;io 



NA rURE 



[January 26, 1905 



engineering. He expressed the opinion that in the teach- 

 ing of those who have to worlc during the day and 

 have only the evening in which to study, Great Britain 

 is making progress. In many departments of technical 

 education there is still much to learn, but in classes such 

 as those in polytechnics England has led the way. The 

 full value of such studies is often not attained, said Sir 

 William White, because of the absence of a scientific 

 method of teaching. Some teachers are uninformed them- 

 selves, and the consequences are serious to their students. 

 The want of a good English elementary education has 

 been recognised, but in secondary education there is much 

 which still remains undone. He advised every student of 

 engineering to apply himself to the study of mathematics 

 and applied mechanics, without which an engineer must 

 be at a disadvantage and have to work in the dark. 



Reference was made last week (p. aSb) to the grant 

 of 400/. a year, for the next five years, voted by the 

 Drapers' Company for work in the department of applied 

 mathematics at University College, London. The company 

 has long taken an active part in the development of higher 

 education, and the enlightened policy which has prompted 

 it to make grants in aid of university work and scientific 

 research in London will, we trust, be adopted by other 

 city companies. No better testimony to the value of such 

 grants could be obtained than is afforded by the memoirs 

 which have been published containing the results of work 

 carried on in Prof. Karl Pearson's laboratory (see, for 

 instance, a note in Nature of November 3, 1904, p. 15). 

 In acknowledgment of the assistance given by the Drapers' 

 Companv to work of this kind, the council of University 

 College passed the following resolution at its last meet- 

 ing : — " That the council desire to convey to the Court 

 of the Worshipful Company of Drapers their best thanks 

 for the vote of 2000/. towards further assisting the 

 statistical work and higher teaching of the department of 

 applied mathematics at University College. By their 

 original grant of loooi. for this purpose the court has 

 enabled the council to appoint an adequate staff and to 

 purchase valuable apparatus for the work of the depart- 

 ment. Bv generously continuing their aid the court will 

 enable the work thus begun to be placed upon a more 

 permanent footing, and will prepare the way for the 

 establishment of a permanent statistical institute." 



A RETURN showing the amount spent on technical 

 education by local authorities in England and Wales — 

 with the exception of four which have made no return — 

 during the year 1902-3, has been prepared by the Board 

 of Education and issued as a Blue-book. The return 

 shows that the total amount of the residue received under 

 the Local Taxation (Customs and E.xcise) Act, by the 

 councils of . counties and county boroughs in England 

 (excepting the county of Monmouth), in 1902-3 was 

 879,405!., of which 840,253/. was appropriated to educa- 

 tional purposes, and 39,152/. to relief of rates, the latter 

 sum including 22,366/. devoted by the London County 

 Council to relief of rates. Of the 49 county councils, 45 

 were applying the whole of the residue to technical educa- 

 tion, and 3 a part of it to the same purpose. Of the 

 councils of the 64 county boroughs, 61 were devoting the 

 whole, and 3 a part of the residue to technical education. 

 Further, 4 countv councils and the councils of 31 county 

 boroughs, loi boroughs, and 211 urban districts, in 

 England, were making grants out of the rates under the 

 Technical Instruction .^cts ; and 31 local authorities were 

 devoting funds to technical education out of the rate 

 levied under the Public Libraries and Museums .Acts. 

 Thirty-three local authorities raised sums by loan on the 

 security of the local rate under the Technical Instruction 

 Acts. The total amount expended on technical education 

 during the year was 1,149,216/. The total amount of the 

 residue paid to the 13 county councils and the councils 

 of the 3 county boroughs in Wales and Monmouth was 

 42.201/. These local authorities devoted the whole of it 

 to intermediate and technical education, chiefly under the 

 ^\"elsh Intermediate Education .Act, 1889. The total 

 amount expended on technical education in Wales and 

 .Monmouth under the Technical Instruction .Acts during 

 the year was 42,781/. 



NO. 1839, VOL. 71] 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Geological Society, January 4. — Dr. J. E. Marr, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — The marine beds in the 

 Coal-measures of North Staffordshire : J. T. Stobbs, 

 with notes on their palai^ontology by Dr. Wheelton Hind. 

