Nov. 9, 1 87 1 J 



NATURE 



27 



With this word it is easier to state the theorems, " two line- 

 directions determine one plane-direction," and its reciprocal, 

 than with the other. " Two directions determine one aspect," 

 is hard. 



If this discussion has not gone on too long perhaps some of 

 your correspondents will criticise this suggestion and compare it 

 with "aspect." It is desirable that the best word possible 

 should be chosen. J. M. W. 



Science and Art Examinations 

 Ttiic subject of Science and Art Examinations by the Depart- 

 ment of .Science and Art is one which real y requires looking up, 

 and I wish to make one or two suggestions and remarks as to 

 llie mode of examination. 



In the first place, take the examination itself. The candidates 

 make their appearance at the appointed lime and place. Their 

 forms are given them, and their places assigned to them. Now 

 the candidate is told to write on both sides of the form, thus leaving 

 no back pages on which to do his rough cilculation. Blotting- 

 paper in I S70 was not allowed; but in 1871 the Department 

 fixed a sheet to the bottom of each form in such a position that it 

 was very difficult to make use of it ; much time — time that was 

 of the utmost consequence to the candidate — being lost in doing 

 so. This, of course, stopped him from doing so much work, and 

 so lessened his chance of success. This may be all very well for 

 the Department so far as it affects grants on results ; but what 

 about the unfortunate student who is made the victim of this very 

 arbitrary custom ? 



Then again for the questions set. In all the papers the ques- 

 tions set were very difficult. " The Department " having, with- 

 out any notice, raised the standard of examination, the subjects 

 of questions set in the first stage of mathematics were placed in 

 the syllabus a stage higher, viz , the second stage Then in 

 chemistry ^inorganic) the standard was considerably raised. The 

 questions in this subject are very unfair in the opinion of many 

 persons who have seen them. Take the fuUowing : — 



"Honours 1S71 



" Describe the process of manufacturing sulphuric acid, as 

 carried on in an alkali works, illustrating the various chemical 

 changes by equations, and, as far as possible, the constitution of 

 the compounds formed by graphic formulae." 



Xow about the sulphuric acid part, or about the equations, I 

 have nothing to say ; but when the question requires a know- 

 ledge of graphic formula; I protest against it. Graphic formula; 

 are not in sufficient use to warrant their introduction into an exami- 

 nation — thus enforcing their general adoption whether right or 

 wrong ; and I do not think the e-xaminer should be allowed to en- 

 force his peculiar views — the views taken by himself and a few 

 other chemists — into the great system of Science examination 

 in the country, thus compelling it to be learnt by any person 

 wishing to compete. 



Now for the results. The results of the examinations for 1871 

 are very unsatisfactory, and a very high ratio is shown of failures, 

 and second classes to first classes obtained. This, of course, 

 must lessen the amount of money to be paid on results by the 

 Department, and a report was circulating a short time ago, to the 

 effect that "The examiners, after having made their reports, had 

 the papers returned to them, with an instruction to reduce the 

 number of successful candidates, as .an intimation had been given 

 by a right hon. gentleman that the amount of grant due upon 

 those papers must be reduced 20,000/. The examiners were thus 

 cbliijed to eliminate half the names from their lists." The 

 question was asked by Mr. Dixon, M.P., in the House of 

 Commons, whether this was or was not true, and Mr. Forster, 

 M.P. , denied it. But, previous to that, a provincial local 

 secretary, hearing the ruinour, wrote to ask the Department if it 

 were true, and received a reply saying it was true, and that in- 

 stead of the amount being 20,oon/. it was 40,000/. (The De- 

 partment's letter can be produced.) Now I would suggest that 

 the Department reform these matters referring to the fonns, 

 blotting-paper, questions, and results, and that if they do not do 

 so that the House of Commons take the matter up and do justice 

 to Science teachers and students. Hexry Uhloren 



New Zealand Forest Trees 



In the last number of Nature is a paragraph relating to some 

 New Zealand woods, which the writer observes are "deserving of 



a better fate than to be cut down wholesale and used as firewood. '' 

 Five timber trees are mentioned, of which the native names only 

 are given. 



