NA TURE 



[April 23, 1908 



held at Preston on April ii, remarked, in reference to 

 the American institutions of this kind, tliat in the one at | 

 Brooklyn the following aims have been kept in view : — I 

 (i) to employ objects attractive and interesting to children, 

 and at the same time helpful to teachers in every branch 

 of nature-study ; (2) to secure an arrangement at once 

 pleasing to the eye, expressive of fundamental truth ; (3) to 

 avoid confusion from the use of too many specimens, and 

 the consequent close crowding in cases ; (4) to label with 

 brief descriptions, expressed in simple language and printed 

 in clear, legible type. The keeping of live animals is an 

 important branch of the work, and a source of endless 

 interest to the young visitors. .A striking exhibit is a 

 series of historic models illustrating the six chief types of 

 people who formed permanent settlements in North 

 America. 



A SCHEME is under consideration for the establishment of 

 a university in Hong Kong. Mr. Mody has placed at the 

 disposal of .Sir Frederick Lugard, the Governor of Hong 

 Kong, a sum of 15,000/. for the purpose. At a recent 

 meeting, according to Renter's agent, Sir Frederick 

 Lugard said he is willing to recommend the Government 

 to provide a site, but cannot go further than that in view 

 of the liabilities of the Government. He believes that if 

 Hong Kong could establish a university with facilities 

 equal or superior to those at Tokio, it would attract a large 

 number of the wealthy Chinese students who now go to 

 Japan, America, and Europe, and would increase the 

 prestige and influence of Great Britain throughout the 

 Chinese Empire. To provide an adequate endowment for 

 even the modest beginning proposed, a sum of not much 

 less than 100,000/. will be required. 



The treasurer of University College, Bristol, has re- 

 ceived a donation of 550/. from the University College 

 Colston Society for general purposes, and a grant of 50/. 

 from the Board of Agriculture to enable the department 

 of economic biology to carry on its investigations on the 

 effect of electricity on plants. The County Council of 

 .Somerset has approved a scheme of research in connection 

 with Cheddar cheese-making, and has authorised an ex- 

 penditure of 200L for the first year on this work. The 

 Gloucestershire County Council has passed the following 

 resolution in support of the movement for the establish- 

 ment of a university in Bristol : — " That this council 

 approves of the scheme for promoting the Bristol Uni- 

 versity, and will consider what, if any, financial assist- 

 ance they can accord to it when the scheme is more fully 

 developed." 



In an address at the graduation ceremony of the Uni- 

 versity of Edinburgh on April 10, Prof. Chrystal I'eferred 

 to reforms in secondary and university education in Scot- 

 land. In 18S6 Prof. Chrystal placed before the Scotch 

 Education Department a scheme for a general leaving 

 certificate examination for schools. The department 

 approved the suggestion, and Sir Henry Craik carried out 

 the scheme in detail with very satisfactory results. Prof. 

 Chrystal now proposes to make the Scotch Leaving 

 Certificate examination the normal course of entrance to 

 each university, and to abolish the university preliminarv 

 examination. Already the leaving certificate examination 

 is accepted by Scotch universities in lieu of the preliminary 

 examination for the subjects it covers, and it is desirable 

 to make the examination a complete passport to the 

 universities. Part of Prof. Chrystal's original proposal to 

 the Scotch Education Department regarding the leaving 

 certificate was the creation of a National Board of 

 Surveillance, on which the department, the schools, the 

 universities, and certain other public bodies were to be 

 represented. His object was to avoid the necessity for 

 the institution of a university preliminary examination. 

