3io 



NATURE 



[January 29, 1903 



In a short discussion which followed, Prof. Forsyth said it was 

 desirable that they should not hurry changes. It did not lie 

 with the public schools or the preparatory schools to make 

 changes. There was a vast body of teachers in the small schools, 

 but the great difficulty was to get at such teachers and induce 

 them to adopt new methods. The report was adopted. 



Among the many interesting papers read at the conference of 

 the Froebel Society and the Child-Study Association on 

 Saturday was one by Dr. W. B. Drummond, of Edinburgh, 

 who dwelt upon the preparation for child-study as a piece of 

 proper scientific investigation carried on according to modern 

 methods. He laid down that a course of training in biology, 

 that is to say, in the practical study of plants and animals, was 

 the first essential to success. His reason was that the obser- 

 vations made on children are in reality part of biology. Next 

 a course of psychology should follow, and then one in 

 methods of education, for many of these have been based upon 

 an intimate acquaintance with the ways and needs of children. 

 He pointed out how advantage was taken of the peculiarities of 

 the child mind in the Bible, and instanced the setting up of the 

 twelve stones from Jordan so that when they had aroused the 

 curiosity of the children, and this had been satisfied, the monu- 

 ment would always be a reminder to them of the crossing of 

 Jordan as on dry land. The educational results of many celebra- 

 tions, customs and games which we are ourselves familiar with 

 were touched upon, though it wus pointed out that these were not 

 always intentional at the beginning. The danger was pointed out 

 of asking children ill-considered questions which might excite 

 their imagination in a way detrimental to them, or which by sug- 

 gesting an answer or confusing the young persons might defeat 

 the object of the experiment. During the course of the paper, 

 the characteristics of primeval man were touched upon, as 

 indeed they had been previously during the conference, and in 



choose for professors men who have made some reputation and 

 are engaged in active prosecution of research ; second, give 

 such men a wide liberty in dealing with their subjects and with 

 their students. Where these maxims have been acted on, 

 university education has been a conspicuous success, and the 

 creation and progress of knowledge have been maintained. 

 May India see fit to adopt and practise these maxims." 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



American Journal of Science, January.— The morphogenesis 

 of Platystrophia. A study of the evolution of a Palceozoic 

 brachiopod, by E. R. Cumings.— On ruling concave gratings, 

 by W. Rollins. It has been shown that the Rowland concave 

 gratings give false spectral lines so sharp and clear that there is 

 probability and some evidence that they have been mistaken for 

 real lines. The cause of this is examined, and suggestions are 

 made for a new design of ruling machine in which these defects 

 are overcome. The machine has not yet been constructed.— 

 The variations of potential along a wire transmitting electric 

 waves, by C. A. Chant.— Rickardite, a new mineral, by 

 W. E. Ford. The mineral occurs in the Good Hope mine at. 

 Vulcan, Colorado, and consists of a nearly pure copper tellunde, 

 Cu.Te,.— On the occurrence of free phosphorus in the Saline 

 Township meteorite, by Oliver C. Farrington. The phosphorus 

 was noticed on drilling a hole into the meteorite for the purpose 

 of breaking off a piece, and was proved to exist in the tree 

 state by its smell, luminosity, action on silver nitrate and con- 

 version into ammonium phosphomolybdate. 



Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society (2), ix , No. 3 

 (December, 1902).— W. B. Fite, commutator subgroups of 

 the concluding discussion, Mr. Lewis Paton, head-master of l groups whose orders are powers of primes. -L. I. Hewes note 

 University College School, expressed the opinion that much on irregular determinants.— G.O. James, on the project 

 light could be thrown upon the ways of boys by a study of 

 savages. Another and possibly more serious point was that he 

 found by the time his pupils had reached the age of nine and 

 came to him, their characters were formed or more often 

 deformed, and this is a very strong argument for the advance- 

 ment of child-study. 



