420 



NA TURE 



[March 5, 1903 



colleges in Oxford and Cambridge, from the point of 

 view of the teaching of science in public schools. For, 

 though the representatives of the Universities did not 

 accept all the proposals brought forward, they did 



ccept a large proportion of the chief of them, as, for 

 example, the proposal to limit the number of chief 

 science subjects offered by any candidate to two, and 

 another requiring all candidates offering geology, or 

 biological subjects to show an acquaintance with the 

 elements of chemistry and physics, and thus a real 

 beginning in the direction of greater cooperation was 

 made. 



We do not, however, attach so much importance to 

 the results attained by these first conferences as we 

 do to the fact that the conferences were held at all. 

 For we feel sure they will be followed bv others, that 

 the science masters will be imitated bv the masters 

 of other departments, and that whatever the imme- 

 diate results may be, however great or however small, 

 we might almost say however good or however bad, 

 they will sooner or later — and we think sooner — do 

 much to disentangle many knotty questions, and bv 

 generally improving the relations of those who teach 

 and those who examine, do good work both for in- 

 dividuals and for the State, to both of whom the 

 advancement of education is admittedly of vital im- 

 portance. We hope and believe, moreover, that now 

 the representatives of the colleges at Oxford and Cam- 

 bridge have led the way in thus conferring directly 

 with the assistant masters, who, in the nature of 

 things, must do most of the actual teaching in the 

 schools, other public bodies concerned with education, 

 such as the University of London and the Civil Service 

 Commissioners, will not be backward in promoting 

 similar conferences whenever there may seem to be a 

 reasonable prospect that they may prove useful. Some 

 examining bodies in the past have been too timid in 

 the matter of reform, and have shown far too much 

 fear of giving the schools a lead, forgetting that the 

 evil of going too slowly may be even greater, at times, 

 than that of going too fast. Conferences like those 

 we are now recording should be immensely helpful to 

 such conservative bodies bv giving them the best 

 possible opportunities of getting into touch with the 

 actual educators. 



Hitherto, circumstances have tended far too much 

 to make the teachers in schools look upon examiners 

 solely as critics rather than as friends and colleagues. 

 The recent action of the University of London in 

 appointing schoolmasters to examine schoolboys, the 

 proposed consultative committee to assist the War 

 Office on educational questions, and these recent con- 

 ferences at the old Universities, give good ground for 

 hoping that this state of things i's about to pass away, 

 and that teachers and examiners will soon be pulling 

 together more universally than they have done hitherto. 



NOTES. 

 Dr. J. Larmor, secretary of the Royal Society and Fellow 

 <>f St. John's College, has been elected to the Lucasian 

 professorship of mathematics at Cambridge, in succession 

 to the late Sir George Stokes. 



At a seismological congress held at Strasburg in April, 

 1901, statutes were proposed for an international seismo- 

 logica] association. The German Government now invites 

 delegates from various countries to meet to discuss these 

 propositions. We learn from Science that this meeting will 

 lake place at Berne in May. 



The British and African Company's steamer Bornu, which 

 arrived at Plymouth on February 27, experienced a heavy 

 NO. I 740, VOL. 67] 



sand-storm on February 19, in latitude 27 north, longitude 

 15° 30' west, that is, a little south of the Canary Islands. 

 A tremendous sea prevailed for several hours, and so dense 

 was the sand that it was impossible to see either end of the 

 ship from the bridge. 



Prof. Koch has been elected a Foreign Associate of the 

 Paris Academy of Sciences, in succession to the late Prof. 

 Virchow. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death of Prof. 

 W. llarkness, astronomical director of the U.S. Naval Ob- 

 seryatory, and Rear-Admiral (retired) of the United States 

 \.iv\ . 



Puof. E. Mazelle has been appointed director of the 

 Imperial Astronomical-Meteorological Observatory at Triest, 

 Austria. 



The twenty-first congress of the Sanitary Institute will 

 be held this year in Bradford, commencing on July 7. The 

 programme of arrangements made will be given in the 

 supplement to the April journal of the Institute. 



Reuter states that a telegram has been received in New 

 York from Mr. Aynie. the United States Consul in Guade- 

 loupe, stating that the French army engineers have estab- 

 lished communication with Martinique by means of wireless 

 telegraphy. 



Reports from Mexico state that the volcano Popocatapet! 

 has been bought up by a group of American financiers for 

 the sum of 1,000,000/. The idea is to utilise the valuable 

 deposits of sulphur contained in the volcano, to get which it 

 will be necessary to construct a railway to the summit. 



Dr. J. W. Gregory. F.R.S., professor of geology in the 

 University of Melbourne, has met with an accident, necessi- 

 tating an operation under chloroform. He was conducting 

 scientific investigations in Tasmania at the time, and con- 

 siderable anxiety has been felt concerning him. The latest 

 news is, however, it-assuring. 



The President of the Local Government Board states 

 that the Royal Commission on Sewage Disposal is taking 

 evidence and making investigations on the subject of danger- 

 ous contamination of shell-fish by sewage, with a view of 

 ascertaining the measures necessary for obviating risk to 

 the public health from this cause. 



Mr. W. Bowman writes from Kansas City, Missouri, 

 U.S.A., with reference to the flexure of a white marble 

 slab mentioned in Nature of November 20, 1902 (p. 56) and 

 November 27, 1902 (p. 81). He says that many years ago 

 he saw at Windsor, Nova Scotia, in the churchyard of the 

 old parish church, a marble slab bowed in the middle, 

 exactly as described by our correspondents. 



Mr. Henry Phipps has given Lord Curzon another 

 10,000/. for the promotion of agricultural education or 

 scientific research in India. Colonel Lockwood has been 

 informed by the Secretary of State for India that, in view 

 of the great benefits conferred on the European and the 

 native community in India by the Pasteur Institute in the 

 Punjab, the Viceroy proposes to apply half Mr. Phipps 's gift 

 to the establishment of a similar institute in Southern India. 



In the House of Commons on Tuesday the following re- 

 solution was moved : — " That the constitution of the Board 

 of Trade has become obsolete, and this House is of opinion 

 that a department presided over by a Minister of Commerce 

 and Industry, having the status of a principal Secretary of 

 State, should be substituted for the present office, to which 

 should be entrusted all matters more particularly appertain- 

 ing to commerce and industry, and to that end that an 



