500 



NATURE 



[September 15, 1904 



of winning some mark of distinction in this or that portion 

 of what is now a pass examination would frequently rouse 

 some latent ambition in an idle nian, and transform the 

 whole spirit of his work. 



Thus a modest reform of this kind might be of great 

 practical benefit to the nation by helping in its degree to 

 intellectualise the life of a great many of our young men, 

 and draw out unsuspected interests, faculties, and tastes. 



Mv observations have run to such a length that I must, 

 perforce, conclude, leaving untouched other aspects of Uni- 

 versity education and training, whether in the old or the 

 new universities, as also the whole subject of the higher 

 education of women, and its proper relationship to traditional 

 systems of instruction and study, framed and intended for 

 men. 



And my last word is a word of practical inquiry. How is 

 this Section to be made of most value as an instrument of 

 educational progress? 



I leave the answer to this question to those more com- 

 petent to give it, merely putting on record my own feeling 

 that it may do a valuable service and supply one of our 

 special educational needs, if the working committee of the 

 Section, enlarged by the addition of various representative 

 persons, makes it a duty to collect and publish year by year 

 in succession a series of papers, the best that can be written 

 by recognised authorities, on the chief branches of our 

 English education, dwelling on its immediate and pressing 

 needs, and how best to supply them. To do this the Com- 

 mittee should set to work systematically, commencing in 

 October with monthly meetings, and formulating, without 

 delay, the scheme or series of papers to be prepared and 

 presented to the next meeting of the Association. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Dr. H. Burrows has been appointed to the post of 

 lecturer and demonstrator of chemistry at the Sir John Cass 

 Technical Institute, Aldgate. 



A CONFERENCE of delegates appointed by the Welsh county 

 councils to discuss the question of afforestation in the 

 Principality was held at Swansea on September 7. Sir 

 Charles Philipps, who presided, remarked that there was in 

 Wales an enormous area which could be profitably afforested. 

 It was necessary that professors of the subject should be 

 appointed at the universities, and that practical demon- 

 stration areas should be set apart. The view was expressed, 

 in course of discussion, that the establishment of a central 

 school of forestry for Wales was of the utmost importance, 

 and that such a school would become self-supporting after 

 a few years. It was at length resolved that the members 

 should large on their respective councils the great import- 

 ance of the study and practical application of forestry by 

 providing lectures to be given at suitable centres and 

 bursaries, enabling students to attend these lectures ; also 

 that a central school of forestry be established with example 

 plants of three or more acres, and demonstration areas of 

 suitable extent, and that the necessary e.xpense be defrayed 

 by the county councils on the basis of their respective rate- 

 able values, the whole amount now asked for not to exceed 

 5000/. 



Addresses will be given at most of the medical schools 

 on the occasion of the opening of the winter session early 

 in October. At Charing Cross Hospital, the session will 

 be opened by the delivery of the fifth biennial Huxley lecture, 

 on " Recent Advances in Science and their Bearing on 

 Medicine and Surgery," by .Sir William MacEwen, F.R.S. 

 At the St. George's Hospital an introductory address on 

 " Some Landmarks in the History of Medical Education " 

 will be given by Prof. A. Macalister. The opening meeting 

 of the Physical Society of Guy's Hospital will be held on 

 October 8, when Sir Samuel Wilks, F.R.S., will preside. 

 At King's College Hospital Dr. Thomas Buzzard will deliver 

 an address on " The Future Relation of King's College to 

 its Medical School and Hospital." At St. Mary's Hospital 

 the introductory address will be delivered bv Prof. A. E. 

 Wright. At the Middlesex Hospital the session will open 

 with an introductory address by Dr. F. J. Wethered. .At 

 University College, London, an introductory address will be 



NO. 1820, VOL. 70] 



given bv Prof. J. Norman Collie, F.R.S. The introductory 

 address in connection with the opening of the winter session 

 of the London (Royal Free Hospital) School of Medicine 

 for Women will be delivered by Miss Murdoch at the Medical 

 School on October 3. At the Pharmaceutical Society the 

 inaugural sessional address will be delivered by Prof. A. W. 

 Crosslev. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



P.IRIS. 



Academy of Sciences, September 9. — M. Mascart in the 

 chair. — On a gaseous interrupter : K. R. Johnson. The 

 interrupter consists of two plates of aluminium placed in a 

 solution of an electrolyte. The heating effect of the current 

 evolves a bubble of steam, which temporarily breaks the 

 circuit ; this is rapidly condensed in the upper part of the 

 cell, and so causes a series of makes and breaks. It has 

 the advantage of working independently of the dimensions 

 of the metallic circuit, and even in the absence of an in- 

 duction coil or a solenoid. Its disadvantage is that the 

 frequency is rather low. — On a reagent for the hydrides of 

 phosphorus, arsenic, and antimony : P. Lemoult. These 

 gases, when diluted with an inert gas, react with a solution 

 of the double iodide of mercury and potassium, giving 

 characteristic crystalline precipitates, orange, yellow or 

 brown in colour. Thev have been analysed, and correspond 

 to the formula RHg.|Ij, in which R may be P, As, or Sb. 

 — Benzopinacone and benzopinacoline : Amand Valeur. 

 Evidence is given that the compound obtained by 

 W. Dilthey and E. Last by the interaction of ethyl oxalate 

 and phenylmagnesium bromide is a pinacone and not a 

 pinacoline as supposed by them. — The synthesis of estragol 

 and aromatic derivatives with an unsaturated chain : M. 

 Tifreneau. — On the reproductive apparatus of the 

 Mucorina? : J. Dauphin. Glucose, levulose, and galactose 

 favour the appearance of sporangia ; lactose and saccharose 

 give only sporangia and chlamydospores ; maltose and 

 mannite give uniquely chlamydospores. — On macles : G. 

 Friedel. — The relations between the blood circulation and 

 the measurement of tactile sensibility : N. Vaschide. It 

 is shown that there is an extremely close relation between 

 the circulation of the blood and the tactile sensibility. 



CONTENTS. PACK 



New and Old Views on Glaciation. By Prof. Gren- 



ville A. J. Cole 477 



Mathematics for Schools 478 



Our Book Shelf :— 



Schwalbe : " Die Vorgeschichte des Menschen." — 



JE 479 



Cortese : " Metallurgia dell' Oro " : Zinone : " Metalli 



Preziosi " 480 



Webb : " The Telephone Service : its Past, its Present, 



and its Future " 4S0 



Letters to the Editor :— 



Magnetic Disturbances and Navigation. — Dr. August 



krogh ... . 4S0 



The Great Red Spot on Jupiter. — W. F. Denning . 480 

 The Older Civilisation of Greece : A Prehistoric Sea- 

 Power. (lUustraled.) By H. R. Hall 4S1 



Notes 4S3 



Our Astronomical Column: — 



Re-discovery of Encke's Comet 4S7 



Dr. Common's 60-inch Rellector 4S7 



Variable Stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud .... 48S 



The Sun's Anti-apex . . '. 48S 



Observations of the Solar Surface, January-March . . 48S 



Instructions to Variable Star Observers 4S8 



Observalions of Fundamental Stars . 48S 



The British Association. 



Section K. — Subsection, Agriculture. — Opening 

 Address by William Somerville, M.A., D.Sc, 



D.CEc, Chairman of the Subsection 48S 



Section L. — Educational .Science. — Opening Address 

 by the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop oi Here- 

 ford, D.D., LL.D., President of the Section . . . 493 



University and Educational Intelligence 500 



Societies and Academies 500 



