November 21, 1901J 



NA TURE 



71 



From the Report of the Somerset County Education Com- 

 mittee we learn that an experimental farm has been established 

 under the auspices of the committee at Bickenhall,' near 

 Taunton, where systematic observations are made and experi- 

 ments conducted on the breeding, feeding and produce of farm 

 animals, more especially those usually found on a dairy farm. 

 Experiments are also made on the production of various crops. 



The annual meeting of the Association of Headmasters of 

 Higher Grade Schools and Schools of Science was held on 

 Friday last at the rooms of the Society of Arts. Mr. E. J. 

 Cox, Headmaster of the George Dixon Higher Grade School, 

 Birmingham, delivered his presidential address, taking for his 

 subject the recent return of the Board of Education, which 

 gives statistics relating to schools of science in connection with 

 board schools and certain conclusions which have been drawn 

 from the return by a section of the Press. Mr. Cox, and the 

 a.ssociation over which he presides, maintain that these schools 

 of science are providing a thorough and suitable preparation for 

 boys who will later proceed to workshops and factories. 

 Judging by the remarkalile unanimity of the reports of the 

 inspectors of the Board of Education, South Kensington, it may 

 certainly be said that these schools provide the best preparation 

 for the later work of the technical school to be obtained in this 

 country. It is to be hoped that future legislation will provide 

 a place in the national system of education for schools of this 

 character, since they effectually ensure that the brightest 

 children of the elementary schools shall receive practical 

 instruction in the methods of science. It is a hopeful sign for 

 the future of English education that several representatives of 

 different trade societies were present at the meeting and showed 

 by their speeches that they understood the value of a knowledge 

 of science to all engaged in manufacture. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



Lo.NDON. 



Royal Astronomical Society, November S.— Dr. T. W. L. 

 Glaisher, president, in the chair.— Mr. S. A. SaundeV read a 

 paper on the determination of selenographic positions and the 

 measurement of lunar photographs. This was a second paper 

 on the subject, dealing with the determination of a first group 

 of standard points on the moon, by measures made at the tele- 

 scope and on photographs. Prof. Turner said this was a work 

 in which those could assist who possessed telescopes of moderate 

 aperture, as it had been found that very large apertures were 

 unsuited for measures of the lunar surface. — Father Sidgreaves 

 read a paper on the spectrum of Nova Persei from February 28 

 to April 26 ; with an appendix, dealing with its spectrum in 

 August and September. Photographs were shown of the spectrum 

 taken at Stonyhurst on August 27 and September 5, when it 

 had become a bright-line spectrum, some of the lines remaining 

 very broad and well defined.— Mr. A. R. Hinksgave an account 

 of the experimental reduction of some photographs of Eros 

 made at Cambridge Observatory for the determination of solar 

 parallax ; he explained the methods employed and gave some 

 preliminary results,— Mr. H. C. Plummer read a paper on 



periodic orbits in the neighbourhood of centres of libralion. 



Mr. Bellamy read his paper on the place of the variable star 

 RU Herculis and the neighbouring stars from photographic 

 measures.— Prof W. W. Campbell, Prof. J. Scheiner and M. 

 Ch. Trepied were elected associates of the Society. 



Linnean Society, November 7.— Prof. S. H. Vines, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — Mr. W. Botting Hemsley, F.R S., on 

 behalf of the Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew, exhibited 

 the following specimens : -(i) A West Australian umbelliferous 

 shrub, Siebera deflexa, which produces tubers, called Yuke by 

 the aborigines, who eat them both raw and cooked. Many 

 shrubs in dry countries form large tuberous stocks from which 

 annual stems spring ; but the tubers of Siebera dejlexa grow in 

 strings showing no trace of eyes or buds, but scars where stems 

 may have been detached. Whether independent plants spring 

 from the separate tubers is a question which remains to be deter- 

 mined. (2) Germinating seeds of Araiicai-ia Bidwillii, received 

 from Grahamstown. The peculiarity in the germination is that 

 there are two distinct stages ; in the first stage the radicle 

 emerges from the shell of the seed, eventually bringing out the 

 petioles of the cotyledons and the axis of the plantlet. The 



NO. 1673, VOL. 65] 



