292 
similar tide-ways, is affected by the complex action of the tides 
and consequent currents. 
It is much to be regretted that the economy or parsimony of 
the Government has caused a suspension for the present of the 
special survey of the currents, and has restricted the work to 
tidal observations, which, though of great value to the shipping 
interests, can only be considered as preliminary in regard to the 
investigation of the currents themselves, which lead to so many 
losses of property and life, and tend to high rates of insurance, 
injurious to the shipowners and merchants of Canada, and 
through them to those of an empire as a whole. 
The present report, in addition to what can be done with the 
insufficient grant allowed, in the matter of tide-gauges and tide- 
tables, has reference to the behaviour of the gigantic tides of the 
Bay of Fundy, when confined by the converging coasts at the 
head of the bay, and their relation to the smaller tides on the 
opposite side of the isthmus connecting Nova Scotia and New 
Brunswick at Bay Verte on the Gulf of St. Lawrence. These 
and the phenomena of the ‘‘ bore” at the head of the Bay of 
Fundy are here for the first time described, illustrated by maps 
and sections, and tabulated, and will be found of the greatest 
interest by all who desire information as to the exceptional 
tides of this region. J. W. Dawson. 
School Laboratory Plans. 
As one who has had the privilege of seeing Mr. Dymond’s 
excellent arrangement and outlay of money in his laboratory at 
Chelmsford, may I make a comment on his letter in your issue 
of July 13? I think the conditions of work in an average school 
laboratory show some points of difference from those in Mr. 
Dymond’s laboratory. Of course qualitative analysis is now 
confined to quite senior boys, who can be persuaded not to 
treat the subject as if they were working from a cookery book ; | 
but though owning no allegiance to the Science and Art 
Department, I believe that drawers and lockers are valuable, 
not only in relieving the general stock of the laboratory (very 
heavy for descriptive and quantitative work) of some smaller 
apparatus in constant use, but also in conferring a feeling of 
ownership, which induces some care and respect in a boy for 
his belongings. With snap-locks answering to one master key, 
and the lockers of each class bearing a label of a distinctive 
colour, they may be at once opened by the assistant before a 
class, so that there need be no keys to lose and no depredations 
on neighbouring lockers. Mr. Dymond’s objection to that 
most durable of woods—teak—or why it alone should be left in 
a dirty state, I do not understand. Admitting that in all but 
very elementary work some tuition in the way of lectures is 
necessary, a laboratory will generally possess a lecture room ; 
and where this is a separate room, I grudge the space usually 
given to a demonstrator’s table in the laboratory, because no 
large section of a practical class is ever doing the same experi- 
ment at the same time. Physics, again, is often involved in this 
question of arrangement in a school. since the two subjects may, | 
I think, with little detriment and great economy often have a 
common lecture room. Considering the prodigal waste of space 
often seen in laboratories, and the number now being built by 
public bodies, some further views on this subject ought to be of 
value. A. E. Munsy. 
Felsted School. 
Duties of Provincial Professors. 
NATURE 
THE article in your issue of July 13 upon ‘‘ The Duties of | 
Provincial Professors 
local university colleges. It insists none too strongly upon the 
* will be welcomed by all professors in | 
disadvantageous position they occupy with regard to the op- | 
portunity for the prosecution of original research, and the un- 
fortunate result of compelling our best students to complete 
their scientific education in Germany. 
It is not sufficiently recognised that the reputation of a uni- 
versity is advanced more by the contributions to science and 
literature produced by its staff than by the mere number of its 
students. Unfortunately, the staff of assistants in the university 
colleges is often totally inadequate to the work required, and 
the knowledge that their energies will be dissipated in elementary 
teaching, and no time given for continuing original investi- 
gation, is deterring men of really high academic distinction 
from accepting such appointments. The government of a local 
college is largely directed by business men, and the methods 
which ensure commercial success are hardly those best calcu- 
NO. 1552, VOL. 60] 
[JuLy 27, 1899 
lated to further the interests of true education. Salvation lies 
apparently in the fact of Government inspection ; the Govern- 
ment grant is only given when the education is of an advanced 
university type ; and, judging from the tenor of the Treasury 
Minute, ‘‘ University Colleges, Great Britain—Grant in Aid,” 
the fullest recognition is given to those colleges which offer 
Opportunities for advanced work and research and can show 
an adequate educational equipment. “© A PROFESSOR.” 
