 NoveMBER 16, 1916] 
favour of reform. Sir Ronald Ross urges that early 
education should be wide rather than deep, and sug- 
gests a long list of outdoor qualifications, arts, lan- 
guages, and knowledges which should be the possession 
of an ideally trained young man of twenty. He refers 
to many amazing arguments which have been urged 
in favour of grammatical education (e.g. that to it is 
due the success of voluntary recruiting in Britain), and 
from the discussion draws the conclusions :—(1) That 
the first elements of Greek and Latin are necessary for 
every intellectual employment; (2) that a complete 
classical education is necessary for very few intellectual 
occupations; (3) that an exclusive classical education is 
insufficient for any such occupation; (4) that a know- 
ledge of one or more modern languages is more useful 
than, and just as educative as, similar knowledge of 
a dead language; and (5) that a man who is entirely 
ignorant of science can scarcely be considered educated, 
. Computsory Greek in university entrance examina- 
tions received little support at the meeting of the 
Hellenic Society on Tuesday, when the subject of 
“The Future of Hellenic Studies’? was under dis- 
cussion. “Dr. Walter Leaf, who was in the chair, 
declared himself against this condition of entrance at 
Oxford and Cambridge, which are the only two 
Universities where Greek is made compulsory for all 
students; and this was also the view of most of the 
speakers who followed him. The discussion was in- 
tended to exhibit the claims of classical studies to con- 
tinued attention as against the demands made by the 
advocates of the natural sciences at a meeting held last 
May, but the impression received from most of the 
speakers was that which Balak expressed after he had 
asked Balaam to assist him in stopping the advance 
of the Israelites: ‘tI called thee to curse mine 
enemies, and behold thou hast altogether blessed them 
these three times.” Prof, Conway stated that Greek 
need not be essential in preparatory schools or in the 
public schools, and could be studied very successfully 
by interested students after entering the university. 
He rightly pointed out that boys working for scholar- 
ships are not given time for science in preparatory 
schools or opportunity in public schools. Other 
speakers agreed that the knowledge of classical lan- 
guages acquired by most pupils was insufficient to 
enable authors to be read with intelligence, and that 
from the point of view of influence upon lifé and 
character it would be better to devote time to the 
reading of translations. There was, indeed, little said 
at the meeting with which reasonable advocates of 
scientific studies would be disposed to differ, and 
nothing upon which a conflict between classics and 
science could be based. What is wanted most of all 
is joint action to change the attitude of the public 
in general towards all knowledge of which no direct 
commercial advantage can be seen. When this has 
been accomplished, and obscurantists of all kinds have 
been removed, it will be possible to contemplate 
courses of study apart from traditional or other in- 
terests, and to construct them with the sole aim of 
promoting the development of all that is best in the 
body and mind of the pupil. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
Lonpon. 
Royal Society, November 2.—Sir J. J. Thomson, 
president, in the chair.—Sir William Crookes: The 
photographic spectra of meteorites. Thirty rare earthy 
meteorites, mostly acquired through the courtesy of 
the British Museum Trustees, have been examined. 
The examination has revealed the presence of un- 
expectedly large traces of chromium in all the speci- 
mens, a condition quite different from that found in 
NO. 2455, VOL. 98] 
NATURE 
dorsal 
221 
the siderites or meteoritic irons, where chromium is 
practically absent. The proportion between chromium’ 
and nickel remains constant in twenty-six out of the 
thirty .aerolites, and is clearly shown in the photo- 
graphs. In three only nickel is almost absent. From 
the experience gained it has been possible to make a 
mixture containing known quantities of nickel and 
chromium, which, with the addition of iron, produces 
a spectrum in the neighbourhood of the chromium 
group that is practically identical with that produced 
by the aerolite Aubres.—Prof H. Lamb: Waves in an 
elastic plate. The theory of waves in an infinitely long 
cylindrical rod was discussed by Pochhammer in 1876. 
The somewhat simpler problem of two-dimensional 
waves in a solid bounded by parallel planes was con- 
sidered by Lord Rayleigh and by the author in 1880. 
The main object in these investigations was to verify, 
or to ascertain corrections to, the ordinary theory of 
the vibrations of thin rods or plates, and the wave- 
length was accordingly assumed to be great in com- 
parison with the thickness. It occurred to the author 
some time ago that a further examination of the two- 
dimensional problem was desirable for more than one 
reason. The period-equation is, however, at first sight 
rather intractable, and it is only recently that a method 
of dealing with it has suggested itself. The result is 
to give a fairly complete view of the more important 
modes of vibration, together with indications as to the 
character of the higher modes which are of less in- 
terest.—Prof. W. H. Young: Multiple integrals. This 
note gives certain results and formulz fundamental in 
the theory of multiple integration with respect to a 
function g(x, y,...- y of bounded variation (integrator). 
For simplicity the discussion is confined to two vari- 
ables. The integrator may, without loss of generality, 
be taken to be a positive monotonely monotone ascend- 
ing function—that is, one the monotone increase of 
which with respect to either of the variables has an 
increasing rate as the other variable increases.—Prof. 
W. H. Young: The order of magnitude of the co- 
efficients of a Fourier series—T. C. Sutton: A 
determination of the heat of vaporisation of water at 
100° C, and one atmosphere pressure in terms of the 
mean calorie.—G. H. Livens: The mechanical rela- 
tions of the energy of magnetisation. The usual 
mathematical formulation of the relations of the mag- 
netic field leads to the same expression, viz. «4H?/8z, 
for the density of the energy associated with the field, 
whether this arises from rigid magnets or from steady 
currents; but as in the first case the energy is treated 
as potential energy, and in the second as kinetic 
energy, the apparently consistent result in the two 
cases really involves a discrepancy. In the present 
paper a new formulation of the relations is given 
which overcomes the difficulty of interpretation in the 
two cases. The fundamental change made in the 
work consists in the choice of the magnetic induction 
vector B, instead of the more usual magnetic force H, 
to denote the conditions in the ather. 
Zoological Society, October 24.—Dr. A. Smith Wood- 
ward, vice-president, in the chair.—S. Maulik ; Crypto- 
stome beetles in the collection of the Cambridge Uni- 
versity Museum. The collection is a representative 
one, containing species from all parts of the world. 
Three new genera, one new subgenus, and two new 
species are described.—H. G. Newth:; Investigations 
into the early development of the Echinoderm Cucu- 
maria. ‘The larval life is very short as compared with 
that of the Auricularia. It takes place at the expense 
of the yolk, and is complete in about five days. Forma- 
tion of the ccelomic vesicles occurs by the bending and 
constriction of the archenteton. No separate anterior 
coelom appears. The hydroccele ring closes in the left 
interradius, and the radial canals and five 
