February 13, 1896] 



NATURE 



357 



country, owing to the extraordinary defective condition of our 

 l^reliminary school training. But if children in elementary 

 schools were taught to appreciate the main principles of scientific 

 method, it would be possible for them afterwards to properly 

 avail themselves of the higher training which is offered to them, 

 and which alone can render them competent as industrial and 

 domestic workers. It is to be hoped, therefore, that the School 

 Board will see its way to extending the work of scientific educa- 

 tion begun under its auspices six years ago. 



In a preliminary report recently prepared for the Technical 

 Education Board of the London County Council, Dr. C. W. 

 Kimmins gives the following statistics to show the progress that 

 has been made, especially in the teaching of physics and 

 chemistry, in the secondary schools assisted by the Board. 



1893-4. 1894-5. 1895-6. 

 Number of pupils receiving theoreti- 

 cal instruction in physics 1867 ... 1899 ... 2266 



Number of pupils doing practical 



work in physics 215 ... 433 ... 1^76 



Number of pupils receiving theoreti- 

 cal instruction in chemistry ... 2091 ... 2287 ... 2647 

 Number of pupils doing practical 



work in chemistry... ... ... 630 ... iioi ... 1814 



Percentage of those receiving theo- 

 retical instruction in physics, 

 taking practical work in this 



subject 11-5 ... 22-9 ... 69-5 



Percentage of those receiving theo- 

 retical instruction in chemistry, 

 taking practical work in this 



subject 30'i ... 48*1 ... 68'5 



Dr. Kimmins points out that the statistics show that there has 

 been a general advance in the number receiving instruction in ex- 

 perimental science at these schools, and that the proportion doing 

 individual practical work has increased to a far greater extent. 

 He reports that the general introduction of practical teaching 

 in elementary physics is producing excellent results. A marked 

 improvement is also to be noticed in the teaching of chemistry ; 

 the practical work is of a much more rational kind, and bears a 

 closer relation to the class teaching. Qualitative analysis is 

 rapidly ceasing to occupy the important position it has held in 

 the laboratory in former years. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



IlW'E. Journal of Botany commenced its enlarged issue with the 

 present year, and the two numbers already published indicate 

 that its editor will have no difiiculty in filling its pages with 

 matter of value to the English botanist. An interesting paper, 

 by Mr. E. A. L. Batters, describes several new British sea- 

 weeds, including two new genera, Colaconema and Trailliella, 

 both Belonging to the Floridae. Mr. J. H. Burkill contributes 

 a paper on the variation in the number of parts of the flower of 

 I'arnas.u'a palnstris. Mr. A. H. Praeger proposes a division of 

 Ireland into botanical districts, accompanying his paper by a 

 map. There are a number of other papers on various depaft- 

 ments of descriptive botany. The plates illustrate two new 

 f<jrms of British pond-weed described by Mr. A. Fryer, and 

 new African plants described by Mr. A. B. Rendle and Mr, E. 

 I ;. Baker. 



Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, vol. ii. No. 

 3, December 1895. — Prof. F. Morley, in a notice of Gundel- 

 finger's Vorlesungen aus der Analytischen Geometric des 

 Kegelschnitte, classes it with two other recent analytic works on 

 conic sections, for which one is very thankful ; the other two 

 are the works by the late Prof. Casey and Miss Scott. He states 

 the plan of Gundelfinger's treatise to be to systematically develop 

 the theory by means of homogeneous coordinates, while bringing 

 out the fact that the elementary (jr, y) system is merely a case to 

 which we can descend when so minded. This latter may .seem 

 a minor point ; pedagogically it is not so, and it is certainly not 

 well explained in many books. The development of the theory 

 is really analytic, though one feels that the analysis is under the 

 control of a masterly geometric insight. Prof. Morley's review is 

 a long one, and enters into many details of the work which 

 has been edited by Dr. Dingeldey. Short notes follow, viz. on 

 divergent series, by Prof. A. Chessin, and a simple proof of a 

 fundamental theorem of substitution groups, and several 



NO. 1372, VOL. 53] 



applications of the theorem, by Dr. G. A. Miller. — Dr. James 

 Pierpont contributes an interesting note on an undemonstrated 

 theorem of the Disqttisitiones Arithmeticce. This ends with two 

 theorems relating to the construction of a polygon of ;/ sides by 

 a series of rational conies, i.e. conies who.se coefficients are 

 rational in the current domain of rationality, and gives in three 

 rows the polygons, constructible by rule and compass, known to 

 the Greeks (twenty ca.ses) ; then the polygons of this class dis» 

 covered by Gauss (five cases) ; and, in the last row, the additional 

 polygons which can be constructed when rational conies can be 

 employed (thirty-five cases). The table is limited to con- 

 structible regular polygons of sides < loo. — Notes and new 

 publications close the Number. 



