February 2c, 1908] 



NATURE 



367 



true, if we confine our attention to water pressure. It is 

 nul irue, and the base shear actually changes its sign, if 

 the weight of the dam be taken into account as it must 

 be. That there is no tension in dams of the Assuan and 

 X'yrnwy types in the outer toe w'e showed in our memoir, 

 but there is stretch, and on this final rupture in part 

 drpunds. The existence of this stretch is also indicated, 

 although not referred to, in the measurements of displace- 

 ment given by Sir John Ottley and Dr. Brightmore. I 

 may have misinterpreted these authors' mode of experiment- 

 ing, but I can find no evidence in their paper of the manner 

 in which they deduced the shear due to weight oidv, and 

 without this knowledge I venture to think that the whole 

 of the superstructure they base on a uniform distribution 

 of shear fails to find any adequate foundation. 



K.ARL Tearsox. 

 L'niversity College, London, W.C. 



The Inheritance of "Acquired" Characters. 



I AM loth to tal-ce part in barren controversy on this 

 subject again, but I feel it is really necessary to say a few 

 words in reply to the letter of "A. D. D." in X.vture of 

 February 13. When that gentleman refers to the slightlv 

 dogmatic tone of his original article he is not doing him- 

 self justice ; the article was as dogmatic as it could possiblv 

 be. Now he asserts that there is no sense in the- distinc- 

 tion between acquired characters and innate ones with 

 regard to inheritance, that all characters are both acquired 

 and innate. This in the accepted meaning of the words is 

 simply untrue. If a man takes a summer holidav and 

 becomes sunburnt, the colour of his skin is an acquired 

 character; a negro's colour develops without exposure to 

 the sun; he is brown (not black) when he is born; that is 

 an innate character. The supernumerary toe in a Dorking 

 fowl is an innate character ; it is not acquired in the 

 accepted sense of that word, .■\cquired characters are those 

 changes in the individual which are due to a cliange of 

 external conditions, i.e. of stimuli ; innate characters are 

 those which develop without any stimulus, except what Dr. 

 Reid calls the stimulus of nutrition. 



When Dr. Reid says that a scar on the nose due to 

 injury is as much innate as the nose itself he is merely 

 quibbling; he means, I suppose, that the scar could not 

 be formed if there was not an innate power of producing 

 a scar in healing a wound. But the only important point 

 is that the scar is the consequence of a wound as well as 

 of the innate qualities ; the nose is the consequence of 

 Innate qualities only. " .\. D. D." appeals to Dr. Reid, 

 but Dr. Reid has most distinctly recognised the distinction 

 which " .\. D. D." denies. They may be left to neutralise 

 each other. J. T. Cuxninx,iiaji. 



Technical Research and the College System. 



Since I made the proposal, some time ago (Chem. 

 Xeu's, vol. xxxix., p. 2, and vol. xl., p. 230), that research 

 boards should be instituted in our technical colleges, with 

 the object of supplying the college departtrtents with 

 subject-matter for research of a more or less technical 

 nature, and at the same time of keeping in touch with the 

 old students, I have had the opportunity of discussing the 

 matter with men who occupy important posts in the 

 technical world. They generally hold the opinion that 

 some such scheme is urgently needed. 



Many observations are made in works and works' 

 laboratories which for several reasons cannot be properly 

 investigated within the factory, but are yet admirably 

 adapted to serve as subjects for scientific investigation in 

 the laboratories of our technical colleges. Research of 

 such a character would be not onlv of real educational 

 value to the students, but serve a special purpose in giving 

 useful preliminary training in the investigation of problems 

 such as they are likely to encounter in real life. 



The attitude of teachers in our colleges towards such 

 questions has been recently stated bv Dr. M. O. Forster. 

 He acknowledged that, as a teacher, it became more and 

 more clear to him that professors ought to be educated in 

 t'-chnology. As I previously pointed out, the sue^gestion, 

 which he again brings to the front, that manufacturers 

 sjiuuld supply problems for the consideration of young 

 rli( mists in the college, is one which can hardly be met 



NO. 99, VOL. 77] 



in practice. The suggestion that manufacturers should 

 supply raw materials tor such trials is one that eould 

 easily be dealt with through ordinary channels if, and 

 when, the subject-matter for research was available. 



The suggestion that members of the college staff should 

 enter the technical world for a time may be open to 

 objection. Dr. Nichols, perhaps rightly, says that they 

 could only return and " bring bade to the students, and re- 

 hash to them, what was daily becoming obsolete." On 

 the other hand, they would undoubtedly benefit from con- 

 tact with the outside world, especially in acquiring broader 

 ideas and in realising the way in which constant develop- 

 ment occurs in technical processes. 



I think it may be held that there is no training in our 

 technical colleges, taken as a whole, which can compare 

 with that given in the medical schools. Here the students 

 actually come in contact with the work they will ultimately 

 be engaged on in their daily routine, viz. the study of 

 abnormal cases. Even in the departments of our more 

 recently built colleges, which are almost small factories 

 in their way, these necessary conditions are in the 

 majority of cases still absent. The course simply deals 

 with the routine worlv of the factory, as represented by 

 everyday operations. This is equivalent to supplying 

 medical students with a set of perfectly healthy men for 

 examination, an example which well illustrates the point 

 under consideration, for in both cases the students go out 

 into the world to engage in actual practice. Medical men 

 trained on these lines would hardly be tolerated by the 

 public, yet the manufacturer is expected to receive students 

 so trained with open arms. 



To meet the conditions obtaining in the technical world, 

 I have proposed that in every college of standing there 

 should be constituted a research board composed of 

 member.'' of the stalT, with possibly a few old students as 

 advisory /members. 



Past students would have the opportunity to submit to 

 these boards subject-inatter for research arising out of 

 their actual observations, and of such a nature that it can 

 be freely investigated in a college laboratory by piclced 

 students, working under the supervision of the board. 

 The results, if satisfactory, would be published under the 

 names of the old and present students from the college 

 address. 



In this way colleges would be supplied with the subject- 

 matter now so urgently needed, and the old students would 

 be kept in touch with their college in the best possible 

 way. 



The college staff would at the same time be relieved to 

 a great extent from the burden of supplying subject-matter 

 of a semi-technical nature, which, to be of real value, can 

 only be suggested by those who are acquainted with 

 modern technical problems. 



The results of some such scheme might form the basis 

 for grants from the Government in aid of research, and 

 also supply n. rough means of testing the comparative value 

 of the training of the colleges. 



I venture to put this matter forward for discussion. It 

 is vitally necessary that a link between the colleges in 

 this country, and the technical world should be found. On 

 this point everyone is agreed. I fancy that some such link 

 may be found in the above scheme. 



Occasional lectures by old students who have specialised 

 should be given at intervals during the session with the 

 object of interesting students in modern technical develop- 

 ments. 



Such points as these might be brought forward, in a 

 more prominent way, bv a federation of old students' 

 associations, which should accoinplish good work in many 

 directions. \A'. P. Dre.\per. 



Ouilter Road, Felixstowe. 



A Variation in Amoeba. 

 While looking at some .imoebae proteus received from 

 Mr. Thomas Bolton, I noticed a condition of the proto- 

 plasm of several specimens which I cannot remeinber to 

 have seen before. The ectosarc was deeply striated, the 

 lines extending some distance into the endosarc, wherever 

 pseudopodia were not being put forth. On the formation 

 of the latter the stria- disappeared, but again became 



