ii8 



JVA rURE 



[May 30, 1 90 1 



every grave complication, it is not these mere elements that are 

 needed — though they indeed are always indispensable — but 

 some broader and superior knowledge, some finer detail of in- 

 formation, some more acute discrimination, some keener 

 analysis of evidence, some more penetrating intellectual vision 

 or more ripened judgment — the fruits of long and serious study, 

 which a whole nation of half-trained persons could not supply ; 

 and in the moment of perplexity it is to some quiet scholar or 

 studious thinker that the nation makes appeal ; and when he 

 speaks light dawns, the clouds are swept away, and the path of 

 action is made plain. . . . 



" The time has gone by when merely individual and local 

 efforts can secure to our country its place among the nations ; 

 for we have entered upon a period of world-relations — of world 

 competition, of world policies and of world beneficence — from 

 which it is impossible to recede. Our only hope of great 

 national prosperity lies in the possession of a world-culture that 

 will place us on a level with the best thought and highest know- 

 ledge attainable by man. Every humblest toiler on the farm 

 and in the factory will henceforth be affected by the discoveries 

 of science, the movements of foreign commerce and the 

 resources of national industry. We have won our present 

 industrial pre-eminence, without the advantages of technical 

 education, through the fertility of our soil and a native genius 

 for construction and organisation ; but the time must come, and 

 it may not be far distant, when the highest technical education 

 will be necessary to the success of the simplest American 

 industry. The competition of the hand is rapidly resolving 

 itself into the competition of the brain, and the comprehension, 

 guidance and application of natural forces in accordance with 

 natural laws become questions of national consequence. 



"Give us, then, O learned doctors, more discoveries of science, 

 for we know not what new revelations may yet burst forth from 

 your laboratories ; give us more of art, for it is only through the 

 channels of expression by word and sign and symbol that new- 

 truth can be lodged in the minds of the people ; give us more 

 of history, for it is only by conning the lessons of experience 

 that the children of men grow wiser ; give us more of litera- 

 ture, for it is only through the life of letters that man rises to 

 the full comprehension of himself; give us more of ethics and 

 philosophy, for it is only in the light of great principles that 

 character becomes firm and conduct noble ; let earth, and sea, 

 and sky, and the stars in their courses, the long struggle of 

 man and the story of his aspirations, the tongues of the busy 

 day and the silence of the voiceless night, the instincts that stir 

 ns to passion and the still small voice that drops its calm out 

 of eternity, all teach us the ways of creation and the mystery 

 of our divine descent ; for it is through the totality of their 

 culture that nations rise, and through ignorance or defiance of 

 unbending laws that nations fall." 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Oxford. — Dr. G. C. Bourne has been appointed to represent 

 the University on the Board of Governors of Coopers Hill 

 College. 



The seventh Robert Boyle lecture will be delivered by Prof. 

 Sylvanus Thompson on June 6 ; the subject will be ' ' Magnetism 

 in Growth." 



Mr. II. B. Hartley, scholar of Balliol College, has been elected 

 to a fellowship at that college as science tutor in succession to 

 the late Sir John Conroy. Mr. Hartley obtained a first class 

 in chemistry and mineralogy in 1900. 



Cambridge. — Sir W. Martin Conway has been elected Slade 

 professor of fine art in succession to Dr. Waldstein. 



Seventy-three men and twenty-six women have acquitted 

 themselves so as to deserve mathematical honours in the first 

 part of the tripos. 



It is proposed to appropriate from the Benefaction Fund a 

 sum of 21,000/. to the new botany school building, and 16,000/. , 

 together with some 5500/. specially contributed, to the new 

 medical school building. 



Prof. Macalister is appointed an examiner in anatomy for 

 medical degrees in the place of Dr. Barclay-Smith. 



