2.:;6 



NA TURE 



[JULY 9, I 



the desire of the County Councils to improve the agricultural educa- 

 tion of their districts will be provided. I am glad to say also that 

 the important subject of the technical education of girls as well as 

 boys is receiving almost universal attention from County Councils. 

 Sui;<Tesuons have been made by this Association, which have in 

 most cases received attention, to provide not only for the in- 

 struction of the boys, bat also of the girls, in such subjects as 

 cookery, laundry-work, and dairy management. In all these 

 matters the Association has been able to give .some assistance, 

 and we believe that there remains a great deal still in which 

 they will be able to afford the same nature a')d description of 

 assistance. I need not say, ladies and gentlemen, that for a 

 very considerable time the work which is likely to be thrown 

 upon this Association will be work which cannot be conducted 

 without considerable financial resources. The income of the 

 Association is not a very large one. We have made an appeal 

 to many of those who throughout the country have interested 

 themselves in this work in connection with County Councils, 

 and we have received very liberal assistance. I think, however, 

 the time has come when we may hope that the efforts which 

 have been made will be to a certain extent, still more than they 

 have hitherto been, supplemented by the assistance of gentlemen 

 connected with the great manufacturing, mining, and commercial 

 industries of the country, who are likely, I think, to derive at 

 least as much benefit from the operations of this Association, 

 and from the development which it has aided in giving technical 

 instruction throughout the country, as the agricultural industry 

 has already received. Ladies and gentlemen, I must apologize 

 to you for the imperfect character of these observations, which 

 I have been obliged to condense as much as possible, as my 

 time, and I dare say yours, is extremely limited. I only hope 

 that any omissions which I have made will be supplied by my 

 friends who are on each side of me. 



Sir H. Roscoe, M. P., presented the report of the work of the 

 Association during the past year. He said that there was no 

 doubt that during the year a very great expansion of the work 

 of the Association had been seen under both the Acts of Par- 

 liament to which reference had been made by the Chairman. 

 The spread of technical education throughout the country had 

 been most remarkable. From what had already been said by 

 Lord Hartington, it would be concluded that practically the 

 whole of England had devoted the whole of the money to 

 technical instruction. The effects of this could scarcely be 

 over-estimated. The only two places where the money had 

 been devoted to the relief of the rates were, he regretted to say, 

 London and Middlesex. But it should be borne in mind that 

 what had been already accomplished was nothing to what re- 

 mained to be done. The County Councils were as yet only 

 breaking the ground. Their efforts were merely tentative. 

 They had, as it were, to work out their own salvation in this 

 matter of education, and there was certain to be at no great 

 distance of time an Intermediate Education Act for England. 

 Referring to the Act of 1891, he said that it was important and 

 valuable because it enabled a County Council to go out of its 

 own district if it thought necessary to promote technical educa- 

 tion. Under that Act, for instance, the three Ridings of York- 

 shire had been able to vote money to assist the Yorkshire 

 College in its scheme for the improvement of agricultural 

 education. Many of the County Councils had already appointed 

 organizing secretaries, and it was on these that the main part of 

 the work would fall. . To them they had to look for the special 

 organization of each particular district, and the importance of 

 their work could scarcely be overrated. Then in the county 

 boroughs the work was being got into shape. In Sheffield a 

 sum of ^{^8495 had been appropriated towards assisting institu- 

 tions givmg technical and secondary education. In the same 

 way in Manchester ;^io,2oo had been de^roted to a like purpose. 

 Agricultural education was making rapid progress, and already 

 in Yorkshire, Durham, and Wales there was the nucleus of 

 high class agricultural colleges. After referring to the necessity 

 of some part of the money being devoted to the technical in- 

 struction of girls, he concluded by expressing the hope that the 

 Association would be placed in a position t)y an increase of its 

 resources to carry on actively a work that was daily becoming 

 more important and more costly. 



On the motion of Mr. 11. Hobhouse, M.P., seconded by 

 Lord Thring, the report was unanimously adopted. 



