AucustT 17, 1899] 
with that of other animals or plants. By this means the Library 
Commissioners are making the collection of real service in ele- 
mentary education. 
Tue Scottish Education Department has formulated a scheme 
whereby an agricultural college is to be instituted, to take over 
the functions of the agricultural department of the Glasgow and 
West of Scotland Technical College and the Kilmarnock 
Dairy School. The special grant of 2000/. voted for agri- 
cultural education in Scotland, and now administered by the 
Scotch Education Department, has been distributed in various 
amounts to four institutions, two being those mentioned and 
the two others the Edinburgh School of Rural Economy and 
the Agricultural Department of Aberdeen University. It has, 
however, long been felt that the grants to these institutions 
ought to be reinforced by contributions from local authorities 
in order to place the institutions in a position to exercise a 
more decided influence upon the progress’ of agriculture in 
Scotland than has yet been possible. Several County Councils 
having recently promised support, in some cases of a very 
substantial kind, to an independent agricultural college in the 
West of Scotland, the Scotch Education Department prepared 
a scheme for such an institution, and it has been accepted by 
the various bodies concerned. The college will give facilities 
for the most thorough and highly developed instruction in 
agriculture to those students who are able to devote a con- 
siderable time to this study, and should at the same time be a 
means of bringing home to the agricultural population of the 
districts concerned the latest results of agricultural research. 
Tue degree of Doctor of Philosophy was conferred in 1898 
upon 224 candidates by twenty-three universities in the United 
States. Ananalysis of the statistics referring to these doctorates 
is given in Scéence, together with the names of those who re- 
ceived the degree in science, and the titles of their theses. Of 
the 224 degrees, 72 were in the humanities (under which are 
included philology, grammar, literature and philosophy), 37 
were in history and economics, and 115 in the sciences. Six 
universities, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Yale, Chicago, Harvard 
and Pennsylvania, conferred 169 degrees—more than three 
times as many as all the other United States universities com- 
bined. Columbia gave this year decidedly the largest number 
of degrees in the sciences, while Harvard is the only one of 
these universities in which the degrees in the humanities were 
more numerous than in the sciences. The distribution of 
students among the different sciences was as follows :— 
Chemistry, 32; psychology, 15 ; mathematics, 13 ; botany, II ; 
zoology, 11 ; physics, 7; education, 5 ; geology, 5 ; sociology, 
5; palzontology, 4; astronomy, 2; mineralogy, 2; physiology, 
1; bacteriology, 1; meteorology, 1. It will be noticed that 
chemistry leads very decidedly. While no definite conclusion 
can be drawn from the results, it may be noted that at Johns 
Hopkins more than half the scientific degrees are given in 
chemistry. This science also leads at Yale and Harvard. 
Psychology and education are especially strong at Columbia. 
Chicago stands first in zoology and in physiology. 
THE Technical Instruction Committee of the Oxfordshire 
County Council have presented their annual report on the work 
of the schools and institutions aided by them during the past 
year. The Committee has been recognised by the Department 
of Science and Art as the organisation responsible for science 
and art instruction within its area. No grants will therefore be 
made by the Department to the managers of new schools and 
classes unless they are acting in unison with the Committee. 
The managers of all the schools and classes in the county which 
are receiving Science and Art grants have agreed tocome within 
the new organisation. With regard to rural agricultural instruc- 
tion, the Committee report that at the Chipping Norton Agri- 
culture Class, under Mr. W. Warne, there were seventy-six 
students, of an average age of 39°5. They were factory hands, 
labourers, mechanics and small tradesmen, who all cultivated 
allotments. One thousand and twenty attendances were made 
at twenty-four meetings. The subject of the course was ‘‘ Insects 
as friends and foes to agriculture.” To illustrate how agri- 
culture is being gradually developed by the work of the science 
lecturers, the Committee report that from advice given by Mr. 
