526 



NATURE 



[April 3, 1902 



From a hitherto unpublished article which lies before me, and 

 in which I am inclined to place great confidence, I Rather as a 

 matter of fact that the time law of enzyme actions differs from 

 the simplest scheme of reaction velocities. This question is, 

 however, not yet ripe for discussion. 



The question of the range of substances which can be altered 

 by a given enzyme in a certain manner (for example, hydrolysed) 

 is likewise in the first stage of solution, and there seems to be 

 here similar multiplicity of function to what is found in the case 

 of other catalysts. 



The beautiful investigations of E. Fischer have shown that 

 at any rate the very slight differences which nowadays we 

 know in chemistry as stereochemical can bring about alteration 

 in the action of a given enzyme. As to whether this rests on 

 the asymmetriccharacter of the enzyme itself or on other grounds 

 appears to me not to have been decisively ascertained. 



I must hasten to a conclusion. I have set myself the task 

 of pointing out the broad provinces of a fertile land, which 

 only here and there shows the first beginning of .systematic 

 cultivation, but of which thjfruitfulnessand importance is beyond 

 all question. Kven if the land lies outside the region to 

 which the chemistry of the past was acclimatised, still our 

 restless science has already begun with its new implements to 

 make the new soil fruitful. That it is not only a chemical in- 

 terest that makes the work grateful I think I have shown you 

 by examples of its physiological application. It is also evident, 

 from the examples which we already have of the application 

 of this auxiliary, that the scientific knowledge and investigation 

 of catalysis must have vast consequences in technical applica- 

 tions. The last great triumph of German technical chemistry, 

 the synthesis of indigo, which will revolutionise the agricultural 

 conditions of whole countries, contains as an essential factor a 

 new catalysis. The oxidation of naphthalene by means of sul- 

 phuric acid with sjwed can only be brought about in the presence 

 of mercury. The sulphuric acid itself, it is hardly necessary to 

 say, is prepared by a catalytic process, whether we use the old 

 or the newer method. When we consider that the acceleration 

 of the reaction by catalysis is achieved without consumption of 

 energy, and so proceeds in this sense gi alts, and that in chemical 

 industry, as in all other, time is money, we perceive that the 

 systematic utilisation of catalytic appliances is likely to lead to 

 the most thorough-going charges in manufacturing processes. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 Thk (Jovernment Education Bill has been the subject of much 

 discussion since Mr. Balfour described its provisions to the 

 House of Commons last week. Public opinion is decidedly in 

 favour of the creation of local educational authorities, but it is 

 felt that unless these new bodies are made responsible for 

 elementary as well as secondary education, the main object of 

 the Bill will be lost. As the president of the National Union 

 of Teachers pointed out at the conference at Bristol, there would 

 still exist in the same district " separate authorities for primary 

 and secondary education, with their useless and unnecessary 

 administrative expenditure, their jealous rivalries and intermin- 

 able friction." The only way to end this state of things is to 

 make each constituted local authority responsible for the whole 

 of the educational work in its district. There must be no clau.se 

 making it optional to adopt the elementary part of the measure, 

 for in many cases this would mean that there would still be 

 competing schools and educational agencies instead of an 

 organised system. The members of School Boards who have a 

 real knowledge of education would naturally be absorbed by the 

 local authorities, and those who are more identified with 

 sectarian and political interests would be left to find another 

 platform for their polemics. The views of teachers in primary 

 schools are expressed in the following resolution brought before 

 the Bristol conference by Mr. K. Waddington :— " That con- 

 ference expresses approval of themain principles of the Educa- 

 tion Rill, 1902, under which may be created local authorities 

 controlling and maintaining all forms of education within wide 

 areas, and hereby records its satisfaction with the Government's 

 desire to place our educational system on a sound basis ; but is 

 of opinion that the measure cannot become educationally 

 effective unless the permissive clauses of the Bill relating to 

 elementary education be struck out, and it be made compulsory 

 upon the local authorities to take over the control of elementary 

 as well as of higher education." If the Government decide to 



NO. 1692, VOL. 65] 



withdraw the optional clause the measure will meet with general 

 approval from most educationists. 



