SEPTE^[nER I, I 



NATURE 



43: 



Sarykamysh lakes. When this gulf began to desiccate, the Amu 

 began to flow northwards, in its present bed. The other hypo- 

 thesis, developed with great skill by M. Obrucheff (" The 

 Transcaspian Lowlands," 1890), is that the Karakum gulf 

 existed and received the Amu with its tributaries, the Murghab 

 and the Tejen ; when the gulf began to desiccate the Amu con- 

 tinued to flow that way and entered the Caspian, and only later 

 began to flow northwards, sending a branch along the Uzboi. 



In his new volume M. Konshin discusses this hypothesis in 

 detail, and gives his arguments in favour of his own views. His 

 chief arguments are, first, that the Caspian shells, belonging to 

 species now living in that sea (Dreissena, Hydrobia, Neretina^ 

 and I.ithogliphus), are found in the southern parts of the Uzboi, 

 uncovered by deposits of fluviatile origin, as also at the western 

 entrance of the Karakum Gulf, where they are found at 

 elevations of from 140 feet to (at least) 175 feet, and occasionally 

 280 feet, above the present level of the Caspian ; and next, that 

 the Karakum Sands bear no traces of fluviatile deposits or of 

 the levelling action of water which would be apparent in case 

 the Karakum Gulf had harboured a river after its desiccation. 

 The hillocks, 150 feet to 250 feet high, which cover these sands, 

 are marine dunes, and the elongated depressions filled with 

 salt water (shors), which are considered as indicative of old 

 river beds, have nowhere the regularity which old river beds 

 would be possessed of. They are traces of a retreated sea. 



It is evident that further exploration is wanted ; but it must be 

 acknowledged that the absence of river deposits in the Karakum 

 Sands militates in favour of M. Konshin's views. P. K. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Prok. R. B. Owens, of the Nebraska University, has been 

 appointed to the McDonald chair of Electrical Engineering in the 

 McGill University, Montreal. 



The following appointments have been made in the School 

 of Agriculture, Ghizeh, Egypt : — Senior Professor of Agriculture, 

 Mr. H. J. Monson. lecturer on agriculture and horticulture at 

 the Yorkshire College, Leeds ; Junior Professor of Agriculture, 

 Mr. Andrew Linton, B.Sc. (Hons.), Durham University. 



The 1898-99 programme of technological examinations con- 

 ducted by the City and Guilds of London Institute has just 

 been published by Messrs. Whittaker and Co. The contents 

 comprise syllabuses of the seventy subjects in which examin- 

 ations are held, and copies of the papers set at this year's 

 examinations. At the end of the syllabus of each subject is a 

 list of works of reference, which must prove of great service to 

 both teachers and students. 



The doctorates conferred by universities in the United 

 States in 1897 are classified in Science, with the view to com- 

 paring the tendency of the work of the students. It is pointed 

 out that the American university is definitely a place for 

 research, where both teachers and students are engaged in 

 research or in learning the methods of research. The results 

 of the work of the students is, therefore, in large measure 

 summarised by the theses for the doctorate, and it is interesting 

 to know what is the outcome of the past year's research. It 

 appears from the classified list referred to that eighteen 

 leading universities conferred the Ph.D. degree on 234 

 candidates. Of this total number, no less than 105 degrees 

 were conferred for scientific theses. The Humanities came 

 next with 91 degrees, while History and Economics numbered 

 only 38 degrees. 



The reports of inspectors on schools and classes under the 

 Department of Science and Art, contained in the forty-fifth 

 annual report of the Department, show that the teaching of 

 science in the Government schools is undergoing distinct im- 

 provement. In the schools of science inspection has entirely 

 taken the place of examination, at any rate in the elementary 

 course, and this, by relieving the teacher of the strain entailed 

 by preparation for examination at a prescribed date, has tended 

 to sounder and more satisfactory work. It is being gradually 

 realised that a school of science should be characterised more 

 by a systematic course of study than by the mere possession of 

 laboratories and apparatus. In classes in physics and chemistry 

 a decided improvement in the methods of teaching is reported. 

 Apparatus is more freely used than formerly, the teaching is less 

 mechanical, and increased attention is being given to practical 

 work. There can be no doubt that the practical instruction in 



NO. 1505, VOL. 58] 



these and other science subjects adds enormously to the value of 

 the theoretical lessons, and it is to be hoped that the number of 

 schools arranging for such work will increase year by year. 



