July 26, 191 7] 



NATURE 



439 



the year 1917-18 as follows :— 25/., Mr. Nilratan Dhar, 

 for research on temperature coefficients of chemical 

 reactions; 30^., Mr. H. R. Nettleton, for researches on 

 the measurement of the Thomson effect in wires; 2oi., 

 Dr. D. Ellis, towards the cost of publication of a 

 book on 'Iron Bacteria"; looZ., Mr. Birbal Sahni, 

 to enable him to carry out botanical investigations at 

 Cambridge. 



RegTilations have been adopted for the degree of 

 B.Sc. in horticulture for external students. 



Thb appointment is announced of Mr. G. Gerald 

 Stonev to be professor of mechanical engineering in 

 the Manchester School of Technology-. Mr. Stoney 

 has had a seat on the B6ard of Inventions and Re- 

 search under Lord Fisher, and on the Engineering 

 Committee of the Advisor}' Council for Scientific and 

 Industrial Research. Prospectuses of the university 

 courses in the School of Technology for the session 

 1917-18 are now available, and provide full particulars 

 of the work expected from students proceeding to the 

 degrees of Bachelor of Technical Science and Master 

 of Technical Science. 



The report of the conference convened by the 

 Workers' Educational .Association, held on May 3 last 

 in the Central Hall, Westminster, has just been 

 published. The findings of the conference are the 

 more impressive since they represent the conclusions 

 of a widely representative body of delegates, number- 

 ing between 700 and 800, not only from labour organ- 

 isations and co-operative societies, but from educa- 

 tional associations, teachers' organisations, local 

 authorities, and the universities. The resolutions call 

 for the establishment of small and easilv accessible 

 nursery schools for the due care and nurture of young 

 children from two years of age until six ; the abolition 

 of all exemptions from school attendance up to four- 

 teen ; the raising of the school age up to fifteen within 

 five years, and to sixteen within three further years ; 

 the provision of maintenance allowance over the age 

 of fourteen, and the abolition of all child labour for 

 wages during compulsory full-time attendance ; the 

 immediate reduction of the size of classes to forty 

 pupils, and ultimately to thirty ; the establishment of 

 adequate medical inspection and treatment of all 

 scholars and improvement in school meals ; better 

 facilities for games, swimming, and open-air teaching, 

 together with means of conveyance where children 

 reside more than a mile from school. The policv of 

 the conference was declared to be the establishment 

 of a broad highway so as to ensure the highest 

 facilities of education to all capable scholars. To 

 this end it is prof>osed to limit the hours of labour 

 for all young persons under eighteen vears of age to 

 twenty-five hours per week, and to establish com- 

 pulsory ^art-time education for such persons of not 

 fewer than twenty hours per week, and that such 

 education shall be directed to the full development of 

 the bodies, minds, and characters of the puoils. 

 Further, it is demanded that free, full-time secondar>- 

 education shall be provided, together with an 

 adequate supply of scholarships to enable scholars of 

 ability to enter a university. In order to secure the 

 necessary supply of good teachers of both sexes, it 

 is claimed that adequate salaries shall be paid and 

 pensions provided with equal pay for equal service. 

 Each local education authority is to be required to 

 submit a complete scheme for its area to the Board 

 of Education, 75 per cent, of the total cost of which 

 shall be met from the National Exchequer, and where 

 the conditions are inadequately fulfilled there shall 

 be a reduced percentage. 



NO. 2491, VOL. 99] 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 I'aris. 

 Academy of Sciences, June 18. — M..A. d'.Arsonval in 

 the chair. — J. Boussinesq : The limiting equili- 

 brium of a sandy mass under given condi- 

 tions. — C. Gnichard :' Surfaces such that the La- 

 place equation of the network formed by the 

 lines of curvature is integrable. — A. Righi : 

 The ionisation of the X-rays in a magnetic field. 

 Earlier work by the author on the influence exerted by 

 the magnetic field on the phenomena of discharge pointed 

 to the existence of a new action of the field on gases 

 tending to increase their ionisation. This effect, to 

 which the name magneto-ionisation is given, may be 

 explained on the assumption that the electromagnetic 

 force acting upon a satellite electron in the atom causes 

 a variation in the energy necessan.- to separate the 

 electron from the atom. In the present paper a direct ex- 

 perimental proof of this effect is given. — R. Bourgeois 

 was elected a member of the section of geography 

 and navigation in succession to the late M. Hatt, and 

 E. Solvay a correspondant for the section of chemistry 

 in the place of the late Sir Henry Roscoe. — G. D. 

 Birkhoff : A generalisation of Taylor's series. — H. 

 Duport : The law- of universal attraction. — Ed. 

 Chauvenet : The zirconyl sulphates. The six combina- 

 tions of zirconia and sulphuric acid described in a 

 previous paper are considered from the points of view 

 of modes of formation and probable composition. All 

 are represented as zirconyl salts containing the group 

 ZrO. — J. Bouganit : The action of iodine on alkalies. 

 A study of the oxidising powers of iodine in presence 

 of caustic soda, sodium carbonate, and sodium bi- 

 carbonate. — M. Guerbet : The condensation, under the 

 action of potash, of cyciohexanol with isopropyl 

 alcohol. The synthesis of cycZohexyli^opropyl alcohol. 

 — M. Sanger : The time of fall of a stone to the centre 

 of the earth. The problem is cdnsidered, taking into 

 account the variation of the density of the globe with 

 the depth. The time found is 19m. 15s. ; on the 

 assumption of a density' equal to the mean density the 

 time found is 79s. greater. — L. Daniel : The preserva- 

 tion of our oaks. The spread of the fungus causing 

 the Blanc dti Chine is shown to be connected with the 

 method of lopping the trees. The usual practice is a 

 drastic lopping ever\' seven years. This destroys the 

 normal moisture equilibrium of the tree ; the absorptive 

 apparatus remains intact, but the reduction in the leaf 

 surface causes the retention of an excess of moisture 

 in the tissues, a condition favourable to the spread of 

 the fungus. It has been proved that trees just lopped 

 are more easily attacked than those lopped the preced- 

 ing vear ; the latter are more easily attacked tl\an those 

 trees lopped several years earlier. A modified system 

 of lopping is proposed, but it is pointed out that State 

 action will probably be necessary, since the interests of 

 the farmers and owners are opposed, and it is not 

 likely that the cultivators will willingly change their 

 oresent system of working. — Mme. Marie PhisaKx : 

 The parotid poison gland of the Colubrid^. — W. 

 Ropaczewski : Researches on the serum of Muraena 

 helena. The serum of this species is very toxic. A 

 dose of 0-05 c.c. is fatal to a guinea-pig, an amount 

 corresponding to 4-19 mgr. of dry substance. 04 c.c. 

 of serum killed a rabbit in four minutes, and 1-5 c.c. 

 killed a dog (5 kilograms) in sevent\- minutes. — \. 

 Krempf : A new endc^lobular hematozoa in man 

 (Haemogregarina hominis). The organism was 

 isolated from the hypertrophied spleen of a Chinese 

 from the neighbourhood of Tientsin. Only one case 

 is described, but it would appear that the disease 

 caused by this organism is common in some parts of 

 China. 



