DECEMBER 20, 1906 | 
INGATEC Re 
187 
matters. Tables iii. to vi., p. 23, 
deal with diurnal variation of vapour pressure at Parc 
St. Maur, and at Blue Hill at several levels. Tables vii. 
and viii. and Chart xii. deal with electric potential at 
Greenwich for each month of the year, and with seasonal 
data at Perpignan and Paris. From a study of these the 
author advances in Chart xiii., sect. ii., as the repre- 
sentative curve of the diurnal inequality one possessing 
five maxima! A very similar curve—based on results by 
Zolss and Gockel—is given for electric dissipation. The 
conclusions embodied in these curves cannot be recom- 
mended for general acceptance. The same remark applies 
to the conclusion, on p. 21, that ‘‘ the (earth’s) electro- 
static field varies inversely to that of the solar energy.’ 
The sole basis for this view seems to be Table ix., p. 24, 
and Fig. 53, which are regarded as proving a parallel 
variation from year to year between the number of solar 
prominences and the reciprocal of a quantity supposed to 
represent the mean annual potential gradient at Greenwich. 
The diurnal variation of the magnetic field seems to be 
ascribed to up and down movements of positive ions in the 
atmosphere; these are supposed to indulge a preference 
for cold air during the day. As to magnetic storms, the 
author’s theory is even less clearly stated, but he appar- 
ently regards it as supported by the rapid rise towards 
I p.m. in the frequency figures given by Mr. Maunder for 
the hour of commencement of magnetic storms at Green- 
wich from 1882 to 1903. The author is presumably un- 
aware that Mr. Maunder has since attributed this sudden 
rise to a cause having nothing to do with terrestrial mag- 
netism, and that it is not shown in figures he has given for 
the epoch 1848 to 1881 (cf. Phil. Mag., September, 1905, 
p. 306). In opposition to the theory advanced by Prof. 
Schuster and others, that the magnetic diurnal inequality 
is due to electric currents in the upper atmosphere, the 
author contends that the source is more directly thermal 
and confined to the lowest two miles of the atmosphere. 
A comparatively short series of simultaneous observations 
at suitably chosen high- and low-level stations should be 
fairly decisive for or against Prof. Bigelow’s contention. 
In the above criticisms the author has been regarded as 
a scientific man whose aim is to convey scientific ideas 
to other scientific men. If his aim is simply to convey to 
an unscientific public a general idea of the problems which 
present themselves in cosmical physics, with the view of 
impressing the imagination rather than of appealing to the 
intelligence, the case is no doubt different. But on either 
hypothesis, what useful purpose is likely to be served by 
the indiscriminate collection of statistics and the enunci- 
ation of vague, hasty theories? A sparing use of theory 
may serve as a lubricant, but theory when heaped upon 
theory is simply dust clogging the wheels of science. 
CHARLES CHREE. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
Mr. J. J. Wetcu has been appointed to the newly- 
established chair of naval architecture at the Armstrong 
College, Newcastle. 
Ir is announced in the Lancet that the late Dr. Gustave 
Schorstein bequeathed s5ool. to the regius professor of 
medicine at the University of Oxford for the pathological 
department of the medical school, sool. to the London 
Hospital, and a sum, which will probably amount to some 
10,00ol., in trust to the University of Oxford, subject to 
certain life interests. When these are expired the capital 
is to be at the disposal of the University for use as the 
University may think fit. 
Tue following courses of lectures for teachers have been 
arranged, among others, at University College, London, 
in conjunction with the education committee of the London 
County Council:—‘‘ The Teaching of Geography to 
Children,’’ Prof. Lyde; ‘‘Some Types of Vegetation and 
the Conditions under which they Exist,’’ Dr. Fritsch, both 
courses beginning on January 17; and ‘‘ The Principles 
of Electrical Science during the Past 150 Years,’’ Prof. 
Trouton, beginning on January 19. 
NO. 1938, VOL. 75] 
and numerous curves 
THE preliminary programme of the second International 
Congress on School Hygiene, to be held on August 5-10, 
1907, at the University of London, South Kensington, has 
been issued. The work of the congress will be divided into 
eleven sections, each presided over by an authority on the 
subject dealt with. The organising committee is inviting 
educational and public health authorities, universities, 
colleges, schools, societies, and others to appoint delegates 
to the meeting, and is appealing for donations to meet 
| the large expenditure involved in organising the congress, 
which it is estimated will be not less than 30001. The 
president of the congress is Sir Lauder Brunton, F.R.S., 
and the hon. secretaries are Dr. James Kerr and Mr. E. 
\ White Wallis. 
THE report of the Board of Education for the year 1905-6 
is of an encouraging nature. There is plenty of evidence 
provided that our national system of technical education 
continues steadily to improve. The report points out that 
much attention has been paid throughout the country to 
the extension and improvement of the facilities provided 
for continuative education. There has been marked 
activity in the establishment of courses of instruction 
affording special technical training, and the effective 
character of the many courses organised under varied 
conditions shows that local circumstances have received 
the consideration necessary for success in this kind of 
educational work. Technical institutions affording whole- 
time training for those who can give two or more years 
to study after completing a secondary-school course have 
improved and multiplied their courses of technical instruc- 
tion. The multiplication of courses requiring the whole 
time of students is a gratifying indication of the growing 
appreciation of the value of the work of the technical 
school; but this appreciation is not confined to whole-time 
instruction. The improved organisation of the varied in- 
stitutions engaged in supplementing the training which a 
youth receives in the office or workshop has borne fruit 
in many practical developments, demonstrating the extent 
to which such further education may become a recognised 
element in the lives of our youths. The report, which runs 
to 106 pages, deals fully with every department of 
elementary, secondary, and technical education, and shows 
conclusively that, political controversy notwithstanding, 
valuable work is being accomplished in the schools. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
7 LONDON. 
Royal Society November 22.—‘‘ The Structure of Nerve 
Fibres.”” By J. S. Macdonald. Communicated by Prof. 
C. S. Sherrington, F.R.S. 
Nerve fibres teased in harmless saline solutions and 
examined under the microscope exhibit a series of varied 
appearances which are distributed in a constant order in 
the length of the fibre. This orderly distribution is ex- 
plained as due to the electrical current which traverses 
the fibre inwards from each injured point, and which leaves 
the fibre to traverse the salt solution at certain definite 
“ kathodal ’’ points. 
At each injured point, the source of the current, the 
colloid material is precipitated and is surrounded by an 
aqueous solution. By the use of definite reagents the solu- 
tion is found to be a concentrated solution of a potassium 
salt, probably potassium chloride. The author in a previous 
paper has directed attention to the importance of this 
fact, when injury is considered as the fatal consequence of 
a violent “* excitation,’’ and to the probability that ‘‘ excita- 
tion”? is the outcome of such a desolution of colloid 
material and liberation of inorganic salt to diffuse and give 
rise to electrical change. At kathodal points a similar 
set of conditions is observed, in origin secondary to those 
already described at the current source. 
The injury region is abruptly limited by an adjacent 
““anodal region,’’ where the material of the nerve fibre 
has an exceptionally fluid appearance, except in so far as 
this fluidity is disturbed by secondary acid formation and 
diffusion. 
The anodal region passes into the kathodal region 
through a graduated series of coagulative change, attended 
