more scholarships 

 should be opened to students of geography. The dis- 

 cussion brought out references to the creation of a 

 Geographical Tripos at Cambridge and to the full 

 recognition of geography in the faculties both of arts 

 and of science by the University of Wales, as well as 

 to the new creation of an arts degree (Pass and 

 Honours) at Leeds and London. 



An important demonstration of the v3lue of the 

 kinema in geographical teaching was given to a large 

 audience by Capt. C. E. Hodges. Mr. M. de Carle S. 

 Salter, Superintendent of the British Rainfall Organisa- 

 tion, gave a very valuable original paper on rainfall 

 as a geographic function. 



Science Masters' Association. 



The annual general meeting of the Science Masters' 



.-\ssociation was held at the London Day Training 



College on Januarv 6 and 7. The president (Mr. 



W. W. Vaughan, Master of Wellington College), in 



ND 2620 Vni.. T04.1 



his address, directed attention to the importance of 

 science as part of a liberal education. But the aim 

 of scientific education must not be commercial 

 prosperity. History taught that utilitarian science 

 always degenerated. The object of education is the 

 liberating of man's soul. 



The following subjects were then discussed : — 

 (i) The teaching of organic chemistry (Mr. W. J. 

 Gale, King's College School, Wimbledon). (2) Biology 

 in the school syllabus. Mr. F. W. Hodges (Cooper s 

 School, Bow) urged the necessity of making biology 

 an integral part of school science. Prof. Hickson 

 (Manchester) supported this view, and contended that 

 it was impossible to teach the science of life from 

 plants only. (3) Laboratory management (Mr. H. 

 Preston, Caistor Grammar School), (a) The Training 

 of Assistants. — In order to obtain suitable boys, the 

 occupation of laboratory assistant must not be allowed 

 to remain such a blind-alley occupation as it is at 

 present. Proper provision should be made to fit these 

 boys for a career, and to provide suitable education 

 for them, (b) Cost of Apparatus. — ^The high cost of 

 apparatus is detrimental to the necessary expansion 

 of science teaching at the present time. Mr. Preston 

 considered that the cost was unnecessarily high in 

 manv cases, and indicated that science teachers were 

 being exploited or else that British manufacturers 

 were incapable of producing apparatus at a reasonable 

 cost. As the result of this discussion a committee 

 was appointed to inquire into the matter. 



In the evening an interesting lecture was delivered 

 by Dr. Crommelin on the British observations 

 during the solar eclipse of May last. After giving a 

 brief, but clear, outline of Einstein's theory and the 

 experimental work which led up to it, Dr. Cromrnelin 

 described the measurements of the deflection of light- 

 rays passing close to the sun, as shown by the posi- 

 tions of star images on the photographic plates. 



On January 7 the subjects discussed were as 

 follows : — (i) Science teaching in the early stages. 

 Major V. S. Bryant considered that science in pre- 

 paratory schools should be part of the whole teaching, 

 and not segregated. In the discussion the conclusions 

 arrived at were: — ^To avoid so-called "practical 

 measurement"; to stimulate the boys' interest, and 

 that not less on the biological than on the mechanical 

 side ; to avoid restricting natural history to biology ; and 

 to give adequate attention to the teaching of English. 

 (2) The divorce of laboratory and class-room courses 

 (Sir Richard Gregory, and Mr. G. D. Dunkerley, Wat- 

 ford Grammar School). Sir Richard Gregory's paper 

 was mainly a reaction against the idea that the only 

 science teaching of value is that given in the labora- 

 tor\-. This view has led to the neglect of those 

 sciences which do not lend themselves to experimental 

 treatment, and hence the undue prominence given to 

 physics and chemistry. The " science for all " courses 

 of the S.M.A. are conceived in the new spirit of science 

 teaching. Laboratory work should not merely be 

 exercises in measurement, but also deal with sub- 

 jects which cannot be treated in any other way. 

 Laboratory work is intended to give an idea of 

 scientific method; class-room courses should give a 

 broad survey of scientific facts, principles, and 

 achievement. 



THE PHYSICAL AND OPTICAL 

 SOCIETIES' EXHIBITION. 



THE tenth annual exhibition of electrical, optical, 

 and other physical apparatus, arranged by the 

 Physical Society of London and the Optical Society, 

 was held on Januarv 7 and 8 at the Imperial College 

 of Science, South Kensington. For the first time, we 

 believe, the exhibition extended over two days. The 



