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NA TURE 



[August 4, 1898 



been unable to accept those recommendations as a whole. For 

 the purpose of forming and maintaining a registry of teachers a 

 separate and more or less independent council was necessary. A 

 Bill for that purpose was introduced some time ago, which will 

 be reintroduced to-day. It provides a council for this purpose 

 only, some of whose members will be nominated by the Crown, 

 some by the Universities, and ultimately it will contain members 

 directly representative of the registered teachers themselves. 

 Put we have not seen our way to give to this council or to any 

 other council statutory powers. We recognise, however, that 

 the advice of educational experts may be of great value to the 

 Board of Education. We have taken power to authorise the 

 President of the Board of Education to appoint an educational 

 committee to advise the Board on such matters as may be re- 

 ferred to it. Such a committee in all probability will be largely 

 founded upon the registration council. In our opinion it would 

 only tend to hamper the responsibility of a Minister if a consult- 

 ative council were appointed by statute and endowed with 

 statutory powers ; in our opinion the Minister must be respon- 

 sible for the choice of his advisers as well as the action which he 

 takes upon that advice. While it is desirable, almost necessary, 

 that the registration council should have a fixed and permanent 

 character, we thought it desirable to reserve complete discretion 

 to the Minister as to the choice of his advisers. I have en- 

 deavoured to explain what these Bills contain. It may appear 

 to be a somewhat rash act to submit proposals of this character 

 to be exposed to discussion and criticism during the long 

 months of a comparatively unoccupied recess. It may be so, 

 but for my part I can only say that I welcome the fullest dis- 

 cussion and criticism. I welcome discussion on a subject in 

 which, in my opinion, too little interest has been hitherto felt 

 by the general public as distinguished from professional experts, 

 and I only trust that these proposals may receive very full dis- 

 cussion and criticism. I have no doubt that they will be 

 condemned by some on account of their incompleteness ; I 

 have admitted that they are incomplete, and incomplete on a 

 vital and essential point, but I have endeavoured to show that 

 we have not been insensible to the importance or the urgency 

 of that portion of the question, which we propose at present to 

 postpone. If we have postponed it, it is because we are con- 

 vinced that the constitution, preliminarily or concurrently, of a 

 strong central authority is necessary for the equally important, 

 perhaps more important, object — the creation of strong local 

 authorities also. If the discussion which follows the intro- 

 duction of this measure shows that we have over-rated the diffi- 

 culties which I think still exist in the constitution of satisfactory 

 local authorities, it may still be possible in another session to 

 enlarge the scope of this Bill. But, however that may be, we 

 may feel confident that these limited proposals, standing even 

 alone, will be an important step in the direction of placing our 

 national education upon a sounder and more satisfactory basis. 



NOTES. 



Pkof. E. Ray Lankester has been appointed to succeed 

 Sir William Flower as Director of the Natural History Museum 

 at South Kensington. 



The fourth International Congress of Physiologists will 

 assemble at Cambridge on Monday, August 22, and will hold 

 its meetings each morning and afternoon from Tuesday, 23rd, to 

 Friday, 26th, inclusive. The Congress has for its object the 

 advancement of physiology by affording physiologists of various 

 nationalities an opportunity of personally bringing forward 

 experiments, and of exchanging and discussing their views 

 together, and of becoming personally acquainted one with 

 another. The languages to be recognised as official at the 

 Congress are English, French, and German. Membership is 

 open to (i) representatives of physiology in the persons of pro- 

 fessors and their assistants ; (2) members of physiological and 

 similar purely scientific societies, as for example, American 

 Physiological Society ; the Physiological Society, England ; 

 Societe de Biologic, Paris ; Physiologische Gesellschaft, Berlin ; 

 (3) ladies and gentlemen who are proposed by a National 

 Committee. Members will be afforded all possible facilities for 

 experimental demonstrations, as well as fur the exhibition of 

 NO. 1 501, VOL. 58] 



preparations and of scientific apparatus. In connection with 

 the Congress there will be an exhibition of physiological 

 apparatus. Those who attend the Congress, and all directors 

 of physiological institutes, as well as instrument-makers recom- 

 mended by the above, are invited to send exhibits. The 

 exhibition will remain open from Monday, the 22nd, to Saturday, 

 August 27, inclusive. A large number of British, American 

 and Continental physiologists have notified their intention to 

 be present. The organising Committee of the Congress is 

 constituted as follows : — M. Foster, President ; M. Blix, H. P. 

 Bowditch, A. Dastre, P. Ileger, H. Kronecker, W. Kuhne, 

 A. Mosso, W. Wedensky, with L. Fredericq, P. Griitzner and 

 C. S. Sherrington, Secretaries. Further information concerning 

 the local arrangements for the Congress can be obtained from 

 Dr. L. E. Shore, St. John's College, Cambridge. 



The Government of the Congo Independent State has, it is 

 stated, just sanctioned an important measure for the advancement 

 of scientific knowledge on the Congo. The despatch, last spring, 

 of the expedition under Lieut. Lemaire was a commence- 

 ment in this direction, but, whereas his explorations will be 

 chiefly in the Tanganyika region, the new measure will apply to 

 the whole of the State. Twenty posts which are to form the 

 centres of observation, and also the bases for the collection of 

 flora, fauna, and mineralogical specimens, have been decided 

 upon, and are now being carefully organised under the super- 

 vision of the proper officers at Brussels. As soon as the posts 

 are in working order, a publication will be issued at Brussels for 

 the purpose of recording the results of these experiments. It 

 will be issued every six weeks, under the title of " Scientific 

 Annals." 



Mr. W. Harcourt-Bath has recently returned to England 

 with a large collection of insects obtained in the Himalayas of 

 Sikkim and Thibet, many of which were procured at great 

 altitudes among the snow. 



A REMARKABLY fine specimen of the gigantic centipede 

 {Scolopendra gigas) may be now seen in the Zoological Society's 

 Insect House. It is not, perhaps, quite full grown, but 

 measures about eight inches in length. It is fed principally on 

 small mice, which it devours with alacrity. This specimen was 

 captured in Trinidad, and forwarded to the Society by Mr. R. 

 R. Mole, of Port-of-Spain. 



The expedition sent out to the Galapagos Islands, at the 

 suggestion of the Hon. Walter Rothschild, last year brought 

 home a fine series of living tortoises, which have been recently 

 deposited in the Zoological Society's Gardens. There are in all 

 fifty-two specimens belonging to the group of large land tortoises 

 namely thirty-three of Testudo vicina from the south part of 

 Albemarle Island, and nineteen of Testudo ephippium from 

 Duncan Island. These have been placed in the old Tortoise 

 House in the North Ciarden, where they feed greedily on 

 cabbages. The interesting account of the giant tortoises of the 

 Galapagos, given by Darwin in his " Naturalists' Journal," will 

 be in every one's recollection. 



The Committee appointed by the Board of Trade a year ago, 

 to consider and advise upon the means of obtaining and 

 publishing information as to opportunities for the introduc- 

 tion and development of British home trades in the various 

 districts in which we have official representatives, have adopted 

 their report. As to the means of obtaining further commercial 

 information, it is suggested that the most economical course 

 would be to send out experts periodically to make inquiries and 

 to report upon the progress and the direction of trade. The 

 Committee recommend the establishment of an office whose 

 function it shall be to meet the constantly-increasing demand 

 for prompt and accurate information on commercial matters, so 



