414 



NATURE 



[June 19, 191 



tion of the foundation has just awarded seven student- 

 ships with this object in view, and from the list of 

 successful candidates, published in The Times we 

 notice that four of the students will proceed in Ger- 

 many with scientific research as follows :— Mr F H 

 Smith, Pembroke College, Cambridge, chemical re- 

 search ; Mr. R. S. Wishart, Edinburgh University 

 chemical research; Mr. A. Cowe, Edinburgh Univer- 

 sity, neurology and gynaecology; Mr. S. G. Barker 

 Imperial College of Science and Technology, London 

 University, scientific research in vapour pressures. 

 J. he studentships are for one year and of the value 

 ot 175/., and a condition of their tenure is continuous 

 residence in Germany for this period. The cost of 

 these will be defrayed by the German section of the 

 foundation, while the British section is bearing the 

 expense of a limited number of German students who 

 under a corresponding scheme, will visit this country 

 in the autumn. J 



In a communication from The Times correspondent 

 at Toronto on June 5, it is announced that the report 

 of the Royal Commission on Industrial Training and 

 lechmcal Education in Canada, instituted three years 

 ago, has now been made public. The report suggests 

 that a fund of 600,000/. be provided annually by the 

 Dominion for a period of ten vcars, and be divided 

 among the provinces on the basis of population for 

 the promotion of higher technical education and in- 

 dustrial training, while for elementary schools teach- 

 ing manual training and domestic science a grant of 

 7o,oooZ. a year for ten years is recommended. The 

 report also proposes the establishment in each prov- 

 ince of a board qualified to carry on industrial train- 

 ing. It advocates the provision of suitable and 

 adequate apparatus and equipment for teaching pur- 

 poses, the foundation of scholarships for students, the 

 engagement of experts with experience in industrial 

 training, and the creation of central institutions to 

 supplement the work carried on by the provincial and 

 local authorities. Workers in factories whose main 

 task is to attend or to operate machines should, it is 

 sutjfjested, receive instruction which w^ould develop 

 all-round skill and increase their interest beyond the 

 routine of automatic operations. Such training should 

 be provided as will conserve and develop occupations 

 in which skilled handicraft is required. The interests 

 of the rural population should be preserved so far as 

 possible by industrial training and technical education 

 suitable to the needs of its workers. The needs of 

 pirls and women for organised instruction and train- 

 ing in housekeeping and home-making under modern 

 industrial conditions should be recognised. The report 

 also recommends that schools for fishermen should be 

 established, and that provision be made for instruction 

 in packing and curing. The distinguishing character- 

 istic of the report is the attention which it gives to 

 the problems of the rural communities. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 _ Royal Society, June 12.— Sir Archibald Geikie, 

 K.C.B., president, in the chair.— Commendatore G.' 

 Boni : Address on recent researches on the Palatine, in 

 relation to geology, ethnolosjv, and physics. — J. G. Thom- 

 son and D. Thomson : The growth and sporulation of 

 the benign and malignant Tertian malarial parasites 



in the cullure tube and in the human host. Sir 



David Bruce, Majors D. Harvey and A. E. Hamerton, 

 and Lady Bruce: (1) Plasmodium cephalophi sp. nov. 

 (2) The trypanosome causing disease in man in Nyasa- 

 II., Susceptibility of animals to the human 



land. 



strain. (3) Trypanosome diseases of domestic animals 

 in Xvasaland. I., Trypanosoma simiac sp. nov 

 NO. 2277, VOL. 91] 



Part ii., The susceptibility of various animals to Try- 

 panosoma simiac. (4) Trypanosome diseases of 

 domestic animals in Nyasaland. I., Trypanosoma 

 simiae sp. nov. Part iii. 



Zoological Society, June 3.— Prof. E. W. MacBride, 

 F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — Sir Arthur ll! 

 Church : Notes on turacin and the turacin-bearers. 

 This paper contains a summary of the chief facts as 

 to the composition, properties, and occurrence of tura- 

 cin, the soluble crimson pigment of the Musophagidae. 

 Special stress is laid upon its constancy of composi- 

 tion, the limitation of its occurrence to certain plan- 

 tain-eaters, and the relation of its spectrum to the 

 spectra of haemoglobin and chlorophyll. Some current 

 errors concerning turacin are corrected. — Dr. P. 

 Chalmers Mitchell : Observations on the anatomy of 

 the shoe-bill (Balaeniceps rex). The author showed 

 that Balaeniceps and Scopus shared so many anatom- 

 ical characters, and of these so many occurred also in 

 storks, _ that if the reasoning generally followed by 

 anatomical ornithologists were adopted, Balaeniceps 

 and Scopus must be placed with storks rather than 

 with herons. He submitted, however, that such a 

 method was irrational, unless it were accompanied by 

 a much closer scrutiny of the value of the characters 

 than had hitherto been made or was yet possible, and 

 that for the present Balaeniceps must be regarded as 

 the representative of a division equivalent to storks 

 and herons. He thought also that the relation of the 

 Steganopods to these three groups required recon- 

 sideration.— T. H. Withers : Some Miocene Cirripedes 

 of the genera Hexelasma and Scalpellum from New 

 Zealand. An account is given of the "gigantic Cirri- 

 pede" of New Zealand, originally described as Scal- 

 pellum aucklandicum, of which remains have long 

 been known to occur in the Waitemata Beds 

 (Miocene) of Motutapu Island, Auckland Har- 

 bour.— Prof. A. Dendy and R. \Y. Row : The 

 classification and phytogeny of the Calcareous 

 sponges, with a reference list of all !the 

 known species, systematically arranged. This memoir 

 aims at a complete revision of the genera of Cal- 

 careous sponges. Fifty recent genera are recognis >d 

 and diagnosed, and all the described species, amoui'- 

 mg to 433, are arranged under these genera. The 

 rejected generic names, which are listed separately, 

 amount to ninety-seven. The fiftv accepted genera are 

 grouped in ten families, and P'olejaeff's subdivision 

 into Homocoela and Heteroccela is abandoned.— Sur- 

 geon J. C. Thompson : Contributions to the anatomy 

 of the Ophidia.— Prof. T. Wingate Todd : Observa- 

 tions on Osteomalacia in the zoological collections of 

 Manchester and Cleveland. 



Linnean Society, June 5.— Prof. E. B. Poulton, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair.— Miss L. S. Gibbs : 

 A contribution to the flora and plant-formations of 

 Kinabalu and the highlands of British North Borneo. 

 — H. Scott : The Histeridae of the Percy Sladen Expedi- 

 tion to the Seychelles.— Mme. Weber 'van Bosse : Red 

 marine algae from the Indian Ocean.— J. G. Needham • 

 Myrmeleonidae.— W. L. Distant : Rhvnchota from the 

 Seychelles. Part I., Heteroptera.— Prof. R. J Har- 

 vey Gibson : Mystropetalon, Harv. 



Mathematical Society, June 12.— Prof. Love, presi- 

 dent, in the chair.— Sir J. Larmor : The electro- 

 magnetic force on a moving charge in relation to the 

 energy of the field.— Prof. E. Laudau : Einige Un- 

 gleichungen fiir zweimal differentierbare Funktionen 

 — G. H. Hardy and J. E. Uttlewood : (,) The fractional 

 part of 11M. (2) The trigonometrical series associated 

 with the elliptic ^-functions.— Dr. T. J. I 'A. Brom- 

 wich : Foucaulfs pendulum.— J. Hammond: Acertain 

 definite inegral. 



