476 



NA TURE 



[September 8, 1904 



Sir Henry Ckaik, K.C.B., in his report for the year 1904 

 on secondary education in Scotland, says 'that the examiners 

 are of opinion that the teaching of theory is still the weak 

 point in the instruction in science given in the schools, 

 though there has been some improvement since last session. 

 This weakness is specially conspicuous in the subjects of 

 magnetism, electricity, and hydrostatics. It would appear 

 that most teachers rely too exclusively on the experiments 

 done by the pupils in the laboratory, and do not supplement 

 them sufficiently by full discussion and cross questioning, 

 and by demonstration experiments. It is to be feared that 

 the subjects mentioned are too often attempted by boys who 

 are not sufficiently equipped with a previous knowledge of 

 mathematics and dynamics, who would have been much 

 more profitably employed in going through a course in heat 

 or chemistry. It is satisfactory to find evidence of a 

 tendency to simplify the courses followed in the schools. 



The Higher Education Subcommittee of the Lancashire 

 Education Committee has issued a series of circulars detail- 

 ing the provision made in the county for instruction in 

 various branches of agriculture. In the first of the 

 pamphlets full particulars are given of a scheme of agri- 

 cultural education to be carried out at the County Council 

 Farm, Hutton, the, Harris Institute, Preston, and in various 

 parts of the county during the session of 1904-5. The 

 course in agriculture at the Harris Institute, Preston, 

 extends over four years, and is intended to prepare youths 

 for the practical work of a farmer's life by instructing them 

 in the principles which underlie farming operations, and 

 demonstrating — in the lecture room and on the farm — 

 modern and scientific methods of agriculture. The instruc- 

 tion is free to approved students, and, in addition, the County 

 Council allows a sum not exceeding ten shillings per week, 

 either for board, lodging, or for travelling expenses, to each 

 student in full attendance, not being a holder of an agri- 

 cultural scholarship, who fulfils certain conditions laid 

 down. The Higher Education Subcommittee has also made 

 arrangements to consider applications from local committees, 

 agricultural societies, and farmers' associations, for courses 

 of lectures by members of the agricultural staff at the Harris 

 Institute, Preston. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, August 29. — M. Mascart in the chair. 

 — On the fall of Perseids in 1904 : Henry Perrotin. The 

 most favourable evenings for observations were .'Vugust 9 

 to 14. Owing to the exceptional purity of the atmosphere 

 at the summit of Mont Mounier (2740 metres) a large number 

 of meteors were noted. As regards their points of appear- 

 ance, disappearance, velocity, and brightness, the results 

 clearly indicate the advantages possessed by stations at high 

 altitudes for methodical observations of meteors. — On the 

 approximate solution of certain congruences : Fr^d^ric 

 Riesz. — On the formula of tonometry and cryoscopy : E. 

 Aries. In a preceding communication it has been shown 

 that the expression for the potential of each of the two 

 substances in a dilute solution can be deduced from the 

 law of van 't Hoff. In the present paper these results are 

 extended to include the formulse connecting the alteration 

 of vapour pressure and of freezing point, deduced experi- 

 mentally by Raoult. — On a case of globular lightning at 

 Autun on July 16 : M. Roche. — On the theory of macles : 

 G. Friedel. — The passage from the root to the stem in 

 Primula At4ricula : H. Ricome. — Researches on the assimil- 

 ation of some ternary substances by the higher plants : 

 P. Maze and A. Perrier. From the experiments described, 

 it is shown that green plants, like fungi and micro- 

 organisms, are capable of assimilating sugars, the only 

 distinction between the two cases being that the former can 

 create these substances at the expense of atmospheric carbon 

 dioxide, whilst in the latter, the nitrous and nitric ferments 

 are the only ones known to be able to take carbon from 

 carbonic acid. — On the preservation of flour by cold : M. 

 Balland. 



New South Wales. 

 Linnean Society, July 27. — Dr. T. Storie Dixson, presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — Notes on Australian Coccidre ex Coll. 

