646 
NATURE 
[FEBRUARY 5, 1914 
The new regulations of the Board of Education 
dealing with junior technical schools were the subject 
of considerable discussion, and the view was generally 
expressed that all forms of specialised teaching should 
come within the scope of the new regulations, and that 
all limiting conditions as to the pupil’s future outlook 
should be entirely removed from the regulations. 
Special consideration was given to that section of 
the report of the Royal Commission which dealt with 
the examination of the external student desirous of 
proceeding to the degrees of the University of London. 
It was agreed that access to the examinations of the 
University should continue to be, as in the past, effec- 
tively provided for with such improvements in method 
as experience would suggest, but that no steps should 
be taken which should in any way diminish in stand- 
ing or importance the quality of the degree awarded 
to the external student, or which should impair the 
position of the external as compared with the internal 
student. It was further strongly urged that there 
should not be, as proposed, any exclusion of unattached 
students from the examinations in technology, includ- 
ing engineering, in view of its disastrous effect upon 
higher technological education, and that it was of 
the utmost importance that the relations hitherto sub- 
sisting between the London polytechnics and the Uni- 
versity of London should be maintained, and the recog- 
nition of eligible teachers in these institutions be 
continued. 
The question of the new and important regulations 
for the establishment of technical bursaries by the 
““1851’’ Exhibition Commissioners with a view to the 
assistance of eligible graduates of the universities 
desirous of proceeding immediately to industrial em- 
ployment was fully considered, and it was agreed that 
the Commissioners should be asked to consider the 
desirability of including within the list of accepted 
universities other qualified technical institutions. 
The very: important: question of compulsory, con- 
tinued education -in respect of children who’ had left 
the elementary schools to enter into employment with 
a view to their further education, both vocational and 
general, was carefully considered. - 
It was urged that having regard to the vast expen- 
diture of public money, amounting now to upwards 
of twenty-four millions sterling per annum, and with 
a view to conserve the results of this expenditure, not 
only should ‘‘half-time’’ be abolished, but all regula- 
tions by means of which a child may be relieved of 
attendance at school before he reaches the age of 
fourteen, and that there should be enacted a law under 
which children leaving the elementary school at four- 
teen should be required to attend within the usual 
hours of labour a continuation school, which shall 
include in its curriculum not only vocational subjects, 
but such subjects of a general character as shall con- 
duce to his effective preparation for the duties of life, 
and that the responsibility for the due observance of 
the law be laid upon the employers. It was shown 
that only a mere fraction of the children leaving school 
for employment continued their education, the figures 
being, for those between fourteen and seventeen years 
of age, only 300,000 out of a total of 2,335,000, or 
13 per cent., with the result that there was a most 
serious economic and moral loss to the nation. 
It was further shown that the German Government, 
realising this great loss to the German nation, had 
for some years established compulsory day continuation 
schools for children in employment throughout the 
empire, with most satisfactory results. There was a 
general consensus of approval. In the city of Berlin 
in 1910-11 there were 68,000 students of both sexes 
enrolled in continuation schools, of whom 32,000 were 
students in compulsory schools. (OR. 
NO. 2310, VOL. 92] 
ANCIENT PIGMENTS. 
N Archaeologia, vol. Ixiv., pp. 315-35, Prof. A. P- 
Laurie, of the Royal Academy of Arts, presents us 
with the chief results of an important research on the 
historical and local succession of the use of “ancient 
pigments.” His material has been drawn almost 
entirely from western Europe, Chinese, Persian, and 
Indian painting not being discussed. His conclu- 
sions, derived mainly from the optical and micro- 
chemical examination, necessarily much restricted, of 
valuable illuminated MSS., amplify rather than cor- 
rect those of previous investigators, such as Sir 
Humphry Davy, Marcelin Berthelot, and other chem- 
ists of the nineteenth century, but synthetic experi- 
ments have in some cases been utilised. The story’ 
more nearly approaches completeness in some sections 
than in others. The lakes, for example—pink, lilac, 
red, crimson, and purple—have not as yet, in all cases, 
revealed their origin. Perhaps the series and sequence 
of blue pigments may be cited as a characteristic 
example of Dr. Laurie’s fuller treatment of his sub- 
ject. Of the six blues included in the early list— 
indigo, Egyptian-blue, the mineral azurite or chessy- 
lite, real ultramarine from lapis lazuli, blue verditer 
and smalt—the most interesting is without doubt 
Egvotian-blue. To this remarkable pigment Prof. 
Laurie has devoted much attention, having finally 
determined its composition and properties, and also 
the optimum temperature for its production (see Proc. 
Roy Soc., vol. Ixxxix. A, pp. 418-29). Although these 
six pigments were not all in use everywhere and at 
the same time they cover the early centuries and_ the 
period between classical times and the close of the 
sixteenth century. Later additions to blue pigments 
comprise Prussian-blue, near the beginning of the 
eighteenth century; cobalt-blue, and artificial ultra- 
marine in the first quarter of the nineteenth century; 
and cceruleum about the year 1870. This dating of 
pigments. and of their use is of the highest import- 
ance in connection with questions as to the provenance” 
and authencity of works of art. For full details Prof. 
Laurie’s paper, with the annexed tables, must be con- 
sulted. A few typographical errors in this important 
memoir should be noted; Robertson on p. 321 should 
be Roberson; sulphur not silver should appear in the 
second line from the bottom of p. 331; and the name 
of the mollusc from which the Irish monks prepared 
the Tyrian purple employed in their illuminated MSS. — 
is not’ quite accurately given in the earlier of the 
tables appended to the memoir. It may be suggested 
that this purple pigment, which is a dibromoindigotin, 
ought to be identifiable where its presence is suspected 
by means of its high content of bromine. Bae! 
CELLULOID AND ITS DANGERS. 
se Departmental Committee on Celluloid, ap- 
pointed by the Home Secretary some fifteen 
months ago to consider the precautions necessary in 
the storage and use of this substance, has recently 
issued its report (Cd. 7158, 1913). From this it 
appears that the product accepted as “celluloid” in 
the report consists essentially of gelatinised nitro- 
cellulose and camphor, the proportion of nitro- 
cellulose usually varying from 70 to 75 per cent. in 
ordinary celluloid articles, and from 80 to 90 per cent. 
in kinematograph films. It ignites very readily, and 
burns with great rapidity and fierceness; moreover, 
in certain circumstances it may take fire without the 
direct application of flame. If submitted to a 
moderately high temperature for some time it sud- 
denly decomposes with evolution of considerable heat 
and the emission of inflammable and poisonous gases 
