July 27, 191 1] 



NATURE 



135 



bdivisible. Organisation is the order of the day, and 

 without it nothing can be done. Schoolmasters are 

 functionaries of a very important order ; they have to mould 

 the national life of the generation that is coming on. The 

 world is moving- foi ward. There used to be a tradition, 

 said Lord Haldane later, that our great public schools 

 were very much behind the great secondary schools of the 

 Continent, but as schools of character English public 

 schools are not to be beaten. 



Upon the recommendation of the Development Com- 

 missioners, the Treasury has decided to make an advance 

 from the Development Fund to the Board of Education to 

 enable the Board to make additional grants in aid of 

 farm institutes. Such an institute should serve as the 

 headquarters for the miscellaneous and itinerant work of 

 the county agricultural staff, and should also provide 

 accommodation for central courses of instruction in agri- 

 culture and kindred subjects and for demonstration. 

 These central courses might include, for example, (i) a 

 sixteen or twenty weeks' winter agricultural course for the 

 sons of small farmers who have acquired some practical 

 experience on the land since leaving elementary schools ; 

 (2) shorter courses in dairy work, poultry-keeping, and the 

 like during spring and summer ; and (3) vacation courses 

 for teachers of rural subjects in local continuation courses. 

 The grant in aid of the provision or enlargement of a 

 farm institute will not exceed 75 per cent, of the total 

 cost, while the grant for maintenance will be limited to 

 50 per cent, of the total cost. On educational grounds, the 

 Board regard it as essential that there should be a farm 

 and garden in connection with the institute, which should 

 not only be used for the internal teaching, but should also 

 serve as an object-lesson to the farmers and gardeners of 

 the county. In some cases a small holding might be 

 added. These should be conducted on business principles, 

 but some annual deficiency will generally be entailed by 

 their use for educational purposes. The grants are not to 

 have the effect of reducing the amount of any expenditure 

 at present incurred by a local education authority out of 

 the rates or other local resources upon work of the type 

 to be aided, or the amount of any contribution by the 

 authority to the educational work conducted by the agri- 

 cultural colleges. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 Paris. 

 Academy of Sconces, July 17. — M. Armand Gaulier in the 

 chair. — A. Haller and Ed. Bauer : Syntheses of substituted 

 /3-diketones, of ketonic ether-salts, and of enolic 1 

 means of the sodium derivatives of ketones. The inter- 

 action of the sodium derivative of isopropylphenyl-ketone 

 with benzoyl chloride gives two isomeric benzoyl com- 

 pounds, one, the diketone dibenzyl-dimethyl-methane, from 

 which a monoxime is readily prepared, and the other the 

 enolic form, not combining with hydroxylamine. Other 

 examples of similar reactions have been worked out. 

 Chlorine and iodine compounds give different reactions in 

 some cases. — A. Lacroix : The alkaline rocks of Nosv 

 komba (Madagascar).— Ch. Ed. Guillaume : The modifi- 

 cations undergone by nickel steels after prolonged heating 

 and on the action of the time. These measurements show 

 She ssity of a preliminary tempering of nickel steels 



used in the construction of instruments of precision, and 

 the possibility of calculating by extrapolation during a 

 period of several years the length of a standard invar bar 

 maintained between certain limits of temperature. — Paul 

 Sabatier and A. Mailhe : Some new preparations of the 

 benzylamines and of hexahydrobenzylamine. The general 

 method employed consists in acting with ammonia gas 

 upon the vapour of an alcohol at 300° C. to 350 C. in 

 presence of a catalytic oxide, such as thoria. With benzvl 

 alcohol the chief products of this reaction are benzylamine 

 and dibenzylamine. Pure benzylamine, obtained by this 

 method, treated with hydrogen at 170 C. to 180 C. in 

 presence of a very active nickel gives ammonia, toluene, 

 and hexahydrobenzylamine. The latter base was isolated, 

 and its properties are described. — M. Bernstein was 

 eleoted a correspondant in the section of medicine and 

 surgery in the place of the late M. Engelmann. — M. 

 Borrelly : Observations of the Kiess comet (19116) made 



NO. 2178, VOL. 87] 



at Marseilles Observatory with the comet finder. Observa- 

 tions of the comet and comparison stars are given for 

 July 9, 12, 13, 14, and 15. The comet appeared as a 

 globular nebula with a condensation at its centre, and 

 was about the 8th or 9th magnitude. — M. Esmiol : 

 Observations of the Kiess comet made at the Marseilles 

 Observatory with the Eichens 26 cm. equatorial. Observa- 

 tions given for July 13 and 15. — Ernest Esclangron : 

 Observations of the Kiess comet (191 16) made with the 

 large equatorial of the Observatory of Bordeaux. Positions 

 of the comet and comparison stars given for July 10 and 11. 

