May 1, 1902] 
NATURE 
21 
which are applicable to the purposes of education. It is 
probable, however, that the responsibility for the whole of the 
evening school work, as contemplated by the regulations of the 
Board of Education for last year and this year, may involve them 
in an expenditure which their present resources are unable to 
meet. The Bill now before Parliament provides additional and, 
we believe, ample resources for all parts of the country except 
London. The present policy of the Board of Education is that 
evening schools, the great majority of which are intended for 
persons older than children, shall be provided and maintained 
by the local authorities for secondary education and receive 
grants under the regulations of the Board relating to secondary 
education.” 
Sir Joun Gorsr spoke at Bradford on Saturday last upon 
the subject of the Education Bill of the Government. His 
remarks were aimed chiefly at the justification of the Govern- 
ment in making County and Borough Councils the local 
authorities for education. The necessity for this one authority 
in a particular sphere of influence has been almost univer- 
sally accepted, but the difficulty is to determine the con- 
stitution of the body. Proceeding to describe the present 
position, Sir John Gorst said that the councils which are entrusted 
with technical instruction are entirely independent of central 
control. The consequence is that technical instruction as it is 
now carried out in this country is practically the entire creation 
of that new authority with very little assistance or direction 
from anybody. The councils are not bound to use the whisky 
money for technical instruction. They might have applied it to 
the relief of local rates, but in the last year for which statistics 
are available the total amount of the whisky money was 
981,0007., and of that sum 901,000/, was voluntarily devoted 
by the councils to technical instruction and only 80,0007. went 
to the relief of rates. Sir John Gorst remarked that the Duke 
of Devonshire and he selected the councils as the local authority 
rather than the School Boards, because a body which represented 
the ratepayers could not be a real local authority unless it had 
the absolute command of local finances, and if they had any 
other body levying rates without the consent of the body which 
properly represented the ratepayers they weakened the authority 
of the principal body and prevented it from gaining that proper 
influence over local affairs, expenditure and management which 
was essential to a properly constituted authority. A further 
question was whether the local authority was to be independent 
or to be tied down by the provisions of the statute. The effect 
of the working of the Technical Instruction Act was such as 
to be in favour of leaving these great local authorities to them- 
selves. He preferred to trust them and give them ample powers, 
and leave them to exercise those powers for the benefit of the 
people whom they represented. : 
THE remarks made by Mr. Balfour at the Mansion House on 
April 23 upon the subject of commercial education are. referred 
to in an article on the University of London which appears in 
another part of this issue. In the course of his address, Mr. 
Balfour said: ‘‘ I would impress the doctrine, that important, 
necessary and essential as that narrow, technical training may 
be, we are ill learning the lesson of education which is now 
being taught us by other nations if we do not recognise that 
something more in the nature fof general training and culture 
is absolutely necessary if we are to maintain the place so hardly 
won and so proudly maintained among the nations of the world. 
If commerce is to be treated as a subject of scientific study, it 
must not be approached simply in the spirit of those who desire 
to obtain a mastery of one’ particular instrument, one particular 
language, one particular form of knowledge, but must be 
approached, as all knowledge worthy the name should be 
approached, in the broader spirit of impartial scientific investiga- 
tion. I do not think that higher praise can be given to the work in 
which Sir Albert Rollit and his colleagues are engaged than to 
say of it that, not merely have they given opportunities which 
would otherwise have been withheld to many persons in our 
community to learn the arts necessary for their work and success 
in life, but that they have also, and in addition to that merely 
technical training, in many cases laid the foundations on 
which may be built that solid and scientific knowledge of the 
commercial and economical forces of our time which are 
absolutely essential, as I think, to the proper conduct of the affairs 
ofa great commercial country.” Commercial education is so often 
understood to mean training in office routine that Mr. Balfour’s 
statement as to what the term should imply ought to be widely 
NO. 1696, VOL. 66] 
known. Allcommercial and technical education of value must be 
founded upon sound primary and secondary education, and must 
be studied, not so much with the view of acquiring facility in 
carrying out the present duties of the office and workshop as 
with the intention to discover new methods and new pro- 
cesses. As with the individual, the nation that rests content with 
its achievements must eventually fall behind others which aim at 
obtaining and using new knowledge. It is in this spirit that 
commercial education must be viewed in order that it may assist 
national progress. 
