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NATURE 
[ JANUARY 3, 1907 
IN connection with the University of London, we notice 
that Mr. A. G. Tansley, assistant professor of botany and 
lecturer on plant anatomy at University college, will deliver 
a course of eight lectures on ‘‘ The Evolution of the 
Vascular System in the Fern-phylum,’’ beginning on 
January 26, at University College. At the physiological 
laboratory of the University, a course of eight lectures on 
‘©The Physiological Effect of Compressed Air’’ will be 
given by Mr. Leonard Hill, F.R.S., beginning on 
January 15. A course of five lectures on the ‘ Structure 
and Classification of the Myriapoda and Arachnida ’’ will 
be given at University College by Mr. R. I. Pocock, 
beginning on January 14. 
Tue Paris correspondent of the Times reports that M. 
Briand, the French Minister of Education, proposes to 
suppress the baccalauréat, the degree conferred on a boy 
on his admission to a French university. Such admission 
is of necessity preceded by several years’ school training, 
during which the boy is prepared in a somewhat mechanical 
manner for the examinations on which his admission to 
the university depends. The system, according to the 
Times correspondent, ‘‘ is the nearest approach known in 
Europe to the mandarin method of China.’’ It is very 
widely felt that at the end of their school careers the boys 
lack initiative and originality as the result of the undue 
appeal to their verbal memories, and it is hoped that the 
abolition of the baccalauréat will discourage the rigid 
uniformity which characterises French secondary schools, 
and lead to an endeayour to adapt the curriculum of a 
school to the particular needs of the pupils attending it. 
SEVERAL substantial gifts for the advancement of higher 
education are recorded in recent issues of Science. Among 
these may be mentioned donations of 20,0001. each to 
Western Reserve University, Cleveland, O., by Mr. 
H. M. Hanna and Colonel Oliver H. Payne. The 40,000l. 
thus subscribed is to be used in establishing and endowing 
a laboratory of experimental medicine in the medical 
school. Mr. William Smith, of Geneva, N.Y., is to found 
a woman’s college. The name of the new college will be 
the William Smith College for Women, and it will have 
an endowment of about 70,0001. A ‘‘ Carl Schurz memorial 
professorship’ is to be established at the University of 
Wisconsin as a result of the movement recently started in 
Milwaukee by a number of prominent German-Americans. 
The plan is to raise an endowment of 10,000l., the income 
of which will be used for the establishment of an annual 
course of lectures at the State university, to be given by 
prominent professors of German universities. Mr. Andrew 
Carnegie has offered to give Washburn College, Topeka, 
Kans., a second 10,000l. for its endowment fund, provided 
the total endowment reaches 40,0001. by January 1, 1908. 
Tue tenth of the series of articles on ‘‘ Public School 
Education’’ which is being published in the Times 
appeared on December 28, 1906. This contribution deals 
with laboratories and practical work in the teaching of 
science, and is by the Rev. T. Nicklin, of Rossall School. 
Mr. Nicklin says, ‘‘ it would be hard to find a single public 
school of recognised position that has not a laboratory 
which, if not palatial, is yet adequately equipped for that 
end of science teaching that is regarded in England as 
educationally best.’’ A little later the article asserts that 
while the masters in the public schools adhere to the theory 
that lectures and intellectual teaching must be the staple 
of the work, the English public schools have from the 
first made considerable use of the laboratory, and to-day 
that use is on a larger scale and more thorough in 
character than ever before. Mr. Nicklin describes the 
laboratories of an average public school, and indicates 
briefly the course of study followed. Though it would 
have been more satisfactory if, in addition to his generous 
estimate of Prof. Armstrong’s work in improving English 
science teaching, Mr. Nicklin had insisted more upon the 
paramount importance of laboratory practice in the teach- 
ing of science, his article is valuable in showing the very 
substantial improvement made during recent years in the 
way in which science is regarded by public-school authori- 
ties. Many readers of Nature will remember the davs 
when any sort of practical lesson was unknown in public 
NO. 1940, VOL. 75 | 
schools, and to hear that every such school now has well- 
equipped laboratories—even if in some cases they are not 
used enough—is convincing proof that the labours of men 
of science in the direction of rationalising English public- 
school education have not been in vain. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
LONDON. 