 AV. W. Froggatt, with descriptions of new species. No. i. : 



NO. I 81 9, VOL. 70] 



E. Ernest Green. A species of Chionaspis found upon the 

 undersurface of the leaves of Eucalyptus iercticornis, Sm., 

 and the nut-grass Coccid, a species of Antonina, are described 

 as new. The latter may be classed with the few beneficial 

 species of Coccids, as it is credited with destroying the 

 host-plant (Cyperus roiundus, Linn.), a most objectionable 

 weed, over a large area of the Hunter River flats, N.S.W. 

 — Three new generic names for Mollusca : Captain F. \V. 

 Hutton, F.R.S. The author finds, through the publication 

 of the " Index Zoologicus," that the following generic 

 names, published by him for land Mollusca, have been fore- 

 stalled : — Pyrrha, by Cabanis in Aves, 1849 : Carthsea, by 

 Walker in Lepidoptera, 1858; and Rhenea, by Saalmiiller 

 in Lepidoptera, 1884. He therefore proposes the following 

 names to replace them : — Thermia for Pyrrha, Serpho for 

 Carthaja, and Delos for Rhenea. — On a new species of 

 Heteronympha, and a new variety of Tisiphone abeona, 

 Don. : G. A. Waterhouse. — On four new species of 

 Kucalyptus : J. H. Maiden. 



GOTTIXGEN. 



Royal Society of Sciences. — The A''ac//''/< ///;•« (physico- 

 mathematical section), part iii. for 1904, contains the follow- 

 ing memoirs communicated to the Society : — 



May 14. — Ph. Furtwangler : On the construction of the 

 Klasseiikorper for any algebraic Zahlkorper. Lothar 

 Heffter : On the definition of the definite integral in two 

 dimensions, independently of previous integration. 

 G. Prasad : On the notion of lines of curvature. 



June II. — J. Stark: Experiments on the genesis of the 

 band- anti the line-spectrum. 



June 25. — David Hiibert : Principles of a general theory 

 of linear integral equations. 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



Social Types and Social Selection 449 



Electricity, Old and New. By W. B. M 450 



Milk in Relation to Disease. By Prof. R. T. Hewlett 451 

 Our Book Shelf:— 



Marr and Shipley: "Handbook to the Natural 



History of Cambridgeshire. " — R. L. ... 452 



Classen: " Theorie der Elektrizitat und des Mag- 



nelismus" 452 



Fritsch : " Die Keimpflanzen der Gesneriaceen " . . 453 



Zehnder : " Das Leben im Weltall " 453 



Hay ward : "First Stage Steam" ; 453 



Letters to the Editor : 



On the Secondary Radiation due to the 7 Rays of 



Radium. — A. S. Eve 454 



A Source of the lonisation of the Atmosphere. — ^J. R. 



Ashworth 454 

 Celtic Place-names. — Joseph Meehan ; The Re- 

 viewer 454 



The Striped Hawk- Moth— Rose Haig Thomas . . 455 

 Mountains and Mankind.— Douglas W. Freshfield 455 

 British Chemical Exhibit at the St. Louis Exhibi- 

 tion. By F. M. P 455 



The Limnological Stations on the Lake of Bolsena. 



{Illustrated.) By R. T. Gunther 455 



Notes 456 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



The Line Spectrum of Copper 459 



Ephemeris for the Return of Encke's Comet .... 459 

 Supposed Relation between Sun-spot Minima and 



Maxima Intensities . . 459 



Ephmeris for Comet Tempel., 459 



Direction of the Sun's Proper Motion 459 



The British Association 



Section I. — Physiology. — ! With Diagrams.)— Opening 

 Address by Prof. C. S. Sherrington, M.A., D.Sc, 

 M.D., LL.D., F. R.S., President of the Section . 460 

 Section K. — Botany. — (IVilh Diagrams.) — Opening 

 Address by Francis Darwin, F.R.S. , Fellow of 

 Christ's College, President of the Section . . . 466 

 The Sixth International Congress of Zoology . . 473 

 Rotation of Saturn's Rings. By W. F. Denning . 475 



University and Educational Intelligence 475 



Societies and Academies 476 



