October 6, 1898] 



NATURE 



^^7. 



more complex than themselves, they cause either a distinct 

 chemical change or set up undulations within the range of the 

 visible spectrum. 



May it be that there are similar oscillations in the sun, that 

 the simpler materials out of which the photospheric clouds are 

 condensed vibrate too quickly to give out visible light, but that 

 their oscillations are rendered visible when they are absorbed 

 and responded to by the more complex groupings of the con- 

 densed masses? A sun-spot, looked upon as a partial absence 

 of clouds, would mean that the conditions which serve to screen 

 us to a great extent from the rapid undulations have been some- 

 what modified. 



Is it too much to suppose, in view of the close resemblances 

 between many of the actions of light and electricity, and of the 

 well-known electrical effects of ultra-violet light and of X-rays, 

 that the breaking down of a dielectric which they can accom- 

 plish may, on a vastly larger scale, accompany an unusual 

 exposure of the earth to similarly rapid undulations? Should 

 there be anything in this suggestion, it may help to remove a 

 part of the difficulty in relating the presence of sun-spots to 

 those casual electrical disturbances with which they undoubtedly 

 coincide in point of time. 



UNI VERS I TY AND ED UCA TIONA L 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



A NF.w technical institute was opened at Wellingborough on 

 Thursday last, by Sir Philip Magnus. The building has been 

 erected by the Urban District Council at a cost of 3000/., 

 exclusive of the site, and it will be maintained out of the free 

 library rate. 



The following donations are announced in Science : — Colonel 

 Oliver W. Payne has given 1,500,000 dollars to the Cornell 

 University Medical College ; the late Mr. Rowland Hazard has 

 bequeathed 100,000 dollars to Brown University ; Mr. George 

 A. Gardner has given 20,000 dollars to the Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology, to be added to the general endowment 

 fund ; Dr. D. K. Pearsons, of Chicago, has offered 50,000 

 dollars to Fairmount College, Wichita, Kans., on condition that 

 150,000 dollars can be raised ; in connection with the Maryland 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, the State Legislature has 

 granted 14,000 dollars for the erection of a science hall, to be 

 used jointly by the college and station. 10,000 dollars have 

 also been granted for inaugurating State work in entomology 

 and vegetable pathology, and an annual grant of 8000 dollars 

 for maintenance has been made. 



The new Technical Institute and Public Library, erected 

 by the West Ham Corporation, will be opened to-day by Mr. 

 J. Passmore Edwards. The foundation-stone of a natural 

 history museum, which will be built close by, will also be laid. 

 The Technical Institute, the principal of which is Mr. A. E. 

 Briscoe, will be wholly under the control of the municipality, 

 and will be financed from municipal sources. Every department 

 is well equipped, special attention being paid to the chemical 

 laboratories and the engineering workshops. The buildings 

 have cost 450,000/., and a further 15,000/. has been spent on 

 equipment and fittings. The money for the working has been 

 created by ihe accumulation of the Excise duties grants, but the 

 corporation have secured sanction to raise 35,000/., and have 

 power to levy a \d. rate (which will produce about 3800/.) for 

 technical instruction purposes. The new central library is 

 wholly on the ground floor, and is fitted with all the modern 

 appliances of such institutions. Towards the cost of the natural 

 history museum Mr. Passmore Edwards has contributed 2500/. 

 The Essex Field Club, who will have the scientific control of 

 the museum, will house their large collection here. 



I.N the course of an address upon *' Science and Education," 

 delivered at Mason College on Tuesday, Sir Archibald Geikie 

 remarked that there is no more pernicious doctrine than that 

 which measures the commercial value of science by its immediate 

 practical usefulness, and restricts its place in education to those 

 only of its subdivisions which are of service to the industries of 

 the present time. By all means let artisans know as much as 

 could be taught them regarding the nature and laws of the 

 scientific processes in which they are engaged. But it is not by 

 mere technical instruction that the industrial and commercial 

 greatness of the country will be maintained and extended. If 



NO. I 5 10, VOL. 58] 



we are not only to hold our own, but to widen the boundaries of 

 applied science, to perfect our manufactures, and to bring new 

 departments of nature into the service of man, it is by broad, 

 thorough, untrammelled scientific research that the success must 

 be achieved. The continued development of the faculty ot 

 prompt and accurate observation is a task on which students 

 cannot bestow too much attention. Amongst the mental habits 

 which education in science helps to foster are a few which 

 specially deserve attention as worthy of most sedulous care all 

 through life. In the first place should be put accuracy ; in the 

 next thoroughness, which is closely akin to accuracy ; then 

 breadth ; then the habit of wide reading in scientific literature ; 

 and then patience. It is by failures as well as by successes that 

 the true ideal of the man of science is reached. 



