August 3, 191 ij 



NATURE 



169 



Fisgard. The discussion will be opened by Dr. C. VV. 

 Kimmins. A paper on the studj of German will also bi 

 read by Mr. (.. F. Bridge, and a paper on school books 

 and eyesight by Mr. <■. F. Daniell. 



A " .Memorandum on Physical Training in Secondary 

 Schools " has just been issued by the Board of Education, 

 and is obtainable from Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode, 

 price 2d. That physical education at the secondary-school 

 age is of primary importance scarcely needs to be insisted 

 on, but it is well to have the large generalities of such 

 education set forth, as here, in a coherent exposition. 

 The secondary school covers the adolescent age of boys 

 and girls — the age when growth is very rapid and the 

 transit to manhood and womanhood demands all the care 

 and knowledge that the best informed teacher can provide. 

 The present memorandum does take some account of this, 

 but does not emphasise it quite so much as the trainers 

 of male and female youth might properly expect. Under 

 the " objects of physical training " — it is a pity that the 

 term " physical education " is not uniformly used — Sir 

 George Newman gives a good summary of the nervous 

 basis of training and the value of training in promoting 

 " habits of discipline, obedience, ready response, and self- 

 control." Doubtless, physical education, being a special 

 department of mental education, can be used to generate 

 such "habits"; but why insist on the merely passive 

 aspect of education ? The end of education is not to pro- 

 duce habits of obedience or ready response except as means 

 to the greater end of personal self-sufficiency and independ- 

 ence of character. Self-development is as important as 

 self-control, and presupposes it. But Sir George Newman 

 is not unaware of this, for he says, " undue emphasis 

 should not be laid upon the disciplinary effects of physical 

 training." He justifies the Swedish system on the whole. 

 He gives general directions as to length of lessons, the 

 place of physical education in the time-table, and the 

 qualifications of the teachers. " Especially as regards 

 children and young people, physical training is not a mere 

 matter of technical expertness." " Girls should, of 

 course, be taught by women." Any system should be 

 practised under the general supervision and with the 

 constant cooperation of the medical officer of the school. 

 The memorandum is really a memorandum, and should 

 be to every secondary-school teacher a constant reminder 

 of the principles and risks of physical education. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, July 24. — M. Troost in the chair. — 

 H. Deslandres : Remarks on the movements of the solar 

 prominences. The author regards the upper layer of the 

 solar atmosphere as being ionised and under the action of 

 a magnetic field. This field causes movements in the solar 

 ions, especially those rising and falling. The theory ex- 

 plains easily all the observed peculiarities of the velocity of 

 rotation in the prominences and the upper layer. In the 

 present paper some further consequences of this theory are 

 developed, and a scheme of research suggested for its 

 control. — A. Laveran and M. Roudsky : Concerning the 

 action of oxazine (triaminophenazoxonium chloride) on 



tryp: somes. The selective action of the centrosomes of 



the trypanosomes for oxazine, noted by Werbitzki, takes 

 place both in vitro and in vivo. The disappearance of the 

 centrosomes in T. brucci. and the fact that this morpho- 

 logical modification can be transmitted by heredity, is con- 

 firmed. Other species are similarly affected, but to vary- 

 ing degrees. The virulence of the trypanosomes submitted 

 to the action of oxazine is reduced. — R. Zeiller : A 

 Triassic flora discovered at Madagascar by M. Perrier 

 de la Bathie. — Emile Belot : The period of rotation of 

 Venus. The observed period of rotation of Venus has been 

 given by M. Bigourdan as twenty-nine hours. 

 The author points out that in a communication to the 

 nil my in 1906 he gave a general formula from which 

 this period was deduced to be 28h. 12m. — M. Giacobini : 

 Observations of the Brooks comet (1911c) made at the 

 ttory of Paris. Data given for July 22 and 23. 



