June i i, 1Q03 



NATURE 



141 



Mr. J. G. Goodchild are assisting in various departments. 

 Communications should be addressed to tiie secretary at 

 Mie Outlook Tower, Edinburgh. 



.\ SLMMER meeting of university extension students will 



■ held in Oxford in August, the first part being from 



Vugust I to August 13, and the second from August 13 



.August 24. The inaugural address will be delivered on 



Saturday, August i, at 8.30 p.m., by the United States 



\:nbassador. The programme of lectures is grouped in 



\e sections, one of which is natural science. The list of 



rturers includes the names of Dr. C. W. Kimmins, Mr. 



Michael Sadler, and Prof. Sims Woodhead. Conferences 



have been arranged on " The Education Act of 1902 and 



University Extension," chairman. Sir William Anson, 



M.P. ; " Free Libraries and Popular Education," chairman, 



Lord Goschen, F.R.S. ; and " Science in its Relation to 



Industry," chairman. Sir Philip Magnus. 



The President of the Board of Education has appointed 

 Dr. H. F. Heath, Academic Registrar of the University of 

 London, to the post of director of special inquiries and 

 ports_ rendered vacant by Mr. Sadler's resignation on 

 lay 9.' As the papers describing the circumstances which 

 d Mr. Sadler to resign an office filled by him with such 

 access since 1895, when it was created, have not yet been 

 lid before Parliament, the appointment of a new director 

 was unexpected, and will be received with surprise by the 

 educational w'orld. F'or eight years Mr. Sadler has been 

 engaged in collecting materials for the study of educa- 

 tional systems and methods, and the information he has 

 rendered available in his eleven volumes of special reports 

 has been of the greatest assistance to students of educa- 

 itional science. But scientific method and thoroughness 

 meet with little encouragement in this country, and though 

 everyone seriously interested in education recognises the 

 value of Mr. Sadler's work and understands its formative 

 influence, it is evident that to the official mind the exigencies 

 uf the moment are of mpre consequence than scientific 

 knowledge. It is to be hoped that the outcome of the 

 ■ affair will be to place the Special Inquiries Office on a 



firmer footing, and that the new director will be given 

 increased facilities for the continued efficiency of the work 

 carried on by Mr. Sadler. 



The programme of summer rambles for the present 

 ■ason, published in connection with the biolop^v section 

 I the Essex County Education Committee, and prepared 

 \ Mr. E. C. Horrell with the assistance of Mr. F. J. 

 i hittenden, should prove very useful to teachers of nature- 

 -uidv. It is noteworthy that two distinct rambles in 

 ditferent parts of the county are arranged for each Saturday 

 iifternoon during June and July, so that a large number of 

 teachers is given the opportunity of attending. Each 

 ramble is conducted by a member of the biological staff. 

 The excursions are intended to afford opportunities to 

 trachers to gain experience in the methods adopted in the 

 >tudy of nature in the field. Any teacher is eligible who 

 i:ikes an interest in general natural history, a'nd is pre- 

 pared to devote a little leisure to its study. There is no 

 \ fee, but teachers bear their own expenses. The advice 

 r given to intending ramblers is sensible and practical, as 



the following quotations show : — " Students must not 

 needlessly uproot plants, tread upon crops, break through 

 fences, or leave gates open." " The teacher should always 

 bear in mind that most biological and morphological facts 

 \ can be illustrated quite as satisfactorily by a common plant 



as by a rare one, and a plant should never be collected 

 simply because it is rare." It would be difficult to devise 

 a better plan to secure rational nature-study work in our 

 schools than this way of first educating the teachers to 

 become intelligent observers. 



In a letter to the 7'tmes of June 8, Mr, Sidney Lee draws 

 an interesting and instructive comparison between American 

 and British methods of appointing university professors. 

