286 



NA TURE 



[January 23, 1896 



of little efforts. We find that technical education has 

 been made to include all sorts of subjects, even music. 

 Several Councils give grants to classes formed for the exclusive 

 study of music, either instrumental or vocal. The following 

 selection of subjects taught will give some idea of the variegated 

 nature of "technical" work: farriery, straw-plaiting, basket- 

 making, ploughing, draining and dyking, clicking, cabinet- 

 making, thatching, sheep-shearing, fishing, sail-making, china- 

 painting, hat-manufacture, type-writing, political economy, life- 

 saving, and house-decoration. So long as such subjects absorb 

 the attention of Committees, little national advancement is 

 possible. Instruction in the dodges of the workshop may pro- 

 duce a more dexterous and quicker workman, but it does nothing 

 to educate him in those broad principles which enable him to 

 assist intelligently in the real improvement of industry. 



The spirit of rivalry which regulates the conduct of educational 

 institutions in some of our large towns is to be deplored, for its 

 effects are detrimental to the advance of education. Reports, 

 received from time to time, show that, in many districts, local 

 institutions compete with one another instead of forming distinct 

 steps in the educational ladder. So common is this kind of 

 competition that it is refreshing to learn that the City Council 

 and the School Board of Manchester have agreed between 

 themselves that the Technical School shall discontinue its 

 more elementary classes, and begin its curriculum at the 

 points where the Board schools leave off. An effort is to 

 be made to secure a corresponding gradation between the 

 Technical School and Owens College. Manchester has thus 

 taken important steps towards the solution of a difficult problem 

 in public education, and it would be well if those provincial 

 towns that have not already considered the correlation of their 

 technical and scientific institutions would do so without delay. 

 It is a question, indeed, whether a central authority ought not 

 to be able to give a definite place in the educational ladder to 

 the various institutions in a town, and to insist upon the absence 

 of competition with one another. With each part of the engine 

 doing its proper work, progress will be made ; but if there is a 

 confusion of functions, advance is impossible. The establish- 

 ment, in recent years, of numerous technical institutions in 

 many of our large provincial towns, and the extension of the 

 work of old-established Mechanics' Institutes and Trade Schools, 

 make it very necessary that something should be done to define 

 the place of these institutions in our educational system. The 

 University Colleges are especially affected by such institutions. 

 Bristol, for instance, possesses one of the best University 

 Colleges in the country ; it has done excellent work, and will 

 certainly do more. But during the past few years the Merchant 

 Venturers' School has largely developed, and it is now a rival 

 establishment situated only a few hundred yards from University 

 College, with which it competes. This competition is no doubt 

 responsible, to some extent, for the adverse balance of ;i^950 in 

 the accounts of University College, Bristol, for the year 1895 ; 

 the total indebtedness of the College is now more than ^6000. 

 There is ample room for both institutions in Bristol, but the 

 work of one should supplement, and not clash with, the work of 

 the other. What is happening in Bristol is happening elsewhere, 

 and is retarding educational advancement. In fact, we have no 

 hesitation in saying that one of the most important points which 

 needs to be settled at the present time is that which refers to 

 the status of various institutions in the scheme of education. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



American Journal of Science, January. — The quarries in the 

 lava beds at Meriden, Conn., by W. M. Davies. The present 

 condition of the quarries in the Triassic (Newark) formation near 

 Meriden shows the vesicular upper surface of one lava bed 

 under the dense basal portion of a later flow, and a number of 

 fractures dislocating Ihe double flow. — The form of isolated sub- 

 marine peaks, by G. W. Littlehales. Theoretically the form of 

 an isolated submarine peak would be that of a solid of revolution 

 in which the crushing strength of any section is equal to the 

 combined weight of the portion of the formation above that 

 section and of the superincumbent body of water. The author 

 derives a general equation for the slope of submarine peaks, and 

 finds that the average slopes of Dacia Bank, Seine Bank, The 

 Salvages, and Ehderbury Island are fairly in accordance with the 

 formula. This investigation has an important bearing upon the 



NO. 1369, VOL. 53] 



