August 3, 19 16] 



NATURE 



475 



1913-14 was eighty-nine; the corresponding number 

 for 1912-13 was no, but this included institutions pro- 

 viding courses which in 19 13-14 became junior tech- 

 nical schools. Up to and including 19 14-15 there 

 were forty-nine recognised junior technical schools, 

 thirty-seven for boys and twelve for girls. The report 

 contains also a survey of the influence of the war upon 

 the work of universities and university colleges assisted 

 by Treasury grants. 



SciEN'CE as " Cinderella " is the subject of an inform- 

 ing and suggestive article in a recent issue of the 

 Glasgow Herald, and of a subsequent trenchant letter 

 in the same journal by Prof. Soddy, F.R.S., which 

 deals with the manner in which a certain 

 large endowment intended for the promotion 

 of scientific study and research is, and has 

 been, diverted largely to other purposes of an en- 

 tirely general educational character, which, how- 

 ever desirable to promote, were not the objects Mr. 

 Carnegie had directly in view when making his 

 generous gift of i,ooo,oooZ. sterling in aid of the ex- 

 tension of the means of scientific investigation in the 

 Universities of Scotland. It was perhaps too much 

 to expect that a bodv of trustees, upon which there 

 was, and is, only a very limited representation of 

 men of distinction who were, or had been, actively 

 engaged in scientific research, should regard that ob- 

 ject as its first duty, but it is startling to learn how 

 inadequately the interests of science have been served 

 in the disposal of the income derived from the trust. 

 The truth is that there is a lamentable lack of vital 

 and intelligent interest in the sphere of science as an 

 essential factor in the education of the nation, and as 

 an indispensable instrument of its civilised progress. 

 It is only by a thorough understanding of the pheno- 

 mena of Nature and of man in all his activities and 

 aspects, and through a firm grasp of the knowledge 

 so gained, that humanity can rise to higher levels of 

 well-being. The unfortunate attitude of the govern- 

 ing classes of the nation towards science is, as has 

 been well said, largely "the result of the monastic 

 traditions of the great public schools and universities 

 in which most of our leading politicians have been 

 trained." We need a genuine endowment of re- 

 search, which shall have for its sole purpose the per- 

 sonal encouragement and support of the most gifted 

 men of the time, who will give their whole energies 

 to the pursuit of knowledge, assisted by men of proved 

 competence. The teaching and training of the capable 

 youth of the nation may well be left to the many able 

 expounders of scientific theory and practice now avail- 

 able, who would draw their inspiration from the work 

 of such men as are here indicated. We seek at this 

 supreme crisis of our national history a man of clear 

 vision and firm purpose who, taking all branches of 

 knowledge for his province, will assign to each its 

 true place and function in the education and training 

 of all classes of the j>eople. Such a man and such a 

 purpose have yet to be achieved. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Physical Society, June 30.— Prof. C. V. Bovs, presi- 

 dent, in the chair.— Dr. P. E. Shaw and C. Hayes : 



A sensitive magnetometer. A torsion balance of ex- 

 treme delicacy carries a pair of purest silver balls, each 

 3 gm. weight. A solenoid, with horizontal axis pass- 

 ing through one of the silver balls, is brought close 

 to the balance. On exciting the solenoid, divergent 

 fields of known strength are obtained in the region 

 of the ball. The resulting attraction of the ball to 

 the solenoid is shown by a mirror reflecting a distant 

 scale to a telescope. The couple on the torsion beam 



NO. 2440, VOL. 97] 



required to produce i mm. scale deflection is 4-5x10-'^ 

 dyne cm., and this torsion balance is 10* times as 

 sensitive as any known to have been used previously 

 in this kind of work. The results of these experi- 

 ments are : — (i) The magnetic prof>erties of the silver 

 are ascertained even for weak fields of i-io gauss. 

 (2) The silver has a pronounced retentivity, this efi'ect 

 being presumably due to the small trace of iron 

 impurity. (3) The relation of susceptibility of the 

 silver to the field used is found. The susceptibility 

 of each of the constituent materials, (a) pure silver, 

 (6) residual pure iron, appears to be greatly modified 

 by the presence of the other material. — Dr. H. S. 

 Allen : The latent heat of fusion of a metal, and the 

 quantum-theory. A criticism is given of a theory of 

 the process of fusion recently put forward by Ratnow- 

 sky. The author of the theory obtains an expression 

 on certain assumptions for the entropy of a substance 

 in the solid state. He then proceeds to deduce a 

 simple forrnula suitable for use at high temperatures. 

 It is shown that this formula is incorrect in conse- 

 quence of the omission of a term in the expansion. — 

 Prof. H. Chatley : Cohesion (part ii.). 



Manchester. 



Literary and Philosophical Society, May 9, — Prof. 

 W. W. Haldane Gee, vice-president, in the chair. — 

 Dr. E. Newbery : The theory of over-voltage. The 

 author gave an account of the history' and reasons 

 for the study- of over-voltage. The following points 

 were discussed : — (i) Methods of measuring over- 

 voltage, including the direct potential difference 

 method, the "knickpunkt" method, the bubble-angle 

 method, the oscillograph method, and the rotating 

 commutator method. (2) The most important pheno- 

 mena connected with, and controlling factors of, over- 

 voltage. (3) The chief theories put forward to account 

 for over-voltage. (4) The following theory was sug- 

 gested — over-voltage of an electrode is determined by 

 four factors : — (a) Supersaturation of the electrode 

 surface with non-electrified gas under very high pres- 

 sure, due to the permeability of the metal to the 

 ionised gas, but non-permeability to the molecular 

 and also to the spontaneous decomposition of the 

 alloys containing the same gas. (b) Formation of a 

 series of alloys or solid solutions of gas (or compound 

 of gas and electrode substance) with the electrode sur- 

 face, (c) Deficiency or excess of non-hydrated ions, 

 charged and discharged, in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of the electrodes, (d) Inductive action of the 

 escaping ionised gas on the electrode. — R. F. Gwyther : 

 The specification of stress. Part iv. (continued). The 

 paper contains the stress relations for the most usual 

 co-ordinate systems which were previously withheld. 

 The method originally used to obtain the equations 

 is retained, as the fact of the elimination of the dis- 

 placement is of importance. The stress relations are 

 consequently not limited in their application to 

 specifically elastic stresses ; they apply with equal effect 

 to stress having only the general character of elastic 

 stresses. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, July 10. — M. Camille Jordan in 

 the chair. — E. Perrier : Remarks on the book, " Les 

 AUemands et la Science." — M. Gonessiat was elected 

 a correspondant for the section of astronomy in the 

 place of the late G. H. Hill ; M. Walden a correspon- 

 dant in the section of chemistry in the place of Emil 

 Fischer ; M. Bataillon a correspondant for the section 

 of anatomy and zoology in the place of the late J. H, 

 Fabre ; and M. Depage a correspondant for the sec- 

 tion of medicine and surgery- in the place of the late 

 Guido Bacelli. — M. Akimofl': The transcendants of 



