June 20, 1895] 



NATURE 



189 



by the opponents of the statute was so artfiilly worded as to 

 rouse theological suspicions. Reference was made to the un- 

 desirability of the comparative study of religions, and it was 

 obvious that a considerable proportion of those who attended to 

 vote against the measure, had come in obedience to a summons 

 to resist the enemy, and were in no way qualified to form a 

 judgment on educational matters. The larger proportion, how- 

 ever, consisted of those classical teachers whose belief it is that 

 science may safely be ignored in a nineteenth century education, 

 and that a "good general education " means only a training in 

 the Greek and Latin languages, with a smattering of ancient 

 history anti philosophy. The result of the vote was a great dis- 

 appointment to those who had hoped that the work of Prof. 

 Tylor, Prof .Vrthur Thomson, and Mr. H. Balfour, would find 

 its fruition in a small but earnest school of anthropologists in 

 O.\ford. 



The National Association for the Promotion of Technical and 

 Secondary Kducation has made arrangements for a Conference of 

 the repre.sentatives of Technical Education Committees to be 

 held at the Royal United Service Institution, on July 11, when 

 the Duke of Devonshire, President of the Association, will take 

 the chair. The object of [this Conference is to discuss means 

 whereby the various authorities charged with the provision of 

 technical education may be brought into closer relatioiiship, and 

 may be enabled to avail themselves of the results of the 

 experience of others as regards many important details of their 

 work. Among the subjects which it is proposed to deal with 

 are (a) scholarships (local conditions and uniformity in respect 

 to award and tenure), {b) evening continuation schools (the 

 co-ordination of their work with that of evening science, art, 

 and technical classes), (1) trade and tectinology classes and their 

 relation to the various trades. 



The chemical and engineering societies formed by the members 

 of many of our polytechnic institutes might emulate, with advan- 

 tage, the Engineering Society of the School of Practical Science, 

 Toronto. We have lately received a volume of 253 pages con- 

 taining the papers read before the Society during the session 

 1894-95. The papers refer to both the theoretical and practical 

 sides of engineering, and their publication cannot but encourage 

 investigation among the students. A plan adopted by this 

 Society, and by a number of American societies of a similar 

 kind, is worth noting. Before a paper is read, 150 proofs of it 

 arc distributed among engineers and specialists interested in the 

 subject with which it deals, and their opinions upon any par- 

 ticular point are invited. The replies received are read after the 

 paper, and help to make the discussion more general and of 

 greater value than it otherwise would be. 



The Corporation of the Mas.sachu.setts Institute of Technology, 

 Boston, have a good understanding of what technical education 

 means. The following par.igraph, from the Calendar of the 

 Institute received a few days ago, should be borne in mind by 

 the organisers of technical education in this country: — "The 

 foundation of all sound technological education requires not only 

 thorough theoretical training, liut also prolonged, well-directed 

 laboratory drill which shall first give the student the power of 

 cIo.se and accurate observation, and then bring him into direct 

 contact with the material problems of his future profession." It 

 is by acting upon this educational principle that the Massachu- 

 setts Institute has gained such a large measure of success. 



Tables showing the number and proportion of pupils attend- 

 ng secondary schools in London are given in the Tdhnical 

 Education Gazette. The returns obtained show that the number 

 of pupils receiviiig education in 84 public endowed and public pro- 

 prietary schools is 19,072, and, the number receiving education ni 

 126 private or .semi-private schools is 7 107. The proportion which 

 pupils attending secondary schools bear to those attending public 

 elementary schools, may be gathered from the fact that the num- 

 ber |)er icx),cxx) of the population attending secondary schools is 

 623, while the number per ioo,ckx) of the population attending 

 1 ublic elementary schools is 16,904. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Bulletin of the Ameriian Ma hematical Society, vol. i. No. 8 

 I May 1895). — Kinetic stability of central orbits, by Prof. 

