382 



NA TURH 



[February 20, 1908 



Maw of till' iiumbei-s in iho " Statistics of Public 

 Educatioii in England and Wales, 1005-15-7, " rrccntly 

 published (Cd. 3886) by the Board of Education, give 

 useful information as to the condition of our national 

 education during the year 1905-6 and the years immediately 

 preceding. On August i, 1906, accommodation was pro- 

 vided in the public elementary schools of all grades for 

 7,068,641 children, of which number of places 3,543,760 

 were in " council " schools, or, as they were forinerly 

 called, " board " schools. In ordinary elementary schools, 

 that is, omitting everv kind of '* special " school, there 

 were 5,994,490 pupils on the registers and 5,303,229 in 

 average attendance. These children were taught by 31,893 

 head teachers, ,93,130 assistant teachers, and 49,056 

 " other " teachers. The Government grant to meet ex- 

 penditure in respect of elementary education during 1906-7 

 reached 11,248,794;., and in 1905-6 was 10,829,396!. In 

 addition, 92,328/. was paid in 1906-7 on account of allow- 

 ances and pensions for teachers, and 552,894/. for the train- 

 ing of teachers and pupil-teachers. In secondary schools 

 in receipt of grants from the Board of Education, which in 

 1905-6 numbered 689, there were in that year 65,994 boys 

 and 49,694 girls, and on 66,014 of these pupils — for grants 

 were only paid on children between twelve and sixteen years 

 of age taking an approved course of work — the sum paid in 

 grants amounted to 246,220/. A serious falling off in the 

 number of pupils in secondary schools between the ages 

 of twelve and sixteen years is shown in the statistics. To 

 take one example, the number of boys (about twelve to 

 thirteen years of age) taking an approved course and doing 

 the work of the first year was, in 1905-6, 12,238; doing 

 the second year's work, 9,924; the third year's work, 

 4,907; and the fourth year's work, 2,397. It would seem 

 that less than 20 per cent, of the boys who at twelve 

 years of age begin the approved course of worli remain 

 at school until sixteen years of age, and the same propor- 

 tion seems to be true in the case of the girls. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society. November 14, 1907.—" On the Result of 

 Crossing Round with Wrinkled Peas, with Especial Refer- 

 ence to their Starch-grains." By A. D. Darbishire. 

 Communicated by Prof. J. Bretland Farmer, F.R.S. 

 The facts so far brought to light are : — 



(1) That, although roundness is dominant over wrinkled- 

 ness in peas, the starch-grain of the F, generation (the 

 round or r-grain) is a blend between the type of grain of 

 the round pea (the potato-shaped or /i-grain) and the tvpe 

 of grain of the wrinkled pea (the compound or c-grain) in 

 respect of three characters : — 



(a) It is intermediate in shape as measured by its length- 

 breadth index — that of the /)-grain being 66, that of the 

 f-grain 92, and that of the r-grain 85 (neglecting decimals). 



(b) It is intermediate in the distribution of compound- 

 ness, inasmuch as some of the ?--grains are compound and 

 some single. 



(c) It is intermediate in the degree of compoundness, 

 inasmuch as amongst those r-grains which are compound 

 the most usual number of constituent pieces is three, 

 whereas in c-grains it is six. 



(2) In a subsequent generation — F. — the homozygote 

 round peas contain /)-grains ; the heterozygotc round peas 

 contain r- or intermediate grains. But both r- and inter- 

 mediate grains may be associated either with a high or 

 with a low degree of compoundness. 



(3) /"-Grains occasionally occur in wrinkled peas in F., 

 and the evidence suggests that the existence of these grains 

 in wrinkled peas tends to make them less wrinkled. 



(4) A wrinkled pea takes up more water when it 

 germinates than a round one. The hybrid between a 

 round and a wrinkled pea is intermediate in respect of 

 this character between its two parents. 



(5) But this intermediateness of the hybrid in absorptive 

 capacity is not occasioned by the intermediateness of the 

 starch-grain of the hybrid, because, in F,. peas containing 

 r-grains and peas conlainmc; p-grains both have the same 

 absorptive capacity as the F, pea. 



