August 4, 19 10] 



NATURE 



16: 



France, with its most highly centralised organisation, is 

 maintaining her roads at about 54 per cent, of what it 

 costs England and Wales with her very local and loosely 

 centralised organisation. Furthermore, the alarming in- 

 crease in the cost of maintenance has been far more rapid 

 in the countries with local and poorly organised systems of 

 highway administration. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 Sheffield. — The council has appointed Mr. A. E. 

 Findley to the newly instituted post of lecturer of applied 

 chemistry in the University. Mr. Findley is at present 

 assistant' lecturer in chemistry at the Bradford Technical 

 College. 



The Mercers' Company has made a donation of thirty 

 guineas to the South-eastern .Agricultural College library 

 for the purchase of books of reference. The Fruiterers' 

 Company has also presented a very fine copy of that scarce 

 work, " The Herefordshire Pomona," and the Carpenters' 

 Company a work on forestry, to the college library. 



The July issue of the Bailersea Polytechnic Magazine 

 shows how successfully the authorities of the polytechnic 

 encourage an all-round development of their students. The 

 magazine contains two general articles ; one, on the house- 

 fly, is based on the published papers of Dr. C. G. Hewitt, 

 and the other deals with the discharge of electricity through 

 high vacua. 



.'\x open competitive examination for not fewer than 

 seven situations as assistant examiner in the Patent Ofifice 

 will be held by the Civil Service Commissioners in 

 September next. The examination will commence on 

 .September 26, and forms of application for admission to 

 it are now ready for issue, and may be obtained on request 

 addressed by letter to the Secretary, Civil Service Com- 

 mission, Burlington Gardens, London, W. 



.According to the I\cx'ite scicntifique, a national office of 

 French universities and schools has been inaugurated 

 under the presidency of M. Paul Deschanel, of the French 

 Academy. Prof. Paul .Appell, of the University of Paris, 

 and Prof. Georges Lyon, of the University of Lille, have 

 been elected vice-presidents. Dr. Raoul Blondel has been 

 appointed director. The new department is to be installed 

 at the Sorbonne, and its object will be to make known to 

 foreigners the educational resources of France.' 



At the close of the term of the Royal Agricultural 

 College, Cirencester, on July 27, the principal. Prof. J. R. 

 Ainsworth-Davis, announced that the council of the Uni- 

 versity of Bristol has enacted a temporary ordinance, which 

 will probably be made permanent in the autumn, making 

 the college part of the University for higher teaching in 

 agriculture and forestry. He also announced that Mr. 

 H. J. Elwes, F.R.S., has placed a portion of his afforested 

 land at Colesborne at the disposal of the college for research 

 purposes. 



We are glad to receive a copy of the July number of the 

 Science Journal of King's College School, Wimbledon. 

 It is a special photographic number of twenty-four pages 

 with several inset plates and sheets of illustrations, and is 

 evidence that photography at Wimbledon takes a very 

 noteworthy place among the out-of-school subjects that 

 engage the boys' attention. Of the thirteen papers or 

 essays, all except two seem to be by the boys themselves, 

 and they deal with camera construction, exposure, develop- 

 ment, printing, optics, enlarging, sports photography, and 

 colour photography. It is gratifying to see that the greater 

 number of the articles refer to the writers' own experi- 

 ences, and are evidence of intelligent work. There may be 

 room for different opinions as to the usefulness of a table 

 of poisons, with the symptoms when taken and the ordinary 

 antidotes, because it may be thought preferable for a lad 

 to get assistance rather than to attempt to diagnose and 

 treat a case of poisoning himself, but with reasonable care 

 such cases of need will never arise. 