SCIENTIFIC SERIAL. 
IN the Journal of Botany for April, H. W. Pugsley gives the 
first part of an article on the ‘‘ British Caprevlate Fumitories,” 
Messrs. David Prain and Edmund Baker complete their ‘‘ Notes 
on Indigofera.” The various forms that have been included in 
the species Zndigofera ténctoria, L., and Indigofera Ani/, bss 
receive the fullest treatment, and the authors come to the 
following conclusions :—/. ¢zmctorza, L., has been applied to 
three forms: (1) the wild form, which is probably indigenous 
to Africa; (2) the variety of the previous one, cultivated in 
southern India, at the present day more especially in Madras ; 
(3) the plant cultivated in northern India, known as ‘‘ Nil”; 
the differences between this and the other cultivated variety are 
so pronounced and constant that it seems justifiable to separate 
it off, when it becomes 7. sematyana, Gaertner. The specific 
name Anil, also given by Linnzus, is connected with the 
Egyptian vernacular word ‘‘ Nil,” which indicates any species 
that supplies the Indigo dye. In Egypt ‘‘ Nil” would refer to 
TZ. articulata, Gouan, in India to /. ¢znctoréa, L., while. ,in 
neither of these countries would it include 7. 4xz/, L., which 
will not grow in Egypt and does not find favour in southern 
India. De Candolle instituted three varieties of 7. Azz/, L., of 
which two call for comment. Var. a ofigophylla is the same 
plant as Z. ¢ruxzllens?s, H.B.K., which was probably cultivated 
in the West Indies in the time of Hans Sloane. Var. 8. foly- 
phyla is the plant now cultivated in the West Indies and other 
parts of the New World. This is the true 7. Avz/, L.,, but 
to avoid any confusion which may arise from the use of that 
specific name, it is suggested that it should be established, 
under another synonym, as /. szffruticosa, Miller. Arthur 
Bennett continues his ‘‘ Notes.on Potamogeton,” and deals with 
some foreign species from Australia, America and Japan., The 
most interesting of four new British Hepaticae described by- 
S. M. Macvicar is Aveura incurvata. It comes near to’ A. 
multifida and A. sinuata. It may be expected to be re- 
corded again, as it has been found in Austria, Germany and 
Scandinavia. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
LONDON. 
Physical Society, April 25.—Prof. S, P. Thompson, presi, 
dent, in the chair.—Dr. Dawson Turner exhibited and: de 
scribed a mechanical break for induction-coils. The use of in- 
duction-coils in the production of Rontgen rays and in wireless 
telegraphy has made the construction ofa suitable break a matter 
of importance. The ordinary break is unsuitable because o 
the wearing away at the point of contact, and there are objec- 
tions to the use of mercurial breaks. The portable mechanical 
break which was shown by Dr. Dawson Turner consists of two 
metallic rollers with their axes parallel and kept in contact by 
a spring. One of the rollers has a cam attached to its spindle, 
and can be made to rotate by means of a small electric motor. 
Once in each revolution the cam separates the rollers, thus 
making the break, and at the same time causing the second 
roller, which rides loose upon its axis, to turn about one-eighth 
of a revolution. As soonas the cam has passed, the rollers are 
brought into contact by the spring, and the next break occurs at 
a different place. The wearing is thus distributed evenly over 
a large surface. The break is placed in a box containing alcohol 
or petroleum, and works best when rotating rapidly. An objec- 
tion to the arrangement is the noise it makes when working. 
Some experiments were then shown on the’ discharge of electri- 
fied bodies by ultra-violet light. A disadvantage of the electric 
arc when used to furnish ultra-violet light for use in medicine 