Bollettino della Societa Sismologica Italiana, vol. i. 1895, 

 No. 7. — ^Ernesto von Rebeur-Paschwitz, by A. C. — The first 

 instant of the great earthquake-shock of May 18, 1895, noted 

 in Arcetri (Florence), by A. Abetti. — On the Florentine seismic 

 centre, by M. Baratta. A topographical discu.ssion of the three 

 principal earthquakes felt in the neighbourhood of Florence in 

 the present century, those of 1812, 1887, and 1895. The 

 centres of the meizoseismal zones, though very near one another, 

 are not quite coincident ; but this, it is suggested, may be due to 

 a variation in the depth of focus, or in the intensity of the 

 original disturbance. — Notices of earthquakes felt in Italy 

 (May-June 1895), by M. Baratta. The most important are 

 the Florentine earthquake of May 18, the Spoleto earthquake 

 of May 20, and the Rovigo earthquake of May 25. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 

 Chemical Society, January 16. — Mr. A. G. Vernon Har- 

 court, President, in the chair. — ^The following papers were read : 

 — The acetylene theory of luminosity, by V. B. Lewes. The 

 adverse criticism of the acetylene theory of luminosity by 

 Smithells does not affect the considerations upon which the 

 theory is based ; these are ( i ) that the unsaturated hydrocarbons, 

 in the inner region of the flame are largely converted into acety- 

 lene before luminosity commences ; (2) that pure acetylene 

 develops luminosity when flowing through a heated tube ; (3) 

 that the temperature necessary to decompose acetylene with 

 evolution of light does not raise to incandescence the liberated 

 carbon ; and (4) that in luminous hydrocarbon flames of suffi- 

 ciently high temperature, the luminosity varies directly with the 

 amount of acetylene present at the point where luminosity com- 

 mences. — The action of sodium alcoholate on certain aromatic 

 amides, by J. B. Cohen and W. H. Archdeacon. Many of the 

 aromatic amides form addition compounds with sodium meth- 

 or eth-oxide ; thus, acetanilide yields a substance of the com- 

 position PhNHAc, MeONa.— Note on the electrical conductivity 

 of formanilide and thioformanilide, by T. Ewan. — The action 

 of sugar on ammoniacal silver nitrate, by J. Henderson. A 

 definite factor can be assigned expressing the action of glucose, 

 Irevulose, and galactose on ammoniacal silver nitrate under 

 standard conditions, but no such factor can be obtained in the 

 case of lactose or maltose, owing to secondary reactions. Cane- 

 sugar, starch, and dextrin do not act on the aminoniacal solution 

 under the standard conditions.— Solution and diffusion of certain 

 metals in mercury, by W. J. Humphreys. — On some of the 

 ethereal salts of active and inactive monobenzoyl, dibenzoyl, 

 diphenylacetyl, and dipropionyl glyceric acids, by P. Frankland 

 and J. MacGregor. The physical properties of these salts have 

 been determined, and the relation between the rotatory power 

 and the constitution of glyceric acid derivatives is discussed. — 

 On the rotation of optically active compounds in organic solvents, 

 by P. Frankland and R. H. Pickard. As a result of cryoscopic 

 and rotatory power determinations of methyl dibenzoylglycerate 

 and ethyl diacetylglycerate in various solvents, the authors find 

 that when the substance has a low molecular weight, the specific 

 rotation is high, and vice versd ; the bearings of these results 

 are discussed.— Note on the action of hydrogen chloride on 

 ethyl alcohol, by J. C. Cain.— Transformation of the alkyl- 

 ammonium cyanates into the corresponding ureas, by J. Walker 

 and J. R. Appleyard. Measurements of the rates of trans- 

 formation of the alkylammonium cyanates into ureas, and vice 

 versd, indicate that the cyanates are di.ssociated into two ions in 

 aqueous solution. On certain phenylthiocarbamates, by H. L. 

 Snape.— The available potash in soils, by T. B. Wood. 



