APRIL 4, 1907 | 
of the report, the meeting does not approve of the staff 
being employed in biological survey.’’ The chairman, 
Dr. Rottenburg, Prof. Bower, Prof. Graham Kerr, Prof. 
Lawrie, Dr. Teacher, Mr. E. J. Bles, Mr. Todd, the 
honorary secretary, and other members of the general com- 
mittee then tendered their resignations and withdrew from 
the meeting. 
Tue council of the Association of Teachers in Technical 
Institutions recently appointed a committee to report upon 
the mathematical syllabuses of the Board of Education, and 
the recommendations of the committee have been embodied 
in an *‘ outline of suggested syllabuses’ which has been 
sent by the council to the Secretary of the Board of Educa- 
tion. Several principles guided the council in drawing up 
its suggestions. It urges that there should be a_pro- 
gressive development in pure geometry, analytical geo- 
metry and analysis in each of the six stages into which 
the examinations of the Board are divided; that the six 
stages should give a homogeneous and comprchensive 
education in the main principles of the science; and that 
the course of work for honours examinations should be 
such as to place the student in a position to undertake 
original investigations should he desire to do so. It is a 
hopeful sign that teachers are able to lav before the Board 
of Education their views as to what it is reasonable and 
desirable to expect of candidates in examinations, and we 
have no doubt the Beard will give the suggestions the 
consideration they deserve. Certain of the recommend- 
ations will be improved, no doubt, by submission to re- 
vision, but the cooperation of teachers with outside authori- 
ties in the examination of students deserves every 
encouragement. 
ACCORDING to an address delivered by Miss Hoskyns- 
Abrahall in the Memorial Hall, Manchester, and pub- 
lished by the Manchester and Salford Sanitary Associ- 
ation, the system of popular education now current needs 
radical amendment in order to prevent further physical 
degeneration on the part of the lower-class population 
of the country. The system now in vogue is regarded 
as essentially mon-hygienic, especially so far as infants 
and young children are concerned. The maintenance of 
silence and order in infant schools (formerly regarded as 
a piece of mental discipline) is condemned, and in lieu 
of this it is urged that the pupils should be put to play 
in a large empty. apartment with ‘‘ a heap of sand in one 
corner and a tub of water in another.’’ It may be pointed 
out that much the same results could be attained without 
expense by allowing the children to play in the old- 
fashioned way in the streets or lanes. Nearly as drastic 
amendments are proposed in the curriculum for older 
pupils ; while it is also urged that these should be kept at 
school until a considerably later age than is now the 
practice. Neither is the education of teachers anything 
like perfect, one of the elements lacking being ‘‘ skilled 
observation of children and skilful handling of them in 
accordance with what has been observed.”’ 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
Lonpon. 
Royal Society, November r. 1906.—‘‘On Intravascular 
Coagulation in Albinoes and Pigmented Animals, and on 
the Behaviour of the Nucleo-proteids of Testes in Solution 
in the Production of Intravascular Coagulation.’’ By 
& a Mudge. Communicated by Dr. A. D. Waller, 
aRese 
(1) When albinoes are injected with a solution of nucleo- 
proteid derived from a pigmented animal, a certain number 
of them, about 9 per cent., absolutely fail to clot, while 
about 7 per cent. give a qualified clotting, the remainder 
giving a typical intravascular coagulation of more or less 
extensive development. 
(2) When albinoes are similarly injected with a solution 
of nucleo-proteid, but derived from albinoes, no absolute 
failure of coagulation occurs, and it is very doubtful if 
any qualified ones do. The great majority clot as distinctly 
as do pigmented individuals. 
(3) When pigmented rabbits are injected with solutions 
of nucleo-proteids, derived from albinoes or with those 
NO. 1953, VOL. 75] 
NATURE 
249 
derived from pigmented individuals, no failures of coagu- 
lation occur. 
(4) The Himalayan rabbit, in 
injected nucleo-proteids, behaves like the complete albino. 
This rabbit, though resembling the Norway hare in its 
winter coat, in which condition Pickering failed to obtain 
intravascular coagulation, differs from it in having pink 
respect of its reaction to 
(unpigmented) instead of pigmented eyes, and in never 
becoming periodically wholly pigmented. It cannot, there- 
fore, be used as corroborative evidence of Pickering’s con- 
clusion with respect to the Norway hare. 
(5) Failures to coagulate, when they occur, are due to 
inherent qualities of the individuals and not to weakening 
in the activity of the solutions used. 
(6) Albinoes require a larger mean dose per kilogram 
of body weight of iniected nucleo-proteid to cause death 
by intravascular coagulation than do pigmented animals, 
the relative resisting powers of the pigmented and albino 
individuals being as 1 to 1-5 respectively. 
(7) Both albino and pigmented individuals are more 
resistant to nucleo-proteids, obtained from: individuals of 
their own race, than they are to those obtained from the 
alternative source. 
(8) The activity of a solution of nucleo-proteid, prepared 
from spermatic glands, decreases (but not quite uniformly) 
as the maturity (weight) of the gland increases. 
(9) Solutions of nucleo-proteids, prepared from heavier 
(maturer) spermatic glands, undergo a progressive loss of 
activity with increasing period of keeping, t.e. from one to 
twenty days. But solutions derived from lighter (immature) 
glands undergo a fluctuating variation in activity, falling 
off on the second day after preparation and rising again 
on the fifth to seventh, and thence exhibiting a progressive 
fall. 
January 24.—‘‘ Note on Application of Van der 
Waals’s Equation to Solutions.’’ By the Earl of Berkeley. 
Communicated by Prof. J. Larmor, Sec.R.S. 
The author attempts to apply Van der Waals’s equation 
of state to the results of direct measurements of osmotic 
pressure at o° C. Various modifications of this equation 
were tried without success, but by the introduction of a 
the 
” 
third constant two equations were found that fit the 
experimental numbers. 
The equations are :— 
(A/u—f+a/v*)(v—b)=RT . (1) 
(A/v+3—a/'v*)(v—b)=RT (2) 
where p is the osmotic pressure, R and T the gas con- 
stant and the absolute temperature respectively, while 
the v of equation (1) is the volume of water which con- 
tains 1 gram molecule of solute, and the v of equation (2) 
is the volume of solution containing the gram molecule. 
It is pointed out that both equations give impossible 
values for the critical points; but on plotting the graph 
of equation (1) for the different substances, it is found that 
in each case the point at which df/dv=o and the osmotic 
pressure decreases with increase of concentration may be 
within the reach of experiment. Decrease of osmotic 
pressure with increase of concentration implies physical 
instability and change of state, hence it is suggested that 
when dp/dv=o the limit of supersaturation has been 
reached, and the solute must crystallise out. 
It is shown that a solution has two osmotic pressures ; 
the second osmotic pressure (which would only be mani- 
fested directly if one could find a semi-permeable mem- 
brane permeable to the solute) is connected with the 
freezing point of the solution in a manner similar to that 
which connects the crystallising point and the ordinary 
osmotic pressure. 
““On the Presence of Europium in Stars.’ By Joseph 
Lunt. Communicated by Sir David Gill, K.C.B., F.R.S. 
Having obtained, from measures on the calcium line 
A 4435-851 in the spectra of a Boodtis and 6 Geminorum, 
radial-velocity values which were not in accord with those 
obtained from other stellar lines, the author suspected 
that the line near A 4435-8 in the stars named was not a 
“pure”? one. The resulting radial velocity was such as 
would be given by a “‘ disturbing ’’ line very close to the 
calcium line and at about A 4435-753. Reference to 
records of laboratory spectra showed him that Exner 