July 23. 
IN the articles on ‘* The Duties of Provincial Professors,” it 
is stated: ‘‘ In such cases students . . . may be called on to 
give evidence against their professors.” This is almost in- 
credible, but, to my great astonishment, I learnt quite lately 
that the only possible alteration in the statement consistent with 
truth would be the substitution of the words ‘* have been ” for 
‘may be.” The adoption of such a course must be fatal to 
good discipline in a college, and it leaves the members of the 
staff at the mercy of a few unruly and ignorant students whose 
disposition to learn may be small, though their capacity for 
agitation is great. From time to time students of this descrip- 
tion will be found in every college. Apart altogether from 
| these evils, there is another reason why the practice of allowing 
Students to give evidence against a professor is decidedly 
objectionable ; and that is, the lay members of the governing 
body of a provincial college are not likely to fully understand 
how incompetent the average pass student is to form an opinion 
as to the soundness of the teaching he receives. 
In the interests, not merely of the provincial colleges, but of 
higher education throughout the country, it is desirable that 
professors should not, for any except very grave reasons, and 
then only after a perfectly fair trial, be forced to resign their 
offices. 12% 
THE VREDE EB CTURE: 
THE WAVE THEORY OF LIGHT: ITS INFLUENCE 
ON MODERN PHysICS. 
UR era is distinguished from preceding ages by 
wonderful utilisation of natural forces ; man, that 
| weak and defenceless being, has been enabled by his 
genius to acquire an extraordinary power, and to bend to 
_his use those subtle yet dreadful agents whose very 
existence was unknown to our ancestors. This marvel- 
lous increase of his material power in modern times is 
due cnly to the patient and profound study of natural 
phenomena, to the exact knowledge of the laws that 
governed them, and to the skilful combining of their 
effects. But what is peculiarly instructive is the dispro- 
portion between the primitive phenomenon and the 
greatness of the effects which industry has drawn from 
it. Thus, those formidable engines, based on electricity 
or steam, grew neither from lightning nor the volcano ; 
they had their birth from scarcely perceptible phenomena 
which would have remained for ever hidden from the 
| vulgar eye, but that penetrating observers were able to 
recognise and appreciate. This humble origin of most 
of the great discoveries which are to-day a benefit to the 
1 Besides the interest presented by a glance on the progress and the 
influence of optical science, this lecture offers the conclusions of a careful 
study on Newton's treatise of optics. It will be seen that the thought of 
the great physicist has been singularly altered by a sort of legendary inter- 
pretation developed in the elementary treatises where the emission-theory is 
expounded. In order to make the theory of fits clearer, the commentators 
have imagined to materialise the luminous molecule under the form of a 
rotating arrow offering now its head, now its side. This mode of exposi- 
tion has contributed to lead to the belief that the whole emission-theory 
was comprehended in this rather childish image. q 
Nowhere in his treatise does Newton give a mechanical illustration of 
the luminous molecule : be confines himself to the description of facts, and 
| sums them up in an empirical statement without any hypothetical explan- 
ation. Moreover, he denies the opinion that he raises any theory, though 
he holds occasionally as very probable the intervention of the waves excited 
in the ether. 7 
So that the general impression resulting from the reading of the treatise 
and above all of the ‘“‘ queries” in the 3rd Book, is the following : Newton, far 
from being the adversary of the Cartesian system, as he is commonly repre- 
sented, looks, on the contrary, very favourably at the principles of this 
system. Struck by the resources which the undulatory hypothesis would 
offer for the explanation of the luminous phenomena, he would have adopted 
it, if the grave objection concerning the rectilinear propagation of light 
(only recently solved by Fresnel) had not prevented him. 