Stewart, at Minster Lovell, in his lectures, an acre of straw- 
berries was planted. This year a much larger area was laid 
down there. It is hoped that an industry in soft fruit is now 
started in that locality. At the same place a fruit farm of three 
NO. 1555, VOL. 60] 
NATURE 383 
acres was laid out two years ago on Mr. Stewart’s advice. It 
was so successful that now twelve acres are laid out. At Stoke 
Row, eight tons of filberts last year were saved by the treatment 
given to the nut weevil, and last year the currant bushes were 
afflicted by the currant mite, but spraying the bushes enabled 
four tons to be marketed. Codlin moth and apple-blossom 
weevil attacked the apple trees, but Mr. Stewart’s treatment 
saved the trees. When agriculturists are brought in this way to 
see the practical side of scientific knowledge they begin to 
understand the value of the science of agriculture. 
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 
American Journal of Science, July.—Velocity of electric 
waves in air, by G. V. Maclean. The author describes an 
elementary type of coherer suitable for the Hertzian experiment 
of determining wave-lengths from nodes produced by metallic 
reflection. It consists of two globules of platinum, 1 mm. in 
diameter, attached to the ends of two platinum wires forming 
spirals about two iron terminals which run through the centre 
of the two brass caps of a glass tube 8°5 cm. long. The 
globules can be adjusted to any small distance from each other. 
The velocity of propagation, determined from the wave-length 
and the period of oscillation, is 2°991 x 10! cm. per second, or 
practically the same as along wires.—Spiral fulgurite from Wis- 
consin, by W. H. Hobbs. A lightning tube forming a perfect 
dextrorotary helix has recently been presented to the geological 
collection of the University of Wisconsin. It was found em- 
bedded in a sand knoll about ten feet high, at a distance of five 
feet below the surface. The tube is as thick as a man’s thumb, 
and five inches long. The fulgurite from Waterville, Maine, 
described by Bayley in 1892, also shows a dextrorotary struc- 
ture. The author suggests that this twist is somehow connected 
with the electrical conditions under which the tubes were pro- 
duced, and guesses at an influence of the earth’s magnetic field 
upon the path of the lightning.—The mouth of Grand River, 
by E. H. Mudge. The mouth dealt with is not the present 
Grand Haven, but another point seventy miles inland from the 
shores of Lake Michigan, which was the termination of the old 
river valley, At one time a great glacial stream, three-fourths 
of a mile in width, flowed across the peninsula from Lake Sagi- 
naw to Lake Chicago. This stream has been called the Pewamo 
outlet. The author describes its course and the river-mouth 
deposits about the old mouth.—Electrical measurements, by H. 
A. Rowland and T. D. Penniman. The authors have tested six 
out of the thirty different methods of measuring self-induction 
and capacity indicated by Rowland. The methods for the com- 
parison of the two self-inductions, or a self-induction and a 
capacity, are independent of the period of the alternating current 
used, and an accuracy of I in 10,000 can be attained.—Reflec- 
tion of Hertzian waves at the ends of parallel wires, by L. de 
Forest. The author uses a compromise between the Lecher and 
the Blondlot wire systems, and investigates the relation between 
the change of phase in reflection from bare ends of various 
shapes, and the frequency. 
Wiedemann’s Annalen der Physik und Chemie, No. 6.— 
Observation of fringes in the development of Daguerre plates 
with wedge-shaped silver iodide layers, by O. Wiener. A silver 
plate was iodised in two wedge-shaped layers by laying it on 
a glass tube during exposure to the iodine vapour, the layer 
thus being made to increase in thickness from the line of contact 
outwards. A spectrum with the slit normal to the lines of equal 
thickness was then photographed on the plate, and it was found 
that the sensitiveness varied periodically with the thickness, 
maxima occurring whenever the surface coincided with a ventral 
segment of the electrical force, produced by reflection at the 
boundary dividing the iodide from the metallic silver.—Experi- 
ments on certain flow formations, by K. Mack. Deals with the 
deformations of fungoid flow structures by gravitation, and the 
deformation of horizontal layers of liquid by ascending fungoid 
structures.—Influence of gaseous pressure upon electric currents 
due to Roéntgen rays, by W. Hillers. Near the pressure at 
which the gaseous resistance reaches a maximum, the current 
intensity varies as the square root of the pressure.—An electro- 
lytic current interrupter, by A. Wehnelt. This is a reprint of 
the author’s original paper from the Elektrotechnische Zeitschrift. 
—Action of the Wehnelt interrupter, by H. T. Simon. The 
author formulates what he claims to be a complete mathematical 
