April 24, 1902] 



NA TURE 



599 



and Venus. Nothing else could be distinguished, not even the 

 first-magnitude star Aldebaran. The plates exposed during the 

 last half showed even less, as the clouds were then thicker. 



The accompanying illustration (Fig. 2) shows the instrument 

 used to obtain the photographs. If the weather had been fine 

 it w-Quld have been possible to have obtained photographs which 



would have decided whether the impressions of the supposed 

 small planets within the orbit of Mercury, which appear upon 

 the photographs of the previous eclipse, represent real bodies 

 or not. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



A FEW particulars of the late Mr. Robert Irvine's bequest for 

 the chair of bacteriology in Edinburgh University are given in 

 the Latuet. Certain shares in the Christmas Island Phosphate 

 Co., Ltd., are to form a separate trust to be invested until the 

 property accumulates to the value of 25,000/. or 30,000/., when 

 the trustees are to pay the sum over to the Association for the 

 better Endowment of the University of Edinburgh, or to such 

 authorities in connection with the University of Edinburgh as 

 the trustees shall deem expedient, for the purpose of found- 

 ing a professorship of bacteriology in the University and the 

 equipment of a class-room and laboratory for the teaching of the 

 same, and for conducting original investigation in that subject. 



FoLl, OWING the example of the London Technical Education 

 Board, the Central WcLsh Board has arranged for a conference of 

 science teachers, to be held on Thursday, May 15, at the County 



NO. 1695, VOL. 65] 



Buildings, Festiniog. At the morning meeting, papers will be 

 read by Mr. J. Griffith, on "The Teaching of Science as a Pre- 

 paration for Industrial Life," and Miss Holmer, on "The Value 

 of Biological Teaching for Girls." At the afternoon meeting, 

 papers will be read by Dr. J. J. Findlay, on " The Correlation 

 of the Teaching of .Science and Mathematics in Lower Forms," 

 and Mr. W. Saunders, on " Nature Study as an Introduction to 

 Science Teaching." It is hoped that the conference will assist 

 the development of science teaching in Welsh intermediate and 

 technical schools. 



At the Glasgow meeting of the British Association last year, 

 a committee was appointed in connection with the section of 

 Educational Science to consider the conditions of health essential 

 to the carrying on of the work of instruction in schools. The 

 committee is collecting information and tabulating records with 

 reference to original observations on the periods of day appropriate 

 for different studies, the length of lesson, and the periods of study 

 suitable for children of dift'erent ages ; anthropometrical and 

 physiological observation forms in use in various schools, with a 

 view to prepare a typical form for general use ; anthropometrical 

 and physiological observations recorded in different schools for 

 a series of years on the same children ; investigations into the 

 causes of defective eyesight in school children and a definition of 

 the conditions necessary for preserving the sight, and the practical 

 knowledge of hygiene possessed by school teachers. Cooperation 

 in obtaining information on these points is invited. Any facts 

 or references relating to the subjects under consideration should 

 be sent to the chairman. Prof. C. S. Sherrington, F. R. S., or 

 to the secretary, Mr. E. White Wallis, 72 Margaret Street, W. 



A NOTABLE event, marking the progress made by agricultural 

 education in the States, will take place on July 7, when the 

 first classes of the Graduate School of Agriculture assemble in 

 the Townshend Hall of the Ohio State University. The 

 Graduate School will provide advanced instruction in agricul- 

 tural science for teachers and investigators. It meets under the 

 auspices of the Ohio State University (where the movement 

 originated), the Department of Agriculture, and the Association 

 of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations. 

 The session will last for four weeks, and parallel courses of 

 instruction in animal husbandry, dairying, the culture of field 

 crops and other subjects will be given by a special staff of thirty 

 professors and lecturers, including many of the best-known 

 teachers at the American agricultural colleges. The class- 

 rooms, laboratories and apparatus of the Agricultural College of 

 the Ohio State University will be placed at the disposal of this 

 staflT. Typical animals will be provided for demonstration pur- 

 poses, and lectures will be illustrated by specially prepared 

 specimens and diagrams. Admission to the school is limited to 

 graduates, or to persons specially recommended by college 

 authorities. The fee for instruction is six dollars, and the entire 

 cost of the course, apart from travelling expenses, need not 

 exceed thirty dollars. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



American Journal of Science, April. — On the use of the 

 stereographic projection for geographical maps and sailing 

 charts, by S. L. Penfield. In continuation of previous papers 

 on the same subject, the various modes of stereographic pro- 

 jection are described with photographic illustrations from 

 models, with remarks on the use of the stereographic protractor 

 for measuring distances along great circles, of measuring 

 spherical angles at a given point, together with various appli- 

 cations in navigation. — On the hind limb of Protostega, by 

 S. W. WilUston. A description of a hind limb of what is 

 probably P. gigas, found in the Kansas chalk two years ago. 

 The specimen had for the most part been washed from its 

 matrix, and the original relations of the bones lost. It is 

 characterised by the femur being much more slender than the 

 specimen described by Case. — The physical effects of contact 

 metamorphism, by Joseph Barrel. Although much has been 

 developed in past years concerning the physical, chemical and 

 mineralogical effects of the metamorphism produced in sedi- 

 mentary beds by the contact of igneous masses, but little has 

 been said concerning the wholesale liberation of gases from the 

 sediments so affected. The shrinkages of volume, the form- 

 ation of vein fissures, impregnation deposits, and new intrusion 