The report (Cd. 5257) has been issued of the depart- 

 mental committee appointed to consider the statement of 

 claims to additional State assistance, and estimates of the 

 amounts needed for the respective services, which have 



NO. 2127, VOL. 84] 



been supplied bj' the Scottish universities at the request of 

 the Government, and to report for what objects and to 

 what extent assistance, if any, should be granted from 

 public funds in the interests of the proper development of 

 the work of the universities. The committee reports that 

 a good claim has been made out for an additional grant 

 to Scottish universities, and recommends 40,000!. as a fair 

 contribution to their more pressing needs. This sum it 

 proposes should be allocated as follows : — Edinburgh, 

 i2,50oi. ; Glasgow, 12,500/. ; Aberdeen, 9000L ; St. 

 .Andrews, 6000L The grants, it is recommended, should 

 bi- on condition that their administration should be in the 

 hands of the respective University Courts, which should 

 submit annual reports to the Treasury. Not less than 

 1500/. of the grant to St. Andrews University is to be 

 devoted to the conjoint Medical School at Dundee. It is 

 further recommended that, in addition to the 40,000!., 

 3000/. should be paid annually to University College, 

 Dundee, and that the grant at present received from the 

 University Colleges (Great Britain) Grant should be dis- 

 continued. 



The antagonism which exists in England between the 

 mathematician and the " practical man " is so deeply 

 rooted that any attempt to break down existing prejudices 

 will be studied with the keenest interest. In his presi- 

 dential address to the Mathematical Association last 

 January, Prof. H. H. Turner gave a remarkable account 

 of the efficient development of the Egyptian Survey under 

 the direction of Captain H. G. Lyons, F.R.S., in which 

 he states : — " Now it will be readily imagined that for 

 work of such extent and variety it is not easy to get a 

 suitable staff of assistants. Scientific knowledge is neces- 

 sary, but so also is a knowledge of Arabic and a physique 

 which will stand the hot climate ; so also is a business 

 capacity and a faculty of detecting the truth in its Oriental 

 disguises. It might well be that any one of these qualities 

 was essential, while the rest, though desirable, might have 

 to be dispensed with ; or it might be that some rare com- 

 bination of them must be sought with toil. It will prob- 

 ably be admitted that the final opinion of a man who has 

 gone through the trying experience of getting together a 

 staff suitable for such work, and finds himself ultimately 

 satisfied as to the right course, is worth hearing ; and 

 hence I feel that the association will learn with peculiar 

 pleasure that Captain Lyons 's final method is to take able 

 mathematicians from Cambridge or Oxford and trust to 

 luck for the other qualities. The one thing he finds 

 needful is that when some strange situation occurs, they 

 should have a firm grasp of the fundamental principles, and 

 not merely a knowledge of the rules deduced, which may 

 fail to meet some unforeseen contingency. And this 

 essential condition Captain Lyons has found to be fulfilled 

 by mathematicians when others have failed to meet it. 

 His faith in them has been justified in cases where a 

 breakdown might have possibly been admitted. Even the 

 most complete knowledge of mathematical or physical prin- 

 ciples could scarcely be expected to inspire a man in deal- 

 ing with an Arab camel-driver who was shamming sick ; 

 or with the organisation of the commissariat for a journey 

 in the desert ; or with an unexpected attack by wandering 

 tribes which necessitated addressing them with dignity from 

 the hump of a camel with three rifles pointed at one's 

 chest. But it has been proved in the best possible way, 

 viz. by actual experience, that such situations are dealt 

 with capably by young men selected for their mathematical 

 ability, with no special training for the contingencies of . 

 life beyond what undergraduates all pick up from life in 

 one of our great universities. This is a lesson which we 

 may well lay to heart." 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, T"lv 2?.— M. Eir.i1<- Pirard in the 

 chair. — H. Deslandres arid J. Bosler : The phenomena 

 pi-esented hv the tail of Halley's comet during the passage 

 of Mav 19 last. Fronr a discussion of various observations, 

 especially those made bv R. T. A. Innes at Johannesburg, 

 it is concluded that the tail of Halley's comet was repulsed 

 by the earth, and the evidence is in favour of this re- 

 pulsion being due to electrical causes.— P. Villard and 



