166 



NA TURE 



[December 14, 1905 



The current number of the Monthly Review contains an 

 article on public school education by Mr. A. C. Benson, in 

 which some valuable testimony as to the inadequacy as a 

 training for life of a purely classical education is given. 

 The question as to what are the intellectual accomplish- 

 ments of a boy of average intelligence who has been 

 through a public school and a university is answered in the 

 following words : — " He knows a very little Latin and 

 Greek, and he endeavours to put them out of his mind as 

 fast as he can ; he knows a little science ; perhaps a little 

 history, mostly ancient. He cannot generally calculate 

 correctly in arithmetic; he knows no modern languages 

 to speak of; he cannot express himself in simple English, 

 and his handwriting is often useless for commercial pur- 

 poses." And later, we read, "he has learnt to think the 

 processes of the mind dreary and unprofitable, to despise 

 knowledge, to think intellectual things priggish and tire- 

 some." Mr. Benson summarises his contentions in the 

 following words : — " believing intensely, as I do, in the 

 possibilities of intellectual education, I have tried to judge 

 the classical system as fairly as I can by results, and I 

 see that those results are in many cases so unsatisfactory 

 and so negative that experiments are urgently needed. 

 Simplification seems to me to be the one essential thing." 

 if a writer who was formerly a master at our greatest 

 public school finds it necessary to write in this plain 

 manner, it is evidently high time that scientific methods 

 were applied to obtain an answer to the question, what 

 constitutes a suitable public school education, and how can 

 it be secured ? 



A large audience assembled at the Borough Polytechnic 

 Institute on Monday evening, December 4, on the occasion 

 of the thirteenth annual meeting and distribution of prizes 

 and certificates. The chairman, Mr. Leonard Spicer, said 

 the work of the institute was going forward with great 

 strides, and he feared that, even allowing for the additions 

 to the building which had recently been made, the 

 governi rs would again be faced with the problem of know- 

 ing how to house the students. Although the word " poly- 

 technic " is still associated in many minds with recreation 

 and amusements, the chief work of institutes of this kind 

 lies in an educational and technical direction, 15,000/. a 

 year being the least sum upon which the work at the 

 Bon ugh can be carried on at present. Mr. C. T. Millis, 

 tin principal, read the annual report, which disclosed a 

 very satisfactory state of progress of the institute. An 

 experiment is being made in the direction of coordination 

 with Lndon County Council evening schools, and several 

 new < lasses have been started. A satisfactory feature of 

 the work of the institute is the readiness with which in- 

 tending students ask for and follow advice given as to 

 their courses of study, and the increasing number of 

 students who attend for two, three, and four years. After 

 tlie certificates, which numbered considerably more than 

 five hundred, and the numerous prizes were distributed by 

 Lady Lockyer, Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.B., delivered 

 i" address. In a few remarks, Prof. Perry claimed for 

 the polytechnic institutions of London that they were doing 

 .1 work that was unprecedented, and which our colonies 

 .ire p. v\ endeavouring to imitate. He had recently returned 

 from South Africa, where he found the people following 

 (he lead which London was now giving in the matter of 

 technical education. Voles of thanks were proposed and 

 seconded by Sir Philip Magnus and Mr. W. F. Sheppard. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Societv, November 16. — " The Electrical Con- 

 ductivilv of Dilute Solutions of Sulphuric Acid." Bv 

 W. C. 1). Whet ham, F.R.S. 



The equivalent conductivity of neutral salts when dis- 

 solved in water approaches a limiting value as the dilution 

 is increased; with solutions of acids and alkalies, however, 

 the equivalent conductivity reaches a maximum, and then 

 falls rapidly as the dilution is pushed farther. 



It has been supposed that this diminution of equivalent 

 conductivity at extreme dilutions is due to interaction 

 between the solute and the impurities which remain even 

 in re-distilled water. 



Kohlrausch has given evidence to show that the chief 



NO. 1885, VOL. 73] 



impurity in water carefully re-distilled is carbonic acid, 

 and Goodwin and Haskell conclude that the diminution 

 of equivalent conductivity of dilute acids is due to the 

 presence of carbon dioxide. 



