April 9, 1908J 



NA TURE 



549 



tion -.vill be given out of doors, rambles in the country 

 under the guidance of experienced teachers being- the chief 

 feature. It is hoped to combine the natural history 

 excursions with points of antiquarian and other interest 

 in outlying districts, and an endeavour will be made to 

 render the course useful, both for home life and school 

 work. The report for 1907 on the work of the college as 

 a whole shows that good progress continues to be made. 

 The chief feature of the year was the establishment of a 

 course in natural history, which has for its object the 

 training of third-year students who have passed the 

 ordinary gardening course at the college and wish to 

 increase their knowledge of natural history subjects in 

 order to qualify as teachers of gardening and nature- 

 study. 



The third International Congress for the Development 

 of Drawing and Art Teaching is to be held in London 

 from August 3 to 8 next. Previous meetings in Paris in 

 iqoo and in Berne in 1904 proved very successful in 

 stimulating the application of art to industry. The pro- 

 moters of the London meeting direct attention to the fact 

 that as a nation Great Britain compares unfavourably with 

 her commercial competitors in the attention paid to applied 

 art in technical schools. On these grounds, with others, 

 an appeal is made to educational authorities and cmployer.s 

 of labour to assist in making the forthcoming congress 

 a success, both by contributions to the necessary funds and 

 by interesting administrators and teachers in the scheme. 

 Drawing should be allied %vith all subjects of study, but it 

 is especially useful to the student of science, and it is to 

 be hoped that the congress will lead to an improvement 

 in the methods of teaching drawing in our schools, as well 

 as to a recognition of its importance in a complete scheme 

 of education. Full particulars of the London meeting can 

 be obtained from the secretary of the congress, 151 Cannon 

 Street, London, E.C. 



The second International Congress of Popular Educa- 

 tion is to be held in Paris from October i to 4 next. It 

 is being arranged by la Ligue franijaise de I'Enseigne- 

 ment. Invitations have been sent to various educational 

 associations in different parts of the world to send dele- 

 gates to the congress. All expenses in connection with 

 the congress are to be borne, we understand, by the league. 

 Among the subjects to be introduced and discussed at the 

 meetings in Paris may be mentioned : — Societies for the 

 encouragement of the education of the masses, popular 

 lectures and libraries, the education of women in house- 

 hold and maternal duties, professional education, the inter- 

 national exchange of children for educational purposes, 

 and the system of visits by teachers for the study of foreign 

 methods. It is hoped to publish the addresses and dis- 

 cussions at the congress, and in this way to bring together 

 much valuable experience gained in different countries in 

 the direction of solving difficult educational problems. 

 There is every reason to hope that the meetings will prove 

 even more successful than those of the first congress, held 

 at Milan in iqo6. .All inquiries should be addressed to 

 M. L<5on Robelin, general secretary of la Ligue fran(;aise 

 de I'Enseignement, 16, rue de Miromesnil, Paris. 



The accounts for the year ending July 31, 1907, of the 

 various London polytechnics show that the total ordinary 

 receipts of all the institutions amounted for the year to 

 203,052/. The grants of the London County Council 

 amounted to 77.35S/., or 37-93 per cent, of the total 

 receipts. Grants from the Board of Education reached 

 32,844!., or 1611 per cent.; the amounts received from 

 City Parochial Foundation were 28,330/., or 13-89 per 

 cent., and from City companies. &c., 5917/., or 290 per 

 cent. The total ordinary expenditure on revenue account 

 of all the institutions amounted to 207,519/. Large 

 increases occurred under two heads, viz. " teachers' 

 salaries," 10,317/., and " apparatus and other educational 

 appliances and furniture," 3116/. Taking the results as 

 shown by the accounts, it is seen that, so far as ordinary 

 income and expenditure are concerned, there was a deficit 

 of 3567/. on the institutions as a whole. With regard to 

 items of an exceptional nature — principallv new building 

 works and special equipment — the total income was 

 15,089/., of which the London Countv Council's grants 

 amounted to 9401/., and the expenditure was 91 13/. Of 

 NO. 2006. VOL. 77] 



