DECEMBER 6, 1906 | 
NATO RE 
their efficiency when used in a steam-boiler plant. Some 
of the lignites from undeveloped, but extensive, deposits 
in North Dakota and Texas showed unexpectedly high 
power-producing qualities, and it is shown that certain of 
the dry, non-coking, bituminous coals and semi-anthracites, 
which are now almost wasted, can be converted into useful 
fuel by briquetting. The work of the chemical laboratory 
in connection with the sampling of the coal has undoubtedly 
set a standard for similar work in the future. The total 
sum appropriated for the work by the United States 
Government was 12,000l. 
The United States Geological Survey has undertaken a 
far-reaching investigation of all the lead and zinc deposits 
in the Mississippi valley. A large part of this field has 
been investigated by the Wisconsin Geological Survey, and 
an interesting report on the ore deposits, with an atlas 
of eighteen detailed maps, has been published by Mr. 
U. S. Grant (Bulletin No. xiv., Madison, Wisconsin, 1906). 
The results brought out by these maps in regard to the 
relations and origin of the ore are extremely satisfactory, 
in that they show that a large portion of the ore deposits 
are confined to the structural basins. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
. INTELLIGENCE. 
CaMBRIDGE.—The voting on the proposed new regulations 
for the mathematical tripos will take place at a Congre- 
gation to be held on Friday and Saturday, February 1 
and 2, 1907. 
The general board of studies has recommended (1) that 
a university lecturer in hygiene be appointed, in connection 
with the special board for medicine, with an annual 
stipend of 1ool. payable out of the funds in the hands of 
the State Medicine Syndicate ; (2) that a university lecturer 
in pathology be appointed, in connection with the special 
board for medicine, with an annual stipend of rool. pay- 
able out of the common university fund. 
The general board of studies has approved Mr. E. W. 
Barnes, Trinity College, for the degree of Doctor in 
Science. 
Pror. M. E. Sapter will distribute the prizes at the 
Merchant Venturers’ Technical College, Bristol, on Thurs- 
day, December 20. 
Lorp MonksweELt will distribute the prizes and certifi- 
cates to students at the Borough Polytechnic Institute on 
Tuesday, December 11, at 8 p.m. 
A Girt havjng the annual value of sool. a year has 
been made to the University of Paris by Mr. Andrew 
Carnegie for scholarships to be awarded for the purpose 
of carrying on research in the laboratory of Mme. Curie. 
A staTvE of the late Principal ‘Yiriamu Jones, F.R.S., 
first principal of the Universit WJollege of South Wales 
and Monmouthshire, ari the rst senior Vice-Chancellor 
of the University of Wales, was unveiled at Cardiff, on 
December 1, by Viscount Tredegar. 
A DEPUTATION from the executive of the Association of 
Education Committees was received by Mr. Birrell at the 
Board of Education on November 29. The deputation 
sought to obtain more elasticity in the local development 
of higher education, greater freedom for local education 
authorities in the training of teachers, and increased 
Imperial aid for the relief of education rates. Mr. Birrell, 
in reply, expressed his sympathy with the ideals and most 
of the objects of the association, and his regret that the 
Treasury could not authorise him to promise at present 
any further grant of public funds in relief of local education 
rates. 
AN unusually interesting and important Blue-book 
(Cd. 3255) has just been issued by the Board of Educa- 
tion. It deals with statistics of public education in 
England and Wales for the years 1904-5-6. Every grade 
of school is dealt with, and it is now easy to trace the 
growth of educational enterprise in recent years. One of 
the numerous sections is devoted to technical institutions, 
that is, as defined by the regulations of the Board, to 
institutions giving organised courses of instruction in day 
NO. 1936, VOL. 75] 
[41 
classes. In 1904-5 twenty-three such institutions only were 
recognised; 2509 students attended them at some time 
during the year, grants amounting to 8542l. were paid on 
1295 students attending a full course of instruction, and 
15071. on 489 students attending part only of a course. 
Small as these numbers are, it is satisfactory to find they 
are larger than the corresponding figures for 1903-4. 
These students were taught by 416 teachers, of whom nine 
were women, numbers representing an increase of 108 jn 
the teaching staff in the year. The average age of the 
students attending these classes was rather low. Of the 
total number of students, under 300 were women and 
girls; 1136 were between fifteen and eighteen years of 
age, 879 between eighteen.and twenty-one, and 494 were 
more than twenty-one years of age. Courses of work in 
engineering and in applied chemistry were most numerous. 
During 1904-5 the number of evening schools recognised 
reached 5706, and the number of students who attended 
at any time during the year 718,562; a grant was paid on 
487,699 of the total number of students. The amount of 
the grant reached 320,762]. Of this total number of 
students as many as 155,938 were under fifteen years of 
age, and 202,707 were more than twenty-one years. Two- 
thirds of the students were men or boys. This Blue-book 
will prove indispensable to educational administrators every- 
where. 
Tue scholarships, medals, and prizes gained by candi- 
dates at the examinations of the London Chamber of 
Commerce were distributed on November 30 by Mr. 
Asquith, Chancellor of the Exchequer, who subsequently 
delivered an address. After referring to the growth of the 
educational work of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. 
Asquith said that men and women of all classes and 
schools of opinion must agree in feeling gratification that 
during the last twenty or thirty years we have by our 
continuation classes, by our technical classes, by our poly- 
technics, been endeavouring, at any rate, to superadd to 
the common basis of education which was the possession, 
or ought to be the possession, of all classes of the com- 
munity, some means of equipping men and women for 
the special exigencies of the particular branches of their 
profession in life. The English people, who have some 
very excellent qualities, have some ingrained and almost 
ineradicable superstitions. All agree that in the case of 
what are called the learned professions some kind of special 
training and knowledge is needed before a man _ takes 
upon himself the pursuit of his calling in them, but every 
Englishman thinks he is perfectly qualified to take up 
without any preliminary training the work of business. 
But, Mr. Asquith continued, we cannot now take things 
in the easy-going and the happy-go-lucky fashion that we 
used to do. The strain of foreign competition presses 
upon us in every walk of business and every market in 
the world, and, whatever are the contributory causes of 
the pressure which we all in a greater or less degree ex- 
perience, there is not a man acquainted with the facts 
who will not agree that in the case, at any rate, of some 
of our most formidable competitors—for instance, Germany 
and the United States—one of the great sources from which 
they have derived exceptional strength in their commercial 
and industrial struggle with us has been the superior 
development of their technical and educational system. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
Lonpon. 
Royal Society, June 21.—‘‘The Action of Radium and 
Certain other Salts on Gelatin.’’ By W. A. Douglas 
Rudge. Communicated by Prof. J. J. Thomson, F.R.S. 
The author has completed his experiments on the above 
subject, following the method first described in Nature 
(vol. Ixxii., p. 631). A ‘* growth ’’ which appears cellular 
in structure is seen to occur when a radium salt is put 
in contact with gelatin. This growth is traced to the 
formation of an insoluble precipitate of barium sulphate, 
owing to the barium always associated with radium salts 
and the sulphuric acid usually present in commercial 
samples of gelatin. Specially prepared gelatin containing 
no sulphuric acid gives no growth. 
A sample of gelatin from which the sulphuric acid had 
