July 21, 19 10] 



NATURE 



97 



to the engineering side of aeronautics. It would be diffi- 

 cult to find a more fitting memorial than such a scholar- 

 ship, which would enable properly trained young men to 

 engage in aeronautical research, to perpetuate the memory 

 of an engineer who devoted his life to the development of 

 various branches of applied science. 



.\ SHORT vacation course on oceanography (hydro- 

 graphy and planktology) will be held at Port Erin Biological 

 .Station, Isle of Man, in the first half of next month. We 

 understand that there is still room for about four more 

 persons in the laboratory. Applications for admission should 

 be sent to Mr. H. C. Chadwick, Curator, Biological Station, 

 Port Erin, Isle of Man. Prof. Herdman will give an open- 

 ing lecture on the history and present position of oceano- 

 graphic investigation ; he will also deal in one or two fol- 

 lowing lectures with quantitative plankton methods, the 

 distribution of the plankton, and its bearing on fishery ques- 

 tions. Prof. Herdman will also conduct some demonstra- 

 tions of methods of investigation at sea, and will discus-, 

 .some of the problems and results of plankton investigation. 

 Dr. W. J. Dakin will give lectures and demonstrations 

 dealing with the following matters : — History of quantitative 

 methods ; hydrographical apparatus as used at sea, and 

 general work in the laboratory ; the periodicity of the 

 . plankton ; the most important plankton species — phyto- and 

 zoo-plankton — of the Irish and North Seas, and the sea as a 

 nutrient fluid. Dr. H. E. Roaf will deal with the follow- 

 ing : — Respiration of marine animals; metabolic processes 

 in animals ; carbon-dioxide determination ; and oxygen deter- 

 mination. 



In the course of an address at the Holborn Restaurant, 

 London, on Monday, Mr. Haldane remarked that the Royal 

 Commission on University Education in London, of which 

 ho is chairman, will consider the subject with reference to 

 the Empire. There are \ast possibilities of the various 

 parts of the Empire, with their different industries, their 

 different methods for training people for the great battle of 

 life, coordinating their systems of university training in 

 such a fashion that we in the metropolis may accomplish 

 our part, and they may do their specialised parts, so that 

 we may have an educational system in which the student 

 may proceed from place to place, and in which we may 

 have the sense of a unity in the great conceptions of the 

 mind as well as in more material things. Germany has 

 vast organising capacity, a splendid educational system, and 

 a genius for organisation which Mr. Haldane wishes we 

 possessed at home. If we were the equals of Germany in 

 the kind of education which bears so closely upon com- 

 merce, and if organisation with us were developed on the 

 same plane to which it is developed in Germany, we need 

 not have much fear for the future. But there need not be 

 much fear for the future, because these very things — 

 organisation and education — are being advanced among 

 ourselves with strides which were wholly unfamiliar a 

 short time ago. We have added nine universities in the last 

 twelve or thirteen years to those which we had before ; we 

 have developed our school system enormously ; our technical 

 system has gone on ; and there is a life and an energy in 

 the people which, with the individual capacity of the 

 members of the race, gives us every prospect of holding our 

 own. 



One of the. best results of the Education .'\ct of 1902 w.is 

 to place the administration of education in all its grades 

 in the hands of one committee for each area. That this 

 course has led to the prevention of much overlapping, the 

 encouragement of coordination, and economical manage- 

 ment is to be gleaned from a study of the annual report of 

 the Education Committee of the city of Manchester for the 

 year 1908-g. The report runs to nearly 350 pages, and 

 constitutes a splendid record of what public spirit and 

 persistent endeavour can accomplish in the provision of 

 educational facilities in a great manufacturing town. It is 

 possible to refer only to one or two of the many points of 

 interest in the report. We notice with pleasure an increase 

 of no individual students attending the day departments of 

 the .Municipal School of Technology, bringing the total, 

 including manual training students, up to 823. The work 

 of the principal evening departments of the school is now 

 organised in group courses of instruction ranging over five 

 years, and leading to the diploma of the school, with the 

 NO. 2125, VOL. 84] 



