June 28, 1900] 



NA rURE 



209 



shielding box. The impact of electric waves upon the receiver 

 is indicated by the ringing of the bell. The radiator can be 

 placed at different angular positions. With this apparatus are 

 shown experiments illustrating the opacity of metallic screens, 

 continuous or perforated to electric radiation; the transparency 

 of insulating screens, and the transparency or opacity of various 

 liquids. Water is found to be particularly opaque even in very 

 thin layers. All damp objects are very impervious to this radi- 

 ation, such as a wet duster, a moist brick, tobacco having more 

 than the legal amount of water added to it, and the human body 

 or hand. The refraction of electric waves is shown by the use 

 of a paraffin wax prism, the concentration by paraffin lenses, and 

 the polarised quality of the rays by their reflection or stoppage 

 by parallel wire gratings. Also the production of secondary 

 oscillations in linear conductors by holding rods of metal or 

 tubes of liquid in the radiation. The wave length of the radia- 

 tion is measured by producing interference as a result of splitting 

 the beam into two portions and transmitting the two portions 

 down two zinc tubes, the relative lengths of which can be 

 adju.sted. 



Prof. A. C. Haddon, F.R.S., cinematograph photographs of 

 native dances in Torres Straits. 



THE RE-ORGANISATION OF THE 

 EDUCATION DEPARTMENT. 

 T N introducing the Secondary Education Bill to the House of 

 -*• Lords on Tuesday last, the Duke of Devonshire made the 

 following remarks on the re-organisation of the Education 

 Department : — 



" Your lordships may remember that on the Bill of last year 

 some discussion took place upon the future organisation of the 

 Education Department. I thought at the time, and I am still 

 more strongly of opinion now, that that discussion was some- 

 what premature. It proceeded on the assumption that the 

 organisation of the new office would continue on the same lines 

 as those which had existed when the educational departments 

 were separate and distinct, and that there would be in the new 

 office two divisions, one of which would carry on the work of 

 the old Education Office in connection with elementary educa- 

 tion, and the other of which would carry on the work of the 

 Science and Art Department. . . . We now propose to revert to 

 a dual organisation of the office, but not entirely upon the lines of 

 the late Education and Science and Art Departments. The prin- 

 cipal officers of the department which we propose will be a 

 principal permanent secretary, who will supervise generally the 

 whole work of the department. It must be remembered, when 

 special importance is attached to this or that minor subordinate 

 appointment, that it will be the permanent secretary who will be 

 responsible to the President of the Board in the administration 

 of the whole department, and that it is impossible, and would 

 be undesirable if it were possible, that the office should be 

 divided into what I may call water-tight compartments, the 

 head of each of which would be charged with special duties and 

 no other, and that the idea should be entertained that the work 

 of the office should be carried on in several departments, which 

 should have no connection or relation with each other. We 

 propose that under the principal permanent secretary there shall be 

 two principal assistant secretaries, one mainly charged with duties 

 in connection with elementary and the other with secondary educa- 

 tion. We propose to abolish the name ' Science and Art Depart- 

 ment.' The Science and Art Department will be merged in 

 the secondary education branch of the office. As soon as it may 

 be possible, we propose to transfer the greater part of the staff 

 of the late Science and Art Department from South Kensington 

 to Whitehall, except such part of it as may be necessary to 

 leave at South Kensington for the administration of the museum 

 and the colleges of science and art. In place of the third 

 division that was contemplated, we now propose to give the 

 principal assistant secretary of secondary education two addi- 

 tional assistant secretaries, one of whom will be chiefly charged 

 with the .supervision and control of literary instruction, and 

 the other of technological study. This is not the organisa- 

 tion, I admit, to which I partly committed myself last year; 

 but I trust that it may, in substance, meet the views, 

 especially the later views, which have been expressed to 

 me by high educational authorities. With the name we 

 hope to get rid of many of the traditions which were sup- 

 posed to attach to the old Science and Art Department — 



NO. 1600, VOL. 62] 



traditions which have, I believe, been regarded as opposed to 

 the true interests of education by many of those who have been 

 responsible for the management of the older endowed schools. 