 \\cx)lsey Johnson, contains an investigation, of an elementary 

 . haracter, of a problem not discussed in the fourth edition 



NO. 1338, VOL. 52] 



(p. 125) ofTait and Steel's " Dynamics of a Particle." It is 

 a satisfactory discussion of the problem so far as it relates to 

 central orbits. The note was read before the Society at its April 

 meeting. — Dr. J. Pierpont, in a short paper, read before the 

 Yale Mathematical Club, entitled '• I^range's place in the 

 Theory of Substitution," though he cannot vindicate Lagrange's 

 right to the title of creator of the theory of substitutions, presents 

 a few examples of his methods in order to show the importance 

 of considering him from this point of \icw. " Lagrange was 

 led to the study of this theory by his attempts to solve equations 

 of degree higher than the fourth." — Gauss's third proof of the 

 fundamental theorem of algebra, by Prof. Bocher, indicates the 

 connection between (Gauss's third proof that every algebraic 

 equation has a root and those branches of mathematics which 

 have since been developed under the names of the theory of 

 functions and the theory of the potential. The notes, among 

 other details, give the different courses of lectures in mathe- 

 matics at -A.merican and European colleges. — There is the usual 

 long list of new publications. 



Wiedemann s Annalen der Physik tind Ckemie, No. 5. — 

 Wave-lengths of ultra-violet aluminium lines, by C. Runge. 

 The lines of the spark spectrum near 186 /x wave-length are 

 of great intensity, and may be used as standards of reference. 

 They were therefore carefully determined by means of a 

 Rowland concave grating and sensitive plates prepared by 

 Schumann's method. They were compared with the spectrum 

 of iron, and referred to Rowland's standard wave-lengths for 

 that substance. The figures for the four lines at 760 mm. 

 pressure and 20° C. were 1854 'og, :862'20, I935'29, and 

 I989'90. The wave-lengths reduced to a vacuum would be 

 about o'6 units greater. — On the dichroism of calcspar, quartz, 

 and tourmaline for infra-red rays, by Ernest Merritt. The 

 absorption of the infra-red rays in these substances depends 

 upon the plane of polarisation. Especially in calcspar and in 

 tourmaline the two curves representing the transmittency for the 

 ordinary and the extraordinary ray, respectively, are quite 

 different, so that they appear to be independent of each other. 

 The following absorption bands were observed in these curves : 

 Calcspar, at 2 '44^ and 274 /i for the ordinary ray. These are 

 very sharp. Some broad bands also appear at 3 '4//, 4 m> ^nd 

 ii'tp.. The extraordinary ray is absorbed at wave-lengths of 

 3"28, 375, and 4'66m. Quartz shows an absorption band for 

 the ordinary ray at 2'9yu. When the wave-length exceeds 

 475 /i the substance is practically opaque for both rays. Tour- 

 maline absorbs the ordinary ray of wave-length 2 '82 /». The 

 two curves intersect at 230 /» and again at y%i,n, so that 

 between these two points the dichroism of tourmaline is reversed. 

 — On the transmittency of solid bodies for the luminiferous 

 ether, by L. Zehnder (see p. 153). — On the measurement of 

 high temperatures with the thermo-element and the melting- 

 points of some inorganic salt«, by John McCrae. The melting- 

 points of a number of salt'^. chiefly alkaline haloids, were 

 determined by means of a platinum and platinum-rhodium 

 couple, whose E.M.K. is proportional to the temperature 

 between 300° and 1400°. The temperature of the alcohol 

 flame, as shown by the same couple, was 1488", and that of the 

 Bunsen flame at its hottest part, 1725° C. — On electric reson- 

 ance, by V. Bjerknes. This is an important contribution to 

 the theory of Hertzian oscillations. The author considers the 

 effect of the periods of the oscillator and the resonator, and 

 their logarithmic decrements, together with a constant measuring 

 the intensity of the oscillations. He thus arrives at several 

 fundamental laws, such as : The secondary spark potential is 

 proportional to the square of the period of the resonator, the 

 magnetic or thermal integral eflfect to its cube, and the electric 

 integral eff'ect to its fifth power. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Physical Society. June 14. — Captain W. de iW.'.\bney, 

 President, in the chair. — Mr. Hurstall continued the reading of 

 his paper on the measurement of a syclically varying tempera- 

 ture. Three sizes of platinum wire have been employed for the 

 thermometers in order that some idea might be formed as to 

 the magnitude of the error caused by the lag of the temperature 

 of the wire behind that of the ga.ses. The constants of the 

 platinum thermometers were determined either by comparison 

 H ith a standard Qillendar platinum thermometer or by means of 