In order to examine the real effect of carbonic acid and 

 other impurities on the conductivity of an acid solution, the 

 writer and his wife have carried out an investigation in 

 which the amount of impurity was varied, and the result 

 observed. The conductivity of dilute solutions of sulphuric 

 acid and its variation with concentration was determined 

 in four solvents: — (1) good quality re-distilled water; (2) 

 the same water to which a trace of carbon dioxide had 

 been added ; (3) the same water with a trace of potassium 

 chloride ; (4) the same water which had been freed as far 

 as possible from carbonic acid and other volatile impurities 

 by repeated boiling under diminished pressure. 



In each case the conductivity of the solvent was sub- 

 tracted from that of the solution. The results may be 

 summarised as follows : — ■ 



Within the limits of experimental error, the equivalent 

 conductivity of a dilute acid is not affected by boiling the 

 water under diminished pressure, though the conductivity 

 of the solvent is thereby much diminished. The equivalent 

 conductivity of the acid is also unaffected by the addition 

 of a small quantity of potassium chloride to the water, 

 though the conductivity of the solvent is thereby much 

 increased. But, by the addition of a little carbonic acid, 

 the equivalent conductivity of the sulphuric acid is 

 diminished appreciably. It is natural to conclude that, 

 while the presence of carbonic acid would produce a 

 diminution of equivalent conductivity of the same character 

 as that observed, it does not explain the total effect. 



"The Accurate Measurement of Ionic Velocities." By 

 Dr. R. B. Denison and Dr. B. D. Steele. Communicated 

 by Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., F.R.S. 



The authors have succeeded in devising an apparatus 

 with which it is possible to compare and measure the 

 velocities of the ions of a given salt without using gelatin 

 or other membrane during the actual experiment. This 

 enables the method of direct measurement of ionic velocities 

 to be extended to dilute solutions, and the results obtained 

 are free from any error due to electric endosmose. 



The transport number and the average absolute velocit) 

 of the ions of a number of salts have been measured at 

 dilutions down to one-fiftieth normal, and at two tempera- 

 tures, 18° C. and 25 C. It is easy to measure by this 

 method the transport number of the ions of some salts 

 which present great difficulty bv the analytical method of 

 Hittorf, e.g. KCIO,, KC10 4 , KBrO,. The following are 

 some of the numbers obtained for the anion transport 

 number: — KClii/10, 0-508; NaCln/10, 0618; KC1 n/50, 

 0-507 ; CaCl, n/50, 0587. The corresponding numbers 

 determined by the analytical method are 0508, 0-617, 



°-5°7> °-59- 



The values obtained by the authors for the avi rage 

 velocity of the ions in cm. sec. agree in a remarkable 

 manner with those calculated by Kohlrausch from con- 

 ductivity data, and form a striking confirmation of the 



ionic 1I1 \ of solutions. The values of the ionic velocit) 



of the potassium ion in KC1, KBr, and KI are. for 

 example, found to be: — at n/10, 0-000563, 0-000562, 

 0000564 cm. /sec. ; at n/50, 0-000606, 0-000598, 0000599 

 cm. /'sec. at 18° C. 



It is claimed that tin method is at least as accurate 

 as that of Hittorf, and an experiment can be performed 

 in about one-tenth of the time. It also gives a means of 

 comparing the degree of dissociation of salts containing 

 a common ion. 



Mineralogical Society, November 14 — Prof H. A. M er=, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — The determination of the 

 angle between the opt ic axes of a crystal in parallel 

 polarised light: Dr. J. W. Evans. The crystal plate is 

 rotated on the optic normal as axis, and the positions are 

 determined in which the relative retardation is nil. This 

 may be observed by using a gypsum plate or the double- 

 quartz wedge devised by the author. In the latter case 

 the positions in question are marked by the coincidence 

 of the bands in the two halves of the wedge. This gives 

 a very exact reading if strictly parallel light be employed. 

 — Mineralogical notes (diopside and albite) : Prof. W. J- 

 Lewis. A large tabular crystal of white diopside, a brown 