radicle grows into a carrot-shaped woody body, from which the 

 petioles of the cotyledons disarticulate, leaving a few minute 

 rudimentary leaves forming the point of the plumule. After 

 some weeks the second stage begins with the elongation of the 

 plumule, which eventually becomes the trunk of the tree. It 

 appears that the second stage may be delayed a considerable 

 time without loss of vitality. The germination of the seeds of 

 Araiicaria Bidiuillii had been previously observed, and the 

 process has been described and illustrated in Regel's " Garten- 

 flora," 1865, p. 103 ; but the two stages of growth escaped 

 notice. Another peculiarity is there pointed out : each seed 

 contained two or more embryos, which germinated and grew so 

 that 164 plants were raised from seventy-five seeds. Araucaria 

 Bidwillit is the Bunya-lnmya of (Queensland, and the seeds 

 were formerly an importaut article of food of the Australian 

 aborigines. (3) A drawing of Archidendron solomonensis, a 

 new pluricarpellary leguminous tree, native of the Solomon 

 Islands, where it was discovered by Archdeacon Comins. In 

 this instance there were three ripe pods developed from one 

 flower ; and it was explained that in the flowering stage there 

 were usually eight carpels ; but they probably rarely, if ever, 

 all reach maturity. The genus Archidendron was founded on 

 an Australian species, and since then several other species have 

 been discovered in New Guinea and the adjacent i.slands. (4) 

 A -selection of South African species of Helichrysum showing 

 the great diversity in habit, foliage and flowers displayed by 

 this very large genus of Compositii;. — Dr. Rendle showed ger- 

 minating seeds of Criniim longtfolium, received from Mr. E. A. 

 Bowles, as an example of the so-called bulbiform seeds which 

 characterise this and some other allied genera of Amaryllideje. 

 — The president directed attention to a specimen of Ltizitia 

 vivea from a cultivated plant of unusual dimensions. — Mr. Cecil 

 Warburton, on behalf of Miss Alice Embleton and himself, 

 read a paper on the life-history of the black currant gall-mite, 

 Eriophyes (Phytopliis) rihii, hitherto very imperfectly known, 

 and dealt particularly with its behaviour during the migration- 

 period, which lasted from the middle of May to the middle of 

 June. Its natural enemies and its relation to the red currant 

 plant were also discussed. — Mr. C. B. Clarke, F.R.S., com- 

 municated some notes on the types of species of Carex in 

 Boott's Herbarium. 



Cambridge. 



Philosophical Society, October 28.— Mr. J. Larmor, vice- 

 president, in the chair. — Prof. A. Macalister was elected 

 president for the session 1901-2.— Notes on minerals from the 

 Lengenbach Binnenthal, with an analysis by Mr. H. Jackson, 

 by Mr. R. II. Solly (see vol. Ixiv. p. 577, October 10).— Some 

 remarks on the notion of number, by Dr. Hobson. — The Hall 

 effect in gases at low pressures, by Mr. H. A. Wilson. The 

 experiments described in this paper were undertaken with the 

 object of detecting and investigating the Hall effect in the 

 positive column of the ordinary electric discharge at low pres- 

 sures. A vacuum tube was constructed having two small 

 electrodes 65 millimetres apart, attached to a stopper ground 

 into a side lube, joined on at right angles to the main discharge 

 tube. By rotating the stopper the two small electrodes could 

 be made to lie both in the same equipotential surface of the 

 positive column. The difference of potential between these 

 electrodes was measured by means of a quadrant electrometer, 

 and the stopper was turned until the electrometer deflection was 

 zero- J\ magnetic field was then applied perpendicular to the 

 line joining the two small electrodes and to the direction of the 

 discharge. It was found that the field produced a dift"erence of 

 potential between the small electrodes which appeared to be a 

 true Hall effect and was proportional to the magnetic field. 

 In the uniform positive column this transverse potential gradient 

 was found to be nearly independent of the current through the 

 tube and inversely proportional to the pressure of the air in the 

 tube. At I millimetre pressure the diflference between the 

 velocities of the negative and positive ions due to one volt per 



cm. was found to be 14 x lo'' £5^. —On some problems in elec- 



sec. 

 trie convection, by Mr. G. T. Walker. The paper deals with 

 problems involving the motion of electrified particles through 

 dielectrics which are themselves in motion relative to the ether. 

 It is shown that if space on one side of an infinite plane be 

 occupied by a dielectric and this medium be moving at right 

 angles to its bounding plane, the determination of the electric 

 and magnetic forces due to a point-charge possessed of a velocity 



