52 



NATURE 



[May 19, r 



corroding affection." The " bronze disease,'' says Dr. Frazer, 

 " produces a remarkable disintegrating effect on the object it 

 attacks, and there are good reasons for considering that it pos- 

 sesses infective powers, spreading like a leprosy through the 

 substance of the metal, and slowly reducing it to amorphous 

 powder ; further, there are substantial grounds for believing it 

 capable of being conveyed from surfaces already suffering with 

 it to those yet uninfected. So that dishonest counterfeiters of 

 antiques now propagate it on their modern forgeries to deceive 

 intended purchasers. This infamous act is as yet understood to 

 be confined to Italy, where the greater part of these forgeries 

 are made." "In genuine antiques, it unfortunately happens 

 occasionally that the patinated surface of bronze, soon after its 

 discovery from recent excavations, becomes affected with this 

 distinctive bronze disease, which makes its appearance in a 

 number of small spots of clear pale blue colour, that swell and 

 form farinaceous elevations ; in the course of tirne, especially 

 when kept in a moist atmosphere, these spots enlarge, run 

 together and multiply, gradually invading the greater part of 

 the surface, and reducing the object to a powdery condition." 



Dr. Frazer says a remedy is found in ink made from sulphate 

 of iron and oak galls, and that scraping "risks a fresh out- 

 break of this infectious malady." P'urlher on he says the chief 

 operator in Rome is well known, and " It would appear that 

 those skilful artists of false antiques having succeeded in coun- 

 terfeiting genuine patinations, so as to deceive the most learned 

 collectors, have subsequently gone to the length of infecting 

 their reproductions with spots of the bronze disease. This is no 

 mere superficial imitation which they cause, but absolute inocu- 

 lation of the destructive canker itself." 



In conclusion, Dr. Frazer refers to an article in the Revue 

 Archaologique on the same subject by the late Count Michel 

 Kyskiewicz, under the title, "Notes and Souvenirs of an Old 

 Collector." W. G. S. 



Dunstable. 



I AM not aware of any book on the subject, but Mr. Nichol- 

 son will find scattered notices in the Zeilschriflfilr Hygiene 

 and Arch, fiir Hygiene, also the Journals of the Chemical 

 Society and Society of Chemical Industry, and British Journal 

 of Photography (development of bacteria in silver gelatine films), j 



The best way to sterilise ancient implements is to suspend 

 them in an oven at a temperature of 150° C.-i8o° C. for two 

 hours, and let them cool in a free current of air in order to j 

 prevent deposit of moisture. This method is quite harmless to j 

 the metal, and will sterilise the most resisting spores. It pre- t 

 sents obvious advantages over the use of antiseptic fluids. 



36 Finsbury Pavement, E.C. G. Lindsay Johnson. 



— i 



Ebbing and Flowing Wells. I 



I HAVE had occasion to live for many months of several 

 years close to a well that was sometimes affected by the 

 tide like that at Newton Nottage (Nature, May 12, p. 45). 

 This was at Alibag, a few miles south of Bombay. The 

 bed-rock is a sheet of basalt of rather uneven surface, sloping ', 

 westwards at the general rate of about six feet to the nautical 

 mile. Over this, at the spot in question, were low sand-dunes, 

 covered with palm orchards, and full of brick wells. ' One of 

 my wells was twenty or twenty-five yards from true high- water 

 mark of spring tides, though the surf washed light objects [ 

 much nearer. t 



In the dry weather the ebb and flow did not perceptibly [ 

 affect the well ; but during the monsoon the sand-dunes \ 

 were saturated by the heavy rainfall, and all along their seaward 

 foot, where the sand lay on the sheet-rock, well below high- j 

 water mark, the fresh water poured out at ebb tide. When 

 high spring tides were coincident with heavy rain the water in I 

 this well rose a little later than the tide, and several feet higher, 

 almost to the level of the ground around the well. Its taste ' 

 was not affected. At such times the surface in the well was 

 two feet higher than the floor of my house, which stood in a j 

 hollow of the dune, a few yards to the eastward. The house 

 was a notorious death-trap (as might be expected) ; and it was 

 in the course of endeavours to get it condemned and pulled j 

 down, that I made the observations related. As it was a 

 Government building, the records are official ; and I write from 

 memory. But the well is probably still there ; and the observ- 

 ations, in that case, could be verified during any monsoon. 



