= TO 
NATURE 
[Marcw 28, 1907 
and that the compactness of a table of centiles is no 
hindrance to their wider use. I regret to be unable 
to learn the proportion of the competitors who were 
farmers, butchers, or non-experts. It would be well in 
future competitions to have a line on the cards for 
“‘occupation.’? Certainly many mnon-experts competed, 
like those clerks and others who have no expert know- 
ledge of horses, but who bet on races, guided by news- 
papers, friends, and their own fancies. 
Francis GaLTon. 
Ketene. 
WuiLe engaged in a research on the pciymerisation of 
unsaturated compounds, we were led to try the action of 
a strongly heated platinum wire on various organic sub- 
stances. It is unnecessary at this stage to discuss our 
general results, and we will therefore deal at once with the 
action of the wire on acetic anhydride. This substance 
when treated with the hot wire yielded a compound boil- 
ing about —65° and freezing about —130°, which on 
standing at ordinary temperatures condensed fairly rapidly, 
yielding a brownish-yellow oil which, like the gas, has 
an extremely pungent smell. We have not yet succeeded 
in obtaining the new body in a completely pure state, but 
as our work has been interrupted for some time, we venture 
to give the following preliminary data. 
On exploding one volume of the gas with excess of 
oxygen, there was a contraction of 1-01 volumes, and 1-85 
volumes of carbon dioxide were formed, while 1-86 volumes 
of oxygen had disappeared. The corresponding numbers 
for the reaction CH,:CO+20,=2CO,+H,O are 
TshL py2yci2. 
Another sample gave a density of 39-9 (H,=2), while 
that calculated for CH,:CO is 42. This sample. was, 
however, far from pure. ; 
The gas is absorbed by all the ordinary reagents, in- 
cluding water. It combines with bromine, and appears to 
give a crystalline compound with bisulphites. It chars 
when treated with phosphorus pentoxide or concentrated 
sulphuric acid. These two reagents themselves produce 
traces of the gas when they are allowed to act on acetic 
anhydride. We would add that we have also obtained 
the substance from acetone, and it seems probable that it 
can be obtained by our method from all substances con- 
taining the group —CH,—CO—. 
We would suggest that the body is the parent substance 
of Staudinger’s ketenes. We hope to be able to publish 
a fuller communication shortly. 
N. T. M. Witsmore. 
A. W. STEWartT. 
University College, London, March 25. 
Technical Terminology. 
Tue writer on engineering terms in Nature of March 21 
(Pp. 490) says that a single word is required to denote a 
central electric generating station. 
Perhaps megadyne would be acceptable, signifying 
““ great power,’’ and suggestive of the dynamo equipment 
of the station. As a convenient abbreviation, mega would 
readily enter into common use. J. T. Ricwarps. 
67 Thurleigh Road, Balham, S.W., March 23. 
HIGHER EDUCATION IN 
STATES. 
‘pee most recent report issued from the United 
States Bureau of Education at Washington 
gives detailed information respecting recent develop- 
ments of the various grades of education in the 
States down to June 30, 1904, and in it the Com- 
missioner of Education gives a prominent place to 
the work of universities and colleges. The statistics 
now provided make it possible to supplement the 
article published in these columns (vol. Ixviii., 
p. 25) dealing with university education in the 
United States, and to give some indication of the 
progress which has been made in American institu- 
tions of higher education during recent years. 
NO. 1952, VOI. 75] 
THE UNITED 
There has been, in the first place, a large increase 
in the number of students attending universities and 
colleges in the United States. Whereas in the year 
18gg-1g00 the total number of men students was, 
roughly, 61,800, and of women students 25,300, the 
numbers in 1903-4 had become, for men, nearly 
72,000, and for women nearly 31,000. 
The number of professors and instructors has in- 
creased in a similar manner. In 1899-1900 the num- 
ber of such teachers in institutions for men and 
for both sexes was 12,664 men and 1816 women; in 
1903-4 these numbers had become 15,342 men and 
2272 women. In institutions for women alone the 
increase is not so decided. The number of men teach- 
ing in these institutions was in the former year 697, 
and in 1903-4 only 631. The number of women, 
however, shows a marked increase from 1744. to 
1834. 
It is interesting and instructive, too, to study the 
rise and fall in the popularity of the various subjects 
taken up by students. At the two periods under 
comparison there were some remarkable differences. 
In 1899-1900 the number of students studying classics 
and other subjects of general culture (as the report 
calls it) was roughly 57,000, but in 1903-4 the num- 
ber had reached 65,000. In the. earlier year the 
number of students in classes of pure or- applied 
science was well on towards 26,000; in 1903-4 this 
number had increased to 32,000. The relative popu- 
larities of humanistic and practical studies may be 
said to have undergone Jittle change at institutions 
of the rank under consideration. But in this con- 
nection it must be remembered that at the great 
technological institutions, which are not included in 
these statistics, large numbers of men are engaged 
entirely in studying branches of applied science. 
The total value of property possessed by the insti- 
tutions for higher education in the United States 
amounted in 1899-1900 to about 72,120,000l., and in 
1903-4 this large sum had increased to 93,043,000l. 
The endowment funds in the former year were valued 
at 33,240,000l., while in the latter year this provision 
for future contingencies had grown to 41,313,000l. 
The value of gifts and bequests received by insti- 
tutions for higher education during 1899-1900 was 
2,399,000!.; in 1903-4 the amount had increased to 
2,740,000l.; and last year as much as 5,000,000l. was 
raised in this way. Twenty-five institutions in the 
former year received from private donors gifts of as 
much as 20,o00l., and in 1903-4 as many as twenty- 
nine institutions were equally fortunate. 
For the first of the years with which we are con- 
cerned in this comparison, the total income, excluding 
benefactions, amounted to 5,712,000l., of which about 
2,234,0001. was received in the form of tuition and 
other fees. In 1903-4 the total income had reached 
8,066,0001. In connection with this sum, the Com- 
missioner for Education remarks :—‘‘ It is a well- 
known fact that the income derived from fees received 
from students forms only about one-third of the total 
income, the remainder necessary to meet the ex- 
penses of the institutions being derived from endow- 
ment funds, State aid, and miscellaneous sources.’’ 
In 1903-4 the State and municipal aid to higher 
education amounted to 1,984,600l., as compared with 
893,0001. in 1899-1900. 
It is thus seen that the striking disparity between 
public and private efforts in behalf of higher educa- 
tion in the United States and Great Britain, pointed 
out in the article to which reference has already been 
made, has, in the interval of four years with which 
we are here dealing, become more accentuated; and, 
instead of having made up leeway, we appear to have 
fallen even further behind. 
