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442 
NATURE 
, 
[FEERUARY I, 1917 
speaker in .opposition was Prof. J. E., Holland (All 
Souls), who thought that council should have pro- 
ceeded by resolution rather than by Statute. On a 
division the preamble was Carried by 69 to 7. 
Tue KinG has consented to open the School of Orien- 
tal Studies, London Institution, on Friday morning, 
February 23. 
Dr. C. E. Moss, Botany School, Cambridge, has 
been appointed professor of botany in the South 
African School of Mines and Technology, Johannes- 
burg. 
Ar the request of Mr. Fisher, Prof. Gilbert Murray, 
professor of Greek, Oxford University, is undertaking 
temporary work at the Board of Education, taking the 
place of Mr. H. F. Heath, C.B., now Secretary of 
the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. 
Mr. Heath was head of the Universities Branch of 
the Board, and also Director of Special Inquiries and 
Reports. 
One of the sections of the report to the Prime 
Minister of the Speaker’s conference on electoral 
reform, which was issued on Tuesday, deals with 
university representation. The following recommenda- 
tions are made :—(a) The Universities of Oxford and 
Cambridge shall continue to return two members each ; 
the electorate shall be widened, and, in order to secure 
a proper representation of minorities, each voter shall 
be allowed to vote for one candidate only. (b) The 
Universities of Durham, Manchester, Birmingham, 
Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, Bristol, and the University 
of Wales shall receive representation; these universi- 
ties shall be grouped with the University of London 
so as to form a single constituency returning three 
members elected on the system of a single transferable 
vote. (c) The combined Universities of Edinburgh 
and St. Andrews and of Glasgow and Aberdeen shall 
also be grouped so as to form a single constituency 
returning three members under the system of a single 
transferable vote. 
obtaining of a degree shall be the basis for electoral 
qualification. 
Tue following resolutions were passed at the annual 
meeting of the Association of Science Teachers, held 
at the ‘University of London on January 6 2 That 
the science teaching in the schools should aim at de- 
veloping in the pupils (a) the power to observe accu- 
rately, to reason logically from observed facts, to frame 
hypotheses and to test these hypotheses by means of 
their own experiments; (b) a spirit of interest and 
inquiry with regard to the world around them and the 
universe at large, an interest in the growth of know- 
ledge in the past, and an appreciation of some of the 
wider problems with which science deals at present 
and which influence modern thought and modern 
activities. (2) That in order to accomplish the first of 
these aims a thorough course of experimental work in 
the laboratory is absolutely necessary, that such a 
course should be continuous, or nearly so, from the 
ages of twelve to sixteen, and that in this’course the 
pupils should, so far as possible, be encouraged to 
attack problems for themselves. (3) That as such a 
course by itself would necessarily cover a very narrow 
field, the work should be supplemented by teaching or 
by activities on the part of the pupils themselves, de- 
signed to bring them into contact with the wider 
issues indicated in (1. b). . (4) That if science is to play 
its due part in the curriculum as indicated in the fore- 
going resolutions lessons encouraging the children to 
observe the phenomena of Nature should be given from 
the earliest ages, while between the ages of twelve 
and sixteen not less than an average of one-seventh 
of the teaching hours of the school should be given to 
science. 
NO. 2466, vot. 98] 
(d) As regards all universities, the’ 
' dent, in the chair.—H. A. “Baker : 
. SOCIETIES AND Ss Giles 
LonpDon. 
Geological Society, January 10.—4Dr. A. Harker, presi- 
The Paleozoic plat- 
form beneath the London Basin and adjoining areas, 
and the disposition of the Mesozoic strata upon it. 
With an appendix by Dr. A. M. Davies. The author 
carries on the work of tracing the contours of the 
Palzozoic platform of S.E. England. By comparing 
these with the contours of the base of the Gault, the 
probable boundaries of the areas of the platform that 
were only submerged finally under the Gault sea are 
determined. The effects of post-Cretaceous tilting and 
warping are analysed. The successive Mesozoic over- 
laps on the platform, their probable areas, and the 
tectonics of the platform are discussed. Evidence is 
given for a second Charnian axis, proceeding south- 
eastwards through Norfolk and Suffollk, east of Kent, 
to the North of France.—-Dr. C. Lapworth: Balston 
Expedition to Peru: report on graptolites collected 
by Capt. J. A. Douglas, R.E. The graptolites were 
collected from the rocks of the Inambari district. The 
specimens are recorded as all occurring in the same 
locality, butit is not known whether they were obtained 
froma single zone. The lithology of the containing rocks 
and the mode of preservation of the graptolites are 
similar to those obtaining in the richest of graptolite- 
bearing strata of Britain, Europe, and North America. 
Taken as a whole, this graptolite fauna may best be 
compared with that of the Upper Arenig formation of 
Britain and its North American equivalents. The 
assemblage of graptolites discovered in Bolivia a few 
years ago by Dr. J. W. Evans corresponds closely with 
this Peruvian fauna, and was probably derived from 
the southward continuation of the same Andean grap- 
tolite-band. The Douglas collection of Peruvian 
graptolites greatly strengthens the inference that in 
Arenig-Llandeilo times there was open-sea communica- 
tion admitting of the circulation of sea-currents along 
some as yet undetermined line or lines, connecting 
these widely separated regions, which must have ex- 
tended across the equator and apparently throughout 
a length nearly equal to that of half the circumference 
of the globe. 
Linnean Society, January 18.—Sir David Prain, presi- 
dent, in the chair.—Prof. F. O. Bower: The morpho- 
logy of the sorus of ferns. The isolated sporangium 
(monangial sorus of Prantl) is frequent among primi- 
tive Filicales. The distal or marginal position of the 
sorus is prevalent in primitive types. The transition 
from a marginal to a superficial position has fre- 
quently occurred. Interpolation of sporangia has led 
to increased complexity of the sorus. In simple, 
gradate, and mixed sori thus constituted the receptacle 
varies: it is not a stable entity, but a result of 
| elaboration of the vein-ending on which the sporangia 
are seated. Superficial extension of sori occurs. 
Duplication of sori also occurs. Fusion of sori occurs 
progressively in various phyla. The fusion-sorus may 
disintegrate, but not necessarily along the original 
lines of fusion.’ The identity of the sorus may be lost 
by acrostichoid deyelopment, which has occurred along 
numerous lines of phvyletic advance. The more com- 
plex sori of ferns, as they are now seen, are referable 
along such lines of comparison to marginal or distal 
monangial «sori. Such a position of isolated or. few 
sporangia is found to prevail in plants of the Lower 
Devonian period. _The marginal placentation of seed- 
plants is probably more than a mere analogy. | 
Aristotelian Society, January 22.—Dr. H. Wildon 
Carr, president, in the chair.—C. E. M. Joad ; Monism 
in the light of recent developments in philosophy. — 
| monistic theory confuses two distinct propositions. A 
ee |. ee 
