228 



NATURE 



l A1a\ i, igi; 



ordination between the work of technical institutes 

 • and the needs of employers with a view to 

 active cooperation in the interests of the students 

 and employers and for the general welfare of the 

 country. 



To effect this desirable end, great importance is 

 wisely attached to affording to students ample facili- 

 ties for practical work, not onlv in school laboratories 

 and school shops, but under strictly commercial con- 

 ditions in engineering and other industrial firms. 

 Among the causes of the partial failure of Indian 

 students to obtain suitable employment after leaving 

 the technical institute some of the employers who 

 were consulted state that "in most cases students 

 from technical institutions will not work with their 

 hands, will not observe factory hours, ask too high 

 wages for learning their practical work, and generally 

 think they know everything." 



It is a fact that in their desire to obtain employ- 

 ment, whether as engineers or civil servants, Indian 

 students undoubtedly attach too great a value to their 

 school teaching, arid the Commissioners recommend 

 that school instructors and school managers should 

 make it clear to their students that they are totally 

 unfit for anv position of authority imrnediately on 

 leaving the institute, and must gain, under appro- 

 priate conditions of discipline, practical acquaintance 

 with the details of the work in which they hope to be 

 occupied. "Otherwise," they state, "there will 

 always be a large number of men who fail to go 

 further than the end of their college course." This 

 is sound advice, which is not altogether inapplicable 

 to British students. It is satisfactory to gather from 

 the report that the writers are of opinion that Indians 

 "if possessing the necessary character, theoretical 

 knowledge, and practical experience, have more than 

 equal chance of employment in India with Europeans." 

 This statement will be read with equal gratifica- 

 tion by those who are responsible in this countn 

 for the government of India as by the natives con- 

 cerned. 



Among the valuable recommendations set forth in 

 the closing pages of this report, the importance of 

 practical work is repeatedly emphasised. "The edu- 

 cation given in the institute," we are told, "should 

 be essentially practical, be capable of being applied 

 commercially, and not of such high scientific char- 

 acter as is often considered necessary in the \Y.st." 

 It is also pointed out that the "best "method of train- 

 ing men m mechanical and electrical engineering to 

 meet the existing demand is by a course at a well- 

 equipped institute, followed by' an apprenticeship in 

 works." 



India is waking up to the necessity of developing 

 new and important industries. For the supply of the 

 machinery needed to equip the increasing number of 

 cotton mills now being erected in India, there will be 

 a growing demand, and endeavours are being made to 

 meet this demand by Indian enterprise and skill. The 

 number of bleaching and dyeing works must b° gradu- 

 ally increased with the development of the 'textile 

 industries; and if only qualified students can be found 

 who have received an adequate training in the tech- 

 nical institutes, new fields of employment will be 

 opened up for native workers. 



The report shows how the school may help the 

 factory, and how the factory may offer a continually 

 increasing number of remunerative posts to the trained 

 students of the technical school. In addition to the 

 general recommendations, the report contains useful 

 suggestions for adjusting facilities for technical in- 

 struction to meet the demands of employers in the 

 various provinces of India. 



XO. 22/0, VOL. 91] 



RESEARCHES IX RADIO-ACTIVITY. 

 CEVERAL communications from the Radium Insti- 

 *-' tute at Vienna are before us, and a few of the 

 most noteworthy are here mentioned. 



In one of the recent communications from the in- 

 stitute Dr. O. Honigsmid gives the result of a fresh 

 atomic weight determination from the bromide, which 

 confirms the value, 22595, previously obtained from 

 the chloride. Two determinations by conversion of 

 the chloride into the bromide and vice versa, the 

 method adopted by YVhytlaw-Gray and Sir YV. Ram- 

 say, also gave practically identical results. In con- 

 junction with E. Haschekj a spectrographic examina- 

 tion of the preparations for barium was made. The 

 barium line 455424 was not seen, and it was calcu- 

 lated from the effect of the addition of known small 

 amounts of barium that the standard preparations 

 could not have contained more than 0004 per cent, 

 of barium. This settles the question of the purity of 

 I the international radium standard, and of the true 

 I atomic weight of radium. It is characteristic of the 

 time and of the accurate researches radio-activity has 

 I called forth, that the atomic weight of radium should 

 now be one of the best-known constants, and far 

 I more certain than that of uranium and thorium. 



In another communication, Dr. F. Paneth finds 

 that polonium resembles a colloid in that it does not 

 pass appreciably through animal membranes or parch- 

 ment paper. Radio-lead may readily be separated 

 from polonium by dialysis, 'the crystalloid salts of 

 lead readily passing through the membrane and 

 carrying the radio-lead with them in unaltered pro- 

 portion. 



Some further results of H. Molisch bring out the 

 harmful effects of the radium emanation on growing 

 plants when it is present above a certain degree of 

 concentration. In lesser amounts a slightly favour- 

 able action on the growth" is sometimes "observed. 

 The injury is a permanent one, the organs of the 

 plant being affected and the leaves falling off. It 

 appears to work like a poison chemically upon the 

 cells, and considering the minute _absolute' amount of 

 the emanation, there can be very'few poisons which 

 would produce in such small qua'ntitv so far-reaching 

 destructive effects. 



A. Brommer discusses the influence of the partial 

 solar eclipse of April 17, 1912, on atmospheric electri- 

 fication. During the first phase of the eclipse a well- 

 marked diminution occurred in the number both of 

 positive and negative ions in the atmosphere, the 

 latter decreasing more rapidly than the former, so 

 that an initial excess of positive ions was converted 

 into a deficit. As the sun's disc again became un- 

 covered, the number of ions increased and regained 

 nearly their initial values, establishing a direct influ- 

 ence of sunlight on the ionisation of the atmosphere. 

 Exner and Haschek describe an unsuccessful attempt 

 to find _ spectroscopic evidence of the existence of 

 ionium in the thorium-ionium preparations separated 

 from ten tons of Joachimsthal pitchblende by A. v. 

 Welsbach. A similar attempt, with the same negative 

 result, by A. S. Russell and R. Rossi, with the Roval 

 Society's ionium preparation, is described in a 

 recent number of the Proceedings of the Royal 

 Society fp._ 47S). In view of the estimated period' of 

 ionium being from forty to one hundred times as 

 long as that of radium, both these preparations 

 should have contained a considerable proportion of 

 ionium, and the failure to detect in their spectra a 

 sinsrle line other than those due to known substances 

 raises very important and fundamental questions. 

 A. Kailan, in three papers, deals with'the influence 



