332 



NATURE 



[February 2, 1899 



Magnus has succeeded in arranging for the admission of the 

 Board's scholars to the two principal higher schools of commerce 

 in Paris and to the similar schools in the three Italian towns, 

 Kari, Genoa, and \'enice, his suggestions having been most 

 kindly received by M. Bocquet at I'aris, and by Signor Fortis, 

 Minister of Industry and Commerce at Rome. 



Mr. Bai.kour has written a long letter to a constituent in 

 East Manchester on the subject of University education in 

 Ireland. After giving reasons why, in his judgment, the ex- 

 pedient of leaving the one existing teaching University in Ire- 

 land — Trinity College — to meet, by a natural process of expan- 

 sion, the growing educational needs of the country would not 

 be successful, Mr. Balfour .suggests that the plan which seems 

 best to solve the University problem, both for the I'resbyterians 

 and other Protestants in the north and for Irish Roman Catholics 

 generally, is to establish by a single Act two new te.iching 

 Universities — one in Dublin and one in Belfast — on precisely 

 similar lines, and difl'ering in no particular excepting the names 

 of the gentlemen first appointed to serve on their respective 

 governing bodies. As the University in Belfast would absorb 

 the existing (Jueen's College, the governing body of the new 

 institution should be so constituted as to be a continuation of 

 the old. As the Dublin University is de.signed to attract those 

 Roman Catholics who now hold aloof from University life al- 

 together, its governing body as first constituted should no doubt, 

 in the main, be of their own way of thinking. A University 

 so constituted would, in Mr Balfour's opinion, meet the need 

 of Roman Catholics, but it would not be a Roman Catholic 

 University, except in the sense that Trinity College and the 

 new University in Belfast would be Protestaitt, and in that case 

 there would be in Ireland two Protestant Universities to one 

 Roman Catholic. 



Thk executive council of the County Councils Association 

 passed the following resolutions at a meeting held on January 25 : 

 (I) The administrative county (in which term is included the 

 county borough) is prima facie to be accepted as the area for 

 secondary education. Nevertheless, provision should be made 

 enabling the council of any county or of any municipal borough 

 to make a representation to the central authority to the effect 

 that it would be desirable, in the best interests of education, 

 that an educational area other than that of the administrative 

 county should be constituted ; and if the central authority, after 

 a local inquiry at which all parties interested may be heard, 

 are of opinion that it will be lo the best interests of education 

 that such an area should be constituted, they may make an 

 order accordingly. The central authority should be empowered 

 by such order to make such financial adjustments as they may 

 deem equitable and advisable. (2) That the proposal of the 

 -Association of School Boards be not approved, and that the 

 executive council, while thinking it desirable that the new 

 local authorities for secondary education in .administrative 

 counties should include members of the governing bodies of 

 elementary schools (both board schools and voluntary schools), 

 consider that this will be better secured by a power of co- 

 optation exercised as is recommended in paragraph 36 of the 

 report of the Royal Commission on Secondary Education than 

 by giving any right of separate representation on the new 

 authorities to school boards, which represent parts only of the 

 administrative county. 



Prok. S. \V. Wii.i.isroN describes XnSiifiice a remarkable 

 condition of things which exists in Kansas as to the text-books 

 used in the Slate schools. He says that at the last biennial 

 session of the Legislature of Kansas there was passed what is 

 known as the State uniform text-book law. \ commission was 

 appointed whose duty ii was to select the text-books of all 

 grades used in the public schools of the Slate, which were to be 

 furnished at a stipulated price to all pupils. No other text-book 

 than the one .selected may be used by any school under pain of 

 severe penalties. The law has no« been in force for two years, 

 and these books are being used by several hundred thousand 

 pupils. It appears, however, that specialists or experts are not 

 consulted in the choice of thetexl-books. Wide latitude was given 

 to the commission, the one important stipulation being that the 

 liooks should be cheap ; and the re.sult is that science manuals 

 are used full of unsound and incorrect statements. The prin- 

 riple of specifying text-books might be a good one if the board 

 whicli examined the books were wise and representative, and 

 c miained a fair proportion of practical teachers ; but in Kansas 



NO. 1527. VOL. 59] 



this does not appear to be the case. The School Board of Lon- 

 don has a book committee which draws up a list of approved 

 text-books, and a glance at the list is sufficient to show that we 

 need not go to the States for instances of books selected more for 

 cheapness than scientific quality. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



