September 6, 1900] 



NATURE 



463 



indirectly dependent on the dynamical changes taking place at 

 the sun's surface. 



iii. The distance between the instantaneous and mean poles 

 decreases with increasing intensity of earth-magnetic disturb- 

 ance. 



iv. The length of the period of latitude-variation increases 

 with increasing intensity of earth -magnetic disturbance. 



V. In strict analogy with the phenomena of aurorne and of 

 magnetic disturbance, the influence of the eleven-years period 

 of sun-spots, as well as of the "great " period, is clearly exhibited 

 in the phenomenon of latitude-variation ; and the same devia- 

 tions from the solar curve as are manifested by the aurorre are 

 also evident in the motion of the pole. 



vi. The half-yearly period of the earth-magnetic phenomena 

 influences the motion of the pole of rotation in such a way that 

 its path, instead of being circular, assumes the form of an 

 ellipse, having the mean pole at its centre. 



vii. The half-yearly period also explains the conspicuous fact 

 of a rotation of the axes of the ellipse in a direction opposite to 

 that of the motion of the pole. J. Halm. 



67V/ VERS I TV AND ED UCA TIONA L 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Prof. J, G. MacGregor, of Dalhousie University, Halifax, 

 jya Scotia, has been appointed professor of physics in 

 "iversity College, Liverpool, in succession to Prof. Lodge. 



^The Calendar of the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical 

 College, for the session 1900-1901, has been received. Among 

 the contents of the volume we are glad to notice schemes of 

 courses of study, extending over three years, for students who 

 intend to take up some branch of applied science or engineering 

 as a profession. Students are permitted to attend single classes, 

 but they are encouraged to follow one of the regular courses in 

 the several departments of study. This is the only way to 

 derive any real advantage from a Technical College, desultory 

 attendance at classes without any definite object being of little 

 value. 



At a special meeting of the University Court of St. Andrews, 

 held on Saturday last, the proposal of the Marquis of Bute, who 

 offered a sum of 20,000/. to be held as a fund for endowing a 

 chair of anatomy in the University, was considered. After 

 deliberation, the Court resolved cordially to accept the proposed 

 gift on the conditions as stipulated by his lordship, and to 

 request the Lord Rector to inform Lord Bute of the Court's 

 decision. The Court further resolved to proceed at once with 

 the creation of a professorship of anatomy at St. Andrews, to be 

 endowed by Lord Bute's gift, the first presentation to the chair 

 being Dr. Musgrove, the present lecturer in anatomy,- such 

 presentation to be made as soon as the ordinance creating the 

 chair is approved by her Majesty in Council. 



The mission of science in education was recently considered 

 in some detail by Prof. J. M. Coulter in an address delivered at 

 the University of Michigan, and published in Science. The 

 claims set forth in the paper are formulated as follows :— The 

 introduction of science among the subjects used in education 

 has revolutionised the methods of teaching, and all subjects 

 have felt the impulse of a new life ; it has developed the 

 scientific spirit, which prompts to investigation, which demands 

 that belief shall rest upon a foundation of adequate demonstra- 

 tion, which recognises that the sphere of influence surrounding 

 facts may be speedily traversed and that everything beyond is as 

 uncertain as if there were no facts ; it has introduced a training 

 peculiar to itself, in that it teaches the attitude of self-elimina- 

 tion, an attitude necessary in order to reach ultimate truth, and 

 thus supplements and steadies the other half of life, which is to 

 appreciate. To obtain these results, there must be teachers 

 who can teach, whose background and source of supply is the 

 investigator. Moreover, the results are immensely desirable, 

 inasmuch as they do not interfere with anything that is fine and 

 uplifting in the old education, but simply mean that the possi- 

 bilities of high attainment and high usefulness are open to a far 

 greater number. 



