December 15, 1898J 



NA TURE 



165 



Mr. Arthur Evans supplemented this report with a paper on the 

 place of the Glastonbury Lake Village in British archiieology. 

 He insisted upon the homogeneous character of the culture 

 here revealed, and showed that it belonged entirely to the pre- 

 Konian period and the first and second centuries B.C. It repre- 

 sented a distinct phase of a form of culture introduced into 

 Britain by the invading Gaulish tribes. The glass-working 

 industry of Glastonbury was probably derived, by the same over- 

 land route as various forms of vases, safety-pins, and other 

 relics, from the old Venetian regionj where this art flourished 

 already in prehistoric times. The name Glastonbury itself was 

 a translation of the Celtic Vnis-witrin— Glass Island. 



Prof. Boyd Dawkins said that the inhaliitants of that village 

 had most probably introduced both glass-making and lead- 

 mining. He had no doubt that Mr. Arthur Evans' .s derivation 

 was correct. Sir John Evans thought that the mere fact of the 

 dwellings being in that unsuitable position pointed to the prob- 

 ability that the constructors were lineally connected with other 

 lake dwellers on the continent of Europe. That the occupation 

 of the village ceased in the first century after Christ seemed 

 probable, because of the general absence of Roman ware. 



Prof. W. M. Flinders Petrie then read a paper on traces of 

 primitive Terrainare settlements in the modern towns of North 

 Italy. He showed that recent clearing at Castellaro di Fonta- 

 nellato had disclosed the fact that the marsh towns of North 

 Italy in the Bronze age were arranged on a strictly square 

 system of crossing roads, and that this type of town was per- 

 petuated in the regular plan of the camps of the Roman army. 

 On examining the present plans of the cities of Lombardy, the 

 outline of the original square settlements could be plainly 

 traced. Replying to the objection that the existence of square 

 forms of towns did not itself prove that those forms were of 

 pre- Roman date, Prof. Petrie .said that that was not really his 

 argument ; granting or assuming the pre-Roman date, the square 

 forms of the towns would indicate the presence of Terrarnare 

 settlements. 



Mr. P. F. S. Amery then exhibited, with explanatory remarks 

 therron, a series of lantern slides showing the megalithic 

 monuments of D.irtmoor, in anticipation of the Devonshire 

 excursion arranged in connection with the Bristol meeting. 



The Report of the Committee on the Excavations at Silchester 

 stated that the area selected for excavation in 1897 included two 

 insula (XVII. and XVIII.), extending from insula III. (which 

 was excavated in 1 89 1) to the south gate, and lying on the west 

 side of the main street through the city from north to south. It 

 is proposed during the current year to excavate the two insid<e 

 south of insitke XV. and XVI. (excavated in 1890), and a tri- 

 angular piece of ground to the south of them, almost as large as 

 a third insula. When the examination of this area is com- 

 pleted, considerably more than half the city will have been 

 systematically excavated and planned. 



Mi.ss Nina Layard reported the discovery of human skeletons 

 walled up in the remains of the Black Friars' monastery at 

 Ipswich. 



Mr. T. W. Shore read a paper on traces of early Kentish 

 migrations. He identified such early Kentish colonies by 

 Jutish or Kentish place-names under their present or more 

 ancient form ; by other place-names derived from the Jutish hero 

 Hengest ; by survival of gavelkind and customs of land tenure 

 analogous to those of Kent, and of kindred customs. 



Papers on the folk-lore of Guernsey, by the late Mrs. Murray- 

 Aynsley, and on myths of insect life, by Mr. S. Clement 

 Southam, were taken as read ; and the session closed with a 

 vote of thanks for the use of the Park Place Schoolroom, and 

 with the exhibition in the Committee-room, by Mr. H. Bolton, 

 of human relics from the recently discovered caves at Uphill. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



A LETTER written by the Public Orator, Dr. Sandys, thank- 

 ing Mrs. John Hopkinson and other members of her family for 

 their munificent benefaction of 5000/. to the University of Cam- 

 bridge, to be applied to the building of a memorial of the late 

 Dr. John Hopkinson and Mr. J. G. Hopkinson, was read by 

 Dr. Sandys in the Senate House, and approved by Grace of the 

 Senate, on November 10. It has since been engrossed on 

 parchment and presented to Mrs. Hopkinson. 



