4o6 



NATURE 



[February 27, 1908 



which are now considered necessary to have any influence 

 on the home life and habits of people shows that a much 

 higher standard has been reached. The worli carried on 

 at the polytechnics will bear good fruit, and it is to bo 

 hoped that the London County Council will see its way 

 clear to provide the means so that the polytechnics of 

 London may furnish an example to every town in the 

 United Kingdom and in all parts of the world. 



The fifteenth annual general meeting of the Association 

 of Technical Institutions was held on Friday and Saturday 

 last at the hall of the Drapers' Company. Sir Horace 

 Plunkett, the retiring president, occupied the chair during 

 the early part of the proceedings, and was succeeded by 

 Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.B., who was unanimously 

 elected president for the ensuing year. Sir Norman 

 Lockyer in his address referred to the progress that has 

 taken place in educational methods in recent years, but 

 pointed out that there is a lack of coordination between 

 primary and secondary schools or technical schools. We 

 have now a good system of elementary education, but 

 there is a terrible wastage after the primary school. He 

 pleaded for a fuller recognition of continuity in education 

 and of the high standing of technical institutions in an 

 organic system. At the second day's meeting there was 

 a discussion on trade or craft schools, and eventually the 

 following resolution was adopted : — " That this associa- 

 tion, fully recognising the necessity for a comprehensive 

 and graded scheme of technical education, embracing all 

 sections of the community, request the council to make an 

 inquiry with a view to ascertaining the best conditions 

 for the development of technical education in relation to 

 the training of workmen." In opening the discussion. 

 Prof. W. M. Gardner, of Bradford, said that of looo boys 

 passing through elementary schools, and ultimately taking 

 positions as industrial workmen, foremen, or managers, 

 probably not more than forty pass through a secondary 

 school and not more than three or four attend a day 

 technical school. The great problem is, therefore, that of 

 the boys who leave the primary schools at thirteen and 

 fourteen, or even earlier, and who constitute 950 out of 

 every 1000 boys of that age. Three courses seem to be 

 open, namely : — (i) to provide specialised technical instruc- 

 tion during the latter portion of the primary-school course, 

 combining it with the general subjects in the time-table : 



(2) to pass the lads forward from the primary school to 

 specially arranged trade schools for one or two years ; and 



(3) to rely, as hitherto, on evening schools for technical 

 instruction. How far the first plan is practicable, or even 

 desirable, appears doubtful. It is educationally unsound 

 to give technical instruction in a trade without first deal- 

 ing with the underlying sciences in an elementary manner. 

 The provision of special trade schools seems, the speaker 

 said, to offer a more likely solution of the problem. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London 

 Geological Society. Frbruary 5. — Sir Archibald Geikie, 

 K.C.B., .Sec.R.S., president, in the chair. — .Antigorite and 

 the Val Antigorio, with notes on other serpentines con- 

 taining that mineral : Prof. T. G. Bonney. It is not 

 certain that the first described specimen of antigorite was 

 really found in the Val Antigorio. The rock probably 

 does not occur there in situ, though it is found in pebbles, 

 &c., from tributaries. Other specimens of antigorite- 

 serpentine were described. The origin of the mineral is 

 discussed. Pressure is essential ; it can be formed from 

 augite, and there is evidence of its coming from this 

 mineral. — The St. David's Head " rock series " (Pem- 

 brokeshire) : J. V. Elsden. These intrusions are of 

 complex composition. There is a high magnesia per- 

 centage. There is no evidence of differentiation in situ, 

 but the facts suggest a common origin from a differentiated 

 magma basin. The rocks afford facilities for the study 

 of both rhombic and monoclinic pyroxenes. Rhombic 

 pyroxene generally crystallised earlier than the monoclinic 

 pyroxene. There are two varieties of augite. The relation 

 of these types lends support to the perthitic theory. The 

 probable age of the intrusions is not greater than that of 

 the earth movements whi(h folded the .Arenig shales in 

 this district. 



NO. 2000, VOL. 77] 



Linnean Society, Ftbruary 6. — Dr. A. B. Rendle, vice- 

 president, in the chair. — Specimens aiid lantern-slides of 

 leaf impressions from the Reading beds : H. W. 

