548 



NATURE 



[October 8, 1891 



Let us have large buildings with costly apparatus and 

 every convenience, but do not entirely crush the small 

 schools. To the working man with limited time and means, 

 weary with his day's toil, a modest school close at hand 

 is of greater service than a huge building six miles away 

 involving railway fare and loss of time. By careful 

 arrangements such smaller schools can be preserved, and 

 largely used as " feeders " for the institutes of magnitude. 

 The whole matter, therefore, of science and art schools 

 and future Polytechnics should be referred to duly quali- 

 fied men. There is no reason why existing machinery 

 should not fit in with the new plant to make an harmonious 

 whole. Oliver S. Dawson. 



NOTES. 

 The autumn meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute was 

 opened at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, on Tuesday, the 

 greater part of the day being devoted to an examination of the 

 various departments of the Arsenal. On Wednesday papers 

 were discussed, and to-day visits are to be made to the Naval 

 Exhibition, the Enfield Small Arms Factory, and the Thames 

 Iron Works. We hope to print next week an account of the 

 proceedings. 



An exhibition of cone-bearing trees and shrubs, asters, and 

 sunflowers, and a conference upon them, were opened in the 

 Royal Horticultural Society's Gardens, Chiswick, on Tuesday. 

 Large numbers of conifers were sent fro.nn various parts of the 

 country, no fewer than 30 collections coming from Scotland. The 

 first prize was awarded to the Dowager Marchioness of Huntly 

 for her collection of conifers, the second to Lord Wimborne. 

 The largest araucarian cones were sent from Lady Fortescue's, 

 at Dropmore, Maidenhead, where there is an araucaria 68 feet 

 high — the tallest male araucaria in this country. Kew Gardens 

 contributed about 200 different conifers. On Tuesday papers 

 were read on asters and sunflowers. The conference on conifers 

 began on Wednesday, and is being continued to-day. 



A Commission of engineers representing the various European 

 Powers is to meet shortly at Cairo to consider the question of a 

 storage reservoir, and to advise the Egyptian Government on 

 the subject. The Commission will be required to select a site 

 to the north of Wady Haifa, or within the present limits of 

 Egypt. 



The organizers of the International Folk Lore Congress are 

 to be congratulated on the success of their undertaking. The 

 attendance was good ; many excellent papers were read ; and 

 there were animated and suggestive discussions on most of the 

 problems which are now of especial interest to students of folk- 

 lore. Mr. Andrew Lang, as President, delivered the opening 

 address, in which he presented a most interesting statement of 

 what he conceives to be the fundamental principles of the 

 science. Admirable addresses were also delivered by Mr. 

 Sidney Hartland, Prof Rhys, and Sir Frederick Pollock, who 

 presided respectively over the Sections devoted to folk-tales, 

 mythology, and institutions and customs. The members of the 

 Congress dined together at the Criterion Restaurant on Tuesday 

 evening. 



Students of psychology and philosophy will read with regret 

 Prof. Croom Robertson's "valedictory" words in Mind,{xo'a\ 

 the editorship of which the state of his health makes it necessary 

 for him to retire. For sixteen years he has done his work as 

 editor with conspicuous ability and success. A second series of 

 the Review will be begun next quarter. It will be under a 

 co-operative direction which promises. Prof. Croom Robert- 

 son thinks, "a far more effective covering of the ground of 

 psychology and philosophy than has hitherto been attained. " 

 NO. II 45, VOL. 44] 



The seventh of the series of One Man Photographic Exhibi- 

 tions is now being held at the Camera Club. It is open to 

 visitors from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on presentation of cards, which 

 can be obtained from members or from the Hon. Secretary. 

 The exhibition consists of photographs by Mr. Ralph W. 

 Robinson. 



We learn from the Botanical Gazette that Mr. O. F. Cook, 

 Instructor in Biology at the University of Syracuse, U.S.A., 

 intends starting about November i in charge of an expedition to 

 Liberia and other parts of Africa, with the object of studying 

 the natural history of the country, especially the plants and 

 insects. Mr. Cook will be glad to hear from anyone who 

 would like to have material from that region. 



Yesterday evening a meeting of the Medical Society, Uni- 

 versity College, London, was held in the Botanical Theatre, 

 University College. Dr. W. H. Gaskell, F.R.S., delivered an 

 address on a new theory of the origin of Vertebrates, deduced 

 from the study of vertebrate anatomy and physiology. 



The Belgian Minister of Public Instruction offers a prize of 

 25,000 francs for the best memoir on the meteorological,' hydro- 

 logical, and geological conditions of the countries of equatoria 

 Africa, regarded from the sanitary point of view. The subject 

 must be studied with special reference to the welfare of Europeans 

 resident in the Congo State. 



In the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of 

 Philadelphia for 1891, some parts of which have just reached us, 

 there is an excellent memoir of the late Dr. Joseph Leidy, by 

 Dr. Henry C. Chapman. It is followed by a list of Dr. Leidy's 

 numerous writings. 



In a valuable paper on the " Rapakiwi," J. J. Sederholm, o 

 the Geological Survey of Finland, has furnished petrographers 

 with a trustworthy description of the ftiode of occurrence and 

 minute structure of a granitic rock which has excited much 

 interest, but has hitherto been very imperfectly understood. 

 The official maps of the district where the Rapakiwi is found, 

 with the accompanying memoirs, were published about a year 

 ago ; and the last number of Tschermak's Mineralogischen und 

 Petrographischen Mittheihmgen, now edited by Dr. F. Becke 

 contains a full discussion of the petrological peculiarities of the 

 rock. Writing from the famous laboratory of Heidelberg, Herr 

 Sederholm naturally adopts the nomenclature of Prof. Rosen- 

 busch, and it would appear from his description that the Rapa- 

 wiki will have to take its place among the numerous types of 

 " granophyre " (using this term as Rosenbusch does, and not 

 as originally defined by Vogelsang) which constitute links 

 between the plutonic granites and the volcanic rhyolites. The 

 excellent photographic illustrations accompanying the memoir 

 give an admirable idea of the peculiar nodular structure of the 

 rock, which has attracted fo much attention to it. In the same 

 journal, we find a second memoir by Herr Sederholm, on the 

 Archaean rocks of South-West Finland, describing a varied 

 series of igneous rocks, and discussing the effect of dynamo- 

 metamorphic action upon them. The general conclusions of 

 the author agree with those to which the study of similar rocks 

 in other districts has led Lossen, Roland, Irving, Lehmann, 

 Williams, Reusch, and Teall. 



Excellent arrangements have been made for the establish- 

 ment of a good system of technical instruction in Essex. An 

 organizing joint committee of the County Council and the Essex 

 Field Club was lately appointed to deal with the question, and 

 funds were placed at its disposal. This body has now issued a 

 preliminary schedule of subjects to be taught. Local technical 

 instruction committees are invited to select from the list one or 

 more subjects which they may deem specially suitable for their 

 respective neighbourhoods. When several such bodies, repre- 

 senting adjacent districts, have chosen a particular subject, the 