NO. 1999, VOL. "/■/] 



(6) When, therefore, we cro-., .1 round with .i urinkl. J 

 pea, we are dealing with four separately heritable 

 characters : — 



(i) The shape of the pea — whether round or wrinkled. 



(ii) The absorptive capacity of the pea — whether low or 

 high. 



(iii) The shape of the starch-grain — whether long or 

 round. 



(iv) The constitution of the starch-grain — whether singl' 

 or compound. 



" On the Inheritance of Eye-colour in Man." Bv C. (' 

 Hurst. Communicated by W. Bateson, F.R.S. 



An examination of the eye-colours of a number of 

 parents and their offspring in a Leicestershire village shows 

 that there are at least two discontinuous types of iris in 

 man : — 



(1) The duplex type, with both anterior and posterior 

 pigments, as in ordinary brown eyes. 



(2) The simplex type, with posterior pigment only, thf 

 anterior pigment being absent, as in clear blue eyes. 



In heredity the simplex type behaves as a Mendelian 

 recessive to the duple.x type, which is dominant. The unit 

 characters concerned are evidently presence (duplex) and 

 absence (simplex) of anterior pigment on a basis of 

 posterior pigment, presence being dominant. 



The duplex and simplex types can be distinguished at 

 any age. Various pigmental and structural changes take 

 place in the iris during childhood and youth, the extent 

 of which is not yet known. Few families with living 

 parents and offspring, all adult, are to be found in one 

 village. Consequently, it has not yet been possible to 

 determine the genetic relations between the \'arious shades 

 of the duplex type. 



Mathematical Society, February I3. — Prof. W. Purnside, 

 president, in the chair. — .'\ proof that every algebraic 

 equation has a root ; Dr. H. -X. de S. Pittard. — Note on 

 7-differences : F. II. Jackson. — An extension of Eisen- 

 itein's law of reciprocity (second paper) : .\. E. Western. 

 — Conformal representation and the transformation of 

 Laplace's equation: E. Cunningham. — The unifoim 

 ipproach of a continuous function to its limit : Dr. W. II. 

 Young;. 



Physical Society. Jaruarv 24. — Pinf. J. Perry, F.R.S., 

 president, in thf tliair. — Observations on recalescente 

 curves : W. Rosenhain. Referring to the importance of 

 the accurate study of rccalescence phenomena in metali; 

 and alloys, the author describes the two principal methods 

 employed for obtaining rccalescence curves. These are 

 knowii as the " inverse rate " and " differential " methods 

 respectively. In the former method the times occupied by 

 successive equal decrements of temperature are observed 

 and plotted against the temperature of the cooling body, 

 thus giving a curve the ordinates of which are temperature 

 (/) and dT/dt (T = lime) respectively. In the differential 

 method the difference of temperature between the body 

 under observation and a neutral or " blank " body cooling 

 under approximately the same conditions is observed and 

 plotted against the temperature of the body. The physical 

 interpretations, in terms of quantity of heat evolved and of 

 rate of evolution of heat of these two kinds of curves, are 

 discussed by reference to the fundamental curve represent- 

 ing the time-temperature relations of one or two cooling 

 bodies. Finally, the author describes a recalescence first 

 observed to occur somewhat mysteriously in the body of 

 certain furnaces at a temperature of 580° C. This was 

 ultimately traced to a transformation occurring in crystal- 

 line silica, whether free or in admixture with porcelain or 

 fire-clav. The author points out that this recalescence in 

 crvstaliinc silica coincides with certain points in the iron- 

 carbon diagram of Roberts-.Austen and of Carpenter and 

 Keeling, and suggests that the recalescences observed bv 

 those workers may have arisen from silica in their 

 furnaces. 



Society of Chemiol Industry, February 3. — Dr. J. 

 Lewkowitsch in the chair. — Nitroglycerine and its manu- 

 facture : Lieut. -Colonel Sir F. L. Nathan and W. 

 Rintoul. The discovery and properties of nitroglycerine 

 were described, and particulars were given of improve- 

 ments which have been effected in methods of manu- 

 facture. 



