April 9, 1896] 



NATURE 



549 



Prof. James Sully contributes an amusing article to the 

 National Rei'iew, on "The Humorous Aspect of Childhood." 

 Some of the stories he tells in illustration of the simplicity and 

 openness of child-nature deserve repetition here. The little boy 

 who, in describing a fat lady, said she was just like a seal, used 

 a singularly appropriate simile ; for the human figure bereft by 

 its obiesity of the neck and waist divisions does grow seal-like. 

 Then the purely arbitrary character of many of our language- 

 forms affords opportunities for such remarks as that of the small 

 boy who spoke of Charles the First's body having been cut off 

 from his head. Another example of this childish tendency to 

 rearrange things is supplied by the remark of a boy of five, who 

 being asked whether the baby was christened, answered with 

 alacrity, " No, she isn't christened, but she's vaccinated." 

 Children are entirely anthropomorphic, belie%'ing that things 

 about them have some mysterious relation to them. This is 

 exemplified by the story of a child who quaintly remarked to an 

 older child that seemed frightened on hearing about earth- 

 quakes, " They don't have earthquakes in little towns 

 like this." Prof. Sully remarks on this: "The words 

 suggest that the little comforter conceived of the earth- 

 quake as something which was specially designed for human 

 spectators, to throw them into cold shudders, or possibly to 

 electrify them with the delicious excitement of danger, accord- 

 ing to their temperaments, and which would not therefore be 

 brought on the scene where there was not a full house, so to 

 speak. The saying seems to me full of the characteristic 

 quaintness of child-thought. It is so deliciously comical to us 

 who know, or fancy we know, what these alarming oscillations 

 of the eairth's surface really are, to have them thus turned by 

 the naive conceit of the child-mind into a kind of show. Yet 

 may we not here too detect an exaggeration of something in 

 older people's thought about the universe, and in smiling at the 

 crudity of the child's whimsical fancy be half-quizzing our own 

 occasional lapses from the perfectly detached and unimpassioned 

 point of view of science?" All who are interested in child- 

 thought and child-observation should read Prof. Sully's collection 

 of stories. The pity of it is that our educational system should 

 so effectually crush the faculties of quick and acute observation 

 and logical reasoning possessed by children. 



Prof. John Trowbridge describes experiments with Rontgen 

 rays in Scribner's Magazine, under the title " The New Photo- 

 graphy by Cathode Rays." He refers to the new actinic rays 

 as " cathode rays " throughout his article. An interesting illus- 

 tration accompanying his article is a double picture of the 

 Rontgen shadow of a turkey's wing, taken by rays from two 

 cathodes slightly separated from one another. By measuring 

 the distance between the double images, the depth of the shot 

 can be estimated by triangulation. 



Among the articles of minor scientific interest, we notice one 

 on the boundary dispute between Great Britain and Venezuela 

 in the National, by the editor, Mr. L. J. Maxse. This is 

 accompanied by two maps from the recent Venezuela Blue- 

 book. In Longman's, Mr. Fred Whishaw has a sympathetic 

 paper on life in a pine-forest in winter. Chambers's Journal 

 has its usual complement of information articles, the most note- 

 worthy being on "Toad-Lore," " Modern Gunpowder and its 

 Development," " Pets and Pests in Barbadoes," and " Bird- 

 Catching in Heligoland." The Humanitarian has two papers 

 on " University Degrees for Women," in one of which Dr. 

 A. W. Verrall states the case for degrees, while Mrs. B. J. 

 Johnson writes for the opposition. In the Strand Magazine is 

 an instructive account of " Diamond Mining in South Africa," 

 by Mr. J. Bucknall Smith. Finally, scientific phonographers 

 will find much to interest them in the clearly-printed pages of 

 the Phonographic Quarterly Review. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 The Education Bill of Sir John Gorst, to which reference has 

 already been made in these columns, makes, it is true, several 

 provisions for secondary education, but it can hardly be sup- 



Eosed that the comparatively few recommendations under this 

 eading are to be the only outcome of the prodigious labours of 

 the recent Commission. The county education authority, the 

 constitution of which was explained in a note last week, may, 

 amongst other matters, aid any school in the provision of 

 secondary education, or, with the consent of the Education 



NO. 1380, VOL. 53] 



