October i8, 1900] 



NATURE 



615 



The trustees of the College of the City of New York are, 

 according to Science, considering the lengthening of the course 

 to seven years. They have asked that the appropriation of 

 200,000 dollars made to the institution by the Board of 

 Estimate and Apportionment be increased by 25,000 dollars. 



The Berlin University has, it is stated, decided to alter the 

 conditions permitting foreigners to take the title of doctor of 

 philosophy. Foreigners are only to be allowed to graduate if 

 they hold certificates equivalent to that of the Humanistischer 

 Gymnasium, Realgymnasium, or the Oberrealschule of the 

 German Empire. 



The Pioneer Mail, Allahabad, states that a petition is about 

 to be presented to the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal asking 

 that the Behar School of Engineering may be affiliated to the 

 Calcutta University. " The one thing," the petitioners observe, 

 "which has hampered the progress of the school in the past 

 has been the uncertainty regarding its future. If Government 

 will now settle the matter finally by raising the school to the 

 status of a College, all obstacles in the way of the development 

 of technical education in Behar will be for ever removed." 



The new Municipal Technical School which was opened by 

 the Earl of Derby a few days ago, at Bootle, an enterprising 



be developed by the teaching of the grammar of iron-work in the 

 way indicated. In time it is hoped that this branch of the school 

 will need extension and that it may then be possible to equip a 

 mechanical laboratory provided with testing machines and demon- 

 stration appliances on a larger scale than can be used in an 

 ordinary class room. As to the cost of carrying out this work 

 under the new conditions, a sum of something like 700/. per 

 annum will be required from the rates. Fees, grants and Im- 

 perial funds will in all probability contribute about 3,700/. per 

 annum. Hitherto no rate has been levied for purposes of 

 technical instruction, and the educational work has been entirely 

 paid for from students' fees and Imperial grants. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Royal Society, June 21. — "On the Spectroscopic Examina- 

 tion of Colour produced by Simultaneous Contrast." By 

 George J. Burch, M.A., Reading College, Reading. Com- 

 municated by Francis Gotch, F.R.S., Professor of Physiology, 

 University of Oxford. 



It is well known that a neutral grey looks blue-green against 



;al School. Bootle. 



borough on the borders of Liverpool, is shown in the accompany- I 

 ing illustration. Classes in science and technology have been 

 held in Bootle since 1891, but the work has been very restricted 

 on account of lack of adequate accommodation. The question i 

 of providing a special building for the work to be carried on and | 

 developed soon became a pressing one, and in 1897 a suitable I 

 site was obtained. In due course tenders were invited, and the I 

 handsome and convenient building here shown was erected at a | 

 cost of 22,065/. Four schools are to be accommodated in the 

 building, viz. (i) the evening school, consisting of many science 

 and commercial classes and some trade or technological classes ; 

 (2) a school of art, located in the upper rooms on the Balliol 

 Road frontage ; (3) a school of domestic economy placed in a 

 special portion of the west wing ; (4) a day-school for boys of 

 twelve years of age and upwards, giving a course of instruction as 

 nearly as possible on the lines of a good secondary or modern 

 high school. The engineering department contains modern 

 machines of workshop size, fitted up conveniently for demonstra- 

 ting and teaching the essential workshop processes in engineer- 

 ing on a small but useful scale. Of course, a trade will not be 

 taught, for commercial and industrial conditions cannot hold in 

 a school ; but care, accuracy, thought, possibly invention, may 



a red ground and orange against a blue ground. This pheno- 

 menon may be spectroscopically investigated as follows : — 



A square of red glass is inserted on one side of the central 

 partition of an ordinary stereoscope, and a square of blue glass 

 on the other. Over each eye-lens is fixed one of Thorp's 

 replicas of Rowland's gratings having 15,000 lines to the inch. 

 Two slits are held in a frame in front of the aperture by which 

 light is usually admitted when using the stereoscope for opaque 

 photographs. The spectra of the first order of these slits appear 

 in the middle of the two glasses. In order to prevent direct 

 admixture of the colours of each spectrum with those of the 

 opposite background, two opaque squares of black material are 

 cemented to each of the coloured glasses, so shaped as to appear 

 of the exact size and position of the spectra. On looking 

 through the stereoscope, two spectra are seen side by side on a 

 field, the colour of which continually oscillates from red 

 through purplish-grey to blue. That connected with the red 

 gla.ss shows little or no red, but a splendid green and an equally 

 splendid violet ; while that belonging to the blue glass has the 

 red well developed, the green pale and dingy, and the blue 

 almost absent. The effect of varying the nature of the blue 

 screen is very instructive. With cobalt glass the red is not very 



NO. 1616, VOL. 62] 



