-NoveMBeEr 9, 1916} 
to become managers of factories, while others leave 
factories to undertake teaching and scientific inves- 
tigation. What is wanted is to bring sciznce and 
industry in closer relationship, and that is not best 
accomplished by erecting a barrier of trade conditions 
between the laboratory and the factory. 
Tue Departmental Committee appointed by the 
President of the Board of Education to report upon the 
question of juvenile education in relation to employ- 
ment after the war has considered it advisable, in 
_ view of the urgency of present circumstances, to issue 
an interim report recommending the Board to 
_ strengthen and extend, in co-operation with the Board 
of Trade, the system of juvenile employment bureaux 
and of local committees connected therewith. It em- 
phasises the need also of after-care committees for 
juveniles from fourteen to seventeen years of age. 
_ The report directs attention to the fact that 
_ the exigencies of the war have caused large numbers 
of children to be drafted into employments that cannot 
_ be permanent and into other unsuitable employments, 
and that extensive dislocation, seriously affecting the 
conditions of juvenile employment, will surely arise 
after the war. It is stated that about 500,000 children 
enter into employment éach year. To leave such chil- 
dren in the main without guidance is a serious dere- 
liction of public duty, and requires that public bodies 
shall take up this necessary and urgent work. Having 
regard to the evidence placed before the committee as 
to school attendance, it might have been expected that 
it would have added to its recommendations in its 
interim report, in view of the serious evils which are 
induced thereby, the urgent need for the abolition of 
“‘half-time,’”” so prevalent in Lancashire and York- 
shire, and of all exemptions which interfere with full- 
time attendance up to the age of fourteen. 
Two valuable handbooks, the like of which should 
be available in every area, dealing with the opportuni- 
ties of employment of boys and girls in the cities of 
Edinburgh and Liverpool have been prepared, the 
former in 1908, the latter in January in the present 
year. Their purpose is to inform parents, and also to 
be a guide for teachers, of the conditions and 
possibilities of employment for their children. 
The oversight of children up to the age of 
seventeen at least is clearly within the province of 
the local education authorities, and it is to be hoped 
that the committee may further recommend in_ its 
final report the institution of measures which will 
ensure that all such children shall have facilities for 
continuing their education, both special and general, 
for at least six to eight hours per week within the 
usual hours of work. 
AN interesting report of the proceedings of the 
Science Scholarships Committee of the Royal Com- 
mission for the Exhibition of 1851, dealing with the 
administration of the research scholarships since 
March, 1914, has just been issued, over the signature 
of Dr. Glazebrook, who has succeeded the late Sir 
Henry Roscoe as the chairman. The report deals 
with the science research scholars whose reports were 
examined in 1914-15, and includes scholars appointed 
so far back as 1909. Forty-five such scholars are 
reported upon, and it is gratifying to learn that out 
of this number the examiners were able to report 
that the work of thirty-nine of the scholars was 
satisfactory, and of seventeen of these eminently so 
as contributing results of high scientific value. It is 
interesting to observe that seven of the scholars took 
up industrial appointments on the conclusion of their 
period of research, whilst twenty-one entered upon 
university or scholastic appointments, and five entered 
the Government service to undertake specialised scien- 
NO. 2454, VOL. 98] 
NATURE 
203 
tific work in the various research stations. Ten. of 
the scholars entered directly into combatant service, . 
either in the Army or Navy. Having regard to the 
vital importance of science in the development of 
industry, which the war has revealed with startling 
clearness, it would be very satisfactory to find a much 
larger number of research scholars entering into in- 
dustry. The outbreak of the war rendered it impos- 
sible for scholars to proceed to German or other 
foreign laboratories, and other arrangements for their 
suitable employment in research were made. Many 
of the scholars elected to enter upon the prosecution’ 
of research bearing upon the requirements of the war. 
The committee had come to the conclusion to postpone 
all new appointments until after the war, but in 
deference to strong recommendations from the scien- 
tific advisers to the Government that it was desirable 
to maintain at the various university centres an 
“adequate supply of qualified men to assist the Govern- 
ment in important investigations, it was decided not 
only to continue the scholarships, but also to offer 
six special war bursaries to organic chemists, the 
holders to undertake research under the direction of 
the Royal Society War Committee. The report indi- 
cates the manner in which the services of the scholars 
are being utilised in the preparation of explosives, 
drugs, dyes, etc., and in devising methods for improv- 
ing war equipment or in combating disease. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
Lonpon. 
Challenger Society, October 25.—Prof. E. W. Mac- 
Bride in the chair.—G. H. Fowler: Physical conditions 
in the Kattegat. Seasonal variation was shown to 
depend on the sealing of the inner Baltic rivers by frost 
or their release by warmer weather.—C. T. Regan: 
Schmidt’s second report on eel investigations. The 
importance of Schmidt’s results in relation. to the 
problem of the origin of species was pointed out. 
Mathematical Society, November 2.—Annual general 
meeting.—Sir Joseph Larmor, retiring president, and 
afterwards Prof. H. M. Macdonald, newly elected 
president, in the chair.—Sir J. Larmor: (1) Presiden- 
tial address. (2) The Fourier harmonic analysis: its 
practical scope, with optical illustration.—Prof. W. H. 
Young: Multiple integration by parts and the second 
theorem of the mean.—E. H. Neville: Moving axes 
and their uses in the differential. geometry of Euclidean 
space.—J. Hodgkinson: Areas and conformal repre- 
sentation. 
Paris. 
Academy of Sciences, October 16.—M. Camille Jordan 
in the chair.—P. Vuillemin: Anomalies resulting from 
traumatism in plants.—R. Soreau: The_ graphical 
anamorphosis of a topographical surface.—C. Zenghelis_ 
and S. Horsch : The chemical action of sodium peroxide 
upon the oxides of carbon. Carbon dioxide forms 
sodium carbonate, with a marked rise in temperature, 
oxygen being evolved. Carbon monoxide forms 
sodium carbonate, the rise of temperature not being 
so great as with the dioxide, although the heat of 
combination is greater. It is suggested that a per- 
carbonate is the primary product of the reaction be- 
tween sodium peroxide and carbon dioxide.—L. 
Guitteau : The action of sulphur on baryta in presence 
of water. Evidence is put forward that an unstable 
barium pentasulphide, BaS,, can exist in solution; 
this decomposes into barium tetrasulphide, BaS,, 
barium thiosulphate, hydrogen sulphide, and sulphur.— 
P. Gaubert : The crystalline liquids obtained by evapora- 
