September 15, 1910] 



NATURE 



III 



of every medical school in the United States and 

 Canada under the heads of " Entrance Requirements," 

 "Attendance," "Teaching Staff," "Resources Avail- 

 able," "Laboratory Facilities," "Clinical Facilities." 

 The condition of some of the commercial schools is 

 scarcely conceivable, and Chicag'O is well called, in 

 respect to medical education, the plag'ue-spot of the 

 United States. Enf^lishmen will read with interest 

 the report on the condition of medical education in 

 Canada, and it is nice to hear that in point of con- 

 struction and equipment the Toronto and Montreal 

 laboratories are among the best on the continent. 

 Praise is meted out to the medical school in the com- 

 paratively new citv of ^^'innipeg. 



It is the purpose of the Foundation to proceed at 

 once with a similar study of medical education in 

 Germany, France, and Great Britain, " in order that 

 those charged with the reconstruction of medical 

 education in .America may profit by the improvements 

 in other countries." \\'e understand that Mr. Flexner 

 will be in this countrv earlv in October to pursue his 

 work. The report cannot but be most helpful. It is 

 thoroug'hlv well done; perhaps the onlv legitimate 

 criticism is an insufficient appreciation bv its author 

 of the extraordinary progress which higher medical 

 education has made in the United States in the past 

 twentv-fiye years. 



THE SHEFFIELD ^r FETING OF THE 



BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



'X'HE meeting of the British .Association at Sheffield 



A concluded with the usual votes of thanks on 

 Wednesday of last week. The attendance of members 

 from outside was quite up to the average, but the 

 influx of new local members was small, with the result 

 that the J'ear was a lean one for grants for research, 

 and it was found necessary to draw on the balances 

 from former years. Notwithstanding, however, the 

 small local support of the association itself, the recep- 

 tion accorded was a very warm and hearty one, and 

 the arrangements left little to be desired. .\ special 

 feature of the meeting was the visits to the large 

 works, the magnitude of the operations carried out, 

 and the combination of science with practical 

 organisation making a great impression on the 

 association as a whole. Indeed, the hearty co- 

 operation of city and University, and the way in 

 which science is applied in all the large industries, 

 has been a matter of constant reference amongst 

 members, whilst the natural beauties of the surround- 

 ing district have come as a surprise to all. With the 

 possible exception of one or two sections, the scientific 

 level of the papers read was high, and although no 

 startling new discoveries were announced, there were 

 many papers showing very real progress on old lines. 

 Possibly the meeting may be remembered as that at 

 \vhich the achievement of at last isolating the positive 

 electron was announced by Sir J. J. Thomson. 



The constitutional question of the relation between 

 the sections and their constitution has been very fully 

 discussed, but with no final result. The matter is a 

 difficult one. The multiplication of sections tends to 

 overweight the association, as well as to increase the 

 difficulties of the locality to provide the accommoda- 

 tion required for additional section and committee 

 rooms with their assortment of lanternists and 

 attendants. It is becoming increasingly difficult for 

 a large town of the second rank adequately to house 

 the association. It was admirably provided for in 

 Sheffield — a city of close 'on 500,000 inhabitants — but 

 the number of towns comparable with it can be 

 counted on the fingers of the two hands. On the 

 other hand, it is difficult to see to what already exist- 



NO. 2133, VOL. 84] 



ing action a new subject, such, for example, as agri- 

 culture, could be attached as a sub-section. Some 

 think no new branches should be admitted ; others 

 suggest that the papers on such a branch should be 

 distributed amongst existing sections according to 

 their affinity; whilst yet another suggestion has been 

 made that the papers should be read at a joint meet- 

 ing of several sections interested, e.g. agricultural 

 papers at a joint meeting of sections B, K, and 

 F. At the recent meeting, however, the sub- 

 section of agriculture has been a very successful and 

 live one, managed in all respects as a separate sec- 

 tion, and with a full complement of good papers. 



At this year's meeting the attempt to bring together 

 men of science of different categories working in 

 allied subjects has been tried to a larger extent than 

 in former years. There have been quite a large 

 number of joint meetings of sections for the discussion 

 of definite questions. It cannot be said that the result 

 has been so generally successful as could be desired. 

 Everybody acknowledges theoretically the value of 

 such meetings, and most of those who have attended 

 them their practical failure — at least, with certain 

 brilliant exceptions, which merely show what they 

 might be. The truth is that the conditions of success 

 for such meetings have not been grasped by the 

 organisers or the openers. It would be good policy 

 on the part of the council to call a meeting of past 

 recorders and sectional presidents to discuss this par- 

 ticular question. The complaint is very general that 

 insufficient time is allowed, and no doubt there is 

 some basis for this, but such discussions are apt to 

 die out earlier than arranged, with consequent waste 

 of time unless the whole discussions with set 

 speakers is prearranged. Many of the most interest- 

 ing- discussions have been those arising spontaneously 

 on some single paper. Not being reported, a speaker 

 feels able to throw out half-considered suggestions or 

 impressions of the moment, which strike fire and 

 kindle the imagination of others, while all would 

 hesitate to publish them in set form. Such discus- 

 sions are really useful to the experts, and always 

 interesting to the general audience. The failure of 

 set discussions is as often as not due to the speaker 

 who introduces the subject. Not a few feel called on 

 to read a long paper of an hour's duration, taking the 

 edge off the attention of their hearers and distracting 

 them with a mass of details, instead of succinctly 

 laying before them the definite points which require 

 discussion. These remarks have been illustrated by 

 special cases at the recent meeting-. The joint dis- 

 cussions might be made so valuable that it is to be 

 hoped the Council \vill take some steps to ensure that 

 they are. 



SECTION C. 



GEOLOGY. 



Opening .Address by Prof. A. P. Coleman, M..\., PhD., 



F.R.S., President of the Section. 



The History of the " Canadian Shield." 



Can there be any greater contrast than Pleistocene 

 Boulder Clay resting on Archsean gneiss, the latest of 

 rocks covering the earliest, with almost the whole known 

 history of the world in the interval between ? It is a 

 fascinating occupation for a geological dreamer to sit on 

 some hillside in Scotland or Finland, or Northern Canada, 

 where the schists and gneisses rise in rounded ridges or 

 bosses through Boulder Clay, and ponder on all the strange 

 happenings" that separate the clay from tlie rock beneath. 



The clay, melting from its enclosed boulders under the 

 frosts and rain, seems the very emblem of the fleeting 

 things of yesterday ; while the .Archaean gneiss and green- 

 stones are the type of the solid, imperishable framework 

 of the earth, on which all the later rocks rest. 



The Boulder Clay recalls the white surface of a 



