58o 



NATURE 



[January 29, 1920 



vantages over the forms of expression more commonly 

 adopted in this country, but Prof. Pearson does well 

 to point out that the supposed fundamental distinction 

 of method claimed by some Continental writers is non- 

 existent. He himself contributes a very interesting' 

 paper on a method of generalising Tchebycheff's first 

 theorem. He finds that the method of approximating 

 to' the limits of a probability is unlikely to be of much 

 practical value in the classes of function of usual 

 occurrence. This result does not, of course, deprive 

 Tchebycheff's work of its interest in permitting of the 

 establishment of Bernoulli's theorem and of Poisson's 

 generalisation of that theorem by elementary methods. 



Papers of importance both to the student of theoreti- 

 cal statistics and to the practical computer are those 

 of Miss Pairman and Prof. Pearson on the correction 

 of the moment coefficients in limited range frequency 

 distributions, of "Student" on deviations from the 

 Poisson limit to the binomial in actual data, and an 

 editorial, entitled " Peccavimus, " correcting errors in 

 various published formulae. 



Those who are engaged in psychological investigation 

 will turn to Dr. G. H. Thomson's memoir on psycho- 

 physical curves and to the same author's discussion 

 of hierarchical order among correlation coefficients, a 

 subject to which other recent papers have been devoted. 

 In the miscellanea and in a co-operative study of the 

 eggs of the common tern, the biometrician will find 

 much to interest him. It is invidious to cite any one 

 paper as deserving of special praise, but, from the 

 point of view of practical statistics, the discussion of 

 the correction of moment coefficients in the cases to 

 which the classical method of Sheppard does not 

 apply is of chief interest. The volume includes a 

 touching tribute to the memory of Dr. Charles B. 

 Goring, whose untimely death has deprived crimin- 

 ology of one of its most devoted and skilful workers. 



THE KINEMATOGRAPH IN SCHOOLS. 



'T'HE use of the kinema for schools, and not merely 

 ■*• for school children, has been definitely carried a 

 few stages nearer realisation by two recent developments 

 which were brought to the notice of teachers attending 

 the annual meeting of the Geographical Association. 

 In the first place, a portable instrument at the fairly 

 reasonable price of 6ol. is now on the market. The 

 case itself is fireproof ; the lamp is in one separate 

 fireproof chamber within the case, and the film is con- 

 tained in another, all except the four inches or so 

 actually in the gate ; while the instrument is operated 

 by pressing two or three buttons on the outside. The 

 adaptation of the kinema to the class-room in this 

 way has two incidental advantages which are in them- 

 selves very great advances. Owing to the fact that 

 the light required is not nearly so strong as for a hall, 

 (i) the instrument can be run off one of the lighting 

 points in the ordinary lighting circuit, and (2) the 

 reduction in light is accompanied by a reduction in 

 heat, «o that the film can actually be stopped for 

 some minutes for discussion by the class. 



Secondly, the provision of the films seems to be 

 in process of being placed on a more satisfactory basis. 

 Films were used during the war for the instruction of 

 soldiers, and the kinema takes its place in the uni- 

 versity, notably in the instruction of medical students. 

 The difficulty in the past has been to know what there 

 was to choose from, and how to choose what one 

 wanted. It is not easy to choose lantern-slides, and 

 it is less easy still to choose films. It cannot be 

 said that this difficulty is wholly met, but the 

 establishment of the Community Motion Picture 

 Bureau goes a long way towards meeting it. 

 There is, at any rate, somewhere to go to inquire 



NO. 2622, VOL. 104] 



whether that exists which 6ne desires, and there 

 is a central body which will gradually learn what 

 it is that schools demand, and with the demand will 

 come the supply. The firm receives films and edits 

 them to make them more or less suitable for school.s. 

 One of the sessions of the recent annual meeting of 

 the Geographical .'Association was taken up by a 

 demonstration by Capt. Hodges of the value of the 

 kinema in the teaching of geography. The films 

 showed varied greatly in quality ; the most ambitious, 

 an American film dealing with the life-history of a 

 volcano, was the least successful for several reasons, 

 the most fundamental of which was that it suffered 

 from the distinctly American failing of being non- 

 regional. Other films, dealing with Egypt and the 

 Nile, lumbering, and coffee culture in Java, could very 

 easily be fitted without any jars into geography 

 courses. This is, perhaps, not all that is desireid, but 

 it shows, at any rate, that the problem is being 

 tackled, and that there is every prospect of a satis- 

 factory solution ere long. 



IRRIGATION IN EGYPT. 

 "\irE had occasion in Nature of September 18 and 

 ''' October 9 last to allude to the controversy which 

 has arisen out of the proposals put forward by the 

 Egyptian Government, under British advice, for the 

 development of the agricultural districts of Egypt and 

 the Sudan by means of additional irrigation works 

 on a very extensive scale. The controversy culminated 

 in the appointment of a Foreign Office Committee, 

 which sat in London to inquire into the charges 

 brought by Sir William Willcocks against the 

 Egyptian Public Works Department. The Com- 

 mittee's findings exonerated the Department, but 

 failed to satisfy Sir William, who forthwith reiterated 

 and amplified his accusations with increased vehem- 

 ence. Criticism so trenchant and persistent from an 

 engineer of undoubted standing and experience could 

 not be ignored, and now it has been decided to submit 

 the whole question to an International Commission 

 consisting of three members — an irrigation engineer, 

 nominated by the Government of India, as president; 

 a British physicist, nominated by the University of 

 Cambridge ; and an irrigation engineer, nominated by 

 the Government of the United States. The terms of 

 reference are:— "To advise the Egyptian Government 

 upon the projects prepared by the Public Works 

 Department, with a view to the further regulation 

 of the Nile for the benefit of Egypt and the Sudan, 

 and in particular to examine and report upon the 

 physical data upon which the projects rest, and to 

 report upon the propriety of the manner in which, as 

 the result of these projects, the increased supply of 

 available water thereby provided will be allocated at 

 each stage of development between Egypt and the 

 Sudan, and to advise as to the apportionment of the 

 cost as between Egypt and the Sudan." In a matter 

 so seriously affecting the welfare and development of 

 two important countries, it is to be hoped that the 

 decisions arrived at bv the Commission will be such 

 as to command a general consensus of expert approval. 

 The Cairo correspondent of the Times states, in a 

 message published in the issue of January 23. that 

 the Commission is constituted as follows : — Mr. F. St. 

 John Gebbie, Chief Engineer, Bombay, who was last 

 engaged on the Sukkur barrage scheme — nominated 

 by the Indian Government (chairman); Dr. G. C. 

 Simpson, meteorologist at Simla — nominated bv Cam- 

 bridge University; and Mr. H. T. Cory, who directed 

 the Salton sea works, California, in it)o6 — nominated 

 by the .American Government. Mr. J. L. Capes, pf 

 the Egvotian Ministry of Education, will be secretary 

 of the Commission. 