Lord Hartington at this point left the chair, which was taken 

 by Sir Bernhard Samuelson. 



Lord Monteagle moved the reappointment of the vice-pre- 



sident, executive committee, and officers of the Association, the 

 name of Mr. Bryce, MP,, being substituted for that of the late 

 Eirl Granville. Dr. Gladstone seconded, and Mr. Snape sup- 

 ported, the motion, which was carried unanimously. 



Mr. Bryce, M. P., proposed the following resolution : — 



" That this Association heartily congratulates the County 

 Councils of England and Wales on the great progress they have 

 made during the past year in the promotion of education in 

 their districts, and earnestly trusts that they will continue to 

 work until the country is provided with an organized system of 

 secondary and technical education." 



Miss Hadland seconded the resolution, which was agreed to. 



Sir John Lubbock, M.P., proposed, and Mr. Rathbone, M.P., 

 seconded, a vote of thanks to the Chairman, and this having 

 been heartily accorded was acknowledged by Sir Bernhard 

 Samuelson. 



The proceedings then terminated. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



In ihe. yournal of Botany iox May, Prof. R. J. Harvey-Gib- 

 son has an interesting article, illustrated, on the histology of 

 Polysiphonia fastigiata. In the June number, Mr. A. W. 

 Bennett contributes a short paper on sexuality among the Con- 

 jugatae. These numbers also contain continuations of Mr. E. G. 

 Biker's synopsis of the genera and species of Malveze, and of 

 the Rev. H. G. Jameson's useful key to the genera and species 

 of British mosses. 



The papers in the Botanical Gazet'e for April and May are 

 concerned almost exclusively with American botany. Mr. D. 

 M. Mottier has an interesting note on the apical growth of 

 HepaticEK, which bears such a striking resemblance to that of the 

 prothallium of ferns. 



The number of the Nuovo Giornale Botanico Italiano for 

 April is chiefly occupied by papers of special interest to Italian 

 botanists, and by the Bulletin of the Italian Botanical Society. 

 Among the articles coming under the latter head is one by Sig. 

 Baccarmi on the secretory system of the Papilionaceae, and one 

 by Sig. Pichi containing an account of experiments on the 

 parasitism of Peronospora on the vine. 



The Botanical Magazine of Tokyo still contains occasional 

 articles in the English language. Those in the numbers most 

 recently received, for March and April, relate to the native 

 plants of Japan. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, June il. — "A Study of the Plante Lead- 

 Sulphuric Acid — Lead Peroxide Cell, from a Chemical Stand- 

 point. Part I." By G. H. Robertson. Communicated by 

 Prof. Armstrong, F.R. S. 



The investigation, the results of which are recorded in this 

 paper, was instituted about a year ago at the Central Institution, 

 at Dr. Armstrong's suggestion, as McLeod's observations on 

 the electrolysis of sulphuric acid solutions led to the supposition 

 that the changes occurring in the acid were probably less simple 

 than was commonly supposed. This supposition was verified. 



The first section of the paper deals with the nature of the 

 lead salt formed during discharge. Experiments made on 

 various samples of red lead of different percentage composition 

 showed that, as with nitric, so with sulphuric acid, it behaved 

 like a mixture of peroxide and monoxide, the sulphate formed 

 always corresponding to the monoxide originally present. 



As analysis alone can give no proof of the existence of a 

 definite homogeneous sulphate corresponding to red lead : 

 evidence must be obtained that the product differs in some of 

 its properties from a mixture. It was to be expected that the 

 E M.F. of an oxysulphate would differ from a corresponding 

 mixture of sulphate and peroxide, and have some definite value, 

 but experiments made with mixtures of sulphate and peroxide 

 in different proportions, and with the product obtained by 

 treating red lead with dilute sulphuric acid, showed that there 

 was a difference of degree only between the red lead pastes and 

 the mixtures. 



With regard to Frankland's observations respecting the 



NO. 



1132. VOL. 44] 