 The stratigraphical position of the marine beds can be 

 located with exactness in situ. ihe horizons can be 

 utilised for the subdivision of the Coal-measures. The 

 known horizons at which marine fossils have been obtained 

 were enumerated, and a map of the distribution of these 

 beds was given. The Speedwell and Nettlebank bed 

 appears to be the most important marine bed in the coal- 

 field. .A detailed table of the beds in North Staffordshire was 

 given to show the exact position of the marine beds. Dr. 

 Hind, in his notes on the palaeontology, remarked that from 

 the base of the Pendleside series to the top of the Coal- 

 measures there is an unbroken succession of beds — at one 

 time marine, at another estuarine, without unconformitv. 

 — The geology of Cyprus : C. \'. Bellamy, with con- 

 tributions by A. J. Jukes-Browne. The Kyrenia Moun- 

 tains rise to heights of more than 3000 feet. They are 

 composed of rocks tilted into a vertical position, altered 

 by compression and intrusion, and are devoid of fossils. 

 They are referred by Prof. Gaudry to the Cretaceous 

 period, and are compared by him with the hippurite- 

 limestones of -Attica. The Kythr^an rocks (Upper Eocene) 

 are based on breccias and conglomerates made up of 

 fragments of the Trypanian limestones. No fossils, e.xcept 

 a few small tests of Globigerina, have been found in this 

 series, which consists entirely of volcanic debris. The 

 Idalian (Oligocene) series appears to rest conformably on 

 the last. The gypsum-beds are largely developed in the 

 south ; the white chalky marls and limestones extend over 

 nearly one-half of the island, and are always conspicuous 

 from their intense whiteness. Foraminifera are abundant, 

 and other fossils have been found which indicate that the 

 beds are mainly of Oligocene age. Igneous rocks are 

 most conspicuous in the centre of the island. They are 

 intrusive into the formations already mentioned. The 

 rocks include augite-syenite, rhyolite, liparite, olivine- 

 dolerite, basalt, augite, and several varieties of serpen- 

 tine. Miocene rocks have only been recognised in the 

 south-east of the island. The Pliocene strata lie in hori- 

 zontal or slightly inclined beds, resting unconformably 

 upon all older rocks. The Pleistocene rocks sometimes 

 attain a thickness of 50 feet. The cave-earths have yielded 

 Hippopotamus minutus and Eh'phas Cypriotes to Miss 

 D. M. Bate. An account of the chief economic mineral 

 products of the island is given. Descriptions of some of 

 the rocks, a note on the Miocene rocks, and a sketch of 

 the physical history of the island are contributed by Mr. 

 Jukes-Browne. 



Mathematical Society, January 12. — Prof. A. R. Fr.rsyih, 

 president, in the chair. — Basic generalisations of well 

 known analytic functions ; Rev. F. H. Jackson. Recent 

 investigations have led to generalised forms of the serial 

 expressions of certain functions. The functional characters 

 of the new series, the domains of convergence, and the 

 possibility of finding linear differential equations satisfied 

 by the generalised functions are the matters that next 

 claim attention. The author explained the degree of 

 success which he had attained in these lines of investi- 

 gation. — Current flow in rectangular conductors : H. 

 Fletcher Moulton. The paper deals with the resistance 

 of a rectangular lamina between electrodes which occupy 

 portions of opposite sides, and the distribution of currents 

 which flow in a conducting lamina bounded internally and 

 externally by squares. — On the kinematics and dynamics 

 of a granular medium in normal piling : J. H. Jeans. 

 The paper is occupied with problems suggested by Prof. 

 O. Reynolds's "Sub-mechanics of the Universe." .An 

 attempt is made to examine the question of the permanence 

 or non-permanence of peculiarities of piling such as Prof. 

 Reynolds interpreted as matter, electricity, magnetism, &c- 

 The results go to show that such peculiarities would be 

 transient, and that a universe constructed as imagined by 

 Prof. Reynolds would suffer instant dissolution, after which 

 particles of matter, charges of electricity, &c., would 