Knowing that it is the province of Nature to give as ac- 

 : urate information as possible on all points with which it deils, 

 I send you the botanical names of four of these New Zealand 

 trees. The Kimu or red pine is probably Dacryiliiiin cuprcs- 

 sinuDi Soland, a tree 8j or more f-;et high, the (Icshy cup of the 

 fruit of which is eatable. D. laxifohum Hk. fil., a small creep- 

 ing bush, is .also known occasionally as Rimu. The Mataii or 

 black pine is Podocarfus sfiicala Br., likewise a large tree, and 

 having an eatable fruit. The Totara is PoJocarpns totara A. 

 Cunn., a tree about 60 feet high, producing a durable and 

 close-gr.iined wood much valued in ihe islands, and, like the 

 others, having an eatable drupe. The^e trees are all more or 

 less abundant in the Northern and Middle islands, and all belong 

 to the natural order Coniferce, though we are told in the para- 

 graph referred to that "none of them are Coniferce." 



The Rata, " that wonderful vegetable production forming it- 

 self out of numberless vines," &c., is referable to some species of 

 Melrosidcros. M. robusta A. Cunn, and M. florida Sm., are 

 both known as Rata, but the hard and very den.se wood usually 

 known under that name is mostly derived from /)/. robusta. This, 

 however, is not a climbing plant, but an erect tree 50 or 60 feet 

 high ; therefore the plant referred to in the paragraph before us 

 is probably HI. Jlorida. The Makia I do not know, but its ex- 

 treme hardness would seem to indicate it as belonging to the 

 same order as the last, namely the Myrtaceje. 



John R. Jackson 



Kevv, Nov. 7 



The Glacial Drift at Finchley 



A FURTHER examination of the railway cutting at the Finchley 

 and Hendon Station shows that the glacial beds now revealed 

 there have a greater thickness and range than I at first imagined. 

 On Saturday last I visited the place in company with Dr. Hicks, 

 of Hendon, a gentleman well-known for his researches in the 

 Cambrian formation. Above the blue clay, and right up within 

 a few inches of the vegetable soil, we found drift fossils. With 

 an interruption here and there from the underlying London clay, 

 these chalky ghicial beds, consisting of blue (Oxford ?) clay, 

 blueish clay with flints, marl, sand, and gravel (in no regular 

 descending order), have an average thickness of 30 feet. Tney 

 are open lor about 500 yards, and they might perhaps be traced 

 farther north-west, towards the Dollis Brook Viaduct. Dr. 

 Hicks and I afterwards visited Mr. Plowman's Manor brick- 

 fields, a little south-east of the railway station ; here too we found 

 fossils in the brick-earth. 



From wliat has transpired during the last few week?, it would 

 seem that the Muswell Hill deposit need no longer figure in 

 geological literature as an outlier, at a long distance from the 

 general deposit ; and Londoners may in future find glacial drift 

 without much diihcuUy about Higligate, Finchley, Whetstone, 

 and Barnet. I am indebted to Professor Morris for the informa- 

 tion that the Great Northern Cemetery at liarnet lies almost 

 wholly in the glacial clay. The forthcoming Survey memoir upon 

 the drift in this district is looked for by London geologists with 

 much interest. Henry Walker 



too. Fleet Street, E.C., Nov. 7 



ON THE ORIGIN OF INSECTS* 



'T'HE metamorphoses of this group have always 

 ^ seemed to me one of the greatest difficulties of the 

 Darwinian theory. In most cases the development of 

 the individual reproduces to a certain extent that of the 

 race, but the motionless, imbecile, pupa cannot represent a 

 mature form. Fritz Miiller considers that the wingless 

 Blattida; probably most closely represent the original 

 insect stock ; Haeckel is inclined rather to the Pseudo- 

 Neuroptera. I feel great difficulty in conceiving by what 

 natural process an insect with a suctorial mouth like that 



* Abstract of a paper read before the Linnean Society, Nov 2, 1871, by 

 Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P., F.R.S. 