American Journal of Science, January. — The thermo- 

 dynamic relations of hydrated glass, by C. Barus. During the 

 first or opaque stage of the reaction of hot water on glass at 

 200' C, volume contraction and increase of compressibility are 

 both marked phenomena. During the second stage the water- 

 glass becomes more and more clear and limpid. Capillary 

 tubes on cooling become rods of brittle water-glass. They 

 always break eventually along their length. — Platinum and 

 iridium in meteoric iron, by J. M. Davison. From 6o8-6 gr. 

 of Coahuila meteoric iron, 0014 gr. of metallic platinum were 

 obtained, and 0001 5 gr. of a black powder, which is probably 

 ammonium iridi-chloride. No diamonds were discovered. — 

 Studies in the Cypcrace;i;, viii., by T. Holm. This article 

 deals with the root, the rhizome, the aerial stem, and the leaf 

 of some North .■\merican species of i'c/fr/a. — Regnault's calorie, 

 and our knowledge of the specific volumes of steam, by G. P. 

 Starkweather. The writer adduces evidence from Regnault's 

 own experiments to show that his conclusion as to the constancy 

 of the specific heat of water between 0° and 30' is correct. He 

 maintains that all our knowledge concerning the density of 

 steam is limited to the saturation line, the experiments on 

 superheated steam presenting discrepancies which cannot be 

 reconciled. — The estimation of boric acid, by F. A. Gooch and 

 I.. C. Jones. The salts are treated with sulphuric acid, and 

 the boric acid is distilled with methyl alcohol, and the distillate 

 evaporated over calcium oxide. In searching for a less hygroscopic 

 material to replace the calcium oxide as a retainer for boric acid, 

 the authors found that sodium tungstate, fused with a slight excess 

 of tungstic acid over that contained in the normal tungstate, 

 answers the purpose excellently. — New Actinians, by A. E. 

 Verrill. Describes a number of new families and genera from 

 Hong Kong, Guadeloupe, Panama, Peru, and San Salvador. — • 

 What is the Loess ? by F. W. Sardeson. The Loess loam, 

 in combination with land and fresh-water shells, forms a very 

 strong argument in favour of the purely ;iolian origin of the 

 Loess. — Absorption of gases in a high vacuum, by C. C. 

 Hutchins. The vacuum of Rontgen ray tubes is increased by 

 successive discharges, until it becomes too high for any dis- 

 charge to pass. This can be prevented by putting some 

 mercuric oxide in a side tube surrounded by a platinum wire 

 heated by a shunt. If a suitable spark gap is inserted in the 

 shunt, the heating may be made automatic. The oxide gives 

 off oxygen when healed, which lowers the vacuum to a proper 

 amount. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Physical Society, January 27.— Mr. G. Grifiith, Vice- 

 President, in the chair. — \ mathematical paper was read by 

 Dr. E. H. Barton on the equivalent resistance and inductance 

 of a wire to an oscillatory discharge. Maxwell's treatment of 

 the self-induction of cylindrical conductors w.as extended by 

 Lord Rayleigh, in an article published in the Phil. Mag. for 

 May 1886, lo alternate currents that follow the harmonic law 

 at constant amplitude. Dr. Barton now modifies the analysis, 

 and further extends it to include the decaying periodic currents 

 obt.ained in discharging a condenser, and lo the case of damped 

 trains of high-frequency, i.e. to Hertz waves in general. The 

 theoretical value ( R'/K) for the ratio of equivalent resistances lo 

 waves, respectively with and wilhout damping, agrees very well 

 with Dr. Barton's experimental results. — Mr. ( Hiver Heaviside, 

 in a communication (here abstracted), said that he had by 

 another method of mathematical analysis arrived al the same 

 value as Dr. Barton for (R"/R'). In addition to the causes 

 hitherto suggested as aflfecting the attenuation factor, it was 

 possible that ihe conductivity of the wires lo vibrations millions 

 per second, might be less than with steady currents, and thai 

 the voltage at the beginning of the wave-train might be large 



