November i6, 1899] 



NA TURE 



55 



Solution of the Quartic, 



Perhaps the following semi-graphic solution of a quartic 

 quation may be of some interest to your readers. 



Suppose the parabola x--y = o is drawn, once for all, on a 

 heet of squared paper. Take an equal parabola, and place it 

 with its vertex at the point {a, b) and' axis parallel to OX so 

 that its equation, in this position, is 



{y-af = x-b. 



Then the abscissae of the intersections of the parabolas are 

 the real roots of 



;c*-2a.v2-x+(a' + (5) = o (i) 



Now the general quartic is at once reducible to the form 



and if we put 



x= -zijq, . 

 this becomes 



r 'i' 



This is identical with (l) if 



a= - i-^ ^-^ 



we can calculate a, b, then place the movable parabola in 

 isition, read off the real values of z, and finally take 



X=-zilq. 



G. B. Mathews. 

 10 Menai View, Upper Bangor, N. Wales. 





Rural Education. 



I AM very glad to learn from my friend, Prof. Meldola, that 

 the school of which I previously wrote is so well known. The 

 frequent reference to Bigods as an experiment, and as the first 

 attempt to give a systematic training in science in a purely 

 rural district, led me to imagine that people were not generally 

 aware of Sexey's Trade School. It seemed therefore that some 

 mention of its success might act as an encouragement to others, 

 but obviously the fact that this work has been successfully 

 carried on for some years in Somersetshire in no way detracts 

 from the value of what is now being done in Essex. I may 

 observe too that, while the latter has had to depend mainly 

 upon the generosity of Lady Warwick and the enthusiasm of 

 Prof. Meldola, the former enjoyed certain advantages in the 

 way of endowment. 



At Bruton the outlay in capital has amounted to 5140/. (cost 

 of site 640/., buildings and equipment 4500/.). This sum is 

 made up of grants from the County Council amounting alto- 

 gether to 1 100/., and of 4040/. derived from endowment, 

 income account and donations. The County Council Building 

 grants vvere thus distributed : in 1891 250/. for building and 

 equipment, in 1892 450/. for a similar purpose, in 1894 250/. 

 for new class-rooms and metal work, in 1897 150/. for a new 

 physical laboratory, &c. ; in all lioo/. Nothing under this 

 head has been contributed by the Science and Art Department. 

 Since 1893 a capitation grant of 2/. for day scholars and 3/. for 

 boarders has been paid by the County Council to all approved 

 schools in Somersetshire. At Sexey's Trade School this amounts 

 to about 225/. a year. These grants go towards the salaries of 

 science and technical teachers, and the school is open to in- 

 spection by the County Director of Technical Education. The 

 total annual income of the school is about 1200/. Since 1894, 

 pupils from the school have obtained 21 out of 36 County 

 Intermediate Scholarships, and 5 out of II Senior Scholarships. 



The school was opened with fifty pupils in temporary 

 premises in April 1891. At Easter 1892 the new buildings 

 were opened with sixty pupils. The cost of the buildings so 

 far was nearly 3000/., towards which, as stated above, the 

 County Council contributed 700/. and the Governors subscribed 

 120/. Some of the classes were registered in connection with the 

 Science and Art Department in the autumn of 1892, and the 

 first examinations were held in May 1893. The school build- 

 ings were enlarged in 1897, when two new class-rooms, a metal 

 workshop and gymnasium were erected. In 1895 ^^^ "^^ 

 regulations of the Science and Art Department for organised 

 science schools were issued. The school appears to have been 



NO. 1568, VOL. 61] 



working for three years on similar lines to those laid down by 

 the Department, and I am told that the conversion of the 

 school into an "organised science school" was accomplished 

 with practically no change of curriculum or method. The first 

 grant of 260/. under the new regulations was received in 1896. 

 Since then the grant has been very high, almost maximum 

 grants for chemistry and physics having been awarded. The 

 grant this year was 385/. and the number of pupils presented 

 was fifty-seven. The grants from the Department have been as 

 follows :— 1893, 57/. ; 1894, 104/.,; 1895, 9^^- '> 1896, 260/. ; 

 1897, 384/. ; 1898, 355/. ; 1899, 385/. To comply with the 

 requirements of the Department, a new physical laboratory 

 and other buildings were provided in 1897, and this year a new 

 museum and additions to the master's residence are being under- 

 taken at a cost of nearly 400/. 



I regret that I can furnish no information as to the constitu- 

 tion of the Technical Instruction Committee of the Somerset- 

 shire County Council, but doubtless these particulars can be 

 ascertained from its annual report. John C. Medd. 



Stratton, near Cirencester, October 29. 



I SHOULD like to add to the above interesting statement by 

 Mr. Medd that a rural school of science, which is even more 

 akin to Bigods' than Sexey's Trade School, has been at work 

 for some years at Bakewell in Derbyshire. I referred to this in 

 my address at Bigods in 1898. The resemblance in constitution 

 and function is due to the co-education of boys and girls, and it 

 would add to the value of the present discussion if some inform- 

 ation could be given as to the working of the Bakewell school. 



R. Meldola. 



In addition to Sexey's Trade School, Bruton, the visitors of 

 Sexey's Hospital recently (and in this case also at the instance 

 of Mr. Hobhouse) have established a dual school of the same 

 general type as the Bruton school in the village of Blackford, 

 five or six miles from the nearest railway station, and in the 

 midst of a purely agricultural district. New buildings have been 

 erected at a cost of about 4000/., towards which the County Edu- 

 cation Committee has contributed 1000/., in addition to 250/. 

 in aid of the equipment of the laboratory and workshop. The 

 Blackford school has been carried on for about one year in 

 unsuitable temporary premises, but nevertheless attracted more 

 than fifty pupils. The new buildings were opened at the end 

 of September by Sir Henry Roscoe. The school has now 

 between seventy and eighty pupils, a considerable proportion 

 being boarders. The school will receive from the County 

 Education Committee an annual grant of at least 120/. 



C. H. BOTHAMLEY. 



County Education Office, Weston-super-Mare, November 2. 



Birds Capturing Butterflies. 



With reference to Mr. O. H. Lalter's note in Nature 

 (September 28, p. 520) on the capture of butterflies by the 

 sedge warbler, it may be of interest to note that Sweet, whose 

 work on keeping warblers in captivity is incorporated with 

 Bechstein's " Cage-birds " in Bohn's edition of that work, recom- 

 mends a living butterfly as a bait for this very species, and for 

 several other warblers, when it is desired to trap adult birds. 



I may mention that not long ago I saw here in Calcutta a 

 common Mynah {Acridotheres tristis) with a white butterfly in 

 its bill, which it had no doubt obtained in repose, as the day 

 was dull, and the Mynah is not very expert at catching insects 

 on the wine. I remember also once seeing at Dehra Dun a 

 Dhyal or Magpie-robin (Copsychus saularis) take a disabled 

 Catopsilia I threw out for it, though I have seen the same bird 

 disregard a specimen flying at no great distance. Evidently the 

 birds wait their opportunity, and, though too wise to waste 

 their energies in the pursuit of these evasive insects on the 

 wing, are always ready to snap them up when they can take 

 them at a disadvantage. In this way it can hardly be expected 

 that attacks by birds on butterflies will be often noticed, unless 

 a naturalist will undertake to watch individual insectivorous 

 birds for whole days at a time. 



Similarly, one does not in India see kites and crows pursuing 

 sparrows, though a dead one flung out will be greedily snapped up 