intervals at which deep-sea soundings should be taken in search- 

 ing for probable shoals in the open ocean and in developing the 

 character of the sea-bottom. The minimum radius at the bottom 

 which a dangerous shoal can have, must vary directly with the 

 depth, but on the average, in the deep sea, it may be stated as 

 ten miles. An interval of ten miles, coupled with an interval of 

 two miles, would be sufficient for general development, and 

 would prove with certainty the existence or absence of any 

 formation rising close to the surface. — On the epidote from 

 Huntingdon, Mass., and the optical properties of epidote. This 

 epidote is almost identical with that of Zillerthal, in Tyrol, but 

 has the lowest percentage of iron oxides (62) and the lowest 

 double refraction of any epidote recorded. — The iodometric 

 determination of selenious and selenic acids, by F. A. Gooch 

 and A. W. Peirce. The principle previously applied to the 

 estimation of chlorates is equally advantageous for the determin- 

 ation of selenious and selenic acids. The selenious acid is 

 treated with potassium iodide, di-hydrogen potassium arseniate, 

 and half-strength sulphuric acid. The liquid is concentrated by 

 boiling, the residue is cooled and the acid nearly neutralised with 

 potassium hydroxide, acid potassium carbonate is added in ex- 

 cess of neutralisation, and, after the addition of starch, standard 

 iodide is introduced until the starch-blue appears. The iodine 

 introduced measures the arsenious acid, and the difference 

 between it and the iodine, originally present in the form of the 

 iodide, represents the amount set free by the selenious acid. 

 Selenic acid, on the other hand, may be determined iodo- 

 metrically with accuracy by first reducing it to the condition of 

 selenious acid by treatment with potassium bromide in the 

 presence of sulphuric acid, and then completing the reduction to 

 the elementary condition by the treatment with potassium iodide 

 and potassium arseniate. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 

 Geological Society, December 18, 1895. — Dr. Henry 

 Woodward, F.R.S., President, in the Chair.— Prof. G. K. Gil- 

 bert, Washington, D.C., was elected a Foreign Member, and 

 Dr. A. Penck, Vienna, was elected a Foreign Correspondent of 

 the Society. — The tertiary basalt -plateaux of North-western 

 Europe, by Sir Archibald Geikie^ F.R.S. The author in this 

 paper gave the results obtained by him in the continued study of 

 Tertiary volcanic geology during the seven years which have 

 elapsed since the publication of his memoir on "The History of 

 Volcanic Action during the Tertiary Period in the British Isles." 

 His researches have embraced the Western Islands of Scotland, 

 St. Kilda, and the Faroe Islands. In an account of the rocks 

 of the basalt-plateaux, attention was particularly directed in this 

 paper to a type of banded basic lavas which played an important 

 part in the structure of the volcanic districts both of the Inner 

 Hebrides and of the Faroes. A number of examples were 

 adduced of the volcanic vents which form a characteristic feature 

 of the basalt-plateaux. The paper described in some detail the 

 evidence for the flow of a large river across the lava-fields during 

 the time when volcanic activity was still vigorous. Many addi- 

 tional details were given to illustrate the structure and behaviour 

 of the basic sills which are so abundantly developed, especially 

 at the base of the plateaux. The author added some additional 

 particulars, more especially from Skye and St. Kilda, to his 

 published account of the dykes which had taken so important a 

 place in the origin and structure of the plateaux. Further 

 observations were narrated regarding the great bosses of gabbro 

 in the Inner Hebrides. The author, having been able to visit 

 St. Kilda, described the junction of the granophyre of that 

 remote island with the basalts and gabbros. He brought away 

 a series of specimens and photographs which demonstrated that 

 the acid rock had been injected into the basic masses, traversing 

 them in veins and enclosing angular pieces of them. The 

 granophyre was precisely like that of Skye and Mull, and was 

 traversed by veins of finer material, as in these islands. By 

 way of illustrating the probable history of the basaltic plateaux 

 of North-western Europe, the author gave a short summary of 

 the results of recent investigations of the modern volcanic 

 eruptions of Iceland, especially of Th. Thoroddsen and A. 

 Helland. Reference was made to the evidence of considerable 

 terrestrial movement since the Tertiary volcanic period, as shown 

 by the tilting of large sections of the plateaux in different 

 directions, and also by the existence of actual faults. The con- 