NO. 16 10, VOL. 62] 



Messrs. S. Z. de Ferranti, the electrical engineers at 

 Hollinwood, near Oldham, have just adopted an educational 

 scheme for their apprentices. Success at evening classes, com- 

 bined with steady work, are to be the chief recommendations for 

 promotion from one department to another. And the apprentice 

 who obtains the highest position in the South Kensington Ex- 

 aminations in subjects of importance to the theoretical training 

 of an engineer will be awaided a scholarship tenable in the day 

 engineering department of the Manchester Municipal Technical 

 School. His fees will be paid by Messrs. Ferranti, and also the 

 wages he would receive if working in their shops. Mr. F. 

 Brocklehurst takes this generous scheme as the text of a pam- 

 phlet upon " Technical Education," issued by the Technical 

 Instruction Committee of Manchester, and he hangs upon it some 

 instructive remarks as to the responsibilities of manufacturers 

 and the nation at large, if England is to maintain her position 

 in the industrial world. Referring to education in Switzerland, he 

 points out that at Winterthur, a small engineering town near 

 Zurich, the technical school is attended by 400 day students who 

 have voluntarily left their employment (sacrificing their wages 

 in so doing) for one or two sessions in ordej to devote themselves 

 to technical study. The town, the canton and the State com- 

 bine to assist the realisation of their ambitions by bearing the 

 burden of cost, and in keeping the fees of the technical school 

 low. In the same way the great Polytechnic of Zurich is 

 crowded in its day department with hundreds of young men pre- 

 paring themselves for the engineering, electrical and chemical in- 

 dustries. Germany provides many ^similar examples. In the 

 Technical High School of Darmstadt there are to be found 1 100 

 day students, all of them over eighteen years of age j many of them 

 graduates of universities, and the remainder having received a 

 splendid high-class education in secondary schools. These are 

 engaged in the study of electrical, chemical or mechanical 

 science directly bearing upon industrial pursuits. This is only 

 one of many technical high schools in Germany, the culmina- 

 tion of which is seen in the Charlottenberg Technical High 

 School, near Berlin — the finest institution of its kind in the 

 world — with its more than 2000 day students. These young 

 men are being prepared for the highest positions, as technical 

 chemists, mechanical, naval, civil and railway engineers, ship- 

 builders and architects. There are now in the German Tech- 

 nical High Schools no fewer than 11,000 day students. In 

 connection with the figures given it must be noted that (i) they 

 ate exclusive of science students taking university courses; (2> 

 the pupils are without exception youths of over eighteen years 

 of age ; and (3) each technical high school insists upon an 

 entrance examination of an exacting character. 



The great advance of the United States in engineering is, as 

 Mr. Brocklehurst remarks in his pamphlet referred to above, 

 largely due to the fact that during the last forty years very im- 

 portant engineering schools have been founded. The chief of 

 these is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Boston. 

 This is attended by 1171 day students, whose average age at 

 entrance is eighteen years and nine months, and who are either 

 graduates from other colleges or have attended the public high 

 schools for at least four years. The Worcester Engineering 

 Polytechnic has 823 day students. Nearly 1000 are in tl^e 

 Lehigh Engineering College. The Stevens Institute of Tech- 

 nology, New Jersey, has 214; and the Case School of Applied 

 Science in Cleveland, Ohio, 218. Five hundred and ninety- 

 seven day students attend the classes of the Sheffield Scientific- 

 School in Connecticut, while the Sibley College of Engineering 

 — part of Cornell University, New York — has 492 day students. 

 There are 242 day students in the Engineering Department of 

 the University of Michigan. A recent report shows that in the 

 Engineering Colleges of the United States the number of day 

 students enrolled is 9659, and that their growth since 1878 is 

 516 per cent. ! Fifty-one per cent, of these students have had 

 a three-year high school course, which would bring them to 

 seventeen years of age. The number of engineering students 

 graduated in 1899 was 1413, and the number of institutions pro- 

 viding an education in this branch of technical instructioa 

 (engineering) is 89. This is exclusive of evening work altogether. 

 It is also exclusive of what America is doing in the fields of 

 chemistry and textiles. Little wonder is it that this wealth of 

 educational opportunity is producing its crop of skilled craftsmen 

 trained to compete on more than equal terms with the Briton. 

 The Manchester Technical Institution Committee is doing a 

 service to the nation by placing these facts prominently before 

 the manufacturers of the district. 



