334 
NABROKE 
[FEBRUARY 4, 1904 
! 
their attention to the urgent necessity for some reconsider- 
ation of the requirements of the universities from secondary 
schools. The Royal Society recognised, as of course it 
must recognise, the great importance of the humanities, but 
it felt that there was something wanting in the career 
which was insisted upon, especially at the older universities. 
This induced headmasters of secondary schools to select their 
most promising pupils entirely with a view to scholarships 
in classical literature, and to insist upon all the boys in a 
schcol spending a great deal of their time in studies for 
which, no doubt, many of them were fitted, but not all. 
The Royal Society had done a real service to the country by 
directing attention to this subject. 
THE annual meeting of the court of governors of the 
University of Birmingham was held on January 28, when 
the Chancellor, Mr. Chamberlain, presided. During the 
course of a speech on the motion for the adoption of the 
annual report, Mr. Chamberlain referred to the question 
of Government aid for university education. He said, ‘‘ I 
should be very sorry to see, in any application which may 
now or hereafter be made—either to public bodies or to the 
Government—any idea that that was to dispense individuals 
from their personal duty in the matter. I think un- 
doubtedly that the Government might make a more liberal 
response to what individuals have in so many cases done, 
and nowhere more conspicuously than in Birmingham. 
When we are dealing with such modern universities as | 
Manchester, Liverpool, and Birmingham, I think it is | 
creditable to the inhabitants of the districts in which they 
are placed that they should have met so readily the calls 
upon them, and I think they are almost entitled to demand 
from the Government a corresponding contribution. But I 
should myself deprecate any attempt to throw the whole 
charge upon the Government, and thereby to lose all that 
we gain by the local patriotism which is evoked, the local | 
self-denial, and the earnest interest which follows upon it. 
We shall ask the Government, in view of the very great 
development of this institution, for a larger grant, and we | 
shall be supported by other institutions in the same posi- | 
tion.’’ We have on many occasions pointed out in these 
columns that generous treatment on the part of the State | 
for university education, so far from diminishing private 
endowments and munificence, causes a marked increase of 
enthusiasm and generosity among the wealthy merchants 
and manufacturers. It is a mistaken policy, in a matter of 
such importance as the provision of facilities for higher 
education, to urge that Government assistance should only 
follow private efforts in the same direction, and if our states- 
men adopt the working policy outlined by the Chancellor | 
of the University of Birmingham, this country will have to | 
wait a long time for a complete and satisfactory university 
system. Let the Government set the example and publicly 
recognise in a substantial manner its sense of the value of | 
higher education, and private enterprise and endeavour will 
soon be aroused in a corresponding degree. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. | 
Lonpon. 
Royal Society, January 21.—‘‘On the Structure of the 
Paleozoic Seed, Lagenostoma Lomaxi, with a Statement 
of the Evidence upon which it is Referred to Lyginoden- 
dron.’’ By Prof. F. W. Oliver and Dr. D. H. Scott, 
F.R.S. Received December 15, 1903. 
The present communication deals with the structure of 
Lagenostoma Lomaxi, a fossil seed from the lower Coal- 
measures, and with the evidence upon which the authors 
refer it to the well-known Carboniferous plant, Lygino- | 
dendron. : 
It is found that this species of Lagenostoma, especially 
in its young form, was enclosed in a husk or cupule, borne 
oa a short pedicel. 
The seed, which is of cycladean character, is fully de- 
scribed, and its relation to other fossil and recent seeds 
discussed. 
The cupule enclosing the seed was borne terminally on a 
pedicel; it formed a continuous, ribbed cup below, and | 
divided above into a number of lobes or segments. 
Externally, both pedicel and cupule were studded with | 
NO. 1788, VOL. 69] 
numerous prominent multicellular glands of capitate form. 
The anatomy indicates that the whole organ was of a foliar 
nature. 