 Of the superiority of the American plan there can be no 

 doubt. In .America, as soon as a vacancy arises in the 

 professorial staff, the president of the university consults 

 members of the faculty concerned. He invites their opinion 

 as to who is the fittest man to fill the vacant chair. But 

 the president does not confine his inquiries to his immediate 

 circle of colleagues. Knowledge of the reputations that 



NO. 1754, VOL. 68] 



m.en are acquiring in academic work is wonderfully well 

 diffused. The president who is seeking to fill a vacant 

 chair has at command ready means of communication with 

 presidents and professors of other universities. After due 

 and thorough investigation, he forms his decision as to how 

 the vacant post may be filled with greatest advantage to 

 the institution over which he presides. He then forwards an 

 invitation to the chosen person to occupy the vacant office. 

 The procedure in vogue in this country is too well known 

 to require description, and the only argument Mr. Lee 

 has found in its favour is that it enlarges the electors' field 

 of choice. " But," he remarks, " this argument is open 

 to most serious question. Men of ordinary sensitiveness 

 often refuse to submit themselves to the humiliating ordeal 

 of public or semi-public competition for a vacant professor- 

 ship, which in many respects reduces them to the level of 

 advertising vendors of quack medicines. In effect the pre- 

 vailing system often narrows the field of choice open to the 

 electors, who are not in the habit of looking outside the 

 panel of self-appointed candidates ; it is, indeed, doubtful 

 if honourable regard for the terms of their public advertise- 

 ments permit them such a course of action." 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, April 30.—" Preliminary Note on the Use 

 of Chloroform in the Preparation of Vaccine." By Alan B. 

 Green, M.A., M.D. (Cantab). Communicated by W. H. 

 Power, M.D., F.R.S. 



Briefly stated, the method of preparing vaccine by the 

 chloroform process is described as follows : — Vaccine 

 emulsion is first prepared by triturating one part 

 by weight of vaccine pulp with three parts by 

 weight of water. Through this emulsion, air charged 

 with chloroform vapour is passed, with the result 

 that the water of the emulsion becomes saturated with 

 chloroform (i in 200). After such saturation all excess of 

 chloroform immediately escapes automatically from the 

 vaccine, and the lymph is not brought into contact with 

 a stronger solution of chloroform than i in 200. The ex- 

 traneous micro-organisms originally present in the lymph 

 are by this means killed in from one to six hours, while the 

 lymph remains fully potent for vaccination. Vaccinations 

 have been performed with lymph prepared in this way with 

 highly successful results. 



By the chloroform process, lymph, free from extraneous 

 micro-organisms, can be distributed for use twenty-four 

 hours after collection from the calf, instead of after the 

 lapse of a month or longer, which is the time generally 

 necessary for the elimination of these organisms by the 

 glycerine process. The rapid preparation of lymph by the 

 chloroform process possesses many obvious advantages. 



Zoological Society, May 12.— Dr. Henry Woodward, 

 F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — Mr. W. B. ToKot- 

 meier exhibited a skin and some illustrations of a species 

 of pheasant from Mongolia recently described under the 

 name of Phasiamts hagenbecki. He suggested that it would 

 make a handsome addition to our coverts. — Mr. Frank 

 Finn spoke on variation in wild mammals and birds, and 

 exhibited illustrative living specimens and drawings. The 

 specimens included a frontlet of the barking-deer (Cervulus 

 niuntjac), bearing supernumerary antlers springing from the 

 bony pedicles below the ordinary antlers ; two abnormally- 

 coloured Sambhar deer (Cervus unicolor) ; a goldfinch 

 (Carduelis carduelis), showing red patches at the back of 

 the head ; and an 'albinistic variety of the ruff (Pavoncella 

 pugnax), with head and neck nearly white. — Mr. F. E. 

 Beddard, F.R.S., exhibited preserved and injected brains 

 of mammals prepared in the Society's prosectorium.— Dr. 

 J. F. Oemmill read a contribution to the study of double 

 monstrosities in fishes. It contained an account of the 

 anatomy of double monster trout-embryos, reference being 

 made to the fusion, disappearance, or modification of organs 

 which occurred at the region of transition from the double 

 to the normal condition. — Mr. Robert Qurney dealt with 

 the metamorphoses of the decapod crustaceans .^geon 

 fasciatus, Risso, and ^. trispinosus. Hailstone. The larvae 

 of the two species were described, and comparisons made 

 with those of other Crangonid.t, from which it was shown 