May 13. W. F. Sinclair. 



NO. 1490, VOL. 58] 



TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOLS— A 

 COMPARISON. 



A T different times attempts have been made to convey 

 -^~^ to English readers interested in scientific education 

 some idea of the facilities provided abroad, particularly 

 in Germany and Switzerland, for the higher technical 

 instruction. The reports of the Technical Instruction 

 Commissioners, and of other persons who have inspected 

 the principal foreign schools, give full particulars of the 

 courses of study pursued in those schools, of the rapidly 

 increasing number of students in attendance, and of the 

 large professorial staff attached to each institi4tion. 

 Exact details, however, as to the magnitude of the tech- 

 nical high schools of Germany have not been hitherto 

 presented in such a form, as might readily show the full 

 importance which our German neighbours attach to the 

 higher scientific training, as a means of advancing their 

 commercial interests. On my return, in the autumn of 

 1896, from a short visit to Bavaria and Wiirtemberg, in 

 company with some of my colleagues of the Technical 

 Instruction Commission, I gave some account, in tlie 

 pages of this journal, of the new electro-technical 

 and electro-chemical institutions, recently erected in 

 Darmstadt in connection with the polytechnic of that 

 town. A few weeks since, I had occasion to pay a flying 

 visit to Aachen, and there I found close to the old poly- 

 technic, erected in 1870, an entirely new building, opened 

 only in 1897, and devoted almost exclusively to electrical 

 work. This' school, although not so large, nor so well 

 equipped, as the schools in Stuttgart and Darmstadt, 

 forms a very important addition to the facilities for the 

 higher technical instruction which previously existed in 

 the Rhenish city. It will be seen from the accompany- 

 ing illustration (Fig. i) that this new building is a plain 

 structure of four stories, with no pretensions to archi- 

 tectural effect. It is about 140 feet long, and is of a 

 mean depth of about 90 feet, the total area covered by 

 the building being little less than that of the science 

 schools of South Kensington, and about half of that of 

 the Technical Institute of the City Guilds. Yet this 

 building is devoted almost exclusively to the teaching of 

 one branch of applied physics. 



Dr. Bosse, the well-known energetic Minister of 

 Education for Prussia, in his dedicatory address at the 

 opening of this school in May last, correctly expressed 

 German opinion when he said : " Neither the technical 

 sciences nor the technical high schools can be said to 

 have yet reached their goal. Both stand in the midst of 

 a restless and irresistible movement and development 

 pressing ever forwards." This recognition on the part 

 of the Prussian Minister of the necessity of constantly 

 improving educational facilities so that they may keep 

 pace with the advance of science, is characteristic of the 

 progressive policy of Germany. 



The progress I found this year in Aachen, and eighteen 

 months ago in Stuttgart and Darmstadt, might be ob- 

 served equally in other parts of Germany, showing that 

 our German neighbours are fully as determmed, that their 

 high schools of science shall be ahead of those of other 

 countries, as we may be resolved, that our fleet shall be 

 equal to that of any two other nations. 



It is well known to most of the readers of this journal, 

 but must be emphasised with a view to a comparison 

 between the provision for scientific education in Great 

 Britain and Germany, that the polytechnics or technical 

 high schools are institutions exclusively devoted to the 

 teaching of science in its practical application ta 

 engineering, manufacturing and professional pursuits. 

 They are quite distinct from the universities, which, 

 situated in the same town or in an adjoining city, as 

 the case may be, comprise other faculties besides science, 

 and, although far larger and more important, belong 

 rather to the class of institutions known in this country 



