igo 



NATURE 



[OlXliMMKR 26, 1901 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



The annual meeting of llie Association of Technical Institu- 

 tions will be held at the Skinners' Ilall, London, on Friday, 

 January 31, igo2. The Right Hon. Sir William Ilart Dyke, 

 M.r., will be in the chair, and an address will be delivered by 

 the president-elect. Lord Avebury. 



Mr. Walter Palmer, M.I',, has offered the University of 

 London the sum of 2000/. to provide the apparatus required 

 for the proposed post-graduate courses of lectures in physiology. 

 A committee has been appointed to consider the details of 

 the scheme. 



The system of secondary education in Italy forms the subject 

 of criticism at the hands of Prof. Amati Amalo, writing in the 

 Lombardy Kemiiconti, xxxiv. 17. The author regrets that from 

 1894 to the present time statistical data are very meagre, and it 

 is desirable that a volume should be annually issued showing 

 the number of schools of different grades and their total attend- 

 ances. The data available for the period up to 1894 are more 

 detailed, and show a marked increase in schools under clerical 

 control and a decrease in those under lay management, and 

 reasons are given for believing that the tendency continues to 

 be in the same direction. 



A DErUTATiON representing a number of University colleges 

 waited on the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Friday last in 

 order to place before him reasons why the annual Government 

 grant to these institutions should be increased. In connection 

 with this subject the facts given on p. 175 of this issue are of in- 

 terest. The grounds upon which the application was made were 

 summarised as follows : — The grant was originally placed upon 

 the Estimates in the year 1 889-90, the total amount being 15,000/., 

 apportioned among eleven colleges. An additional grant of 500/. 

 was subsequently made to University College, Dundee. In 1897 

 the grant was increased to 25,000/., which was distributed among 

 twelve colleges. Since then the work of the University colleges 

 has grown in importance .and magnitude. New departments have 

 been created, and probably in all the colleges important additions 

 have been made to the teaching staff, together with a largely 

 increased provision of appliances and equipment. In the year 

 1892 a Treasury committee reported in favour of a total grant 

 of 30,000/. being made to the University colleges, a sum in 

 excess by 5000/. of that which is at the present time distributed 

 among them. In 1897 new colleges at Reading and Exeter 

 were inspected by a Treasury committee appointed to visit 

 University colleges, and declared at that time not to have 

 reached such a standard in University work as to justify a claim 

 upon a share in the grant. These colleges, together with 

 another, have been again visited by a similar committee, and if 

 by this time they are reported to have reached a standard which 

 justifies their claim to be treated as fully equipped colleges in 

 arts and science some decrease in the grants to other colleges 

 would have to be made unless the total of 25,000/. is increased. 

 Replying to the deputation, the Chancellor of the Exchequer 

 said that there was no liability on the part of the Exchequer for 

 University education in lingland, and declared that this was a 

 doctrine which had always been accepted by Governments and 

 by Parliament. The grant made in 1892 was a purely temporary 

 measure, and did not imply any assumption of liability on the 

 part of the Exchequer. It was only to be regarded as an 

 attempt to aid local effort in places in which there was a strong 

 desire for University education. The experience of the last five 

 years had shown that the grant had had the effect of stimulating 

 local eftbrt. lie would carefully consider the whole question ; 

 but, while he must decline to pledge himself to any increase of 

 the present grant, he would Jo his best to prevent any loss 

 falling on the colleges which were now in receipt of it by the 

 admission of new colleges to its benefits. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIAL. 

 American Journal 0/ Science, December. — The geology of the 

 Little Colorado Valley, by Lester F. Ward. The paper is 

 accompanied by a section showing 3500 feet of Trias, of which 

 1200 are Painted Desert beds, 1600 Shinarump beds, and 700 

 Moencopie beds. — On pyrite and marcasite, by II. N. Stokes. 