Department, may take a transfer of any secondary school. It 

 may also establish such schools ; found and maintain scholarships 

 or exhibitions ; supply, or aid in supplying, teachers ; make 

 inquiries with respect to the sanitary condition of the school- 

 buildings (including boarding-houses) of any school within their 

 county ; and make inquiries with respect to the education given 

 by any school within their county. Schools which in the 

 opinion of the Education Department are of a non-local 

 character are, however, excepted. The education authority 

 may then take such measures as they think fit for giving 

 information to the public with respect to the result of such 

 inquiries. The county education authority is to be given power 

 to aid any establishment or organisation for the trainmg of 

 teachers, but there seems to be no provision for the formation of 

 new training schools or colleges. Provision is made for the 

 transfer of higher grade board schools to the county authority, 

 either at their own request or that of the School Board con- 

 cerned. If the education authority desire, they may make it one 

 of the conditions of any grant to a secondary school that repre- 

 sentatives of the authority be added to the trustees or governing 

 body of the school. The consent of the trustees being given, 

 such representatives will become for all purposes members of the 

 governing body of the school. It is further arranged that the 

 amount which can be raised under the Technical Instruction 

 Act, 1889, shall not be exceeded. One satisfactory point is 

 that, in the event of this Bill becoming law, it will be impossible 

 to have any further diversion of the money available under the 

 Local Taxation Act, 1890, to purposes other than those of 

 education. These funds are, moreover, to be in the future 

 available for all degrees and kinds of secondary education, and 

 not only for technical instruction. 



At the meeting of the Manchester City Council, held on 

 Wednesday, April i, Mr. Alderman Hoy reported.that the Co- 

 ordination Sub-committee of the Technical Instruction Com- 

 mittee had been dissolved. This Sub-committee was composed 

 of representatives of the principal educational institutions in that 

 city, and has been successful in arranging for the better co- 

 ordination of the spheres of work of these institutions, and has 

 so prevented over-lapping. It has been successful in bringing 

 the School Board into line with the work of the Committee 

 specially concerned with technical education, and has done very 

 valuable work in other ways. We hope to see other large towns 

 following the example thus successfully set by Manchester, 

 for it is certain that by friendly conferences of this sort 

 the best results for education will be obtained. It has been 

 decided to appoint an Advisory Committee in the place of that 

 dissolved, which will comprise the Chairman of the Technical 

 Instruction Committee (Mr. Alderman Hoy), the Chairman of 

 the School Board, the Principal of Owens College, and the High 

 Master of the Grammar School. This Sub-committee will have 

 power to call together the General Committee whenever they 

 deem it necessary in view of any educational emergency. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, vol. ii. No. 6» 

 March 1896. — "The three great problems of antiquity con- 

 sidered in the light of modern mathematical research " is a 

 review, by Miss C. A. Scott, of Prof. Klein's Festschrift for the 

 third meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Mathe- 

 matical and Scientific Teaching in the Gymnasia, entitled 

 " Vortriige liber ausgewahlte Fragen der Elementargeometrie." 

 Of course the problems intended are the duplication of the cube, 

 the trisection of an angle, and the quadrature of the circle. 

 The pamphlet is dividwl into two parts : the first deals with 

 algebraic numbers, the second with transcendental numbers. 

 The analysis is very full, so that the reader gets a thoroughly 

 good idea of Prof Klein's work. " But while reading this 

 brilliant exposition it is difficult to avoid cherishing a lurking 

 regret, which is possibly very ungracious, that Klein could not 

 himself spare time to arrange his work for publication ; for 

 though we have here in full measure the incisive thought and 

 cultured penetration which together make even strict logic seem 

 intuitive, yet at times we miss the minute finish and careful pro- 

 portion of parts that we feel justified in expecting from him. 

 And yet revision and consolidation might have seriously inter- 

 fered with the graphic simplicity of these chapters, and left them 

 less adapted to their special purpose." From Miss Scott's 

 account we are thoroughly disposed to endorse her wish that the 



