APRIL 22, 1915] 
NATURE 228) 


Ir is stated in Science that by the will of General 
Brayton Ives, of New York City, the largest part of 
his estate is bequeathed to Yale University for its 
general purposes. The value of the bequest is esti- 
mated at from 150,000l, to 300,000l. 
We learn from Science that through the efforts of 
Dr. Ralph Arnold, and other alumni of the depart- 
ment of geology and mining, Stanford University has 
just added to its collections the working library and 
material of the late Prof. H. Hemphill, of Los 
Angeles. The collection contains between 8000 and 
gooo specimens of shells and 150 volumes. The mate- 
rial is of great importance in the study of the Tertiary 
geology of the Pacific coast, and especially of the 
geology of the petroleum deposits of California. 
Tue March number of. the Nature-Study Review 
(ithaca, N.Y.), the official organ of the American 
Nature-Study Society, is devoted to an elaborate pros- 
pectus of courses in nature-study for elementary 
schools. It has been prepared by Mr. G. H. Travers 
and Miss H. M. Reynolds, of the Minnesota State 
Normal School, and it is copyright. The authors take 
a big view of their subject, and emphasise ‘the 
zesthetic, the social, the economic, and the hygienic” 
aims of nature-study. (The old-fashioned teacher will 
rather miss the intellectual aim!) To help the pupils 
to enjoy the world they live in, and to acquaint 
them with the useful and injurious forms of life, these 
we understand as the esthetic and economic aims, 
but the social aim, so far as explained, seems to us 
far-fetched, and the hygienic aim is lugged in by 
sheer force. The ‘‘disciplinary theory’? of training 
the powers of observation, memory, reasoning, and 
imagination must be given up, we are told, for the 
researches of modern psychology have shown it to 
be unsound. . But it seems to reappear under another 
name. To more purpose, as it«seems to us, the 
authors emphasise that the nature-study should. deal 
with the material available in the child’s environment, 
which in urban conditions requires to be enlarged 
artificially. The starting point should always be in 
the child’s experience, and the material should be of 
interest or capable of becoming of interest to the 
child. Each study should concern itself with a child’s 
problem, and the child should be guided to solve it. 
And the solution should mean something in the life 
of the child. ‘‘If the problem does not seem to allow 
of any application, we may well inquire whether the 
problem is really worth while.’? This may be pushed 
too far, for a stimulated imagination may be a great 
gain and a search for applications a bore. The graded 
outlines of courses are carefully thought out, and 
the general arrangement—following the seasons—is 
admirable. Teachers will find the outlines very sug- 
gestive and the introductory essay very provocative. 
We would particularly commend the consistent way in 
which the authors have sought to get at the child’s 
point of view, and to keep to the Socratic method, 
not in the letter alone, but also in’ the spirit. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
LONDON, 
Royal Society, March 25.—Sir William Crookes, presi- 
dent, in the chair.—Prof. B. Moore: The production 
of growths or deposits in meta-stable inorganic hydro- 
sols.—Prof. B. Moore and W. G. Evans: Forms of 
growth resembling living organisms and their pro- 
ducts slowly deposited from meta-stable solutions of 
inorganic colloids.—H. Onslow: A contribution to our 
knowledge of the chemistry of coat-colour in animals 
and of dominant and recessive whiteness. This research 
was undertaken in order to discover a chemical method 
NO. 2373, VOL. 95] 



of differentiating the two similar forms of white 
animals known as dominant whites and_ recessive 
whites, or albinos. Hitherto this has only been pos- 
sible by observing their genetic behaviour. Dark 
animal pigments are believed to result from the oxida- 
tion of a colourless chromogen by an oxydase. The 
skins of young black rabbits were found to yield a 
tyrosinase which converted tyrosine to a melanin. 
By means of this tyrosinase it was possible to test 
extracts from white rabbits of both types. Briefly, 
extracts from dominant whites contained an anti- 
oxydase which inhibited the tyrosinase of the black 
rabbit extracts. Extracts from albinos, on the other 
hand, had no inhibiting influence, and were them- 
selves incapable of producing any pigment. The anti- 
oxydase was also found in those white parts of rabbits 
which are dominant to colour, such as the white 
bellies of the wild rabbit and of the yellow rabbit 
carrying agouti. These results tend to confirm the 
Mendelian view that dominant whiteness is caused by 
a factor which inhibits the pigment-producing mechan- 
ism if present, and that albinism results from the 
partial or total absence of the factors necessary for the 
development of pigment. The experiments also re- 
vealed facts which suggest that the difference between 
pigments producing black, chocolate, and yellow hairs 
is quantitative rather than qualitative, for, after ex- 
traction, the pigments in all three colours appear 
identical. That variation in colour is a structural 
modification is supported by the fact that dilute colours, 
such as blue, are caused by a lack of pigment in the 
cortex. In the corresponding intense colours, such as 
black, pigment being present in the cortex, the white 
light reflected from the vacuoles is absorbed, thus 
deepening the colour. 
Paris. 
Academy of Sciences, April 12.—M. Ed. Perrier in the 
chair.—E. Guyou: Remarks on the Extrait de la 
Connaissance des Temps for 1916. An account of 
the modifications introduced with the view of shorten- 
ing and facilitating nautical calculations.—A, Miintz 
and E. Lainé: Study of the material brought down 
by watercourses in the Alps and Pyrenees. Deter- 
minations of the quantities of material carried by the 
principal watercourses in the Alps and Pyrenees. The 
erosion is much more intense in certain recent forma- 
tions. The agricultural value of the deposits has still 
to be examined.—M. de Forcrand: A _ hydrate of 
hydrogen arsenide. The hydrate AsH,,6H,O has 
been isolated and determinations made of its dis- 
sociation pressures at temperatures from 0° C. to 
25° C. From these data, with the aid of Clapeyron’s 
equation, the heat of formation has been found to be 
17-75 calories. Comparisons are given for analogous 
data for the hydrogen compounds of sulphur, phos- 
phorus, and selenium.—J. Guillaume ; Observations of 
the sun made at the Observatory of Lyons during 
the third quarter of 1914. Observations were made of 
sixty-seven days, and the results are given in three 
tables showing the number of spots, the distribution 
of the spots in latitude, and the distribution of the 
faculz in latitude.—S. Chevalier: The effect of atmo- 
spheric dispersion on the diameter of photographed 
celestial objects. Photographs of the sun and of Jupiter 
show that the effect of atmospheric dispersion on the 
diameter of a photographed celestial body depends very 
slightly on the brightness of the body or on the sensi- 
bility of the plates.—Ernest Esclangon : The limited 
integrals of a linear differential equation.—Ph. 
Flajolet ; Perturbations of the magnetic declination 
at Lyons (St. Genis Laval) during the third quarter 
of r914.—M. Lubimenko: Some experiments on the 
antioxydase of tomato fruits. Details are given of a 
