January 19, 1905] 



NA TURE 



287 



question which has often been debated by the association, 

 and now in later years, as the subject has assumed a 

 more prominent place in all questions about the curricula 

 of the universities and the secondary schools, the associ- 

 ation has gradually focussed its view of it in favour of 

 relaxation for candidates for admission at the university 

 who are able to prove themselves worthy of high honours 

 in mathematics or natural science. 

 1;^ Mr. Arnold-Forster, Secretary of .State for War, 



r attended on .Monday the first lecture of a course on 

 military history and strategy at the University of London ; 

 and at the conclusion of the lecture spoke on army educa- 

 tion. In the course of his remarks, he said : — If we have 

 h.id one thing more than another to admire in the great 

 military example in the Far East, it is the way in which 

 the officers' corps of a great and friendly nation have 

 succeeded in combining the maximum of devotion with 

 the maximum of intelligence in the etTective service of 

 their country. In our Army we can find officers in every 

 rank and branch of the service who will challenge com- 

 [larison with the officers of any army in the world ; but 

 the diffusion of intelligence and education throughout the 

 oflicers of the .Army is not so great as it ought to be. 

 This is not peculiar to the Army ; it is characteristic of 

 every profession in the country ; and what this country 

 is now feeling acutely is that we have so long subsisted 

 on im educational basis inadequate to the needs of modern 

 life. The time has come for the public schools to render 

 lo the Army greater service than they do now. Numbers 

 'if \oung men come up for the Arnu' from the public 

 -( hools with a totally inadequate knowledge of the 

 language of every country but their own, and with an 

 inadequate knowledge of the history and literature of their 

 own country, as well as of the history and literature of 

 every other country. That must all be changed. Young 

 men ought to come up from the public schools instructed in 

 the great science of geography. Now they are practically 

 without anv knowledge whatever of one of the sciences 

 which, more than any other, is the reasonable foundation 

 liir the studies of an officer in the .Army. There is an 

 I'xtraordinary lack in this country — which of all others 

 ought to be well posted in this branch of science — of a 

 proper knowledge of geography. We might be compelled 

 to establish in this country for the .Army schools like 

 those which have been already established for the Navy, 

 <ir like the college at West Point in the United States. 

 The time has almost come when it would be wise to 

 establish a great college like West Point, where the equip- 

 ment, staff, and method should be as complete as possible, 

 and where candidates should be taken not only for the 

 .Vriiiy, but for all the great departments of the State, and 

 where even those who have no intention of entering the 

 service of the .State may be allowed to receive instruction. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



P.\RIS. 



Academy of Sciences, January 9. — M. Troost in the 

 chair. — The external or superficial conductivity represent- 

 ing for a given body the cooling power of a fluid current ; 

 J. Boussinesq. — The micrographical study of the meteorite 

 of the Diablo Canyon : H. Moissan and F. Osmond. 

 The micrographical study of this meteorite has shown that 

 the metallic parts, apparently homogeneous, frequently 

 contain irregular microscopic nuclei formed of superposed 

 layers of phosphide and carbide of iron. .-\ detailed ex- 

 amination of nodules which have not been submitted to 

 external oxidation made it clear that they are formed 

 of sulphide of iron surrounded by successive layers of iron 

 phosphide and carbide. In certain cases the laminated 

 structure of the nodules showed that they had been sub- 

 mitted to very considerable pressures. — Trypanosomiasis 

 and the tsetse-fiy in French Guinea : A. Laveran. Speci- 

 mens of Glossina, or the tsetse-fly, have been found in 

 .ill parts of French Guinea, and in places where the 



■ ■\istence of diseases due to trypanosomes has been already 

 demonstrated. These trypanosoines attack horses as well 



■ IS human beings, and a detailed account of the course 

 <if the disease in a horse, together with the results of a 



NO. 1838, VOL. 7 l] 



post-nwrlcin examination of the animal, are given. — 

 Observations on the Borrelly comet (December 28, 1904) 

 made with the large equatorial at the Observatory of 

 Bordeaux : G. Rayet. Two sets of observations were made 

 on December 31, 1904, and one on January 2. On the 

 latter evening the sky was clear, and the comet appeared 

 as a nearly round nebulosity of about i' in diameter, 

 possessing a stellar nucleus of the thirteenth magnitude. 