 Monckton and O. .A. Shrubsole. — Fruits and seeds from 

 the pre-Glacial beds of Britain and the Netherlands, 

 especially the Pakofield specimens from the neighbour- 

 hood of Lowestoft tCromer forest bed), and from Tegelen, 

 near Venloo, in the province of Limburg, Netherlands : 

 Clement Reid. — The use of large quantities of commercial 

 concentrated soda carbonate when boiling refractory 

 deposits : .Mrs. K. M. Reid. — .A botanical expedition to 

 Central Fokien : S. T. Dunn. In -April, May, and June, 

 1905, a botanical expedition was undertaken, with three 

 native collectors and one Chinese herbarium assistant, to 

 the centre of the province of Fokien. The difficult journey 

 from Foociiow to A'enping was successfully accomplished, 

 and enough stores deposited at that town to enable a large 

 collection of plants to be made. The central portion of this 

 province, which is as large as England and Wales com- 

 bined, had never previously been visited by a botanist, and, 

 as might be expected, many novelties were discovered, and 

 are here described, amounting to at least forty new species. 

 — Some new Alcyonaria from the Indian and Pacific 

 Oceans ; preliminary notice ; Ruth M. Harrison. 



Royal Anthropological Institute February i r. — Prof. 

 W. Ridgeway, president, in the chair. — -An additional note 

 on New Guinea games : Dr. -A. C. Haddon. The games 

 were of various descriptions, and included a series of string 

 figures. — A new instrument for determining the colour of 

 Ihe hair, eyes, and skin : J. Gray. The instrument was a 

 simplified form of Lovibond's tintometer, by means of 

 which hair-, eye-, and skin-colours could be classified by 

 comparison with a series of standard coloured glasses. 

 These standard glasses can be reproduced an indefinite 

 number of times with the greatest precision by Lovibond's 

 method, so that any number of observers can be provided 

 with identical colour-scales. .\ series of locks of hair, 

 arranged by the naked eye, from blonde to jet black, was 

 exhibited, and curves showing the colour-elements of this 

 series, as obtained by Lovibond's tintometer, were shown 

 on the screen. The curves showed that the locks contained 

 two coloured pigments, namely, orange and a yellow, and 

 a black pigment. The black pigment increased uniformly 

 In amount from blonde to black, and evidently formed the 

 basis of the arrangement of the series by the naked eye, 

 because the amount of orange and yellow pigment was 

 practically constant throughout the whole series. A second 

 series^of locks of red hair was exhibited, arranged by the 

 naked eye from light to dark red or auburn. .Analysis 

 showed that the orange pigment was predominant, and 

 formed the basis of the classification. A diagram, ex- 

 hibited to show the correlation between orange and black 

 in the two series of locks, pointed to the conclusion that 

 red hair was derived from dark hair by the conversion 

 of more or less of the black pigment into an equal amount 

 of orange pigment, while fair hair was derived from dark 

 hair bv a reduction of both the black and the orange 

 pigments. 



Institution of Minins; and Metallurgy, February 20. — 

 Prof. W. Gowland, president, in the chair. — The alloys of 

 gold and tellurium : Dr. T. K. Rose. An examination of 

 the mixtures of gold and tellurium by means of the 

 RobPrts-.\usten recording pyrometer, and observing 

 polished sections under the microscope. The main con- 

 clusions arrived at were : — (i) A compound, AuTe, 05 

 Au^Te,, containing 43-59 per cent, of gold, and correspond- 

 ing in composition to sylvanite or calaverite, is formed 

 when gold and tellurium are melted together in certain 

 proportion ; this compound fuses at 452°. (2) Two eutectic 

 mi.xtures are formed, containing 60 per cent, and 20 per 

 cent, of gold respectively. These alloys correspond in 

 composition to the formulae AuTe and AuTe^. Under the 

 microscope they do not show the characteristic banded 

 eutectic structure, but there are certain indications that 

 they are true -compounds, ii) .All the alloys of gold and 

 tellurium are brittle. (4) All those containing less than 

 60 per cent, of gold fuse at temperatures between 397° 

 and 452°. — A method of settling slimes, as applied to their 

 separation from solution in cyanide treatment : H. G. 

 Nichols. The principle involved is that of removing the 



