June 25, 1914] 
NATURE 
445 
to the abolition of by-laws which permit a child to 
leave school so early as twelve, and in the rural dis- 
tricts even earlier, to work as a half-timer. In view 
of the factious opposition the Bill has evoked, it is 
clear that only a Government measure will meet the 
necessities of the case and provide for the raising of 
the whole-time school age until the age of fourteen, 
and for the continued effective education of the pupil 
on leaving school, and within the normal working 
hours, until at least the completion of his seventeenth 
year. Only by measures of this kind can the great 
expenditure on elementary education be justified and 
its fruits assured. Nothing short of this will enable 
the country to maintain its position amongst civilised 
nations. The remarkable industrial and commercial 
advance of Germany has been secured under condi- 
tions of an extended whole-time school age far beyond 
those prevailing in this country, together with pro- 
visions for continued compulsory education within the 
normal hours of employment on leaving school up to 
the age of eighteen, of the most effective character. 
The measures proposed in the Bill have had the 
strong support of the Manchester Chamber of Com- 
merce and of the Manchester and Salford Trades and 
Labour Council, and of experienced educationists and 
social reformers. No so-called industrial exigencies 
ought to stand in the way of the welfare of the 
children. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
LONDON. 
Royal Society, June 18.—Sir William Crookes, presi- 
dent, in the chair.—Sir D. Bruce, Major A. E. 
Hamerton, Captain.D. P. Watson, and Lady Bruce: 
(1) Trypanosome diseases of domestic animals in 
Nyasaland. Trypanosoma caprae, Kleine. Part III. 
—Development in Glossina morsitans; (2) trypano- 
somes found in wild G. morsitans and wild game in 
the ‘‘fly-belt’’ of the Upper Shiré Valley; (3) the 
food of G. morsitans; (4) infectivity of G. morsitans 
in Nyasaland during 1912 and 1913.—Dr. C. W. 
Andrews; A description of the skull and skeleton of a 
peculiarly modified rupicaprine antelope, Myotragus 
balearicus, Bate. M. balearicus, Bate, is a peculiarly 
modified rupicaprine antelope, remains of which were 
discovered by Miss D. M. A. Bate in cavern deposits 
in Majorca and Minorca. The dentition is very re- 
markable. Instead of having three incisors and a 
canine on each side of the mandibular symphysis, as 
is usual in the Bovide, the canines and the two outer 
pairs of incisors are wanting, while the median incisors 
are enormously enlarged rodent-like teeth, growing 
from persistent pulps. The premolars are reduced in 
number and the molars have very high crowns. The 
feet are remarkable for the shortness and stoutness 
of the metacarpals and metatarsals, which are quite 
similar to those of the Takin (Budorcas). The animal 
seems to have been adapted for climbing on steep 
crags and cliffs, and probably lived on very hard 
vegetation.—E. T. Halman and F. H. A. Marshall : 
The relation between the thymus and_ the 
generative organs, and the influence of these 
organs upon growth. With a note by G. U. Yule.— 
H. E. Roaf: The vapour pressure hypothesis of con- 
traction of striated muscle. Two objections have been 
urged against muscular contraction being due to 
movements of water from one portion of the muscle 
fibre to another. These are: (1) that an osmotic 
model of muscle cannot cause a sufficient degree of 
shortening ; and (2) that the movement of water would 
require a longer time than the muscle takes in con- 
tracting. The extent of contraction possible for an 
osmotic model and the time required for this con- 
traction has been calculated for structures of the 
NO. 2330, VOL. 93] 
dimensions of frog’s sartorius. It is found that the 
extent of contraction can be explained by the osmotic 
model, and that the time required is less than 0-03 sec., 
and frog’s sartorius requires at least 0-04 sec. for com- 
plete contraction.—A. N. Drury: The validity of the 
microchemical test for the oxygen place in tissues. 
Experiments were made to show that the micro- 
chemical test with rongalit white, used by Unna to fix 
the position of the oxygen place in tissues, could be 
obtained on a surface entirely free from oxygen. A 
further extension of the work showed that the con- 
densation of a solute on to a surface is markedly 
influenced by the previous treatment of, or by the gas 
condensed on, that surface.—Prof. J. S. MacDonald : 
Man’s mechanical efficiency. The rate of heat-produc- 
tion, QO, associated with cycling at a uniform rate but 
with varied performances of mechanical work, is 
expressed in the following form, x+Ey=Q, where 
x represents the heat-production associated with the 
uniform rate of movement, y the rate of work-perform- 
ance. It is shown that E varies inversely with W?/*. 
It follows that, putting on one side x, the energy- 
transformation entailed by the movements per se, 
the additional energy-transformation required for any 
definite rate of work-performance is less the greater 
the weight, W, of the worker; and the mechanical 
efficiency measured in this fashion varies directlv with 
W?/*. It is also shown, however, that x varies ap- 
proximately with W*/?, and thus that the energy- 
transformation associated with the mere production of 
movement is much greater the greater the weight.— 
Dr. A. Holt: The colouring matters in the compound 
Ascidian, Diazona violacea, Savigny.—Prof. W. B. 
Bottomley : Some accessory factors in plant growth and 
nutrition. Plant growth-stimulating substances are 
formed in sphagnum pea: when it is incubated with a 
liquid culture of certain aerobic soil bacteria for a fort- | 
night at 24° C. These substances are soluble in 
water and in alcohol, and are active in very small 
amounts, two applications of water-extract of 0-18 
gram treated peat doubling the size of Primula mala- 
coides seedlings over untreated plants in six weeks’ 
time. They appear to be similar to so-called accessory 
food substances essential for nutrition of growing 
animals, first studied in connection with the deficiency 
diseases beri-beri and scurvy. The production of these 
substances appears to be associated with formation of 
soluble humates in peat by bacterial action. They are 
not formed when peat is treated with alkalies. Cul- 
tures of Azotobacter chroococcum grown with exiract 
of ‘‘bacterised’’ peat gave an increase of 18 milli- 
grams of nitrogen in eight days, whilst extract of 
chemically-treated peat gave no increased fixation. 
The active substance is precipitated from aqueous 
solution of alcoholic extract of ‘‘ bacterised’’ peat by 
phosphotungstic acid, and can be further separated 
by decomposing with baryta, reprecipitating with 
silver nitrate and decomposing with hydrogen sul- 
phide. Wheat seedlings in sand culture with Detmer’s 
complete food solution gave an increase of 22-7 per 
cent. with the phosphotungstic fraction, and 17-7 per 
cent. with the silver fraction. Water-culture experi- 
ments with wheat seedlings in Detmer’s solution pre- 
pared from pure salts in physiologically pure distilled 
water showed that these substances are essential for 
assimilation of inorganic food constituents.—Prof. H. B. 
Dixon, C, Campbell, and W. E. Slater: A photographic 
analysis of explosion-flames traversing a magnetic 
field. The authors have carried out a suggestion made 
by Sir J. J. Thomson that the explosion-wave in gases 
should be photographed on a rapidly moving film 
while it traverses a strong magnetic field, to determine 
whether the emission of electrons in front of the wave 
‘‘prepares the way” by ionising the gases. Using a 
very powerful magnet lent them by Sir E. Rutherford, 
