March 12, 190S] 



NA TURE 



453 



and from this digest \vc notice tliere were, during 1005-6, 

 622 institutions of higher education reporting to the 

 Washington Bureau of Education. The total number of 

 professors and instructors in these institutions reached 

 23,950, and the number of students 258,603 — an increase of 

 9430 on the preceding year. The value of the property 

 possessed by the 622 institutions amounted to 110,815,400;., 

 of which 49,686,100/. was the amount of productive funds. 

 The aggregate income of these institutions f6r the year 

 was 8,956,700/. The total value of all gifts reported 

 amounted to 3,543,300/. ; Harvard University received 

 443,600/. ; Yale University, 229,100/. ; Columbia University, 

 New York, 210,000/.; the University of Pennsylvania, 

 109,000/. ; and the North-Western University, Illinois, and 

 Princetown University, New Jersey, each received about 

 105,000/. In this report, for the first time, the number 

 of students in schools of technology is not given 

 separately, because, as the commissioner points out, there 

 has been an erroneous opinion in Europe and elsewhere 

 that there is no higher technical training in .America out- 

 side the schools of technology, whereas the ordinary 

 universities grant nearly twice as many degrees in science 

 as the technical colleges, and are doing excellent work in 

 pure and applied science generally. 



Wf. have received a couple of pamphlets (Leipzig ; \'crlag 

 der Durr'schen Buchhandlung) which indicate the con- 

 tinued interest of the German public in both sides of the 

 question of school reform. One of these pamphlets ('* Die 

 Stadt Berlin und das Reformgymnasium ") is a reprint of 

 a strenuous argument, which was originally delivered by 

 Stadtschulrat Dr. Carl MIchaelis in 1904, against tamper- 

 ing with the school s\'sten of the capital. Dr. MIchaelis 

 has brought the statistical portion of his address up to 

 date, and finds in recent educational history nothing to 

 weaken his former contention that the establishment of a 

 Reformgyinnasium In Berlin is demanded neither by the 

 success of the reform movement generally nor by the 

 specific educational conditions of the city. Further, while 

 he makes it clear that he is far from opposed to well- 

 ronsidered changes in other directions, he defends the old 

 gvmnasium against the reformers as an indispensable part 

 of the school system. In particular, he criticises the con- 

 tention that the lower classes should be preparatory' equally 

 to all the recognised forms of secondary school, partly on 

 the ground that the advantage which this arrangement is 

 alleged to give the parent in selecting the school suitable 

 to the abilities of his child is illusory, partly on the around 

 that no plan devised on these lines can accord with the 

 necessary conception of a gvmnasial education. Many of 

 These arguments apoear also in the second pamphlet 

 f" Mathematik und Reformgymnasium "), in which Dr. 

 H. \'ogt endeavours to show that the teaching of mathe- 

 matics suffers in respect both of the time given to the 

 subject and of the valu? of the instruction where it is 

 attempted to superimpose the gvmnasial classes upon a 

 foundation common to all the higher schools. The same 

 firm of publishers has reprinted the address delivered in 

 the I'niversitv of Eriangen by Dr. Richard Falckenberg 

 on the occasion of the centenary of the death of Kant 

 (February 12, 1904). 



TiiF. second annual report, dealing with the vcar 1907, 

 of the president and trensurer of the Carnegie Foundation 

 for the .\dvancement of Tenching has reached us. It will 

 be remembered that Mr. Carnegie's gift of two million 

 pounds sterling was intended to serve primarilv in the 

 establishment of retiring allowances for teachers in the 

 institutions of higher learning in the United States, 

 Canada, and Newfoundland, but that he left it to be 

 administered for this purpose in such a manner as the 

 trustees might decide to be wise. The fears expressed in 

 some quarters that such a gift in the hands of a limited 

 number of men might prove a centralised power which 

 would hinder rather than aid the progress of education do 

 not seem to have been well founded. .Since th^ inaugura- 

 tion of the foundation down to Seotember 30 last, grants 

 have been made to 166 oersons (eighteen of whom died 

 Hurins.' the period), involving an annual budget of 46.0^2/. 

