Sept. 23, 1886] 
(4) The Committee anticipate that, being provided with maps of 
this character as specimens of what is required to supply a 
national want, the Association may be ina better position than 
at present to move the Government to undertake the prepara- 
tion of a similar map of the whole of the United Kingdom, 
based mainly upon the extensive data already available in the 
archives of the Ordnance Survey and the Admiralty. 
Report of the Committee, consisting of Dr. F. H. Gladstone 
(Secretary), Prof. Armstrong, Mr. William Shaen, Mr. Stephen 
Bourne, Miss Lydia Becker, Sir John Lubbock, Bart., Dr. 
H. W. Crosskey, Sir Richard Temple, Sir Henry E, Roscoe, 
Mr. Fames Heywood, and Prof. N. Story-Maskelyne, appointed 
for the Purpose of Continuing the Inquiries Relating to the 
Teaching of Science in Elementary Schools.—No steps in ad- 
vance have been taken by any Government Department towards 
the more adequate provision for science-teaching in elementary 
schools during the past year. There have been four different 
Vice-Presidents of the Committee of Council on Education 
during the last twelve months; and Sir Lyon Playfair only 
came into office after the Code for the year had been settled. 
The annual return of the Education Department for England 
and Wales issued this year, which deals with the period from 
September 1, 1884, to August 31, 1885, shows that the present 
regulations tell unfavourably on the prospects of science. The 
following statistics for the la:t three years show that, while the 
preferential class subject “English” is taker in an increasing 
number of departments year by year, geography shows an actual 
falling off, and elementary science seems even to be losing the 
little footing it had. Needlewo-k shows a steady increase, as 
it is an obligatory subject in girls’ schools, and it is more advan- 
tageous in a financial point of view to take it up as a class 
subject rather than under Article 139 (¢), in which case it neces- 
sarily displaces geography or science :— 
Class Subjects 1882-83 1883-84 1884-85 
Depart- Depart- Depart- 
- ments ments ments 
English 18,363 ... 19,080 ... 19,431 
econ payee wen Ge- | ees: | 023823 0-5, 12,775ecs D23890 
Elementary Science ... ...  «. 48 ... i cod 45 
History ton 0p RS 367 SE. ccc 386 
Needlework oe “oho 5,286 5,929 ... 6,499 
18,524 ... 19,137 ... 19,266 
In regard to the scientific specific subjects, the following are 
the number of children individually examined :— 
Specific Subjects 1882-83 1883-84 1884-85} 
Children Children Children 
Algebra meee pete 205547)... 245707) <a) 254d 
Euclid and Mensuration E5042) o., 2,010)... 0,209 
Mechanics, A 2OA2 se: 3)E-74) aan Sa 
a9 13) pes — .. 206 ... 239 
Animal Physiology 22,559 .-- 22,857 ... 20,869 
IBGiaMVirc caso f-e) Goth ane 3,280 ... 2,604 2,415 
Principles of Agriculture ... Ds h7ies lk O59) 1,481 
{i MEM OMUISHGY! Los. | wise: cnaie TlSSne 2 O4y) 1,095 
_ Sound, Light, and Heat 630m 253 1,231 
_ Magnetism and Electricity S1OAS\ aes 13) 244 a eeey S04 
Domestic Economy ... 19,582 ... 21,458 ... 19,437 
_ Extra (Physiography) gtk LOM is oh 
4 82,965 ... 84,515 
- 79774 
No of Scholars in Standards 
: SeVie, OWL.) WILE 
It is evident that while the number of scholars in the higher 
standards has considerably increased, the number examined in 
_ specific (scientific) subjects has considerably decreased ; and this 
decrease has occurred in every subject except mechanics. 
Algebra and chemistry show rather larger numbers than last 
year, though not in proportion to the increase of scholars. The 
comparative decrease in the attention paid to these scientific 
subjects will be evident from the percentages of children 
examined :— 
.. 286,355 ... 325,205 ... 352,860 
In 1882-83 29'0 per cent. 
