EE 
NATURE 657 


SATURDAY, MAY 109, 1923. 
CONTENTS. 
School and Sex. 
Science and Superstition of Primitive Mankind, 
By Dr. B. Malinowski . 
Modern Cosmogony. ef Dr. Harold Jeffreys - 
Military Mining . : 
Our Bookshelf F . ° - - . 
Letters to the Editor :— 
er 9 le and Hzemoglobin,—Sir W. M. Bayliss, 
The Complex Anisotropic Molecule in Relation to 
the Theory of Dispersion and Scattering of Light 
in Gases and Liquids.—Dr. Louis V. King . 
The Adhesive Apparatus of the Scene: fish.” — 
Sunder Lal Hora . 
Vertical Change of Wind and Tropical "Cy clones.— 
S. K. Banerji : 
A Levitated Magnet. (With * Diagra mn, ee 
Harrison Glew. 
Science and Economics,—Prof. Frederick Soddy, 
F.R.S. ; St. George Lane Fox Pitt : 
Spermatogenesis of the Lepidoptera. — H. Graham 
Cannon . 
The Rodier System of Rat Repression. _Alfred E. 
Moore . 
Active Hydrogen by Blectrolysis, —Prof. A. C. 
Grubb 
The Low-power Ae-oplane or Aviette. By Prof. L. 
Bairstow, F.R.S. > 
The Earth’s Electric and Magnetic Fields. Lat By 
Prof. W. F. G. Swann. : 
The Tercentenary of Sir William Petty . 
Obituary :— 
Prof. E. W. Morley . 
Sir Shirley Murphy . 
Mr. Joseph Wright . 
Mr. Sidney H. Wells 
General E. A. Lenfant . ~ : 
Current Topics and Events’ . : : : 
Our Astronomical Column A * - - 
Research Items ° 
The Italian Society for the Advancement of Science. 
By Prof. John L. Myres ; 
Industrial Paints and the Health of the Worker 
The Duddell Memorial of the Physical Society. 
(Ulustrated.) 
The Ralph Forster Tablet at University College, 
London 
Cinema Film of the Total Eclipse of the Sun at 
Wallal, Australia, September 21, 1922 . 
University and Educational Intelligence . 
Societies and Academies ‘ . 
Official Publications > ae Seu 
Diary of Societies 


Editorial and Publishing Offices : 
MACMILLAN & CO., LTD., 
ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2. 
Telegraphic Address: PHUSIS, LONDON. 
Telephone Number: GERRARD 8830. 
NO. 2794, VOL. 111] 
eo 
School and Sex.' 
N 1920 the Consultative Committee of the Board of 
| Education was reconstituted by Order in Council, 
and two urgent problems, of scientific character and 
far-reaching importance, were referred to it almost 
immediately for inquiry and advice: namely, first, 
what degree of differentiation is desirable, for boys and 
girls respectively, in the teaching of secondary schools ; 
and, secondly, what use can be made, in the public 
system of education, of psychological tests. On the 
subject of the former reference the committee has 
received a vast body of evidence from a long list of 
‘witnesses—from medical men and psychologists, from 
teachers and examiners, from employers and business 
men ; and the results of its inquiries have now been 
brought together in the pages of the report before us. 
- The first chapter, largely the work of the committee’s 
secretary, Mr. R. F. Young, provides an admirable 
ihistory of the curriculum in secondary schools for boys 
and girls ; and this brief chronological survey is followed 
by a descriptive account of the present system of 
secondary education, so far as it bears upon the terms 
‘of the committee’s reference. The education of what 
was once considered to be the weaker or the gentler sex 
jhas passed through two opposite phases, and is entering 
upon a third. The first was a phase of emphasised sex- 
\difference based upon a supposed sex-inequality. It 
iwas the stage of feminine accomplishments and nothing 
‘more ; it was also, therefore, a stage of educational 
‘inefficiency. During the second period—a period of 
reaction—education was based upon an assumed 
jequality of the sexes; and reformers claimed, and 
‘endeavoured to secure, an identity of education for 
‘boys and girls, regardless of sex-difference. This, too, 
‘has not been entirely successful. The committee now 
idiscovers signs of a third stage—a stage which its own 
‘report will undoubtedly strengthen and reinforce— 
which recognises that equality does not demand 
identity, and would allow the widest possible free- 
dom for all individuals, no matter which their sex 
might be, to develop their special talents, and to prepare 
themselves for their future duties, according to the 
peculiar tastes and capacities of each. 
It is, however, the central section of the report which 
will command the greatest scientific interest. Here the 
committee has collected together all the available 
evidence dealing with the physical and mental differ- 
ences between boys and girls during the critical years of 
development. 
_The known facts regarding the anatomical and 
: 
1 Board of Education: Report of the Consultative Committee on 
Differentiation of the Curriculum for Boys and Girls respectively in 
Secondary Schools. Pp. xvi+193. (London: H.M. Stationery Office. 
1923.) 25. od. net. 