NO. 2 179, VOL. 87] 



1 in comet appears as a rounded nebulosity 35" to 45 

 diameter, with a well-defined central nucleus. Magnitude 

 1 1.5 to 12. — L. Picart and F. Courty : Observations of 

 thi Brooks comet (1911c) made at the Observatory ol 

 lux with the 38 cm. equatorial. Data given for 

 July 22 and 21,. Comet showed a clear nucleus about tenth 

 magnitude.— Witwold Jarkowski : An approximate law 

 for the ascent of an aeroplane.— Marcel Brillouin : Poly- 

 morphism and molecular orientation. — G. Sagnac : Some 

 paradoxes concerning the optical actions of the first order 

 of the translation of the earth.— A. Cotton : Circular 

 dichroism and rotatory dispersion. — G. Bruhat : The study 

 of rotatory dichroism of a definite organic compound 

 (diphenyl-Z-bornyldithiourethane). — E. Besson : The asym- 

 metry of the positive and negative ions relatively to the 

 condensation of water vapour. An attempt to record photo- 

 graphically the results described by C. T. R. Wilson. 

 — H. Bui'sson and Ch. Fabry: The amount of energj 

 necessary to produce the unit of luminous intensity. 

 Working with a Heraeus quartz mercury vapour lamp, the 

 number of watts radiated per mean spherical candle was 

 found to be 0-31 for the violet (4538), 0018 for the green 

 (5460), and 0031 for the yellow (57S0).— M. Hersch- 

 finkel : The action of the radium emanation on thorium 

 salts. — Ettore Cardoso : The densities of the coexistent 

 phases (orthobaric densities) and the diameter of sulphur 

 dioxide in the neighbourhood of the critical point. Part 

 of a series of researches on the law of the rectilinear 

 diameter at temperatures near the critical point. 1 he 

 influence of agitating the liquid under experiment is clearly 

 shown in the- results.— L. Tchougaett and P. Koch: An 

 anomaly of the molecular refraction in the series of the 

 substituted gloximes. — L. Gay : The notion of an expansi- 

 bility pressure.— Victor Henri : Study of the ultra-violet 

 radiation of quartz mercury vapour lamps. The ultra- 

 violet rays from a mercury lamp increase very rapidly 

 with the watts used, this increase being especially rapid in 

 the neighbourhood of 209 watts. The action on citrate of 

 silver papers is parallel with the bactericidal action upon 

 the coli bacillus, and the yield of such a lamp when used 

 for sterilising purposes may be very conveniently controlled 

 by such papers. — G. Massol and A. Faucon : The latent 

 heat of fusion and specific heat of the fatty acids. The 

 discrepancy previouslv noted between the latent heats of 

 fusion and solidification of formic, acetic, and propionic 

 acids is now shown to occur with lauric _ acid. The 

 possible causes of this difference are discussed. — G. 

 Darzens and F. Bourion : The action of thionyl chloride 

 upon metallic oxides. In numerous cases in which the 

 action of thionyl chloride upon metallic oxides was studied 

 1 In chloride behaved as a mixture of chlorine and sulphur 

 dichloride. Since the latter is easier to prepare and purify, 

 its use for chlorinating oxides is preferable. — Marcel 

 Guichard : The extraction of the gases from copper by a 

 chemical reaction, and the estimation of oxygen. Methods 

 are described for converting copper either into the iodide 

 or oxide, and recovery of the gases contained in the 

 metallic copper. The limits of error of the two methods 

 are indicated.— Georges Dupont : The catalytic preparation 

 of some substituted ketohydrofurfuranes. Some examples 

 ,,! the hydration of some acetylenic pinacones by the cata- 

 lytic action of a dilute solution of mercuric sulphate.— 

 Frederic Rewerdin : The nitration of the ortho-, meta-, 

 and para-nitrobenzoyl-f-anisidines. — Marcel Delepine : The 

 sulpho-ether salts or thionic esters R.CS.OR'. — H. Colin 

 and A. Senechal : The action of acids on the catalytic 

 oxidation of the phenols by ferric salts.— R. Locquin : 

 n-Methyl-laurenone, a new ketone '1 rived from camphor. 

 Baeyer and Villiger have shown that one of the products 

 ,.l 1 imp'- reagent on camphor is a lactone, C,„H, ( p,. A 

 compound C,H,,0 has been isolated in the course of re- 

 hes made to determine the constitution of this 

 lactone, and this compound is shown to he a tetramethyl- 



1. ntenone. It is a methyl derivative of the lain 

 previously described by Tiemann. — Th. Nicoloff : The 

 ovule and the embryonic sae of the Plataneae.— A. 

 Guilliermond : The formation of the rhloroleucites at the 

 expense of the mitochondria. — P. A. Dangeard : Comple- 

 ary chromatic adaptation in plant-.— A. Magnan : 

 The digestive surface of tie ventricule and the muscular 