the total an-iount of revenue, it is interesting to note that 

 the fees of students and members of the various poly- 

 technics amounted in all to 47,255/., or 2157 per cent., 

 and what are called in the accounts voluntary subscrip- 

 tions reached gi6i/., or 4-18 per cent., nearly twice as 

 much as in the previous year, though other percentages 

 were practically the same in both years. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 ^ Royal Society, December 5, 1907. — " On the Structure 

 of Sigillaria scutellata, Brongn., and other Eusigillarian 

 Stems, in Comparison with those of other PalEeozoic 

 Lycopods." By E. A. Newell Arber and Hugh H. 

 Thomas. Communicated by Dr. D. H. Scott, F.R.S. 



This paper contains the first full account of the struc- 

 ture of the Eusigillariae or ribbed Sigillarias of the 

 Rhytidolepis section. The stele has a well-marked pith, 

 bounded by a continuous ring of scalariform tracheides — 

 the pri)iiary wood — the outer margin of which is crenu- 

 lated. The ribs are really formed of cortical tissues, and 

 not by fused leaf-bases. They consist largely of phello- 

 derm, and externally what is probably a sinall zone of 

 primary cortex, which lay without the region of secondary 

 meristermatic activity, still persists. The leaf-bases, con- 

 sisting of thin-walled parenchymatous elements, merely 

 form bracket-like projections from the ribs. 



The presence of a ligule and a ligular pit has been 

 detected for the first time. The course of the leaf-traces 

 in the leaf-bases and cortical tissues has been followed 

 with important results. The bundle is collateral, and 

 without secondary wood. In the leaf-bases the trace 

 consists of a double xylem strand, the two xylem groups 

 being widely separated. These two strands unite as they 

 pass through the phelloderm. The structure of the trace 

 is almost identical with the foliar bundle of the leaf 

 Sigillariopsis sulcata, which is obviously simply the leaf 

 of a eusigillarian stem. 



The parichnos increases greatly in size as we pass from 

 the exterior of the stem to the inner margin of the peri- 

 derm. The two strands further unite, first below and 

 then above the trace, so that, at a deep level in the peri- 

 derm, the trace is completely surrounded by a broad zone 

 of this tissue. 



January 16. — "The Conversion of Diamond into 

 Coke in High Vacuum bv Kathode Ravs." Bv the 

 Hon. C. V Parsons, C.B.; F.R.S. , and Alan A. Camp- 

 bell Swi .ion. 



The apparatus employed consisted of a Crookes tube 

 furnished with two concave cup electrodes of aluminium 

 which, when supplied with high-tension alternating current, 

 acted alternately as kathode and anode, and accurately 

 locussed the kathode rays on to the diamond, which was 

 supported on a plate of iridium. 



As the proper degree of vacuum was reached by means 

 of mercury pumps, and as the volts were raised, the 

 diamond in each of the two experiments made became 

 red, and then intensely white hot, until with about 9600 

 volts and 45 milliamperes passing through the tube it 

 commenced to become black. 



Finally, with 11,200 volts and 48 milliamperes (537 

 watts), a rapid disintegration of the diamond took place 

 with considerable increase in volume, the residue having 

 much the appearance and consistency of coke. As 

 measured by a F^ry optical pyrometer, the disintegration 

 took place at the temperature of 1890° C. 



Observations of the spectra of the residual gases in the 

 tube before and after the conversion of the diamond into 

 coke showed differences, but these were not thought 

 sufficiently marked to determine with exactitude any varia- 

 tion in the nature of the gases present. 



January 23. — " Report on the Eruptions of the Soufri^r* 

 in St. Vincent in 1902, and on a Visit to Montague Pel^e 

 in Martinique. Part ii. — The Changes in the Districts 

 and the Subsequent History of the Volcanoes." By Dr. 

 Tempest Anderson. Communicated by Prof. T. G. 

 Bonney, F.R.S. 



The principal points of interest in the observations made 