title ol associate. The work of the special day course for 

 engineering apprentices has now entered upon its seventh 

 year. It is designed to give instruction to selected appren- 

 tices employed in engineering works, and candidates for 

 the course are nominated by their respective firms, and they 

 are required to give evidence of a satisfactory knowledge of 

 mathematics and mechanical drawing. The students attend 

 for eight hours on one day a week for forty weeks, and it 

 is found that they are able to obtain a more extended and 

 satisfactory course than the evening classes are able to 

 afford, and the evenings are left free for the preparation of 

 home work and for necessary reading. A similar course is 

 held for apprentice plumbers. Numerous tests have been 

 carried out in the school during the year for manufacturing 

 firms in the city and surrounding neighbourhood, and the 

 staff has been able to accomplish a large amount of research 

 work. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 Edinburgh. 



Royal Society, lune 20. — Prnf. Cossar Ewart, F.R.S., 

 vice-president, in the chair. — A. D. Ross and R. C. 

 Gray : The magnetism of the copper-manganese-tin alloys 

 under varying thermal treatment. The alloys prepared 

 contained 14, 16, 18, 30, 38, and 48 per cent, of tin, the 

 remainder, copper and manganese, being in the ratio of 

 7 to -j. At 15° C. these alloys gave in field ico intensities, 

 which were equal, respectively, to 55, 77, 82, 0-4, 96, 

 and I. Thus the 38 per cent, alloy forms a group by 

 itself, marked off from the group of lower percentages by 

 the 30 per cent, alloy, which has very small susceptibility. 

 The critical temperatures varied from 225° C. to 275° C. 

 In the case of the 38 per cent, alloy, the critical tempera- 

 ture was 225°, on cooling from which the alloy regained 

 its magnetic quality, but when heated to 330° C. it did 

 not regain its magnetism on cooling. Many other results 

 were detailed in connection with thermal treatment of 

 various kinds. 



July 4. — Sir William Turner, K.C.B., president, in the 

 chair. — Sir William Turner : Morphology of the manus in 

 Platanista gangetica, the dolphin of the Ganges. Ten 

 specimens of the manus in this species had been examined 

 and compared with the corresponding organ in Hyperoodon 

 and Mesoplaton. On account of fusion, the five carpal 

 bones typically represented in Hyperoodon were reduced 

 to four in Platanista, the fourth and fifth corresponding 

 to the ring and little finger being united. In some cases 

 the radial was found fused with the first carpal bone. 

 The paper gave a full, detailed account of the morpho- 

 logical similarities and dissimilarities among these related 

 forms. — Prof. Alex. Smith and A. W. C. Menzies : A 

 static method for determining the vapour pressures of 

 solids and liquids, and the vapour pressures of mercury. 

 In the former paper the authors described a modified 

 form of their " isoteniscope," in which, by adjusting the 

 pressure under a fixed temperature, they were able to 

 measure vapour pressures with great accuracy. Previous 

 determinations of the vapour pressures of inercury at 

 different temperatures showed considerable discrepancies. 

 They had accordingly carried out a series of measurements 

 of the pressure of this vapour between the temperatures of 

 255° C. and 450° C. — J. W. M'David : Specific volumes 

 of solutions of tetrapropylammonium chloride. Dilute 

 solutions had a density less than that of water, passing 

 through a minimum as the solution became stronger. The 

 position of this minimum depended on the temperature, 

 occurring, for example, with a 5 per cent, solution at 

 0° C, and with a 20 per cent, solution at 56° C. — Dr. 

 A. Louise M'llroy : The development of the germ cells 

 in the mammalian ovary, with special reference to the 

 early phase of maturation. The research was carried out 

 with the view of determining the maturation processes 

 which take place in the germ cells, and also to obtain 

 evidence of the origin of the stratum granulorum. It was 

 found that the cells matured inwards from the periphery. 

 The capsular epithelium on the surface of the ovary was 

 derived from the oogonia, and was differentiated at a very 

 early stage. It had no function other than protective. 

 Mitosis occurred among the oogonia, and also among the 

 primary oocytes of the reticular stage. The growth of 



