336 



NA TURE 



[August 4, 1904 



that both university and college continue to use their best 

 endeavours to raise the balance of the sum required. 



The formation of a separate day department at the 

 Northampton Institute, Clerkenwell, dealing with technical 

 optics has already been referred to in these columns. We 

 have now received full particulars as to the courses of work 

 arranged for the coming session. The chief object of the 

 instruction provided will be so to train the students that 

 they will be in a position on leaving the institute to deal 

 with the numerous problems which all who aspire to take 

 (he higher positions in the optical trades must be prepared 

 to solve. The full course as at present contemplated extends 

 over two years, and consists of lectures, laboratory and 

 drawing-office work, and workshop practice. To meet the 

 case of those who cannot devote their whole time to the 

 training, and are already engaged in some optical trade, 

 partial courses requiring attendance on two mornings per 

 week only, but e.xtending over three years, will be given, 

 covering generally the work of the first year of the complete 

 course, but omitting those portions with which such students 

 will be familiar. Practical optical design will be a special 

 feature of the advanced classes. 



In his report under part ii. of the Education Act, 1902, 

 upon the provision and promotion of higher education in 

 Worcestershire, Dr. Rawson, the director of education, 

 directs attention to the fact that there is not in the county 

 for the education of which he is responsible a single 

 technical institution which has any day work for students 

 over sixteen years of age. Because of the impossibility of 

 utilising existing institutions for day technical instruction, 

 which should be their chief use, they are to be turned to 

 account as secondary schools. After explaining that to 

 rejoice because a technical institute is available for a 

 secondary school is really to be glad that an expensive build- 

 ing cannot do the work for which it was built and equipped. 

 Dr. Rawson goes on to show that there is another con- 

 tributing cause to the lack of technical and higher education. 

 It cannot be denied, he says, that employers of labour are 

 within their rights in taking their " hands " at the age 

 which suits the employer best ; clearly, however, the reten- 

 tion of the young workman by the employer all day prevents 

 most completely any day work at the technical school from 

 being possible for such employee. It would be an unmixed 

 blessing for the country, and an unqualified boon to master 

 and man, if day technical instruction could be vouchsafed 

 to the best of the young workmen in the employ of each 

 firm. Many employers in England are now carrying out 

 in their own works these innovations. Reports like this one 

 of Dr. Rawson, giving as they do a bird's-eye view of the 

 existing provisions for education of every grade in each 

 part of the country, are most valuable, and will serve to 

 make clear what deficiencies must at once be made good. 



The regulations for evening schools, technical institutions, 

 and schools of art and art classes have now been published 

 by the Board of Education. The regulations make pro- 

 vision for the promotion of higher technical education of 

 suitable organisation and equipment. We are glad to notice 

 that the board recognises the great advantage accruing 

 from the concentration of interest which is possible only 

 when the student can make study his single aim and devote 

 his whole time to education. The board regards it as of 

 special importance that, by the development of day teach- 

 ing in technical institutions, there should be no lack of 

 facilities for the instruction of those who, by private means 

 or with the assistance of bursaries given by local education 

 authorities, are able either to prolong their studies bevond 

 the usual school age, or to return to study after a period 

 of apprenticeship or of wage-earning experience. The value 

 of evening classes at the present stage of development of 

 English education is, however, not lost sight of, and regula- 

 tions are laid down intended to ensure that local education 

 authorities shall make the instruction in such classes suit- 

 able for the special needs of a given neighbourhood. The 

 necessity of correlating the component parts of a student's 

 instruction with a view to increase their educational value 

 and practical utility is insisted upon, and it is prescribed 

 that no student may be admitted to any course who is not 

 sufficiently prepared to benefit by the instruction given in 

 that course. The new regulations represent in their main 

 features an amalgamation and simplification of the diverse 



NO. 18 14, VOL. 70] 



regulations under which the schools and classes concerned 

 have been administered in the past. 



.'\t the annual distribution of scholarships and prizes at 

 the Royal Indian Engineering College, Coopers Hill, on 

 July 27, Sir W'illiam White, president of the Institution of 

 Civil Engineers, delivered an address. Referring to the 

 recent decision to close the college, he said they had now 

 to accept the decision and to express the hope that the good 

 work of Coopers Hill would continue to bear fruit. It is 

 to be hoped that the features of the college, which have been 

 proved to be good, will be in some way or other perpetuated, 

 and that the connection of British engineering institutions 

 with India and its great public works will in the future 

 be quite as close as in the past. He believed that the energy 

 and skill of engineers in the Indian Empire had been one 

 of the greatest forces for consolidating the advance of 

 British dominion, for improving the condition of the people, 

 and for developing the resources of that great continent. 

 After contrasting the condition of India «at the present time 

 with its state at the time of the Mutiny, Sir William said 

 that the radical change which has taken place was largely 

 owing to the triumphs of the engineer. We are only yet 

 on the fringe of discovery in the matter of the resources 

 of India. Its mines, its forests, and its other resources 

 are waiting for the work of the engineer for proper develop- 

 ment. On those in authority in this country who have the 

 conduct of Indian affairs must depend how that development 

 shall progress, and what shall be the future of the Indian 

 Empire as affected by engineering and British financial 

 enterprise. There must be huge demands for skilled 

 engineers in India, and now that Coopers Hill will cease 

 to be the chief source of supply of engineers for India, we 

 must be sure that some other source of as fully trained and 

 competent men will be provided to ensure that the resources 

 of India do not want for development. 



CONTENTS. ^E 



" Mutation " V. Selection. By F. A. D 313 



The Fauna and Flora of Alaska. By R. L. ... 314 



The Theory of Determinants. By T. J. I'a. A. . . 315 



A Manual of Medicine. By F. W. T 316 



Our Book Shelf :— 



Watson : "The Racing World and its Inhabitant?." — 



R. L 316 



Lepsius : " Geologic von Deutschland und den 



angrenzenden Gebieten." — G. A. J. C. . . 317 

 Loppe : " Traite Elementaire des Enroulemenls des 

 Dynamos a Courant Continu" ; Chevrier : " Etude 



sur les Resonances" 317 



Berliner : " Lehrbuch der experimental Physik in 



elementarer Darstellung" 317 



Letters to the Editor :— 



Octopolatity and Valence. — Frank A. Heal v . . . 318 

 Botanical Nomenclature. — Prof. T. D. A. 



Cockerell 318 



The Formation of Coral Reefs. — Charles Hedley . 319 



The Traction of Carriages. — Cecil G. Saunders . 319 



The Word Cingalese. — A. K. Coomaraswamy . . 319 



Residual Affinity.— Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S. . . . 319 

 American Extinct Vertebrate Animals. (Illustrated.) 



By A. S. W 320 



Manchuria Under Russian Rule 322 



British Association Meeting at Cambridge . 32^ 

 Sir John Simon, K.C.B., F.R.S. By Prof R. T. 



Hewlett 326 



A Banker Naturalist. By A. G 327 



Notes. (Illustrated.) 328 



Our Astronomical Column: — 



The Red Spot on Jupiter 332 



Variable Radial Velocity of a Andromedie and Four 



other Stars 332 



Various Classes of Silicium Lines and their Occurrence 



in Stellar Spectra 332 



Line of Sight Constants for some Orion Type Stars . 332 

 The Tails of Borrelly's Comet (1903) and Light- 

 pressure 332 



Survey of India, 1901-2 332 



The British Medical Association in Oxford .... 332 



Geological Notes 334 



University and Educational Intelligence 335 



