June 4, 1891] 



NATURE 



117 



jects exclusively connected with railways, no account of them is 

 given. (3) Industrial schools with a course of general education 

 not exceeding the scope of the course of primary schools, or 

 sometimes reaching the standard of the second class in village 

 schools with two clashes. In most of them pupils are received 

 who have completed the course in the public school, and who 

 repeat what they have gone through in it. These schools are 

 founded with the object of preparing skilled artisans for village 

 and domestic industries, and also factory hands. They contain 

 workshops for joiners, blacksmiths, carpenters, fitters, tailors, 

 shoemakers, saddlers, bookbinders, &c. ; but few of these in- 

 .stitutions can boast of a systematic course of instruction in trades. 



(4) To this group belong various special and general educational 

 schools for adults, as the school for foremen builders, the school 

 for printers, the evening and Sunday special classes of the Im- 

 perial Technical Society at St. Petersburg, the Riga Industrial 

 School, &c. The teaching in these institutions takes place in 

 the evenings of week-days, and on Sundays, i.e. when the adult 

 workmen for whom they are intended are free from their work, 



(5) This group consists of elementary schools of general educa- 

 tion, i.e. primary, district, or municipal schools with supple- 

 mentary industrial sections. It is worthy of notice that persons 

 who have gone through the whole course, or at least reached a 

 certain standard, at any of the schools of these five groups, enjoy 

 certain privileges with regard to exemption from military service. 



The report then goes on to describe in detail the courses of 

 some of the leading industrial schools as types of the different 

 groups, as well as of the industrial classes attached to the 

 elementary schools. In conclusion, the report summarizes the 

 more important provisions of the ukase of March 7/19, 1888, re- 

 specting the conditions under which technical and industrial 

 schools may be opened in Russia, either wholly or in part, at 

 the expense of the State (given in Appendices I., II., III.). The 

 cost of maintenance of these schools is respectively estimated in 

 the ukase as follows : the intermediate mechanical technical 

 schools at 27,31 ir. (;i^273o) per annum; the elementary 

 mechanical technical schools at I9,436r. (/'1945) per annum ; 

 and the trade schools at ii,96or. {;<,'i20o) per annum. The 

 Ministry of Education has assigned for this year the sum of 

 £if),oo'i for the creation of these technical schools, and it is 

 reported that the Ministry has been urged to devote a consider- 

 able portion of this sum to founding schools in the districts 

 where village industries prevail, the richer manufacturing 

 districts being better able to dispense with State aid. The pro- 

 visions of the ukase are: — (l) The industrial schools for the 

 male inhabitants of the Empire exist for the purpose of diffusing 

 among the population technical education of the intermediate 

 and elementary standards, as well as instruction in handicrafts. 

 (2) The intermediate technical schools impart the instruction and 

 skill indispensable to artificers who are destined in time to act 

 as the trusted assistants of engineers and of other managers of 

 industrial enterprises. (3) The elementary technical schools, 

 besides initiation into the mysteries and methods of some one 

 definite handicraft, likewise impart the knowledge and skill 

 indispensable to men whose duty it will in time become to act as 

 master-workers and immediate overseers of the operations of 

 artisans in industrial establishments. (4) The trade schools 

 exist for the purpose of giving practical tuition in the methods 

 of any one trade, and at the same time of communicating such 

 knowledge and skill as are absolutely necessary to the intelligent 

 execution of the work of such trade. (5) Industrial schools of 

 each of the above-mentioned categories can exist either apart or 

 in conjunction with other similar schools of various degrees and 

 specialities. (7) The industrial schools are supported at the 

 expense of the Crown, or of the zemstvos, societies, guilds, or 

 private individuals, or by funds contributed simultaneously from 

 all these sources. (8) The course in the intermediate technical 

 schools is not to exceed four years ; that of the elementary and 

 trade schools three years. (9) Those who enter trade schools are 

 required to produce a certificate of their having gone through the 

 course of an elementary school ; those who enter the elementary 

 technical schools, a certificate of having gone through the course 

 in a municipal school, or village school, with two classes ; while 

 those who enter intermediate technical schools must have gone 

 through five classes of a KcahchuU. (lo) Those who are 

 unable to satisfy the conditions mentioned in the preceding para- 

 graph, but who have worked not less than two years in industrial 

 institutions, and have proved that they can successfully follow 

 the course at the school they wish to enter, may be also admitted. 

