[OcTOBER 5, 1899 
564 NATURE 
WE learn from a memorandum that has just reached us that 
the number of students who attended the City and Guilds of 
London Institute Central Technical College last session was 
245. Of these 220 were following the Diploma Course, eighty- 
eight attending the First Year Course, seventy-eight the second, 
and fifty-seven the third. Twenty-five other students were 
either engaged in research work or were following a special 
course. During the past year the council has conferred the 
diploma of Fellowship of the City and Guilds of London 
Institute upon two of the past students: Mr. W. J. Pope and 
Mr. A. E. Childs. Siemens Medals were awarded to Mr. F. E. 
Whittle and Mr. F. C. Hounsfield. Mr. T. M. Lowry and Mr. 
E. C. Jee, were successful in gaining the D.Sc. degree of the 
University of London for research work done in the Chemical 
Department of the College. Twelve students of the College 
were successful in passing the intermediate B.Sc. examination of 
the London University. In addition to the students admitted 
on the results of the Matriculation examination, several others 
have been admitted to special courses of instruction, and the 
number in the College at the commencement of the new session 
will be about 260. Those in special courses number 20. As 
built the College was intended to accommodate only 200 students. 
To make adequate provision for Electrical Engineering, a 
large portion of the basement floor in the adjoining new build- 
ing of the School of Art Needlework is to be used. The suite 
of rooms now occupied by the Technological Examinations 
Department will also become available for teaching purposes, as 
“more extensive quarters are to be found for the Examinations 
Department in the new building. In connection with this 
institution, our readers may be referred to the address delivered 
to the students by Sir Andrew Noble, K.C.B., F.R.S., on 
~ Tuesday last (see p. 551 of the present issue). 
WHEN the history of education in rural districts comes to be 
written, the school of science established by the united efforts of 
~the Countess of Warwick and Prof. } Meldola, at Bigods, near Dun. 
mow, in Essex, will be given an important place in it. The 
claims of science to form a part of every national system of 
education are becoming more and more recognised in our cities, 
jbut the forward movement has not been much felt in rural 
districts, hence the school at Bigods is of the nature of an 
experiment, and much depends upon the success attained. The 
- curriculum followed in the school meets the requirements of 
modern education in a most efficient way. The school is a con- 
tinuation or secondary one in which the ordinary ‘‘ humani- 
tarian”’ subjects are by no means neglected, but are carried to 
higher stages. Modern languages are included, and grammar, 
geography and history find their places. But the noteworthy 
characteristic of the school lies in the fact that students devote 
, fifteen hours a week to science, which is not taught in the old- 
fashioned way, by means of books and blackboard and chalk, 
but by real work and by observations carried on by the pupils 
themselves in the laboratories and in the fields. The reasoning 
faculty is developed by scientific methods at the very commence- 
ment of the pupil’s education at the school ; and students who stay 
at Bigods for three or four years will have acquired knowledge 
which will be of the highest value in after life, whether they 
pass into an agricultural college or enter at once into rural or 
other industries. For the sake of British agriculture, it is to be 
hoped that parents in East Anglia will appreciate the efforts 
‘being made at Bigods to provide a system of education which 
-will assist both individual and national progress. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
Paris. 
Academy of Sciences, September 25.—M. Maurice Lévy 
in the chair.—Studies on trimethylene, by M. Berthelot. Pre- 
liminary experiments were made on the preparation of tri- 
methylene in the pure state, free from propylene, and the gas 
obtained, believed to be pure, was characterised by its slow re- 
action with bromine. Propy! alcohol dropped upon hot zinc 
chloride gives propylene mixed with hydrogen and propane, 
but almost free from trimethylene ; isopropyl alcohol behaves 
similarly, and the substitution of strong sulphuric acid for the 
zinc chloride does not result in the formation of any trimethyl- 
ene.—On the Neomylodon, by M. Albert Gaudry. An account 
of the discovery of fossil remains in a cave in Terra del 
Fuego by Dr. Otto Nordenskjéid, the chief being the 
NO. 1562, VOL. 60] 
skin of a large animal resembling the Mylodon, and 
which has been named Neomylodon by M. Ameghino.— 
An account of the ceremony organised at Como to celebrate the 
discovery of the galvanic battery by Volta.—Observations of the 
sun made at the Observatory of Lyons with the 16 cm. Brunner 
equatorial during the first quarter of 1899, by M. J. Guillaume. 