NO. 1520, VOL. 59] 



Science announces that the late Edward Austin, of Boston, 

 has given by his will 1,100,000 dollars for public purposes; 

 500,000 dollars is left to Harvard University, 400,000 dollars 

 to the Mas.sachu5etts Institute of Technology, 30,000 dollars to 

 Radclifife College, 30,000 dollars to Roanoke College, and 

 30,000 dollars to the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial School. 

 The income from these large bequests is to be used for scholar- 

 ships. The sum of 10,000 dollars is also given to the bac- 

 teriological laboratory of the Harvard Medical School. 



At a conference on secondary education, convened by the 

 Victoria University, and held on December 3 at Owens College, 

 Manchester, resohuions were passed urging that {i\ a Minister of 

 Education of Cabinet rank should represent the Education De- 

 partment in Parliament. (2) The consultative committee men- 

 tioned in Clause 3 of the Bill laid before the House of Lords last 

 session should be obligatory. (3) Immediate provision should 

 be made for the institution of local authorities for secondary 

 education. Another resolution, to the effect that the relations of 

 the proposed Board of Education to the Charity Commissioners 

 should be more clearly defined in the Bill, was adopted. 



A COURSE of about thirty-three lectures on " The Morphology 

 and Histology of the Vascular System," commencing on 

 January II, will be given at University College, London, by 

 the assistant professor, Mr. A. G. Tansley, each lecture to be 

 followed by two hours' practical work or demonstration. An 

 attempt will be made to trace the evolution of the stele of the 

 vasculares through the various stages exhibited by pteridophytes 

 and phanerogams. A special feature of this part of the course 

 will be the inclusion of the important fossil types, many of 

 which throw much light on the course of evolution of the 

 vascular system, and whose anatomy has become fully under- 

 stood only through the researches of the last few years. 



Sir J. GORST, M.P. , delivered an address to agriculturists at 

 Cambridge on Saturday afternoon, on " Education in Agri- 

 cultural Districts." In the course of his remarks, he said that 

 reports showed that the chief reason for the prosperity of agri- 

 culture in foreign countries was the education of the people in 

 all technical knowledge pertaining to their industries. If 

 efforts were to be made to raise agricultural education in this 

 country to something like the level of Denmark, France, or 

 Switzerland, they had a very difficult task before them. Ele- 

 mentary education was the bed-rock upon which the whole of 

 the superstructure must be built. It was useless to attempt a 

 national system of technical instruction until there was a sound 

 sjstem of elementary instruction upon which it could be 

 based. 



The Association of American Agricultural Colleges and 

 Experiment Stations recently held a successful meeting at Wash- 

 ington, D.C. The following facts with reference to the Asso- 

 ciation and its work make a striking testimony of the condition 

 of agricultural education and research in the United States : 

 The institutions represented in this Association employ over 

 1500 persons in their faculties, who are giving instruction to 

 about 30,000 students. These institutions have over 50,000,000 • 

 dollars in permanent endowments, buildings and equipment, 

 and an annual revenue of nearly 6,000,000 dollars, of which 

 more than 2,000,000 dollars is derived from funds granted by 

 the United Stales. Besides the work of instruction, they are 

 carrying on original research in different directions. This is 

 especially true in many scientific lines relating to agriculture,, 

 over a million dollars being spent for this purpose annually. 

 There are now pending in Congress propositions to establish, 

 in connection with these institutions, experiment stations for 

 investigations in mechanical arts and naval engineering, for 

 which some of the colleges already have considerable facilities. 



The Chelsea Physic Garden is in future to be administered 

 in accordance with an extended scheme. The Pharifiaceuticat 

 Journal states that the Apothecaries' Society has decided, 

 owing to considerations of expense, to abandon the manage- 

 ment of the garden which, it will be remembered, was founded 

 by Sir Hans Sloane in the early part of the eighteenth century, 

 and was subsequently transferred to that Society in trust. A 

 scheme has accordingly been drawn up for vesting the control 

 in the Trustees of the London Parochial Charities, but it is 

 proposed that the actual management should devolve upon a 

 committee of fifteen members, eight to be nominated by the 

 Trustees, and one each by the Treasury, the Lord President of 

 the Council, the Royal Sccety, the Technical Education Board, 