 (II) Industrial schools must have : (a) a library, {b) a room with 



NO. I 127, VOL. 44] 



appliances for geometrical and freehand drawing, {c) where pos- 

 sible a room with appliances for modelling, (a') the necessary 

 school books for the special object for which the school is 

 intended, and in addition the requisite appliances for the 

 practical work of the apprentices. (14) Pupils who have 

 successfully completed their education in an intermediate tech- 

 nical school, after a four years' course, receive the appellation of 

 artificer in their specific calling. Those who have only gone 

 through a two or three years' course, only receive this appellation 

 after three or two years respectively, spent uninterruptedly in 

 industrial work. Those who are so styled obtain certain 

 privileges as regards their civil status and in respect to military 

 service, and they enjoy in addition the right of entering the 

 higher technical schools. Those who have completed the course 

 at the other two categories of schools enjoy the privileges as 

 regards civil status and military service which correspond to the 

 general education they have received. 



FOSSIL FISH OF THE SCANDINA VI AN 

 CHALK. 



A/TR. DAVIS has availed himself of the opportunities pre- 

 -'■ sented to him by the chief officers of the Museums of 

 Lund, Stockholm, and Copenhagen, and has published a mono- 

 graphic account of the fish remains from the Cretaceous formations 

 of Scandinavia. 



Over seventy years ago Sven Nillson first discovered fish re- 

 mains in the Swedish chalk. Since then numerous large collec- 

 tions have been made by the oflScers of the Geological Survey of 

 Sweden and others, and the greater number of these specimens 

 were unreservedly placed at the disposal of Mr. Davis for 

 description in his memoir ; he has also had the opportunity of 

 consulting some smaller collections in Sweden, and most of 

 the forms have been figured from the original specimens by 

 Mr. Crowther. 



These fish remains show a closer relationship to the Cretaceous 

 fish remains of the north of Europe, as represented by the 

 English and French chalk fish, than to the more highly 

 specialized chalk fauna of Asia Minor, but they do not afford 

 representatives of several of the Physostomous Teleosteans, such 

 as Ichthyodectes, Protosphyrsena, and Pachyrhizodus, which 

 have been found in the English chalk, and have also occurred 

 in the Upper Cretaceous rocks of North America. 



The great majority of the fish remains are Selachian, and 

 comprise twenty-four species. Of these, Carcharodon rondeletii, 

 Otodus obliquus, and Odontaspis acuiissimns are regarded as 

 indicating a Tertiary fauna, but in the Scandinavian chalk they 

 have 'been found asoociated with many undoubted Cretaceous 

 forms in the Faxe limestone or chalk. The character and 

 extent of this fauna indicates conditions very similar to those 

 accompanying the deposition of the English and French chalk 

 and of that of Central Europe generally, whilst it affords com- 

 paratively few data for comparison with that of Lebanon. The 

 occurrence of numerous teeth of several species of Scapano- 

 rhynchus in the Swedish area is worthy of note, but the fish are 

 not found preserved bodily as they are in the chalk of Lebanon. 



This memoir is published as Part vi. of vol. iv. of the 

 Transactions of the Royal Dublin Society, and is illustrated 

 with an atlas of nine plates. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, May 28. — " On the Bases (Organic) in the 

 Juice of Flesh. Part I." By George Stillingfleet Johnson, 

 M.R.C.S., F.C.S,,F.LC. Communicated by Prof. G.Johnson, 

 F.R.S. 



The author has endeavoured to ascertain by careful experi- 

 ments how far the substances hitherto prepared from flesh are true 

 '' educts," diuA really present in the flesh itself, or merely pro- 

 ducts, due to (i) the action of chemical or physical agencies 

 applied in the course of extraction, or (2) to bacterial action 

 modifying the composition of the flesh before it comes into the 

 hands of the operator. 



The final conclusion drawn is that sarcous kreatine is not 

 present in fresh muscle, but results from bacterial action 

 whereas sarcous kreatinin is probably a true " educt." 