The results are expressed in three tables giving the number of 
spots, their distribution in latitude, and the distribution in 
latitude of the facule.—A comparison of the times obtained for 
the contacts of partial eclipses of the sun by direct observation 
and by measurements of the lengths of common chord, by M. 
Ch. André.—On fixed transformation points, .by M. H. Le 
Chatelier —On the diurnal variation of atmospheric elec- 
tricity, by M. A. B. Chauveau. From the results of observ- 
ations made at the summit of the Eifel Tower, it is found 
that the true law of variation is given by a simple oscil- 
lation with a maximum in the day time, and a very con- 
stant minimum at 4 to § a.m. The more complicated 
curve obtained by observations in an ordinary building are 
probably due to the influence of water vapour. —On a particular 
mode of reproduction of appendices of insects in course of 
regeneration after artificial section, by M. Edmond Bordage.— 
On the lateral cephalic organs in Glomeris, by M. N. de 
Zograf.—Some phenomena of cellular disorganisation, by M. 
Vital Boulet. The asmotic pressure in the cells of a leaf severed 
from the plant and left in the same water as that in which the 
original plant was growing was found to regularly increase from 
2°2 on the first day to over 670 on the twenty-second day.—On 
the formation of secreting canals in the seeds of certain species 
of Garcinia and Allanblackia, by M. Edouard Heckel. 
CONTENTS. 
Berthelot’s Agricultural Chemistry. By R. W. .. 541 
Our Book Shelf :— 
‘Bird Life in an Arctic Spring ; the Diaries of Dan 
Meinertzhagen and R. P. Hornby.”"—R. L. . . . 542 
Abbott and Key: ‘‘ Progressive Lessons in Science” 543 
Rauh: ‘De la Methode dans la Payee des 
Sentiments.”—A, E. T. . 543 
Lebon : ‘‘ Histoire Abrégée de l’Astronomie ARS e545 
Letters to the Editor :— 
The Intake of Carbon Dioxide—a Correction.— 
Dr. Horace: BrownwbeRsS. .'1.) 2s aces ay 
Geological Time.—Rev. O. Fisher . . 544 
The Terrestrial Gegenschein.—Prof. S. Newcomb 544 
The Cause of Undercurrents.—Admiral S. Makaroff 544 
Movement of Sea-Gulls with a Coming Change of 
Weather.—W. F. Sinclair . . 545 
On the Use of the Fahrenheit Scale for Observations 
on Sea Temperatures.—William S. Bruce . . 545 
Cave Shelters and the Aborigines of Tasmania.—H. 
Ling Roth . . 545 
The Darjeeling Disaster.—Prof, de Milne, LESRIS 545 
Lectures at the Royal Victoria Hall. —Dr. W. oh 
Russell, F{RiS3 ie 68 545 
H Vole.—James Dallas . ae S46 
| The Investigation of the Malarial Parasite... . 546 
MrvPercy'S: Pilcher sere... 2 eeueeeemyaO 
Notes. (J//lustrated.) . . Se PE Sees ak 8 Gy. (S) 
Our Astronomical Column :— 
Astronomical Occurrences in October . ..... . 55E 
Comet. H-Giacobini@eeeemeneniiis| « - - Smee mm Sim 
Mwo New Variable}Starsimpmmey ce)... te oe 5 5u 
The Melbourne Observatory . . wis Bieeuuth u SG 
The Best Education for Engineers, ‘By Sir Andrew 
Noble; K.C-B_ RIS tamemaion:. .. . centuEcmismSeS SIL 
The British Association :— 
Section H.—Anthropology.—Opening Address by C. 
H. Read, President of the Section . 554 
Section I. — Physiology. (Ldlustrated. )—Opening Ad- 
dress by J. N. Langley, F.R.S., President of the 
Section ~ . 557 
American Association for ‘the Advancement ‘of 
Science .. Se e502) 
University and Educational ‘Intelligence oi gaecl ef 08) 
| Societies and Academiecsiearmerem: «: » . slmeureimenisi 504: 
| 
