362 
evenings are occupied in discussions on points con- 
nected with the work of some department to which 
a visit has been previously paid by the whole body 
of teachers under the guidance of the engineers of the 
company. The arrangement appears to have benefited 
both teachers and company, and seems worthy of a 
trial in this country. 
Pror. ARNOLD Watt, of Canterbury College, has 
published ‘A Plea for a System of Internal Examina- 
tion in the New Zealand University’? (Christchurch : 
Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd.; price 1s.). The Uni- 
versity at present possesses the unique disability that 
its examination papers are set and the answers marked 
in exactly the opposite part of the globe—in London— 
a plan originally introduced in order to enable the 
University to maintain a standard identical with that 
prevailing in Great Britain. The system has the dis- 
advantage as at present worked that the professors 
and teachers have no voice in the setting of the papers, 
nor are their opinions from personal knowledge of the 
candidates available for the guidance of those who 
mark the scripts. We hope Prof, Wall will succeed in 
introducing some reform which will bring teachers and 
examiners into closer touch with each other. . At 
the same time the system which he proposes has 
proved to be a failure in at least one university in 
this country, and it cannot be said that it is altogether 
satisfactory to have examinations conducted by a 
board in which both the external and internal 
examiners are in a minority, and the majority are 
teachers interested in other colleges or in other sub- 
jects than the one under examination. 
A copy of the calendar of the University of Sheffield 
for the session 1916-17 has been received. The 
arrangement of the contents follows the plan of pre- 
vious years, and detailed particulars are given of the 
courses of work arranged for students who desire to 
graduate in the various faculties of the University. 
It will be remembered that, as in the case of other of 
our more modern universities, there is at Sheffield a 
very comprehensive faculty of applied science, and the 
degrees of bachelor, master, and doctor may be gained 
both in the various branches of engineering and in 
metallurgy. There is a department of glass technology 
which provides facilities for systematic study and re- 
search in the manufacture and general technology of 
glass, and students who attend and qualify in a full- 
time course may obtain a diploma in the subject. The 
mining department of the University, under arrange- 
ment with the West Riding County Council, provides 
courses of extension lectures in mining science, and 
inspects and examines local mining classes in the 
southern portion of the West Riding. Similar in- 
stances could be multiplied of the successful efforts 
being made by the University authorities of Sheffield 
to keep in touch with the industries of the area served 
by the University, and to give local manufacturers the 
benefit of the assistance of expert advice on scientific 
matters. 
_ Reapers who have copies, which they may be will- 
ing to spare, of advanced text-books, models, speci- 
mens, and apparatus for the study of geology are 
invited to communicate with the British Prisoners of 
War Book Scheme (Educational) at the Board of 
Education, Whitehall, S.W. A request has just 
reached the committee of that war charity from Ruhle- 
ben for about fiftv books, ete., to enable the camp 
school there to establish a general course in dynamic 
geology and crystallography. The class will be con- 
ducted bv two of the prisoners, who are (to quote the 
letter) “‘prdfessionally engaged in geology”’; and 
more than a dozen students, mostly engineers, have 
already given in their 1e : 
NO. 2462, voL. 98] 
NATURE 
names. The following books } acter. 
| JANUARY 4, 1917 
are specially asked for, and they may serve as an 
indication of the scope of the classes at this camp and- 
of the type of book desired :—Haug, *‘Traité de Géo- 
logie’’; Launay, ‘Traité de tallogénie ’’; Hobbs, 
“Earthquakes”; Murray and Hjort, ‘The Depths of 
the Ocean”; Dana, ‘‘System of Mineralogy"; Groth, 
“Physikalische Krystallographie"’ (or any other good 
English book of the kind); Braune, “ Chemische 
Mineralogie’’; Rosenbusch, “ Microscopische Physio- 
graphie der Mineralien und Gesteine’’; Harker, 
‘Petrology for Students.” Among the requirements 
for the equipment of the classes are a microscope, 
slides for crystal, mineral, and rock specimens, crystal 
models, mineral powders and apparatus for blow-pipe 
analysis, and goniometers. A detailed list of the re- 
quirements may be obtained from the chairman of the 
Book Scheme, Mr. A. T. Davies, at the Board of 
Education, Whitehall, S.W., to whom all offers (ac-~ 
companied by a detailed list) should be addressed. 
Books in almost every subject are urgently needed to 
meet the steadily increasing demands which are daily 
being received from British prisoners interned in enemy 
or neutral countries. 
THE report on the work of the Department of Tech- 
nology of the City and Guilds of London Institute for 
the session 1915-16 has been published by Mr. John 
Murray. The work of the department has been carried 
on with some difmculty during the year. Half of the 
office staff has joined the Army, and the secretary of the 
department himself is serving in the Army in France. 
Whereas the number of classes registered in techno- 
logical subjects in the session 1913-14 was 5049, in 
1915-16 the number had fallen to 3961. The 
students in attendance in these two years numbered 
55,996 and 35,203 respectively. The report points out 
that recognition is due to the authorities and teachers 
of technical schools for the successful efforts which 
they have made to carry on the work of their classes 
uninterruptedly, notwithstanding the absence of mem- 
bers of their staffs on active service, and many other 
difficulties due to the war. Valuable helo has been 
given to the Ministry of Munitions by the technical 
schools in general, either by directly manufacturing 
articles and gauges for munitions of war, or by under: 
taking special work and training men in it. In con- 
nection with the examiners’ reports on the results of 
the examinations, it is again put on record that candi- 
dates frequently enter upon their technical instruction 
very poorly equipped in the matter of general elemen- 
tary education, ability to do simple calculations, or 
even to write simple English correctly. The institute 
goes so far as to endorse the ovinion of one examiner 
that ‘the standard of general education of the candi- 
dates is not improving.’’ The report concludes by 
insisting that, speaking generally, employers must 
change their attitude towards technical training, so 
that those who foster the education of their younger 
employees should become the great majority instead 
of the minority, and so that attendance at continuation 
schools and day schools, or, if this be too much to 
expect, at least at evening technical classes, should 
become the rule. Nothing short of a strong national 
movement in this direction can prove adequate to meet 
the requirements of the case. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
Lonpon. 
Aristotelian Society, December 18, 1916.—Dr. H. 
Wildon Carr, president, in the chair.—A. N. Whitehead ; 
The organisation of thought. Science is a thought 
organisation of experience. The most obvious aspect 
of the field of actual experience is its disorderly char- 
It is for each person a continuum, fragmentary, 
