December 22, 1898] 



NA TURE 



The appointment of the Rev. T. W. Sharpe, C.B. , to the 

 Principakhip of Queen's College, London, should have a 

 decided influence upon the work of the College. Mr. Sharpe 

 has just retired from the post of senior chief inspector and head 

 of the administrative division of the Education Department, so 

 he tal<e.s with him to (Jueen's College a wide knowledge of the 

 principles and practice of teaching. 



A USEFUL list of the current scientific serials received in 

 Manchester, with an indication of the various libraries in which 

 they are to be found, has been compiled, under the direction 

 of Dr. W. E. Hoyle, by Mr. C. W. E. Leigh, and published 

 by the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. The 

 periodicals are arranged geographically, according to their place 

 of publication, The list will doubtless prove of great service 

 to workers in Manchester and the neighbourhood, and thus 

 assist in the progress of science. It is believed to be the first 

 of the kind published in England ; but it is to be hoped that 

 similar lists will be published for the use of students of science 

 in other great cities. 



Sir Philip Magnus distributed the prizes at Sexey's Trade 

 School, Bruton, Somerset, on December 17. Alluding to 

 prospective legislation in the direction of secondary education, 

 he said that the County Education authorities had done their 

 work well, and trusted there would be no rivalry between them 

 and School Board authorities, as it would involve a risk of setting 

 back the educational clock for many years. He pointed out the 

 advantage of teaching a boy the manipulation of a balance and 

 the use of tools, and attached great importance to the study of 

 English literature. He was glad to find the school providing 

 satisfactory scientific education in a rural district, thus embody- 

 ing ideas which he had been advocating for twenty years. 



In the course of an address to the members of the Yorkshire 

 ' Naturalist Union at Scarborough, on Saturday, Prof. Michael 

 Foster, the retiring President of the Union, urged upon his 

 hearers the great necessity of co-operation in science. All the 

 • earlier naturalists, he said, sought to solve the problems which 

 every form of life possessed. Nature was the naturalist's teacher, 

 and the field his laboratory. It was useless to try to stop the tide 

 ' of differentiation that seemed to be creeping over the scientific 

 world. That must go on. Still, they must look for help to go 

 forward, not backward. Prof. Foster criticised the method of 

 teaching science in the schools, and condemned the examinations 

 often held as prejudicial to the development of science. The 

 minds of students were very often pushed on by compulsion and 

 drawn on by rewards, and no encouragement was given to them 

 ' to look at nature in the fields and receive from her lips the 

 '■ catholic teaching which she alone could give. Such naturalists 

 as they hoped to rear must be reared apart from the schools. 



T^E following gifts to educational institutions in the United 

 I States are announced in Scicme : — The Lawrence Scientific 

 School, Harvard University, has received 10,000 dollars from 

 Mr. J. H. Jennings, for the establishment of a scholarship. — 

 Mr. James Stillman, of New York, has given 50,000 dollars to 

 1 Harvard College to cover the cost of land and buildings for a 

 (projected Harvard Infirmary, which will bear the name of the 

 I donor. In addition, Mr. Stillman will contribute 2500 dollars 

 annually for four years. — The will of the late Charles P. Wilder, 

 'of Wellesley Hills, bequeaths 102,000 dollars to Mount 

 j Holyoke College, and the trustees of Wellesley College 

 '1 announce a gift of 50,000 dollars made by Mr. Wilder before 

 J his death. No conditions are attached to the gift. — The 

 I Catholic University of Washington has received the information 

 I that by the will of Daniel T. Leahy, of Brooklyn, it receives 

 I 10,000 dollars. — The University of Cincinnati has been pre- 

 sented by Mr. William A. Proctor with the library of Mr. 

 I Robert Clarke, containing 6704 volumes valued at over 50,000 

 /dollars. — A fund of 100,000 dollars is being raised by the trus- 

 ' tees and friends of Oberlin, the income from which is to be 



applied to the reduction of the term bills of needy students, 

 i About one-tenth of this amount has already been collected. 