 It is pointed out that although there is no dilliculty in dis- 

 , tinguishing these two minerals in well-crystallised specimens, 

 there remains a residuum consisting of massive or finely grained 

 material in which this is not possible. The methods which 



NO. 1678, VOL. 65] 



have been proposed for such cases are criticised and found to be 

 insufficient. A method has therefore been developed in which ad- 

 vantage is taken of the difterence between the two sulphides in 

 their behaviour towards solutions of ferric ammonia alum, and it 

 has been found possible to apply this to determine the amount 

 of each in mixtures. The application of this process to various 

 samples of doubtful nature, especially of concretions, has shown 

 that the finely fibrous specimens usually passing as marcasite 

 are very commonly pyrite. — Studies of Eocene mammalia in the 

 Marsh collection, Peabody Museum, by I. L. Wortman. — The 

 dielectric constant of paraffin, W. G. Worrawell. Four .samples 

 of commercial parafiin were examined with a modified form of 

 the Blondlot oscillator, the refractive index for the D line of 

 the samples being also determined. The dielectric constant of 

 a given paraffin increases with the den.sity of the parafiin. It 

 augments rapidly from a temperature 20° above the melting- 

 point to a temperature 30 below the melting-point, and 

 among different paraffins the dielectric constant increases with 

 a rise in the melting-point. A comparison of the results for 

 short electrical waves and short lightwaves shows that Cauchy's 

 formula as a means of obtaining the index of refraction for 

 indefinitely long waves does not meet the experimental data. 

 — ^On some new mineral occurrences in Canada, by G. C. 

 Hoffman. — The estimation of molybdicacid reduced by hydriodic 

 .acid, by F. A. Gooch and O. S. Pulman, jun. The conditions 

 under which molybdic acid may be accurately iletermined by 

 reduction with potassium iodide and hydrochloric acid are here 

 laid down, and test analyses showing the accur.icy of the method 

 are cited. —The Veramin meteorite, by II. A. Ward. The 

 meteorite consisted of an intimate mixture of metal and mineral, 

 in roughly equal proportions. Analysis of the metallic portion 

 is given. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 

 Royal Society, December 5. — "Notes on Quantitative 

 Spectra of Beryllium." By Prof. W. N. Hartley, D.Sc.F.R.S. 

 In a quantitative examination made in 1S85 of all the known 

 methods of .separating beryllium from aluminium and from iron 

 the various precipitates obtained were dissolved and diluted to 

 a known volume corresponding with the amount of bases in 

 solution. 



The solutions were spectrographically examined, and the 

 photographs compared with others taken from solutions contain- 

 ing accurately weighed quantities of pure beryllia. Wave-lengths 

 of lines shown by solutions containing O'oooooi per cent, of 

 beryllium : 3322-3 extinct, 3130-3 nearly one-half the line still 

 strong, 2649-8 reduced to a dot, 2493-6 a dot scarcely visible, 

 2478-1 a very fine short line. 



The actual length of the line 2478-1, as rendered by solutions 

 of oooooi per cent, and o 00000 1 per cent, strength, is, in the 

 former, o 07, and, in the latter, 0-05 of an inch. The normal 

 length of the line at this part of the spectrum is 0-22 of an inch. 

 The quantity of substance yielding this spectrum is equivalent to 

 one-millionth of a milligramme of beryllium. The coefficient 

 of extinction of the two liuesA\3i30-3and 2478-1 had not been 

 reached by the dilution specified. 



Beryllia has been separated from the alununa contained in 

 felspar obtained from a granite found in co. Wicklow. From 

 numerous experiments on the analytical processes employed in 

 the .separation of beryllia from alumina it was found that it 

 remained combined with the sesquioxide bases in so persistent 

 a manner as to lead to the belief that ordinary alumina might be 

 found more often than not to contain traces of beryllia. Such, 

 however, is not the case, though gallium has been ascertained 

 to be present in almo.st all minerals which contain aluminium. 

 As they belong to the same group, the two elements aluminium 

 and gallium may be expected to form isomorphous mixtures, 

 which would account for their being so constantly associated in 

 nature ; but the position of beryllium in the periodic system ol 

 classification shows that a similar behaviour with that element 

 is scarcely probable. 



Geological Society, December 4.— Mr. J. J. H. Teall, 

 V.P.R.S., president, in the chair. — On a new genus belonging 

 to the Leperditiad.T, from the Cambrian Shales of Malvern, by 

 Prof. T. T. (Jroom. Forms referred to lieyrichia have long 

 been known from the Cambrian beds of Scandinavia, Stocking- 

 ford and South Wales, and the writer has obtained from the 