Zoological Society, December 11, 1906.—Dr. H. Wood- 
ward, F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair.—An account 
of the ascidians of the Cape Verde marine fauna 
collected by Mr. Cyril Crossland: Dr. J. Rennie 
and H. Wiseman. The occurrence of ten species 
of Ascidiz Simplices was recorded, of which three 
were described as mnew.—Variations in the arterial 
system of certain species of Anura: L. K. Crawshay.- 
—Descriptions of fifty-three new species of African Coleo- 
ptera of the family Curculionide: Guy A. K. Marshall. 
—The cranial and spinal nerves of Chlamydoselachus 
anguineus: Mrs. O. A. Merritt Hawkes. The paper con- 
tained a description of these nerves and discussions of 
them from the point of view of the nerve-component theory, 
and showed that the nervous as well as the other systems 
of Chlamydoselachus combined specialised and primitive 
features.—Two mammals obtained by Major Powell-Cotton 
in the Ituri Forest: R. Lydekker. The author referred a 
dark-coloured cat’s skin to a race of Felis chrysothrix, and 
also described a giant elephant-shrew as new.—The skull 
of a bruang, or Malay bear, from Tibet, representing a 
distinct race: R. Lydekker.—South Indian nudibranchs : 
Sir Charles Eliot. A supplementary account of the radulz 
of various species based on microscopic slides prepared by 
Alder and Hancock, discovered in the Hancock Museum 
at Newcastle-on-Tyne. These slides confirmed many of 
the identifications suggested in the first paper, and in par- 
ticular showed that Doris glenei was a Chromodoris, and 
that Doris villosa was Thordisa maculigera, Bgh- 
Faraday Society, Decembe: 11, 1906.—Dr. T. M. Lowry in 
the chair.—Contributions to the study of strong electro- 
lytes: Dr. A. C. C. Cumming. (1) The Elimination of 
Potential due to Liquid Contact.—Certain solutions have 
the property of reducing the potential due to the contact 
of two solutions, and potassium chloride has been used for 
this purpose. In most cases a saturated solution of 
potassium chloride does not remove all the diffusion poten- 
tial; indeed, if the solutions in the cells be strong, it only 
removes a small part. This property of removing more or 
less of the diffusion potential depends on two factors in 
the connecting solution, first, the positive and negative ions: 
must be of equal velocity, and, secondly, the concentration 
of the connecting solution must be high compared with the 
solutions in the cells. The author suggests a saturated’ 
ammonium nitrate solution as that which fulfils these two 
conditions better than anything else at present known, and 
shows by experiments with different cells that this is the 
case. (2) The Potentials of Silver Nitrate Solutions.—For 
silver nitrate the electromotive force gives the same measure 
of the ionic concentrations as is obtained from the con- 
ductivities, and therefore supports the view that the con- 
ductivity gives a true measure of the ionic concentration.— 
The electrochemistry of lead: Dr. A. C. C. Cumming. 
The results in general prove that lead in the tetrad forny 
is a highly electropositive element, and also direct attention 
to a curious difference in the behaviour of sodium and 
potassium nitrates towards lead nitrate.—Storage batteries: 
and their electrolytes: R. W. Vicarey. The paper deals: 
chiefly with some of the problems involved in the manu- 
facture of accumulators, particularly as regards the effect 
of nitrogen and other impurities introduced consciously or 
by accident in the process of manufacture. 
Paris. 
Academy of Sciences, December 24, 1906—M. H. 
Poincaré in the chair.—The determination of integrals of 
equations of the elliptic type by certain conditions at the 
limits: Emile Picard.—Differential equations of the second 
order at fixed critical points: Paul Painlevé.—Magnetic 
work at the town of Tananarivo and district: Ed. EI. 