 — On a method of reading large surfaces of mercury : A. 

 Berget. A collimator with a well illuminated very narrow 

 slit is placed behind the column to be read, and an un- 

 graduated thermometer tube in front. A luminous line, 

 the focal line of a cylindrical mirror, is formed, and ends 

 with great sharpness at a fixed point,_ which can be read 

 off in a cathetometer with an accuracy of 001 mm. — 

 The attraction observed between liquid drops suspended in 

 a liquid of the saine density : V. Cremieu. Drops of 

 olive oil, suspended in a mixture of alcohol and water of 

 as nearly as possible the same density as the oil, ascend 

 or descend in a vertical straight line, with extreme slow- 

 ness, if precautions against changes of temperature and 

 shaking are taken. If two or more drops are present in 

 the dilute alcohol at the same time, there is an attraction 

 between the two drops which is manifested by their follow- 

 ing curved paths instead of vertically straight ones. — On 

 the photogenic radio-active properties of calcined coral 

 placed in a radiant vacuum and submitted to the influence 

 of the kathode rays : Gaston Seguy. .Amongst various 

 substances examined calcined coral (carbonate of lime and 

 magnesia) gave the most intense phosphorescence as 

 measured by the action on a photographic plate. Phos- 

 phorescent coral excites the fluorescence of barium platino- 

 cyanide screens, and is very rich in ultra-violet rays. — 

 Concerning the action of very low temperatures on the 

 phosphorescence of certain sulphides : F. P. Le Roux. 

 The maximum potential light energy which can be in- 

 duced in a given phosphorescent body by a given light is 

 independent of the temperature. Variations of temperature 

 can only have an influence on the velocity of transform- 

 ation of the potential into the actual light energy. — On 

 a supposed demonstration of the existence of the «-rays by 

 photographic methods : M. Chanoz and M. Perrigot. 

 The authors have repeated an experinient of M. Bordier's 

 on the photographic detection of the «-rays emitted by 

 tempered steel, with contrary results. They find that two 

 equal masses of lead and tempered steel, placed identically 

 on screens comparable as to thickness and insolation, never 

 give different halos, whatever may be the duration of 

 the exposure. — The special sensibility of the physiological 

 ear for certain vowels : M. Marage. — On the fluorides 

 of indium and rubidium : C. Chabrie and A. Bouchonnet. 

 The fluoride of indium was prepared by dissolving the 

 hydroxide of the metal in hydrofluoric acid, and was 

 found on analysis to possess the composition In^F^.tSHjO. 

 It emits acid vapours, and is completely decomposed on 

 ignition to redness. On treating rubidium carbonate with 

 hydrofluoric acid and evaporating to dryness the acid 

 fluoride RbF.HF is obtained. — The limit of the reaction 

 betw-een diazobenzene and aniline : Leo Vignon. Amino- 

 azobenzene does not react with diazobenzene either in 

 aqueous or alcoholic solution. .Aniline reacts with diazo- 

 aminoazobenzene chloride in presence of potassium carbonate 

 giving a diazoamine. — Camphene, camphenylone, iso- 

 borneol, and camphor : L. Bouveault and G. Blanc. 

 The tertiary alcohol, methylcamphenylol, was prepared 

 from camphenylone by Grignard's reaction. The reaction 

 of this alcohol with pyruvic acid at i40°-i50° C. has been 

 studied. — On the diastatic coagulation of starch : J. Wolff 

 and -A. Fernbach. — The estimation of carbon monoxide 

 in confined atmospheres : Albert Levy and A. Pecoul. 

 The authors utilise the reaction first indicated by M. 

 Gautier between carbon monoxide and iodic anhydride at 

 80° C, modifying the method by receiving the vapours of 

 iodine in a small quantity of pure chloroform. The amount 

 of iodine set free is ascertained calorimetrically by com- 

 parison with a set of sealed tubes containing known quanti- 

 ties of iodine. It is possible in this way to measure in four 

 litres of air only down to 1/200,000 of carbon monoxide 

 by volume. .A test analysis with an artificially prepared 

 atmosphere is given to show the accuracy of the method. 



