420 
NATURE 
[Marcu 3, 1904 
on the council in 1888 and in subsequent years, and 
for a time as vice-president. 
His attention was in 1887 attracted to the geology of 
the Lizard, and there his observations led him to main- 
tain the igneous origin of many of the foliated crystal- 
line rocks. He dealt also with the granite of Dart- 
moor, and showed that it presented the ordinary 
features of an intrusive igneous rock. 
In 1894 he was elected president of the Geologists’ 
Association for the usual two years, and in his 
addresses he summarised the results of some of his 
Indian work. He sought to dispel the popular notion 
that the Himalayas were upraised in late Tertiary 
times—they had, of course, a pre-Tertiary history, 
although there was a general absence of crushing and 
contortion prior to the Miocene, and these disturbances 
were due to the intrusion of the gneissose granite. 
General McMahon was elected a fellow of the Royal 
Society in 1898, and in the following year the Lyell 
medal was awarded to him by the Geological Society. 
The president (Mr. Whitaker), in addressing him on 
that occasion, remarked, ‘“ Labouring under the dis- 
advantage of taking to the study of geology compara- 
tively late in life, you have attacked it with the energy 
of a British soldier, and have fought your way into the 
foremost rank of our petrologists.”” ; 
In 1902 he contributed to the Geological Magazine 
(with Mr. Hudleston) an important paper on the 
fossils from the Hindu Khoosh. In the autumn of the 
same year he took duty as president of Section C of 
the British Association at Belfast. Since that date his 
health had gradually declined, and he died from heart 
failure on February 2r. Personally he was endeared 
to all who knew him by his sterling character and by 
his genial and courteous nature. H. B. W. 
THE NEW EDUCATION AUTHORITY FOR 
LONDON. 
Wie have received the following memorial referring 
to the proposed constitution of the Education 
Committee for London. An article upon the scheme 
adopted by the London County Council appeared in 
our issue of February rr. 
To the Secretary of the Board of Education. 
February 22, 1904. 
Sir, 
Having carefully considered the scheme proposed by the 
London County Council for the constitution of its Educa- 
tion Committee, which has been submitted for the approval 
of your Board, we, without bias towards any political party, 
desire to draw the attention of your Board to certain defects 
in the scheme which must seriously impair the efficiency 
of the committee in its work of coordinating and developing 
all varieties of education in London. 
The Education Committee will have to undertake not 
only the work of elementary instruction hitherto carried 
out by the School Board, but it will also have the more 
difficult task of supplying and aiding the supply of 
secondary, technical, and higher education, and of pro- 
moting the coordination of all forms of education in London. 
The present backward educational position of this country 
is especially marked in those branches designated 
“secondary ’’ and ‘‘ higher.’? To develop the resources of 
London in these respects, to raise the standard of secondary 
education, to provide for the training of teachers for both 
primary and secondary schools, to organise and support the 
facilities for university training, and finally to organise a 
great technical high school in the university and the more 
strictly technical instruction of the polytechnics, so that 
the whole may be one educational edifice crowned by the 
University of London, will be a task of great magnitude, 
and will require the assistance of persons specially skilled 
in and acquainted with the needs and conditions of these 
various grades of education. 
Under the scheme sent in by the County Council, it seems 
NO. 1792, VOL. 69 | 
to us that no guarantee is afforded that the Council wil? 
have at its disposal any sufficient number of persons of 
experience in education and acquainted with the needs of 
the various kinds of schools in London. We would there- 
fore urge on the Board of Education the desirability of 
amending the scheme so that the Education Committee may 
include persons who would be universally recognised as 
authorities on the needs of the university, the technical 
institutes, and the elementary and secondary schools. 
While trusting that the Board of Education will take all 
possible means to secure the improvement of the scheme 
along the lines indicated above, we would earnestly de- 
precate any action of the Board that would lead to the post- 
ponement of the appointed day, on which, by the provisions 
of the Education Act, the administration of a unified system 
of education for London is to begin. 
We have the honour to remain, Sir, 
Your obedient Servants, 
(Signed), 
List of Signatures. 
Dr. W. H. Allchin, senior physician to the Westminste1 
Hospital, member of the Senate of the University of London ; 
Dr. Henry E. Armstrong, F.R.S., professor of chemistry, 
Central Institute of City and Guilds; Right Hon. Lord 
Avebury, F.R.S., president of the Associated Chambers of 
Commerce; Sir J. Wolfe Barry, chairman of Executive 
Committee, City and Guilds Institute; Dr. Horace T-. 
Brown, F.R.S.; Sir Lauder Brunton, F.R.S.; Dr. Henry 
T. Butlin, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the University 
of London; Prof. D. S. Capper, professor of mechanical 
engineering, King’s College; Sir William Crookes, PoReor 
Prof. Hugh L. Callendar, professor of physics, Royal 
College of Science; Mr. R. F. Charles, chairman of the 
Central Branch of the Teachers’ Guild; Sir W. S. Church, 
Bart., president of the Royal College of Physicians; Prof. 
J. D. Cormack, professor of mechanical engineering, 
University College ; Prof. G. Carey Foster, F.R.S.} principal 
of University College, London; Mr. J. Easterbrook, head- 
master of Owen’s School, Islington; Prof. Ernest A. 
Gardner, professor of archeology, University College; Mr. 
Herbert B. Garrod, General Secretary of the Teachers’ 
Guild; Sir William R. Gowers, F.R.S.; Prof. W. D. 
Halliburton, F.R.S., professor of physiology, King’s 
College; Prof. M. J. M. Hill, F.R.S., professor of mathe- 
matics, University College, London; Rev. Arthur C. 
Headlam, principal of King’s College, London; Sir Henry 
G. Howse, member of Senate of London University ; Prof. 
W. P. Ker, professor of English, University College; Dean 
of the Faculty of Arts, University of London; Sir Norman 
Lockyer, K.C.B., F.R.S., president of the British Associ- 
ation; Sir Philip Magnus, fellow and member of Senate of 
University of London; Dr. Charles J. Martin, F.R.S., 
director of the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine; Rev. 
J. Arbuthnot Nairn, headmaster of the Merchant Taylor’s 
School; Prof. Karl Pearson, F.R.S., professor of applied 
mathematics, University College; Sir E. C. Perry, member 
of Senate, London University; Prof. John Perry, F.R.S., 
professor of mathematics, Royal College of Science; Sir 
William Ramsay, K.C.B., F.R.S., professor of chemistry, 
University College, London, president of the Society of 
Chemical Industry; Sir Owen Roberts; Dr. R. P. Scott, 
Incorporated Association of Head Masters; Mrs. S. T. D. 
Shaw, late lecturer at Newnham College, and at the Train- 
ing College for Secondary Teachers; Dr. H. J. Spencer, 
headmaster of University College School; Prof. E. H. 
Starling, F.R.S., professor of physiology, University 
College; Miss L. M. Strong, head mistress of Baker Street 
High School for Girls; Dr. T. E. Thorpe, C.B., F.R.S., 
director of Government Laboratories, London; Prof. 
William A. Tilden, F.R.S., Dean of the Faculty of Science, 
University of London, president of the Chemical Society ; 
Prof. Fred. T. Trouton, F.R.S., professor of physics, Uni- 
versity College; Dr. John Tweedy, president of the Royal 
College of Surgeons; Dr. A. D. Waller, F.R.S., director 
of the physiological laboratory, University of London; Sir 
W. H. White, K.C.B., F.R.S., president of the Institution 
of Civil Engineers; Sir H. T. Wood, secretary, Society of 
Arts; Mrs. E. Woodhouse, head mistress of the Clapham 
High School. 