The field studies in natural history arranged by Mr. David 

 Houston for the Essex Technical Instruction Committee provide 

 an excellent means of becoming familiar with nature, and should 



NO. 1648, VOL. 64] 



be of special assistance to teachers who desire to adopt the 

 scheme of nature study recently issued for rural schools by the 

 Board of Education. Rambles are arranged for Saturday after- 

 noons, and demonstrations in general natural history are given 

 by the director, so that an introductory knowledge of the 

 natural vegetation of the county can be obtained in a pleasant 

 way. A ten days' vacation course has been arranged to be held 

 in the New Forest, from August 12 to 22. The programme of 

 the course, and the field notes appended to it, show that the 

 members of the party will have the opportunity of spending a 

 profitable short holiday in the New Forest and neighbourhood. 



AfPROVAL of the Government Education Bill has been ex- 

 pressed by several educational bodies concerned with technical 

 and secondary education. The chief difficulties raised by the 

 Bill relate to the constitution of the local authorities to be re- 

 sponsible for the educational work of their respective districts, 

 and the funds which are to be available for technical and 

 secondary education. At present technical instruction com- 

 mittees administer the " whisky money," and in a few places 

 an additional penny rate is also levied. The new Bill proposes 

 to let the local authority administer these funds, and to give 

 it the power to levy another penny rate ; but as the funds are 

 to be used for both secondary and technical education, the ex- 

 tension of rating power is wholly inadequate to the requirements. 

 This view is held by the council of the Association of Technical 

 Institutions, and in order to give expression to it a special 

 meeting of the Association will shortly be held. Resolutions 

 will be brought forward to the effect that, while the general 

 principles of the Bill are approved, adequate provision must be 

 made to defray the necessary additional charges in respect of 

 secondary education which will fall upon the local authorities, 

 and technical instruction must be provided for before the residue 

 available under the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act 

 is used for purposes of secondary education in general. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Annalen der Physik, May. — Researches on the normal cell, 

 especially the Weston element, by W. Jaeger and St. Lindeck. 

 This paper contains the results of an exhaustive experimental 

 study of the Clark and Weston cells. The researches of E. 

 Cohen had thrown some doubts upon the suitability of the 

 Weston cell as a standard, especially in the neighbourhood of 

 o" C. In the present paper it is shown that these irregularities 

 only occur about o°C. and with the cell containing I4'3 per cent, 

 amalgam, no trace of any irregular deviations appearing when 

 the cell is used at 10° C. or higher temperatures. Further, if 

 the amalgam is made slightly weaker in cadmium, 12 per cent, 

 or 13 per cent., these irregularities near o' disappear, and the 

 measurements are trustworthy at all temperatures. It is concluded 

 that the strictures of Cohen with regard to this cell are not 

 justified, and that the Weston element is eminently suitable as 

 a standard of electromotive force. — The calculation of isotherms, 

 by C. Dieterici. The fundamental equation of condition of van 

 der Waals is modified, in part empirically, without assuming 

 that the cohesion pressure and the volume correction are 

 determined, and the results applied to the measurements of 

 Young on isopentane and benzene, of Ramsay and Young on 

 ether and-water, and of CaiUetetand Matthias on sulphur dioxide 

 and carbonic acid. — Contribution to the theory of electric dis- 

 charges in gases, by J- Stark. — On the variation of the dielectric 

 constant with pressure and temperature, by J. Koenigsberger. — 

 The constancy of the sparking potential, by K. R. Johnson. — 

 On Jaumann's clear J-surface, by A. Korn. A discussion of a 

 phenomenon first observed by Jaumann in a vacuum tube. — The 

 internal friction of argon and its variation with temperature, by 

 H. Schultze. The absolute value found for the viscosity co- 

 efficient of argon is practically identical with that previously 

 determined by Lord Rayleigh, but the alteration of viscosity with 

 temperature is found to be somewhat greater according to the 

 author's experiments. The formula suggested by Sutherland 

 gives a good approximation to the results of the experiments. — 

 On the internal friction of gases and its change with the tem- 

 perature, by P. Breitenbach. An application of Sutherland's 

 lormula to the experiments previously published by the author 

 on the temperature coefficient of the viscosity of air, ethylene, 

 carbonic acid, hydrogen and methyl chloride. The agreement 

 between the calculated and experimental results is so good as to 

 amount to a proof of Sutherland's theory. — The equilibrium 