The following entrance and other scholarships have been 

 awarded at London Medical Schools : — London Hospital Medi- 

 cal College : Price Scholarship, value 120/., Mr. F. W. Jones ; 

 Epsom Scholarship, value 126/., Mr. Colmer ; Price University 

 Scholarship, value 60/., Mr. Bousfield ; Science Scholarship,, 

 value 60/., Mr. J. W. Fox; Science Scholarship, value 30/.,, 

 Mr. Rainforth. — Charingcross Hospital Medical School : 

 Livingstone Scholarship (100 guineas) to Mr. G. E. Bellamy ;-, 

 Huxley Scholarship (55 guineas) to Mr. B. R. Bickford ; Uni- 

 versities Scholarships (each 60 guineas) to Mr. H. G. Gabb- 

 and Mr. B. G. Fiddian. Entrance scholarships have also been 

 awarded to Mr. R. H. Cooper (60 guineas), Mr. D. M. Davies 

 (40 guineas), and Mr. T. Law (30 guineas) ; and exhibitions of 

 30 guineas each to Mr. A. C. Ingram, Mr. G. O. Lambert, and^ 

 Mr. B. R. Lloyd.— Guy's Hospital Medical School : Scholar- 

 ships for University students : H. S, French, Christ Church, 

 Oxford, 50/. ; Open Science Scholarship, E. H. B. Milsom, 

 Guy's Hospital Medical School, 150/.; F. Rogerson, Guy's 

 Hospital Medical School, and N. J. Spriggs, private study 

 (equal), 30/. each. — St. Thomas's Hospital Medical School : 

 Entrance Scholarships in Natural Sciences: i5o/.,Chas. Michael 

 Roberts; 60/., Harry Mellor Woodcock; 20/., Charles Hugh 

 Latham. — University College, London, Medical Entrance 

 Scholarships: 131 guineas, Mr. H. A. Haig ; 55 guineas, Mr. 

 M. Stewart Smith ; 55 guineas, Mr. W. M. Sadler.— The first 

 and second entrance scholarships of the Middlesex Hospital 

 Medical School have been awarded to Mr. W. Cameron Macaulay 

 and Mr. William Gordon Taylor, respectively. 



The Secondary Education Bill introduced into the House of 

 Commons by Colonel Lock wood, proposes to separate technical 

 from secondary education. For this and other reasons the 

 Council of the Association of Technical Institutions has entered a 

 protest against the Bill. It is pointed out that the proposed separ- 

 ation of technical and secondary education is an entire reversah 

 of previous educational policy, and if it were carried into effect 

 it would be detrimental to the education of this country. The 

 power which Colonel Lockwood's Bill gives for the creation of a 

 new local authority to deal specially with secondary education is 

 also objected to, the multiplication of local authorities for the 

 purposes of education beyond the elementary stage being re- 

 garded as a retrograde step. Other defects which the BiH 

 possesses are: (i) The proposal to provide for the financial- 

 needs of secondary education by taking away from technical- 

 education part of the money assigned for instruction in science 

 and art, and of the money available under the Local Taxation 

 Act. (2) The proposal that the limits of secondary and technicaV- 

 education shall be settled on the basis of the opinions expressed' 

 by an advisory Council on which secondary schools and teachers - 

 shall be very largely represented, but which shall not contain a. 

 single representative of technical institutions, (3) No provisioi*- 

 is made for the registration of teachers in technical institutions. 

 (4) The proposal that a local secondary education authority shall 

 not provide or have the management of any secondary school. 

 The Council desires that steps should speedily be taken to 

 organise secondary education m this country, and is willing to 

 aid any statesmanlike attempt to accomplish this, but Colonel 

 Lockwood's Bill would, it is pointed out, do mischief by creating 

 a distinction between technical and secondary education, and 

 setting up a purely artificial barrier between the two. It is not 

 expected that the Bill will pass, but as the manner in which it 

 is received may influence the Government to incorporate the 

 proposals contained in it in the Secondary Education Bill to be 

 produced next session, it behoves those interested in technical 

 education to show unmistakably that such provisions as those in 

 Colonel Lockwood's Bill are not generally acceptable. 