 The original idea of the Science and Art Department was, or at 

 all events was supposed to be, that by means of lectures, classes, 

 and examinations a knowledge of the principles of science and 

 art, which would be valuable to the students themselves and to 

 the nation at large, could be engrafted upon almost any kind of 

 previous elementary or secondary training. It is quite true 

 that this idea has been in recent years very largely modified, but 

 I do not think that it is yet generally known how far the original 

 traditions of the Science and Art Department have been already 

 departed from. We hope and intend that the idea of the future 

 education branch of the office will be to make science and art 

 instruction a part ol general education in addi ion to those cla.ssical 

 and literary studies which have hitherto formed its main portion. 

 In the schools and institutions directly assisted by the Board of 

 Education the teaching of .science and of art, with the addition, 

 perhaps, of some commercial subjects, will probably remain the 

 principal object. But, on the other hand, in those secondary 

 schools, whether of older or more modern type, which desire to 

 enter into connection with the board, there ought not to be, and 

 there need not be, any interference with the older classical and 

 literary studies so long as there continues to be a demand 

 for them. At the same time, we hope that the scientific 

 resources of the Board will be placed at their disposal 

 if they desire, as many of them do desire, to develop 

 the more modern sides of instruction and education. . . . 

 It may be of interest to the House to know what are the 

 principal appointments which have been made or are proposed 

 to be made in the principal office of the new secondary educa- 

 tion branch of the department. Sir George Kekewich, the late 

 secretary of the Board of Education, has become the permanent 

 principal secretary of the new Board, and it is he who will be 

 responsible to the President of the Board and to the Govern- 

 ment for the administration of the department as a whole. The 

 principal assistant secretary for secondary education will be Sir 

 William Abney, who has done more than any other man in ex- 

 tending the studies of the schools of science under the Science 

 and Art Department. Under him the assistant secretary to deal 

 with the literary side of instruction will be Mr. Bruce, an assis- 

 tant commissioner to the Charity Commission under the En- 

 dowed Schools Act, who has been chiefly engaged and has 

 obtained much experience in the administration of the Welsh 

 Act. The assistant secretary for technological study has not yet 

 been appointed." 



UNI VERS 1 1 Y AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge.— Prof. Sir Michael Poster has been nominated 

 by the Council of the Senate as the representative of the 

 University of Cambridge on the Council of the Jenner Institute 

 of Preventive Medicine. 



Mr. A. W. Hill, of King's College, and Mr. L. Lewton- 

 Brain. of St. John's College, have been appointed University 

 Demonstrators in Botany. 



Mr. E. E. Walker, Trinity College, has been elected to the 

 Harkness Scholarship in Geology and Palaeontology. 



Prof. Woodhead announces ten courses of lectures and 

 demonstrations in Pathology and Bacteriology to be held during 

 the ensuing Long Vacation. 



Mr. Shelford Bidwell, F. R.S., was on June 19 admitted to 

 the degree of Doctor of Science. 



Mr. \V. N. Shaw, F.R.S., has been elected a Senior Fellow 

 of Emmanuel College. It is a condition attaching to his tenure 

 that he shall give annually in the University not less than three 

 lectures on the Physics ot the Atmosphere or some kindred 

 subject. Mr. C. T. R. Wilson, FR.S., formerly Clerk 

 Maxwell Student in experimental physics, has been elected to a 

 fellowship at Sidney Sussex College. 



The following have been awarded scholarships or exhibitions 

 in Natural Science at the several colleges at the end of the 

 academical year : — 



Clare Collej;e : Bailey, Cartwright, Cassidy, Hughes. 



Pembroke College : Lang, Anderson, Hall. 



King's College : Kewley, French, Wilde, Mollison, Mclntyre. 



Christ's College : Fox, Moore, Wilson, Macnab, Muff, 

 Cumberlidge, Sewell. 