I The system of payment by results of examinations, which the 

 I Intermediate Education Board for Ireland still uses in dis- 

 1 tributing its annual income of about So,ooo/. , is made the subject 

 ' of criticism by Dr. Gerald Molloy in an article reprinted from 

 I the In's/i E(clesiaslu-al lievteu', and suggestions are made as to 

 ', a general policy of reform. The following statement of facts from 

 I the article points unmistakably to the need for the reform which 

 ^ must soon take place : — In a memorial addressed to the Lord 



\ NO. I 52 I, VOL. 59] 



( 



Lieutenant of Ireland last June, the Council of the Royal 

 Dublin Society called attention to the way in which the teach- 

 ing of science, in the intermediate schools, has been " practic- 

 ally exterminated " by the operation of the present system. 

 From this paper it appears that the total number of boys that 

 presented themselves for the examinations of the Intermediate 

 Education Board, in the years 18S7 and 1SS8, and the numbers 

 that presented themselves in the subjects of natural philosophy 

 and chemistry were as follows : — 



Total number Nat. Philosophy Chemistry 



1887 ... 4613 ... 261I ... 1376 



18S8 ... 4551 ... 2565 ... 1357 



But, after the lapse of ten years, it is found that while the total 

 number of boys presented for examination had considerably 

 increased, the number presented in these two subjects had 

 dwindled down almost to insignificance. The figures are : — ■ 

 Total number Nat. Philosophy Chemistry 



1S96 ... 6503 ... 618 ... 359 



1897 ... 6661 ... 596 ... 312 



It would seem, therefore, that something has occurred in the 

 working of the system, during the last ten years, which has 

 practically killed the teaching of these two important subjects 

 in the intermediate schools of Ireland. The teaching of natural 

 philosophy has fallen from 56 per cent, of the total number of 

 boys presented for examination to somewhere about 9 '2 per 

 cent., and the teaching of chemistry has fallen from 30 per 

 cent, to 4'6 per cent. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



American Journal of Science, November. — Irregular reflec- 

 tion, by C. C. Hutchins. A carefully prepared surface of plaster 

 of Paris, and a deposit of magnesia upon zinc, approximate very 

 closely to Lambert's law of diffused reflection. A plaster disc 

 cut into fine vertical furrows shows a considerable departure 

 from the cosine law. A sphere prepared by coating an ivory 

 ball in the flame of burning magnesium follows Lambert's 

 equation very closely. The reflection measured is that of the 

 total energy, observed with a thermograph and galvanometer. — 

 Separation of nickel and cobalt by hydrochloric acid, by F. S. 

 Havens. Pinerua's process for separating nickel and cobalt, 

 which is analogous to the author's method of separating 

 aluminium and iron, will not give a complete precipitation of 

 the nickel chloride. Nickel chloride is, however, practically 

 insoluble in pure ether saturated with HCI gas, and can be 

 separated from small quantities of the soluble cobalt salt in that 

 medium. — The value of type specimens and the importance of 

 their preservation, by O. C. Marsh. The origin of mammals, 

 by the same author. These two papers were read before the 

 Cambridge International Zoological Congress, in August last. — 

 Causes of variation in the composition of igneous rocks, by T. 

 L. Walker. The author reviews briefly the more common 

 theories advanced to explain the phenomena of variation in the 

 composition of igneous rocks from border to centre or from top 

 to bottom, and calls attention to the part which gravitation 

 seems to play in causing heterogeneity in eruptive rocks. Some 

 homogeneous salt solutions, if allowed to remain at a constant 

 temperature for a long time, become gradually more concen- 

 trated in the lower strata. It is very probable that similar 

 concentration occurs in complex silicate magmas, particularly 

 near the temperature of solidification. An eruptive magma 

 would therefore tend to become acid above and basic below. In 

 the upper horizons of the eruption there would be a gradual 

 increase of acidity towards the centre, since the outer and more 

 quickly cooling portion would have no time to become differ- 

 entiated by gravitation. The lower portions would show an 

 increased basicity towards the centre. This is all in cordance 

 with observed facts. — The relation between structural and 

 magneto-optic rotation, by A. W. Wright and D. A. Kreider. 

 Experiments on the crystallisation of various substances in a 

 magnetic field show no indisputable evidence of the influence of 

 the field upon optically active structure. In the case of sodium 

 chlorate, there seeins to be a preponderance of optically active 

 crystals when deposited in a magnetic field, but these are right- 

 handed or left-handed in about equal proportions. 



iriideiiiann's Annakn dcr Physik rind Cheinie, No. II. — 

 Electric dispersion in organic acids, esters, and glas.s, by K. F. 

 Lowe. Drude's rule, that anomalous electric dispersion is always . 