An article by Sir William Ramsay, in the January number of 

 East and [Vest, deals with the recent Report of the Indian 

 Universities Commission, and contains several suggestions 

 which ought to be read by all who are interested in the aims 

 and character of university education. The commissioners had 

 not the courage of their convictions, for after forming an 

 accurate conception of the function of a university, they refused 

 to act upon it and accepted old ideals as offering the path of 

 least resistance lor the universities of India to follow. As 

 regards the government of the universiiies, Sir William Ramsay 

 shows that the commissioners could have found abundant 

 precedent for a recommendation that a small number of persons, 

 not exceeding ten, should have been given control of the funds 

 of the university, leaving to the teachers— that is, heads of 

 departments— the entire management of academical affairs. The 

 large number of colleges— many of them really secondary schools 

 —in so-called affiliation with Indian universities presents a diffi- 

 culty, but the suggestion is put forward that it could be overcome 

 by making the B.A. and B.Sc. degrees, or the former only, 



equivalent toaleaving examination for secondary schools. Students 



who wished to pursue their studies would do so at the univer- 

 sities. There would thus be a separation of the college from 



the university, as in the United States, where numerous colleges 



give the degrees of A.B. and S.B., and the students afterwards 



proceed to such places of post-graduate study as the Johns 



Hopkins University or the university side of Harvard. Some 



American universities have both college and university sides, 



but the students in the latter are those proceeding to higher 



degrees. As to the objection- that unless external examiners 



are called in the examination for degrees by colleges could not 



be contemplated, Sir William Ramsay urges that the teacher 



ought to be trusted to gauge the capacity ol his students, though 



it would be advisable for him to act in conjunction with an 



external examiner for all the colleges to secure uniformity of 



standard. Finally, he remarks :— " The true prosperity and 



success of colleges and of universities in training men for their 

 later careers, and in creating and disseminating knowledge 

 depend on the observance of two fundamental maxims 



NO 1735, VOL. 67] 



the absolute accelerations in relative motion.— E. P. Eisenhart, 

 on infinitesimal deformation of the skew helicoid.-S. Epoteen, 

 on integrability by quadratures.— E. B. Wilson, account of the 

 Abel centenary. — Reviews : English and French translations 

 of Hilbert's "Grundlagen der Geometrie " (E. R. Ilednck) ; 

 Dickson's "Linear Groups" (G. A. Miller); Buckingham s 

 " Thermodynamics" (E. H. Hall). -No. 4 (January, 1903)- — 

 F Cajori, on series whose product is absolutely convergent.— 

 L E Dickson, on the abstract simple groups of orders 504 and 

 660.— C. M. Mason, account of the Carlsbad meeting of the 

 Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Anthropological Institute, January 13— Dr. A. C. 

 Haddon F R.S , in the chair.— Dr. C. S. Myers read a paper 

 on the future of anthropometry. He sugges!ed that the work 

 in which anthropometry had hitherto been concerned, viz. he 

 determination of the average metric differences between the 

 various peoples of the world, must ultimately yield before 

 ""proved methods and new problems. The frequency-d.stnbu- 

 tion of any one character in a series of individuals must be 

 studied with greater accuracy. The mean of the dev.a.ons of 

 individuals from the mean of the whole series and the form of 

 the binomial frequency-curve require to be determined both for 

 relatively pure and mixed peoples. Frequency -curves wil 

 almost invariably show more than one point of maximal 

 freouency But before the usual inference is drawn that these 

 several peaks represent heterogeneous elements in the series 

 care must be taken that the irregularities of distribution are not 

 the result of examining an insufficient number of individuals 

 The future will see the precise investigation of the degree ot 

 correlation of various characters, the mode of inheritance of 

 characters, the fertility and characters of cross-breds, and the 

 effect of migration and evolution on mankind Mr. Francis 

 Gallon, Prof. Karl Pearson and others have already made a 

 start. Anthropometry has first .0 look for aid to the infant 

 science of biometry, which can employ experimental and there- 

 fore simpler conditions. The whole study of natural history 

 is passing from the descriptive to the quantitative aspect. 

 First' I 1 his, physical anthropology must join. 



In 