The coordination of the work of the class-room and laborator 

 was the subject of a paper read by Prof. Gaetono Lanza, Pro 

 fessor of Applied Mechanics, Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 

 nology, at the recent annual meeting of the American Society for 

 the Promotion of Engineering Educatio n. Prof. Lanza insisted 

 that pure science and literature should not be neglected in an 

 engineering education, and he pointed out that to impart to the 

 student a thorough mastery of scientific principles far outweighs 

 in importance anything else that can be done for him, and 

 this is the chief function of an engineering course. The 

 class-room work forms the basis of the course ; and the labor- 

 atory work, to serve its purpose, must be based upon the class- 

 room work which has preceded it, must be thoroughly co- 

 ordinated with it, and must be made to depend upon it, to use 

 it, and to serve as an aid to illustrate the principles involved. 

 The functions of the engineering laboratory are partly to em- 

 phasise and illustrate the work of the class-room, partly to drill 

 the students in performing carefully and accurately such ex- 

 perimental work as they are liable to be called upon to perforin 

 in the practice of their professions, and partly to teach them to 

 carry on experimental investigation. In order to fulfil these 

 purposes there should be an intimate relation between the class- 

 room and the laboratory work, and the student should be made 

 to work up the results of the tests in the light of what he has 

 learned in the class-room. Prof. Lanza concluded by expressing 

 the view that any organisation which does not tend to preserve 

 the most intimate relation between the two, is not for the best 

 interests of the student and should not exist. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, vol. iv. 

 No. 10, July. — The structure of the hypoabelian groups, by 

 Dr. L. E. Dickson, gives a marked simplification both in the 

 general conceptions and in the detailed developments of the 

 theory of the two hypoabelian groups of Jordan and of the 

 author's generalisation ("the first hypoabelian group general- 

 ised," Q.J. of Mathematics, 1898), to the Galois field of order 

 2" of the first group. It is important, for the generalisation, to 

 give these groups an abstract definition independent of the theory 

 of "exposants d'echange," by means of which Jordan derived 

 them. The crucial point in the simplified treatment lies in 

 the discovery of the explicit relations 



i;-'" (»■) (.) i-'« (.) (.) 



id ah = w, y a S -f a', -h iS'i -f f\ -f- 8', =: m, 



satisfied by the substitutions of the simple sub-groupsy andyj, 

 respectively, but ruling out the remainmg substitutions of the 

 total hypoabelian groups G and G^. The paper was read in 

 abstract at the Chicago meeting, April 9. — The following 

 five papers were read at the meeting of the Society held on 

 April 30 (for an account of five other papers read at the same 

 meeting, see vol. Iviii. No. 1500, p. 310). — On the Hamilton 

 groups, by Dr. G. A. Miller. Dedekind's definition of such a 

 group is that it is a non-Abelian group, all of whose sub-groups are 

 self-conjugate. If the order of such a group is /i" //' p^' . . . 

 (A>A»/3- • • being prime numbers) it must be the direct product 

 of its sub-groups of orders /i"', p^"'', p^', . . . since each of these 

 sub-groups is self-conjugate, and no two of them can have any 

 common operator except identity {Math. Annal. , vol. xxii. p. 97). 

 Each of these sub-groups is either Abelian or Hamiltonian. Dr. 

 Miller proceeds to show that one of the given prime numbers 

 must be 2, and that every sub-group whose order is a power of 

 any other prime number must be Abelian. The results are 

 conveniently summarised at the end of the short paper. — Note 

 on the infinitesimal projective transformation, by Prof. E. O. 

 Lovett. The writer proposes to find the form of the most 

 general infinitesimal projective transformation of ordinary space 

 directly from its simplest characteristic geometric property. 

 Geometrically, these transformations are those infinitesimal 

 point transformations which transform a plane into a plane, 

 i.e. which leave invariant the family of oc^ planes of ordinary 

 space.— Prof. Lovett contributes a further note on infinitesimal 

 transformations of concentric conies. He defines a family of 

 curves to be invariant under the transformations of a continuous 

 group of transformations when the family is invariant under the 



