February 22, 1906] 



NA TURE 



407 



An open competitive examination for not fewer than 

 twelve situations as assistant examiner in the Patent Office 

 will be held by the Civil Service Commissioners in April 

 next. The examination will commence on April 23, and 

 forms of application for admission to it are now ready for 

 issue, and may be obtained on request addressed by letter 

 to the secretary, Civil Service Commission, Burlington 

 Gardens, London, W. 



At the annual conference of the Labour Representation 

 Committee held on February 1(1 considerable discussion 

 took place on the following resolution : — " That this con- 

 ference condemns the educational policy of the Govern- 

 ment as laid down in the Act of 1902, and demands the 

 formulation of an educational programme based upon the 

 principle of equal opportunities for all, such programme 

 to aim at securing — (1) that immediate provision be made 

 for giving at least one free meal per day to all school 

 children; (2) that all grades of education shall be free 

 and State maintained ; (3) that all education shall be 

 free, and that secondary and technological education be 

 placed within the reach of every child by the granting of 

 bursaries or maintenance scholarships to all children whose 

 usefulness would be enhanced by such extended education ; 

 further, that adequate provision be made for children to 

 continue at school until the age of sixteen years, or until 

 such age as the university course begins ; (4) that provision 

 be made to continue the education of capable students 

 through the university courses ; (5) that the standard of 

 capacity shall be judged by work previously accomplished, 

 and not by competitive examination ; (6) that the education 

 in all State-supported schools shall be secular; (7) that all 

 State-supported schools shall be under the control of and 

 their affairs administered by the directly elected represent- 

 atives of the people ; (Si that each educational district 

 shall be required to train the number of pupil teachers 

 demanded by local needs, and for this purpose to establish 

 training colleges, preferably in connection with universities 

 or university colleges ; (9) that the cost of the above- 

 mentioned reforms shall be borne by the National Ex- 

 chequer out of revenue obtained through broadening the 

 basis of taxation, and by the restoration and democratic 

 administration of valuable misappropriated educational 

 charities and endowments." " This conference, therefore, 

 instructs the committee (or such body as may be appointed 

 for the purpose) to draft a Bill embodying the principle 

 of the said resolution, with a view to the Labour group 

 introducing it early into Parliament." A division having 

 been taken, the result was declared as follows : — 

 £17,000 votes for the resolution and 76,000 for its rejec- 

 tion. The resolution was therefore carried. In view of 

 the growing importance of the labour interest, it is satis- 

 factory and gratifying to find a large and representative 

 body of labour delegates appreciating the fact that the 

 future welfare of the country is closely bound up with the 

 provision of a rational system of national education. 



The publication on February 19 of a correspondence 

 between .Mr. A. H. D. Acland, formerly Minister of 

 Education, and Mr. Birrell, President of the Board of 

 Education, is gratifying evidence that at last something 

 is to be done in the direction of providing adequate 

 Exchequer grants for English secondary education. Mr. 

 Birrell, in reply to a series of suggestions made by Mr. 

 Acland, announces that provision is to be made in the 

 Estimates for this year for a considerable increase of the 

 Exchequer grants (1) in aid of secondary schools; (2) to 

 alleviate the burden now placed upon local authorities in 

 respect of the education of teachers ; and (3) to assist 

 further the building of training colleges for teachers by 

 the local authorities. How much higher education in 

 this country has suffered from the inadequate education 

 of boys in our secondary schools, which, through want 

 of funds, are too often under- and inefficiently staffed and 

 equipped, has been pointed out in these columns with 

 patient persistence. It is earnestly to be hoped that the 

 findings of the Royal Commission on Secondary Education 

 of ten years ago will now be considered seriously, and a 

 statesmanlike attempt made to secure for the pupils 

 in whose hands our future success as a manufacturing 

 nation lies, a rational and complete secondary education 

 which will enable them to take proper advantage of 



no. 1895, VOL - Th\ 



higher technical instruction. The promise that local 

 education authorities are to be helped — in a degree com- 

 mens urate with modern needs — in the pressing work of 

 supplying more training college accommodation is heartily 

 to be welcomed. The proportion of fully trained teachers 

 in our elementary schools is at present scandalously low ; 

 and this is due primarily to the fact that until quite 

 recently the only training colleges were those built — with 

 the aid of special State grants like that of 1S35 — by the 

 National and the British and Foreign School Societies, and 

 supported largely by Government grants on each teacher 

 in training. Though in recent years the work of day 

 training departments in connection with university colleges 

 has improved the facilities for the training of teachers, 

 much yet remains to be accomplished if English elementary 

 education is to take advantage of modern educational 

 enlightenment. Local education authorities, with their 

 knowledge of local needs, will be in a position, when helped 

 by the promised Treasury grants, to start the much needed 

 provision of more colleges where teachers may become 

 acquainted with the principles upon which successful teach- 

 ing must be based. In carrying out this important work, 

 the need of training for secondary school teachers must 

 not be forgotten. Most masters in secondary schools 

 begin their work knowing only what to teach, and nothing 

 of how to teach. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, January 25. — "On the Effect of High 

 Temperatures on Radium Emanation." By \Y. Makower. 

 Communicated by Prof. Arthur Schuster, F.R.S. 



(1) The activity of radium emanation in radio-active 

 equilibrium with its products A, B, and C, is changed by 

 heating above 1000 C. 



(2) The effect increases with the temperature up to 

 1200 O, and possibly beyond this temperature. 



(3) The effect increases with the time of heating for 

 about the first hour, but subsequent heating is without 

 effect. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences. February 12. — M. H. Poincare in 

 the chair. — Some properties of the a rays emitted by 

 radium and by bodies rendered active by radium : Henri 

 Becquerel. Some experiments of Prof. Rutherford 

 recently published have led the author to repeat some of 

 his earlier work on the deviation of the radium rays. In 

 the present paper full details are given of the strength 

 of the magnetic field, and the dimensions and arrangement 

 of the apparatus. As a result, M. Becquerel definitely 

 rejects the interpretation deduced by him from his earlier 

 experiments and the hypothesis of an increase in the radius 

 of curvature along the trajectory, and accepts the explan- 

 ation of Prof. Rutherford, all the measurements confirming 

 the existence of a reduced velocity for the a rays when 

 traversing a leaf of aluminium. There is no difference 

 in the behaviour of a rays arising from radium salts or 

 from bodies rendered active by the emanation. — The 

 internal pressure of fluids and the equation of Clausius : 

 E. H. Amagat. — Some lemmas relating to quasi-waves of 

 shock : P. Duhem. — Observation of the eclipse of the 

 moon of February 9, 1906, made at the Observatory 

 of Paris : P. Salet. Note on the time of contact, with 

 especial reference to the difference observed between the 

 photographic and visual observations in different eclipses. 

 — Observations of the Brooks comet (1906a) made at the 

 Observatory of Algiers with the 31-8 cm. equatorial : MM. 

 Rambaud and Sy. Observations on the apparent posi- 

 tions of the comet and the positions of the comparison 

 stars were made on January 31 and February 2. On 

 January 31 the comet had the appearance of a round 

 nebulosity with an eccentric nucleus, with a lustre compar- 

 able with' that of a star of the eleventh magnitude. — Observ- 

 ations of the sun made at the Observatory of Lyons with 

 the 16 cm. Brunner equatorial during the third quarter 

 of 1905 : J. Guillaume. Fifty-six days were available for 

 observations during the quarter, the results of which are 

 summarised in three tables showing the number of spots, 

 their distribution in latitude, and the distribution of the 

 faculae in latitude. — Integral functions : Ed. Maillet. — A 