In 1883-84 ... 20701 xs 
In 1884-85 a4 22°6 ” 
——s 
NATURE 
507 
a 
but it must be borne in mind that in many schools the children 
take two subjects, in which case they coant accordingly. In- 
creased though still very inadequate attention seems to be paid 
in the training colleges to the preparation of the students in the 
science subjects; the number of individual students who have 
qualified for teaching one or more sciences has risen from 2205 
in 1884 to 2407 in 1885, and it is satisfactory to note that the 
increase has been mainly in passes in the first class. The num- 
ber of papers worked in the several subjects in the two years 
under review have been as follows :— 
Number of papers worked 1884 1885 
Pure Mathematics és % 5 82 121 
Theoretical Mechanics a 21 25 
Sound, Light, and Heat 488 690 
Magnetism and Electricity 693 551 
Inorganic Chemistry ace 245 =a) +209 
aH 3 (practical) 166 Biss 160 
Animal Physiology 416 257 
Botany .. <6 485 483 
Physiography ... me 1030 1095 
Principles of Agriculture 289 386 
The increase has been mainly in sound, light, and heat, and 
the principles of agriculture ; the falling off has been chiefly in 
animal physiology, and magnetism and electricity. The Scotch 
Code differs from the English in rezard to the teaching of science 
in several points, but the annual return does not exhibit a much 
more hopeful state of affairs. The importance of technical in- 
struction is making rapid progress in popular estimation, but 
this subject has not got a real footing as yet in elementary 
schools, owing to the inaction of the Government pending a 
definite expression of opinion by the House of Commons. 
SECTION A—MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE 
On Stationary Waves in Flowing Water, Part I., by Sir 
William Thomson.—This subject includes the beautiful wave- 
group produced by a ship propelled uniformly through previously 
still water, but the present communication? is limited to two- 
dimensional motion 
Imazine frictionless water flowing in uniform gimme through 
an infinitely long canal with vertical sides ; and bottom hori- 
zontal except where modified by transverse ridzes or hollows, 
or slopes between portions of horizontal bottom at different 
levels. Included among such inequalities we may suppose bars 
above the bottom, fixed perpendicularly between the sides. Let 
these inequalities be all within a finite portion, AB, of the 
length, and let f denote the difference of levels of the bottom 
on the two sides of this portion, positive if the bottom beyond 
A is higher than the bottom beyond B. 
Now, let the water be given at an infinite, or very great, dis- 
tance beyond A, perpetually flowing towards A with any pre- 
scribed constant velocity, V, and filling up the canal to a 
prescribed constant depth, D. It is required to find the motion 
of the water towards A, through AB, and beyond B as dis- 
turbed by the inequalities between A and B. This problem is 
essentially determinate ; and it has only one solution if we con- 
fine it to cases in which the vertical component of the water’s 
velocity is everywhere small in comparison with gD, the 
velocity acquired by a falling body falling from a height equal 
to half the depth. 
In particular cases the water flows away unruffled at great 
distances from B. But, in general, the surface is ruffed, and 
the water flows ‘‘ steadily” between the plane bottom and a 
corrugated free surface, as in the well-known appearance of 
water flowing in a mill-lead, or Highland burn, or in the clear 
rivulet on the east side of Trumpington Street, Cambridge. 
The train of diminishing waves which we see in the wake of 
each little irregularity of the bottom would, of course, extend to 
infinity if the stream were infinitely lonz, and the water abso- 
lutely inviscid (frictionless) ; and a single inequality, or group of 
inequalities, in any part, AB, of the stream, would give rise to 
corrugation in the whole of the flow after passing the inequali- 
ties, more and more nearly uniform, and with ridges and hollows 
more and more perpendicular to the sides of the canal, the 
farther we are from the last of the inequalities. Observation, 
with a little common-sense of the mathematical kind, shows 
r I have since found, in a sufficiently practical form, the solution for the 
wave-group produced by the ship, which I hope to communicate to the 
Philosophical Magazine for publication in the November number.—W. T., 
September 13, 1586. 