A comparison with the vegetative organs of Lygino- 
dendron Oidhamium, with which the seeds are intimately 
associated, demonstrates a complete agreement in the struc- 
ture of the glands and-in the anatomy of the vascular 
system. Where vegetative and reproductive organs, pre- 
senting identical structural features, not known to oceur in 
other plants, are thus found in close and constant associ- 
| ation, the inference that the one belonged to the other 
appears irresistible. 
As regards the position of the seed on the plant, two 
possibilities are discussed; the cupule, with its pedicel, 
may either represent an entire sporophyll or a modified 
pinnule of a compound leaf. Either view is tenable, but 
Various comparative considerations lend a somewhat greater 
probability to the second alternative. 
In the concluding section of the paper, the systematic 
position of Lyginodendron is discussed. On the whole of 
the evidence, the position of the genus as a member of a 
group of plants transitional between filicales and gymno- 
sperms appears to be definitely established. While many 
filicinean characters are retained, the plant, in the organ- 
isation of its seed, had fully attained the level of a Palzeozoic 
gymnosperm. There are many indications that other 
genera, now grouped under cycadofilices, had likewise be- 
come seed-bearing plants. It is proposed to found a distinct 
class, under the name Pteridospermz, to embrace those 
Palaeozoic plants with the habit, and much of the internal 
| organisation of ferns, which were reproduced by means of 
seeds. At present the families Lyginodendree and 
Medulloseze may be placed, with little risk of error, in the 
new class Pteridosperme. 
January 28.—‘ The Morphology of the Retrocalcarine 
Region of the Cortex Cerebri.’ By G Elliot Smith, 
M.A., M.D., Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge, 
Professor of Anatomy, Egyptian Government School of 
Medicine, Cairo. Communicated by Prof. A. Macalister, 
ERIS: 
Chemical Society, January 20.—Dr. W. A. Tilden, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—It was announced that 
the Rev. T. J. Prout had presented to the society a photo- 
graph of a portrait by Hayes of Dr. William Prout, F.R.S., 
the originator of Prout’s hypothesis.—The following papers 
were read :—The chemical reactions of nickel carbonyl, 
parts i. and ii.: J. Dewar and H. O. Jones. It is shown 
that nickel carbonyl is completely decomposed by the 
halogens, cyanogen and sulphur, carbon monoxide, and the 
corresponding nickel compounds being produced. With 
aromatic hydrocarbons of the benzene series, in presence of 
aluminium chloride, the carbonyl compound condenses to 
form aldehydes and anthracene derivatives; with naphtha- 
lene a complex hydrocarbon is produced.—Optically active 
asymmetric nitrogen compounds, d- and 1-phenylbenzyl- 
methylethylammonium salts: H. O. Jones.—A_ micro- 
scopic method of determining molecular weights: G. 
Barger. The author has improved his method of deter- 
mining molecular weights by observing the relative changes 
in size of a series of alternate drops of two solutions enclosed 
in capillary tubes, so that the experimental error has been 
reduced to within 5-10 per cent.—Studies in the acridine 
series, part i.: J. J. Fox and J. T. Hewitt.—ortho-Nitro- 
benzoylacetic acid: E. R. Needham and W. H. Perkin, 
jun.—The cis- and trans-modifications of aay-trimethyl- 
glutaconic acid: W. H. Perkin, jun., and A. E. Smith.— 
The influence of substitution on the rate of oxidation of 
the side chain, part i., oxidation of the mono- and di- 
chlorotoluenes: J. B. Cohen and J. Miller.—The inter- 
| dependence of physical and chemical criteria in the analysis 
of butter fat: T. E. Thorpe. Investigation of the butter 
produced in the United Kingdom has shown that the 
chemical nature of this fat is dependent on climatic in- 
fluences, the nature of the fodder, the breed of the cow, 
the period of lactation, and the idiosyncrasy of the 
individual cow. Tables of the chemical constants of the 
butters examined illustrating this are given.—A simple 
thermostat for use in connection with the refractometric 
examination of oils and fats: T. E. Thorpe.—The con- 
densation of furfuraldehyde with sodium succinate: A. W. 
