December 5, 191S | 



NATURE 



277 



S ■■ idea of the g his work of 



■ ■ ■■ ed from thi 



thi 1 ineei ing 53 tests 



made during bile during 



1 1 1 , 1 — — 1 ,-s ih,- numbei was 3661. As 



neering, it m d that 



1 1 f tl udents 



; the pen ulated 



ompared with 40 in the 

 of the fa 



The I 'arnegii Trust have sent a 



cheque for 500I. to th Rothamsted 



Exp. rimental Station important 



rhis is thi d lion madi 



by thi • stees to the library, a cheque for 



a like amount ha' The 



purposi of theii 1 I agricultural 



ring the libi ai 11 utility 



■I most recent and impoi tan) treatises 



nd allied sciences. Two other valu- 



l, both from Capt. the 



Ih. library is fortunate in 



an unusually good collection of early 



printed bool I thi fifteenth, sixteenth, 



and seventeenth centuries. To these Capt. Guinness 



has now added perfect and beautiful copies of the first 



and second printed books on the subject, viz. the 



Ji ulture by Crescentius, printed 



in 147 1 al Augsburg, and Jensen's edition of the Latin 



agricultural writers, printed at Venice in 1472. 



Tup: following list shows the number of seats in 

 the Housi of the University con- 



stituencies of the United Kingdom, and tin- candidates 

 for mi Election on December 14. 



ives of the constituencies in the late Par- 

 liament are indicated by an asterisk : — Oxford (2) : 

 Mr. R 1 P 'resident of the Board of Agricul- 



'i. Prof. < .ill" 1 1 Murray, and Mr. 

 II. S. Furniss. Cambridge (2): Mr. J. F. P. Rawlin- 

 Sir Joseph I.armor,* and Mr. W. C. D. 



Whetham. London in: Sir P. M s, Mr. Sidney 



. Mr. A. \. Somervflle, and Sir Wilmot Herring- 

 ham. Wales (1) : Mr. Herbert Lewis* and Prof. 

 1 : Mr. 



'II. A. L. Fisher, Sir Martin Conway, Mr. II. G. 

 Williams, and Mr. J. A. Hobson. Scottish I H 

 i raik,* Sir Watson Chi 

 Mr. D. M. Cowan, Dr. P. Macdonald, Dr. J. Dunlop, 

 Mr. 'I . M. Watson, and Prof. W. R. Smith. Irish 

 I'ni: |: Dr. A. W. Samuels* and 



National: Mr. J. P. Boland 

 and Mr. I. MaoNeill. Q 1st): Sir William 



Whitla. 



alendar for the current session lias 

 by University College (University of 

 London). It contains in a convenientl 

 form full p le coui ses arranged for 



student- wishing to graduate in the diffi ent faculties 

 of tl ails of thi and 



exhibitions offered for competition, as well as a his- 

 tory • I partments of 

 scien • iraj udy of 

 the of the science, in additi. 

 the more academic side of the work. Thus, in the 



chemistry and chemical . the work being 



■ linn with the department of 



engineering. Similarly, instruction in the 



ilogy and in applied pin sii 

 to name two of manv instances. Every facility, too, 



to properly qualified students 

 origii 



pi ofessoi s. Thi department and mi 1 hanit al 



graphics, sur- 



and heating and ventilating engineering — and 



rical and municipal engineering provide 



/. ishing to become 1 ; stematic 



in the applic; 1 cientific principles to 



industrial purposes. The ., ngements 



in the calendar should be studied by all 



h 



bo - and girls entering upoi uni\ ersitj 

 work. 



The council of the Sheffield Association of Metal- 

 ad Metallurgical Chemists app 

 mittee last May to ascertain what educational facili- 

 ties exist of interest and value to thi association, and 

 to recommend to the council am desirabli modifica- 

 tions and extensions of such facilities. The com- 

 mittee has now issued a short report recommending 

 that all students entering upon any specialised course 

 of applied science should first have passed a general 

 examination of matriculation standard. The report 

 suggests that the present low status of a 

 chemists can be traced to their not having received 

 the amount of genera! education indicated by the 

 examination, and recommends the council to endeavour 

 to arrange for the provision of educational facilities in 

 the evening with the view of remedying this defect. 

 Assistant chemists who are not up to a matriculation 

 standard in mathematics and experimental science are 

 urged to qualifv in these subjects so as to be ready to 

 take up special courses in science and mathematics, 

 ! which it is hoped to get arranged. This movement to 

 I secure for future workers in applied science a sound 

 general education on which to build the superstructure 

 of technical knowledge deserves every encouragement, 

 and it mav be hoped that the exampie of the Sheffield 

 metallurgists will be followed in other industrial 

 centres. The First School Examination recently insti- 

 tuted by the Board of Education for pupils of between 

 sixteen and seventeen years of age in State-aided 

 secondary schools should in a large measure ensure a 

 good supplv of youths suitably educated for later work 

 in pure and applied science. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Optical Society, November 14. — Prof. F. J. Cheshire, 

 president, in the chair. — T. Smith: Some generalised 



forms of an optical equation. The paraxial equation 

 for refraction at a spherical surface ,,' x'—fi/x = {,n'—fi) r 

 connecting the distances x and x' of conjugate points 

 on the axis from the vertex may be made an exact 

 equation for all rays by the inclusion of an additional 

 factor. Any ray which intersects the axis is com- 

 pletely specified by two of three angles, a, 7, 0, some 

 one of which vanishes when the rays are refracted 

 without axial aberration. The angle a is the semi- 

 angular aperture at which the ray is refracted; -, is 

 the angle made with the axis by the line joining ,the 

 curvature of the surface to the inti 

 1 i and refracted rays with the aplanatic 

 and S is the deviation suffered by the rav. 

 The correcting factor may be the product of the tar- 

 gents of the halves of any two of these three angles. 

 The form taken by the equation depends upon which 



H. S. Ryland : N 

 the design and manufacture of binoculars. Th 

 th faults which usually develop in 

 rough usage and ordinary 



rign necessary ! ei '< them. T* 



shown that by small chan 

 1 of die-castings and Dress work could with advan 





VOL. I02] 



