•V <). I'M') 



NATURE 



379 



. Castle Hill, Reading, is the hon. secre- 

 1 hi principal objei I is to 



Ehi n lations betw ei n the youngi ■ stui 

 iu this countn li\ i . lei - 



■' I'-, .mil b) other suitable measures. 



w ill . ndea\ i n i pi ivileges for its 



■ • i In r societies and to cin ulati 

 among the members relating to scholar- 

 ships, vacant appointmen Ml inquiries 

 should iii ddressed to the him. secretary. 



i ircular and Booksellers' Record 

 i iks as having been published 

 during tin- year 1918. This is a decrease of 415 

 mil with the previous year, and it is accounted 

 hiefly by a falling off in the number of works of 

 ind juvenile literature (—155); other 

 i creased slightly are education, 

 usiness, history, and geography. 

 , hand, sociology has increased by [12, 

 technology In no, medicine by 80, and poetry b) 98. 

 I nd Science" the number of new books reeorded 



Iso 5 translations and 28 pamphlets. In addi- 

 64 new editions, making a total of 

 1 • > ] 4 science occupied ihe third place 

 in twelve classes of literature, and ti chnolog) the fifth 

 place; in 101S technology was in the eighth placi and 

 in the tenth. 

 A course of nine lectures on dynamical mi 

 will be given at the Meteorological Office, South 

 Kensington, b) Sir Napier Shaw, reader in meteoro- 

 1.1 tin University of London, on Friday-, at 

 ,, p.m., beginning on January ^4. Each lecture will 

 iv followed by a conversation class for the discussion 

 ot practical details and of references to the original 

 -mill.- ut information. The informal meetings at 

 the Meteorological Office for the discussion of im- 

 portant cut rent contributions to meteorology, chief!) 

 in ('.ilnni.il ur foreign journals, will he resumed ;il 

 g p.m. on Monday, April 2S, and will he continued 

 on eai h Monday until June 23, with the exception of 

 In.;, g Students wishing to attend should com- 

 municate with Sir Napier Shaw. The lecture- .11 ■■ 

 intended for advanced student- of the University of 

 l.i mdi hi and others interested in the subject. Admis- 

 '- free by ticket, obtainable on application at the 

 Meteorological Office. 



THE London County Council has arranged a series 

 of special lectures for teachers, on subjects connected 

 with problems of reconstruction, for the spring and 

 summer terms of the present year. Full particulars 

 ntained in the "Handbook of Classes and Lec- 

 tures for Teachers" published by the Council. Among 

 • ti- courses of lectures the following may 

 be mentioned: the la-t three of the series on "Science 

 Nation," viz. engineering, with special refer- 

 - relations with our national life, by Prof. 

 W. E. Dalby, at II a.m. on January -'5, at the *"it\ 

 '■■'■'• Engineering College of the Imperial Col- 

 lege ol Scienci aad Technology, South Kensington; 

 science in relation to the national life, In Prof. 

 , at 11 a.m. on February 15, at the Regent 

 technic, W.ij some aspects of the rubber- 

 ing industry, by Prof. J. B. Farmer, at 11 a.m. 

 s, at the Regent Street Polytechnic, W.i. 

 At Kind's College, Strand, on Wednesdays, at 5.30 p.m. , 

 beginning mi February 5, .a course of public lectures 

 mi "Physiology and National Needs" will be de- 

 rhi lectures include physiolog; and the food 

 lem, by Prof. W. D. Halliburton; physical train- 

 in- nf the open-air life, bv Dr. M. S. Pembrej : "vita- 

 s'' unknown but essential acce sory factors in 

 by Prof. F. G. Hopkins; scurv) a disease due 

 to the absence of vitamine. by Prof. A. II 



NO. 2567, VOL. lOj" 1 



physiolog) and the stud) of disease, b) Prof. I). N. 

 Paton; and conservation ol our cereal reserves, by 

 Prof. A. Dendy. Applications for admission to these 

 I i inn - should be addressed direct to the secretary 

 of the college. 



1 1; ear's educational gatherings included a joint 

 meeting on January 2 ol the Headmasters' Con- 

 ,. and the Incorporated Association of Head- 

 masters, at which the reports of the Government Com- 

 mittees on science and modern languages were con- 

 sidered. After some discussion the following resolu- 

 tions, dealing with the teaching of science and mathe- 

 matics, were adopted by the conference : — (1) That 

 suitable instruction in natural science should b* in- 

 cluded in the curriculum of preparatory schools, of the 

 upper standards of elementary schools, and of all boys 

 in public and other secondary schools up to the age of 

 about sixteen. (2) That mathematics and natural 

 science should be necessary subjects in the entrance 

 scholarship examinations of public schools, in the first 

 -1 hool examination, and in the examinations for en- 

 trance into the Navy and the Army, provided that 

 good work in other subjects should compensate for 

 comparative weakness in mathematics and natural 

 1 j) That for boys between twelve and six- 

 teen the teaching of natural science should not be 

 confined to physics and chemistry, but should include 

 some studv of plant and animal life, and that more 

 attention should be directed to those aspects of science 

 which bear directly upon tin- objects and experience of 

 cverydav life. (4)' That there should be as close cor- 

 relation" as possible between the teaching of mathe- 

 matics and of science. After a discussion of the report 

 on the teaching of modern languages the conference 

 passed resolutions, among others, declaring that the 

 studv of one or more languages other than English 

 should be regarded as an essential part of higher 

 education ; that the first language other than English 

 should be begun at about the age of ten, the second 

 language not beginning until there was evidence of 

 satisfactory progress in the first; and that usually 

 the first language should be French and the second 

 Latin. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Geological Society, December 18, 1918. — Mr. G. Y\ - 

 Lamplugh, president, in the chair.— C. T. Trechmann : 

 \ bed of inter-Glacial loess and some pre-Glacial fresh- 

 water clavs on the Durham coast. A few years ago 

 the author described a bed of Scandinavian drift that 

 was found filling up a small pre-Glacial valley-like 

 depression at Warren House Gill, on the Durham 

 coast. This section, and others north and south of it, 



been kept under observation at different times, 



and several new features have been noticed as the 

 high tides and other agencies exposed parts of the 

 roast. All the observed features seem to point to the 

 fad that the Scandinavian ice-sheet advanced on the 

 easl coast of England in the same way as it invaded 

 1111 Europe round the southern shores of the 

 Baltic, and gave rise to analogous climatic conditions 

 leading to the formation of loess, a fragment of which 

 is found protected from the erosive action of tin later 

 [laciation in a small hollow on the Durham 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, December j.;. 1918. M. P. 



Painleve 'in the chair.— C. Guichard : A series of sur- 



total curvature such that their lines 



urvature form a network of the type p.\ , -pB .— 



] ,. - Charpy was electi d a number of the divi- 