 Of this amount. 20 250/. was devoted to retiring allow- 

 ances in accented institutions, and 17,702/. to retiring 

 .-illowances made to Individuals. In the group of retire- 



NO 2002. VOL. 77] 



ments on the basis of age an interesting comparison is 

 made ; the number of allowances granted on this basis to 

 professors not in accepted institutions before October, 1906, 

 was eighteen ; since then only eight similar allowances have 

 been made. This indicates that the number of aged pro- 

 fesisors whom on account of their distinguished merit 

 alone the trustees would be likely to add to the holders 

 of allowances is rapidly diminishing. It is also interest- 

 ing to note that retiring allowances to professors 

 in State universities are made only when the services 

 rendered to learning by the applicant have been of great 

 distinction. As indicative of the number of applications 

 made to the trustees, it may be stated that the files of the 

 foundation show that 500 applications have been refused. 

 It is satisfactory to learn that when once the principles of 

 award have been decided upon finally, the trustees will 

 see that the retiring allowance comes to the recipient " as 

 a right, not as a charity; as a thing earned In the regular 

 course of service, not a courtesv. " 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Physical Society, February 14. — Prof. J. Perry, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — .Annual general meeting. 

 .Address by the newly elected president. Dr. C. Chree. 

 Dr. Chree referred to the magnetic results obtained by 

 the National Antarctic Expedition of 1901-4. The expedi- 

 tion was furnished with magnetographs, and the reduction 

 and discussion of the curves has been done by the National 

 Physical Laboratory. Before describing the results, the 

 president spoke of the nature of the preparations that 

 might be made in any future national scientific expedition. 

 The observers should have a preliminary training lasting 

 over some months, and should be practised in the use of 

 Instruments. These instruments ought to be ready for 

 use and fully tested months before the date of the expedi- 

 tion. .A programme should be got out in good time, so 

 as to admit of rehearsals bv the observers. An inquirv, 

 after the return of the expedition, into the value of the 

 results obtained might be useful in securing that 

 meritorious work in science would not be overlooked. 

 Lantern-slides relating to the diurnal inequalities of the 

 magnetic elements in the .Antarctic were exhibited and 

 described. Slides of corresponding Kew results were 

 shown for intercomparison. The president dwelt on the 

 relatively highly disturbed nature of the .Antarctic records. 

 In the .Antarctic, the declination and horizontal force 

 magnets were practically never at rest. So large and 

 incessant were the disturbances that no idea of the nature 

 of the regular diurnal inequality was obtainable from in- 

 spection of individual curves. Diurnal inequalities, how- 

 ever, derived from the curves of single months, and still 

 more of a whole season of the year, proved to be of a 

 comparatively smooth character. 



Royal Meteorological Society, February 19. — Dr. H. R. 

 Mill, president, in the chair. — The formation of " snow 

 rollers " observed at Ryton on Dunsmore, near Coventry, 

 on January 29-30, 1907 : C. Browett. It seems that the 

 flakes of a light fluffy layer of surface snow are made 

 adhesive by a rise in the temperature of the air above the 

 freezing point, while the under snow remains cold and 

 drv, and the particles of dainp surface snow are enabled 

 to adhere to each other, but not to the dry under snow. 

 A strong wind may then push over little projections of 

 the surface snow and start them rolling, when, of course, 

 thev will travel and grow until the resistances overcome 

 the propelling power of the wind. These " snow rollers " 

 varv in size, some being only a few inches in diameter, 

 while at times others have been seen 2 feet or more in 

 length. — Comparison of ships' barometer readings with 

 those deduced from land observations : E. Gold. This 

 paper contained the result of a preliminary investigation 

 undertaken at the Meteorological Ofliice into the relation 

 between the barometer readings taken on ships during their 

 passage across a line between Falmouth and Brest, and 

 the readings deduced for the ships' positions from the 

 observations at these places and the trend of the isobars, 

 on the assumption of regular pressure changes. Taking 

 into account the various causes which can appreciably 