 A generally accepted standard for entrance to the University 

 is an inevitable element in university reform ; but the 

 administration of a general le.iving examination for schools 

 is not the proper business of the universities. No doubt 

 one of the functions of a leaving certificate should bo to 

 qualify for an academic course, but it has many other 

 functions besides, and all that the universities ' should 

 claim_ is a share in the surveillance of the leaving certifi- 

 cate in so far as it concerns them. Prof. Chrvstal went 

 on to say that the advance of secondary education, in par- 

 XO. 2008, VOL. 77J 



ticular the opening of junior student centres all over 

 Scotland, is rapidly preparing the way, if it has not already 

 prepared it, for carrying out the ideal of the Universities' 

 Commissioners. " 1 turn, therefore, with renewed hope 

 and renewed insistence to the men of wisdom and of 

 influence, who hold in their hands our educational destiny, 

 and ask them to consider once more my old proposal for 

 a National Board, which shall regulate the schools' leaving 

 certificate, so that it shall become the normal portal of 

 admission to the universities, and render the present pre- 

 liminary examination and the present Joint Board and all 

 its works unnecessary. This reform must, of course, be 

 taken up as a national affair. It is no matter of the 

 autonomy of the universities. It concerns the welfare and 

 good government of all the secondary schools of the 

 country ; also, I may say, the relation of our standards 

 of secondary education to similar standards all over the 

 British Empire." 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 

 Linnean Society, April 2. — Lieut.Colonel Prain, F.R.S., 



vice-president, in the chair. — The anatomy of some 

 sapotaceous seedlings ; Winifred Smith. The seedlings of 

 the SapotaceEe are remarkable on account of (i) their 

 exceptional mode of transition from root to stem ; (2) the 

 lack of continuity in the different parts of the vascular 

 system ; (3) their tendency to a geophilous habit. To 

 Dangeard's axiom : — " Le plan vertical median des coty- 

 ledons correspond toujours a un faisceau vasculaire de la 

 racine," the sole exceptions vouched for are trees, and' 

 occur in the Sapotaceae and in two genera of the Fagacea;. 

 — Notes on some sponges recently collected in Scotland : 

 Dr. N. Annandale. 



Society of Chemical Industry (London Section), April 6. 

 — Dr. Lewkowitsch in the chair. — Considerations affecting 

 the " strength " of wheat flours : Julian L. Baker and 

 H. F. E. Hulton. It is improbable that any one rhrniical 

 or physical determination can be used for determining the 

 " strength " of flours, as the generally accepted definition 

 includes two distinct qualities, viz. size and shape of loaf. 

 It is recommended that bakers should apportion marks 

 independently for size and shape. A proteolytic enzyme 

 capable of degrading the gluten, and so influencing the 

 character of the loaf, appears to be absent, but there is 

 a small quantity of an erepsin. Yeast enzymes can effect 

 partial proteolysis of gluten. Aqueous flour extracts 

 depart from Kjeldahl's law of proportionality. Maltose is 

 the sole sugar formed during doughing. Flours on keep- 

 ing display changes in enzymic activity. Doughs have a 

 greater diastatic activity than either the aqueous extract of 

 the flour or the flour itself, and this activity varies in- 

 versely with the amount of water present. Flours contain 

 a starch-liquefying enzyme, and this enzyme is closely 

 connected with gas production. The formation of gluten 

 from gliadin and glutenin is independent of enzymic 

 activity, and is probably only a hydration phenomenon. 

 Gliadin separated from flour was re-combined with thi' 

 residual gluten and starch, and the gluten, in a weakened 

 condition, was recovered by washing out. The diast.ilii 

 activity of gluten is confirmed, and shown to reside in ihi- 

 glutenin moietv. — The occurrence of cyanogenetic gluro- 

 sides in feeding stuffs : T. A. Henry and S. J. M. Atild. 

 In association with Prof. Dunstan, the authors have in- 

 vestigated a number of plants which yield prussic acid' 

 when in contact with water, and show (hat the prussir 

 acid is formed by the interaction of a glycoside and an 

 enzyme which decomposes it, liberating prussic acid. 

 Several of these plants are employed as feeding stuffs, 

 notably Java beans, and it is to this liberation of prussic 

 acid that the numerous cases of poisoning of cattle by 

 these beans are due. Linseed cake also contains a cyano- 

 genetic glucoside, but the high temperature to which the 

 cake is heated in the course of manufacture destroys the 

 enzyme originally present in the seed. The seed of the 

 Para rubber tree, sometimes used for feeding purposes in 

 the tropics, also yields small quantities of prussic acid. — 

 Note on murexide as a auondam dye-stufT and printing 

 colour : \\'atson Smith. The author exhibited a specimen' 



