464 



NATURE 



[September 10, 1903 



The report of the Board of Education for 1902-3 shows 

 that during the session 1901-2 the total number of students 

 receiving science and art instruction under the Board was 

 291,758. The total number of schools in which the teach- 

 ing was given was 2061. The grants paid during the year 

 amounted to 314,212^., of which 143,671^ was paid upon 

 attendances. From the same report we learn that great 

 progress has been made with the new buildings for the 

 Royal College of Science. It is hoped the work will be 

 complete in two years' time. 



The University College at Reading continues its useful 

 work in the adjoining counties in connection with field 

 trials and lectures at rural centres, and the work of the 

 agricultural department is of a kind to secure the con- 

 fidence of practical men. Instruction in dairy farming and 

 dairying is given in cooperation with the British Dairy 

 Institute ; the College Poultry Farm at Theale is available 

 for students who desire to obtain a practical acquaintance 

 with poultry-keeping ; and there is a college garden for 

 horticultural practice and instruction. 



At the forthcoming opening of the medical schools, the 

 following will deliver addresses : — At the St. George's 

 Hospital medical school on October i, Dr. W. R. Dakin ; 

 at King's College, London, on October i. Sir John 

 Alexander Cockburn, K.C.M.G., on " Imperial Federation 

 and its Physiological Parallels " ; at Guy's Hospital Physical 

 Society, on October 10, Dr. J. F. Goodhart ; at the Middle- 

 ,sex Hospital on October i, Mr. William Hern ; at the 

 Medical Faculty of University College, London, on October 

 5, Prof. E. H. Starling, F.R.S. ; at the University of 

 Liverpool on October i, Sir Dyce Duckworth ; and at the 

 University College, Sheffield, on October 15, Sir Michael 

 Foster, K.C.B., F.R.S. 



The report on the work of the Sir John Cass Technical 

 Institute for the session ending last July, and the recently 

 published syllabus of the classes to be held during next 

 •winter together show that this young polytechnic is doing ex- 

 cellent work. Many of the students are engaged in technical 

 pursuits during the day. For example, quite half of the 

 students of chemistry are employed in some form of chemical 

 technology, and an examination of the entries of last winter 

 in the metallurgical department shows that one was the 

 head of a firm of bullion refiners, three were managers in 

 metal refining works, five were chemists engaged in metal- 

 lurgical industries, three were foremen in metallurgical 

 works, and others clerks or samplers in works or trades 

 associated with metals. Among others of a thoroughly 

 practical nature arranged for next session may be noticed 

 a course of practical instruction in glass blowing suited to 

 the requirements of chemists, physicists, teachers, and those 

 •engaged in the making of glass apparatus and instruments. 



In his report for the year 1903 on secondary education 

 in Scotland, Sir Henry Craik, K.C.B., says there has again 

 been a gratifying increase in the number of schools pre- 

 ■senting candidates in science at the leaving certificate ex- 

 amination, and also in the total number of candidates pre- 

 sented. The examiners report that there is need to repeat 

 ■once more the warning to teachers against taking up 

 practical work of which the theory is beyond the compre- 

 hension of their pupils, or has not been made clear to them. 

 The methods of examination differ in some important points 

 from those regulating the system in regard to other sub- 

 jects. The examination is chiefly oral and practical, and it 

 is shaped in the case of each school by the curriculum of 

 that school. It is interesting to find that the most satis- 

 factory work appears to be done in the schools the pro- 

 fession of which is comparatively modest. In practical 

 science, as in all educational subjects, the special discipline 

 given is better got from a thorough study of one branch 

 than through a too ambitious attempt to cover a very wide 

 field. The chief examiner is inclined to recommend that, 

 xinless the time available during the third year's course is 

 more than four hours a week, the whole of it should be 

 devoted to one subject instead of being divided between 

 two. Another point to which he directs attention is the 

 -very limited extent to which " home-made " apparatus is 

 •employed in the laboratories. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, August 31.— M. Bouquet de la Grye 

 in the chair. — A fixing liquid isotonic with sea water, for 

 objects in which it is desired to preserve lime formations, by 

 M. M. C. Dekhuyzen. In a previous note a formula has 

 been given for a liquid, isotonic with sea water, for fixing 

 delicate marine organisms. This contains acid, and in 

 fixing the larvae of sea urchins, which contain extremely 

 delicate chalk formations, it is necessary to employ a liquid 

 free from acidity. The formula of a liquid possessing the 

 required properties is given in the present paper, and in 

 the hands of M. Delage has given perfect results in fixing 

 very delicate larvae. 



GOTTINGEN. 



Royal Society of Sciences. — The Nachrichten (physico- 

 mathematical section), part iii. for 1903, contains the follow- 

 ing memoirs communicated to the society :— 



February 21. — W. Voigrt : Questions of crystalline physics, 

 i. On the rotatory constants of heat-conduction in apatite 

 and dolomite. 



March 7. — W. Kaufmann : On the " electromagnetic 

 mass " of the electrons. V. Cuomo : Measurements of the 

 electric dispersion in the open air at Capri (October, 1902- 

 February, 1903). 



May 16. — W. Voigrt : On the theory of total reflexion. 

 K. Schwarzschild : Contributions to electrodynamics— 

 (i) two forms of the principle of least action in the theory 

 of electrons ; (2) the elementary electrodynamic force. 



June 13. — F. Merkel : Remarks on the fasciae and veins 

 of the human pelvis. 



The " Business Communications," part i. for 1903, con- 

 tain a report on the Samoa Observatory, and a highly 

 appreciative obituary notice of the late Sir G. G. Stokes, 

 by Prof. W. Voigt. 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



Recent Mineralogy 433 



School Mathematics 434 



The Neurone Theory 435 



Our Book Shelf:— 



Barber : " The Cioud World, its Features and Signi- 

 ficance" 436 



Baker: "Graphical Statics Problems, with Dia- 

 grams " 436 



Letter to the Editor :— 



A Mite whose Eggs survive the Boiling Point.— J. 



Adams 437 



The Berlin Conference on Wireless Telegraphy. By 



Maurice Solomon . 437 



The Southport Meeting of the British Association 438 



Inaugural Address by Sir Norman Lockyer, 



K.C.B,, LL.D., F.R S., Correspondant de 



rinstitut de France, President of the Association . 439 



Section A.— Mathematics and Physics.— Opening 



Address by Charles Vernon Boys, F.R.S,, 



President of the Section • 447 



Section D.— Zoology.— Opening Address by Prof. 

 Sydney J. Hickson, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S., 



President of the Section 45^ 



Notes 458 



Our Astronomical Column :— 



Search-ephemeris for Faye's Comet 461 



The Canals on Mars 461 



Radiation Pressure and Cometary Theory 461 



A Catalogue of 1520 Bright Stars 462 



Iron and Steel Institute 462 



University and Educational Intelligence 463 



Societies and Academies 464 



NO. 1767, VOL. 68] 