I'ROF. R. Meldoi.a, E.R.S., has been appointed by the 

 President of the Board of Education a member of the Teacher.s' 

 Registration Council, which has just been created to consider 

 claims to be admitted to the Register of Teachers. 



The Lord Mayor of Liverpool has issued an appeal for 

 funds to establish a Liverp lol University upon the University 

 College of the city. To effect this, about 330,000/. will be re- 

 quired, of which there has already been promised no less than 

 145,000/. by leading citizens. '1 he present value or possessions 

 of the College itself amount to more than 500,000/.; and the 

 additional sum of 330,000/. which is asked for is to complete its 

 equipment as a university. The existing resources of the 

 College, the endowment of chairs and lectureships, amount to 

 186,300/ ; the sites acquired and buildings erected and in 

 course of erection, 251.550/.: fellowships, scholarships and 

 prizes, 32,800/., exclusive of value of fellowships antj scholar- 

 ships established by annual gifts or granted by city and county 

 councils, the Royal Institution, the Ladies' Educational Asso- 

 ciation, the Tale trustees, and other bodies outside University 

 College; endowments for maintenance, 20,275/.; ^"^ ''*y 

 training college hostel and endowment, 10,000/ The total of 

 500,925/. does not include the value of books in the library and 

 apparatus in laboratories, nor does it take account of sums, 

 amounting to many thousands of pounds, given to the college 

 year by year for immediate expenditure, nor of the annual 

 income of the affiliated schools of architecture and applied art, 

 public health and tropical medicine. The additional lecture- 

 ships to be endowed include electrotechnics, geology and 

 chemistry, besides others in connection with commerce, 

 engineering and medicine. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIAL. 

 American Journal of Siic-mf, March. — The ventral integu- 

 ment of trilobites, by C. E. Beecher. In previous studies of 

 trilobites the author had not thought it worth while to illustrate 

 the character of the ventral integument, but a recent discovery 

 by Jacket necessitates the separate consideration of this struc- 

 ture. From a study of a specimen of Ptyclioparia striata, 

 Jaekel has deduced an entire reconstruction of the appendages 

 and anatomy of the trilobite. An examination of well-preserved 

 specimens of Triarthrus, several photographic reproductions of 

 which accompany the paper, leads to the conclusion that the 

 deductions of Jaekel are erroneous. — Igneous rocks from 

 eastern Siberia, by Henry S. Washington. The specimens 

 examined included a foyaite from East Cape, comendite, quartz- 

 porphyry, rhyolite, obsidian and monzonite from Iskagan Bay. — 

 A cosmic cycle, by Frank W. Very. — Studies of Eocene mam- 

 malia in the Marsh collection, Peabody Museum, by J. L. 

 Wortman. The present instalment is devoted to a considera- 

 tion of Lininocyon vertts, velox, niedius and dysodus. — An 

 experimental method in the How of solids and its applica- 

 tion to the compression of a cube of plastic material, by J. R. 

 Benton. Frames of parallel wires were cast into the centre of 

 a cube of Wood's metal. After the cube had been distorted 

 beyond the elastic limits in a testing machine, the fusible metal 

 was melted off and the structure of the framework examined. 

 The condition of the wires after varying treatment is shown in 

 a series of diagrams. — On the occurrence of monazite in iron 

 ore and in graphite, by O. A. Derby. — The molecular weights 

 of some carbon compounds in concentrated solutions with 

 carbon compounds as solvents, by C. L. Speyers. — Clarence 

 King, by S. F. Emmons. An account of the life-work of the 

 late Clarence King. * 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, March 6. — "Experimental Researches on 

 Drawn Steel. — Part i. Magnetism and its Changes with 

 Temperature. — Part ii. Resistivity, Elasticity and Density, and 

 the Temperature CoefHcients of Resistivity and Elasticity." 

 By J. Reginald Ashworth. Communicated by Prof. Schuster, 

 F.R.S. 



When magnets are heated and cooled and the cyclic state is 

 reached, the relation of intensity to temperature is expressed by 

 the equation 



I, = Io(l + at). 



