334 



NATURE 



[June 15, 1916 



ceed to the degree of Master of Arts in the same 

 manner as do Bachelors of Arts' at present. 



Dr. Cobbett and Dr. Graham-Smith have been re- 

 appointed University lecturers in pathology and 

 hygiene respectively. 



The Conference (1916) of the Association of Teachers 

 in Technical Institutions will be held on Saturday, 

 June 17, at 2.30 p.m., in the Lecture Theatre, Day 

 Training College, Southampton Row, W.C. The 

 chair will be taken by the president, Dr. T. Slater 

 Price (military duties permitting), and Dr. W. Garnett 

 will deliver an address. A number of important reso- 

 lutions referring to technical education, scientific re- 

 search, and industrial development will be put to the 

 meeting. 



Arrangements have been made, with the approval 

 of the Foreign Office, for extending to British 

 prisoners of war interned abroad the benefits of the 

 scheme, which has been in operation for the last year 

 in connection with Ruhleben, for supplying selected 

 books of an educational character to those of the 

 interned who may be desirous of continuing their 

 studies in any subject. Under this scheme several 

 thousands of carefully selected volumes, mostly 

 standard works, have been supplied to the Ruhleben 

 Camp, which is now provided with excellent libraries 

 (class, reference, and lending). These books, which 

 have been sent out through the agency of officers of 

 the Board of Education, have proved a great boon 

 to the Interned, and have enabled sustained educa- 

 tional work of a definite character to be carried on by 

 the Camp Education Department formed amonj* the 

 prisoners. In view of the value of the work the Board 

 of Trade (Marine Department) have decided to take 

 it into account in connection with their examinations 

 for the certificates of competency granted by them to 

 officers of the Mercantile Marine and the Fishing 

 Service. Accordingly, arrangements have now been 

 completed for recording the time spent by any prisoner 

 interned at Ruhleben or Gronlngen in the studv of 

 nautical or other subjects. An appeal is, therefore, 

 now made for a plentiful supply of new or second- 

 hand books of an educational character (light literature 

 and fiction are available from other sources) to meet 

 the needs of the many thousands of British prisoners 

 interned in enemy or neutral countries. It is to be 

 hoped that to this appeal there may be a liberal 

 response. A circular explanatory of the educational 

 book scheme can be obtained bv sending a postcard 

 addressed at the Board of Education, Whitehall, S.W., 

 to Mr. A. T. Davies, who is in charge of the arrange- 

 ments. 



Science for May 5 contains an interesting and sug- 

 gestive address by Prof. Alex. Smith on "The Train- 

 ing of Chemists," in which the questions of standard 

 and overlapping courses, lecturing, and laboratory 

 facilities are dealt with. Prof. Smith deprecates the 

 very general practice of compelling undergraduates 

 who have studied chemistry at school to take the 

 same course in their first year as those who know 

 nothing of the science. He advocates placing such 

 students in a section by themselves, and finds in his 

 experlencse that they progress 50 per cent, more 

 rapidly when so segregated. The overlapplner which 

 results from the instructor in one branch of chemistry 

 {e.g. qualitative analysis) assuming that the student is 

 ignorant of facts and principles which he has already 

 learnt in another branch (e.g. the inorganic course) 

 Is also emphasised. It is pointed out that, on the 

 other hand, organic chemistry frequently suffers from 

 the fault of being taught as a separate science and 

 not sufficiently co-ordinated with the inorganic branch. 

 Prof. Smith urges that considerable advantage would 



NO. 2433, VOL. 97] 



accrue by the standardisation of the courses in the 

 various branches of chemistry for the different univer- 

 sities and colleges, on account of the facts that migra- 

 tion from one college to another is rapidly increasing, 

 and that colleges of medicine are requiring previous 

 college work. In order that students may acquire 

 that ability to apply theoretical conceptions which will, 

 more than over, be indispensable in the future, 

 standardising the elementary courses in chemistry is 

 essential. Doubt Is thrown on the value of lecturing 

 to elementar^"^ students. It is argued that lectures 

 inculcate an ability to understand statements made 

 by others, whereas the object to be achieved is to 

 train the student to make correct statements on 

 chemical topics, and deduce sound conclusions, him- 

 self, even though these conclusions are not new. Prof. 

 Smith advocates book study of the subject, the class 

 work being restricted to the testing of the work pre- 

 pared, experiments illustrating the work, the dis- 

 cussion of difficulties, and the asklngf of questions. 

 He admits the value of lectures to students who know 

 how to study; that is, to those taking the more ad- 

 vanced courses. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Microscopical Society, May 17. — Mr. E. Heron- 

 Allen, president, in the chair. — J. W. Purkiss : Some 

 suggestions regarding visual efficiency in the use of 

 the microscope and other optical instruments. From 

 experience of work with the spectrophotometer and 

 other comparative instruments for measuring colour 

 absorptions, the author had arrived at the conclusion 

 that the observer's visual efficiency and accuracy over 

 prolonged periods depend very largely on adjusting 

 the light in which he was working, so that it should 

 be approximate to the light-Intensity in the field of the 

 observing instrument. He developed this principle in 

 its application to the microscope and other optical 

 instruments, and showed how the more or less rapid 

 succession of efforts of the eye to accommodate itself 

 to changes of luminosity was usually a much more 

 potent cause of eye fatigue or strain than the actual 

 conditions of light In the field of the instrument itself. 

 — Rev. H. Friend : Alien Ollgochaets in England. — • 

 A. T. Watson : A case of apparent Intelligence exhibited 

 by a marine tube-bearing worm, Terehella conchilega. 



Pliysical Society, May 26. — Prof. C. V. Boys, presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — T. Smith : The correction of 

 chromatic aberrations when the external media are 

 dispersive. When one of the external media of a 

 lens system is dispersive it is not possible to ensure 

 the absence of differences in the size and position of 

 images of all objects formed by length of different 

 wave-lengths. The degree to which correction can be 

 carried is investigated, and formulae are given by 

 which the power and position of the external surfaces 

 of a system can be found when the type of correction 

 to be adopted is given. — J. Guild : Note on the use of 

 the autocolllmating telescope in the measurement of 

 angles. The measurement of angles by means of the 

 autocollimator resolves itself into the measurement of 

 the distance between two images produced in the focal 

 plane of a micrometer eyepiece. In most cases the 

 liefht forming these Images passes through portions 

 of the object glass on opposite sides of a diameter. 

 It is shown that, when this diameter Is perpendicular 

 to the direction of the displacement to be measured, 

 uncertainty and error are introduced on account of any 

 residual spherical aberration of the obiect glass and 

 the depth of focus of the telescope. One or two par- 

 ticular cases are discussed In which it is shown how 

 this may be obviated. — E. Hatschek : The viscosity of 