 The comet appeared as a nearly round nebulosity of about 

 2' diameter. — Observations of the Kiess comet (19116) 

 made at the Observatory of Besancon with the 33 cm. bent 

 equatorial. Positions given for July 10, 11, 12, and 13.- — A. 

 Petot : The extension to geodesic lines of a kinematic 

 property of the right line. — Ruben Mallton : The con- 

 struction of integral functions of irregular growth. — A. 

 Korn : An important class of asymmetrical nuclei in the 

 theory of integral equations. — H. Vergrne : A theorem in 

 hydrodynamics. — MM. Melchissedec and Frossard : The 

 mechanical theory of some tubes producing sound. — A. 

 Loduc : Internal pressure in gases. Formulae of state and 

 the law of molecular attraction. — M. Hanriot and F. 

 Raoult : The magnetisation coefficients of gold. A com- 

 parison of the magnetic properties of the brown gold 

 (previously described by the authors) and ordinary gold 

 into which the brown gold is converted by heating shows 

 that they are distinct varieties of the same metal. — G. 

 Chavanne : Isopyromucic acid. Its behaviour towards 

 oxidising agents. Dibromomaleic and bromoxymaleic di- 

 aldehydes. Dibromomaleic aldehyde, 



OCH— CBr = CBr— CHO, 

 is obtained by acting with bromine upon monobrom- 

 isopyromucic acid, and treatment of the bromine addi- 

 tion compound thus obtained with bromine and water. 

 — Ph. Barbier and R. Locquin : The transformation of 

 some substituted paraconic acids into the isomeric cyclo- 

 propanedicarboxylic acids. This transformation is effected 

 by the action of thionyl chloride upon the dry acid dissolved 

 in one and a half times its weight of benzene, and main- 

 tained at the temperature of the water-bath for twelve 

 hours. This new reaction will be studied with other 

 lactones. — G. de Gironcourt : The cheeses of Touareg. 

 This native cheese is remarkable for the small proportion 

 of water it contains. It keeps well for long periods of 

 time, and can be carried great distances without change. — 

 MM. Vermorel and E. Dantony : Sulphur capable of 

 being moistened. A method of treating sulphur for agri- 

 cultural purposes. — A. de Varenne : The destruction of 

 Cochlyis of the vine. — Pierre Lesagre : The characters 

 acquired by plants watered with solutions of common salt. 

 The addition of the salt causes a reduction in the size, a 

 yellowish coloration, and a reduction in the duration of 

 the cycle of growth. — G. Perrin : The prothallus of Equise- 

 tum. — A. Guilliermond : The mitochondria of plant cells. 

 — C. L. Gatin : The influence of the tarring of roads on 

 the growth of the trees of the Bois de Boulogne. In 

 certain cases only, where the road is much exposed to 

 the sun and where the traffic is heavy, could the tarring 

 of the road be proved to have a marked deleterious effect 

 on the trees. — Edmond Perrier : Remarks on the preceding 

 communication, pointing out the serious damage done to 

 the trees in the Jardin des Plantes by the adjacent tarred 

 road. — B. Roussy : The existence of a very simple 

 geometrical law of the body surface of a man of given 

 dimensions, demonstrated by a new method. Detailed 

 instructions are given (with two diagrams) for determining 

 two magnitudes called by the author the mean perimeter 

 and the total mean peripheral height. The surface of the 

 skin is shown to be equal to the product of these two- 

 quantities. — Raphael Dubois : Fluorescence in luminous 

 insects. — L. Mercier and R. de Drouin de Bouville : 

 The disease of the crayfish of the lake of Nantua : a 

 criticism of the views of M. Dubois. — F. Rogroziuski : 

 Researches on the glycogenic property of glucosamine. — A. 

 Daniel-Brunet and C. Holland : The influence of sex and 

 of castration upon the quantity of lipoids in the bile of 

 cattle. — Stanislas Meunier : An example of pluvial de- 

 calcification realised in the course of the lower Tertiary 

 epoch. — Louis Laurent : The presence of the genus 

 Atriplex in the Tertiary flora of Menat CPuy-de-D6me). 



