January 22, 1920] 



NATURE 



539 



education which leaves a young man, at the con- 

 clusion of his course, unable to speak or write 

 his own mother tongue fluently and correctly." 



Thete is, we are aware, an ever-increasing 

 desire on the part of Indians to see the vernacu- 

 lars encouraged and developed; for a long time 

 Englishmen also have aimed at fostering the 

 development of vernacular literatures, and post- 

 graduate research in the vernaculars is already 

 a recognised branch of study. But it is, we feel, 

 important to keep distinct the two objects in view, 

 namely, (i) to provide the best education for 

 schoolboys, and (2) to cultivate the vernacular 

 languages. 



Space will not permit us to discuss at any 

 length the cognate subject of the teaching of 

 English, but it may fairly be claimed that hitherto 

 university instruction in English has been con- 

 ducted on unpractical lines. Textual analysis of 

 seventeenth-century literature on the part of 

 students who have not mastered the modern idiom 

 tends to unintelligent cram. What is wanted is 

 the more rapid perusal of standard modern 

 works. Nothing can be more pitiable than to 

 see a class of Indian students taking down ver- 

 batim notes (always in English) from a lecturer 

 on such a book as "Samson Agonistes." This 

 is not the way to learn English for practical pur- 

 poses, which is the main object of all except those 

 who take English as a subject for their degree. 

 It is satisfactory to note that the Sanskrit College 

 and the Madrasahs have received ample treatment 

 by the Commission, and are to be placed on a 

 better footing. 



We have not space to deal now with the im- 

 portant proposals of the Commission in regard to 

 the organisation of the University of Dacca, the 

 reorganisation of the University of Calcutta, and 

 their many recommendations in regard to exam- 

 inations, women's education, medical education, 

 agricultural education, engineering and techno- 

 logical education, and Oriental studies. We can 

 only congratulate the Commissioners on the admir- 

 able report they have produced, and express a 

 hope that their main proposal, the Board of Secon- 

 dary and Intermediate Education, may become 

 before long a practical reality. 



E. Denhson Ross. 



l<!OTES. 



One of the most useful functions that can be per- 

 formed in these days of minute specialisation of 

 scientific research is the promotion of meetings at 

 which workers in various fields can discuss subjects 

 of common interest. Since Sir Robert Hadfield 

 became president of the Faraday Society in 1914, 

 fifteen such discussions have been held, the last, of 

 which an account is given elsewhere in this issue, 

 being in the meeting-room of the Royal Society on 

 January 14, in association with the Royal Micro- 

 scopical Society, the Optical Society, and the Photo- 

 micrographic Society. Sir Robert Hadfield and the 

 secretary of the Faraday Society, Mr. F. S. Spiers, 

 are to be heartily congratulated upon the great interest 

 NO. 2621, VOL. 104] 



taken in this discussion, the subject of which was 

 "The Microscope: Its Design, Construction, and 

 Applications," and the exhibition of instruments con- 

 nected with it. There were meetings in the after- 

 noon and evening, and on both occasions it is scarcely 

 too much to say that as many people were unable to 

 find places in the meeting-room as those who filled 

 it to the doors. With characteristic generosity Sir 

 Robert Hadfield entertained a large company to dinner 

 at the' Ritz Hotel between the two meetings. The 

 whole session was most successful and encouraging 

 to all who are interested in the advance of British 

 optical science, both theoretical and applied. By 

 organising such joint meetings the Faraday Society 

 is indeed promoting the best interests of both science 

 and industry, and doing what might be undertaken 

 even more appropriately by the Royal Society itself. 



An interesting pamphlet on the work of Faraday 

 and the Faraday Society was prepared by Sir Robert 

 Hadfield in connection with the joint discussion on 

 the microscope held on Wednesday, January 14. 

 It appears that the Faraday Society was chiefly 

 responsible for the appointment of a special Nitrogen 

 Products Committee by the Munitions Inventions 

 Department, and this Committee was, in turn, instru- 

 mental in establishing a research department, which 

 provided much valuable information for the practical 

 consideration of sources of nitrogen supply when the 

 submarine campaign made the subject a matter of 

 national concern. One of the members of the council 

 of the society, Dr. J. A. Harker, was entrusted with 

 the direction of this work, and the final report of the 

 Nitrogen Products Committee, which has just been 

 published (Cmd. 482, 45-. net), is a most substantial 

 survey of the position of supplies of nitrogen com- 

 pounds and the practical problems involved in the 

 establishment of processes for nitrogen fixation in this 

 country. Referring in the pamphlet to his own par- 

 ticular lines of work. Sir Robert Hadfield mentions that 

 Faraday, in his experiments on alloys of iron with other 

 elements carried out in 182 1 and 1822, was the pioneer 

 of the great technical advances which have been made 

 in alloy steels during the past thirty years. It was 

 Sir Robert's own discovery and invention of man- 

 ganese steel in 1882 which led others to explore the 

 rich field first entered by Faraday, and has resulted 

 in the production of chromium steel, silicon steel, 

 nickel steel, tungsten steel, and many other types. 



The recent death of Dr. John Wilson, lecturer in 

 agriculture and rural economy in the University of 

 St. Andrews, robs the University and science of a 

 keen and brilliant agricultural biologist. Dr. Wilson 

 was one of the few who regarded agriculture as a 

 sister science of biology rather than as a branch of 

 chemistry, and his work on the improvement of farm 

 crops has borne excellent fruit. Whilst demonstrator 

 in zoology he devoted considerable attention to the 

 development of the common mussel, and published 

 an elaborately illustrated memoir on the subject, but 

 his name will be more permanently associated with 

 his successful investigations on the improvement of 

 such plants as the potato, turnip, and oat. He raised 

 an enormous number of new varieties. Amongst those 



