July 17, 1913] 



NATURE 



5" 



association will also come, unless Section A proves 

 too attractive. 



Following its custom of recent years, the section, 

 meeting jointly with the Psychological Subsection, 

 will Ljive Monday to the consideration of psychological 

 investigations, so far as they illuminate educational 

 practice. Dr. Kimmins will read a paper on the 

 need for educational research, which will be followed 

 by a discussion, and papers on the psychological pro- 

 cesses involved in learning to read and spell will be 

 read. On Tuesday a demand for the registration of 

 schools will be raised by Mrs. Bryant, Bishop Well- 

 don, and bishop Mclntyre; and Mr. P. B. Ballard, 

 Mr. T. S. Usherwood, and Mr. W. F. Fowler will 

 present' the case for handwork as a factor in educa- 

 tion. On Wednesday, Sir George Fordham will read 

 an important paper on the working of the Act of 

 1902. This should provoke considerable interest in 

 view of coming legislation. Other papers to be read 

 include one on "The Use of Suggestion in Discipline 

 and Training," by Mrs. Meredith, and the Montessori 

 method, by Dr. Jessie White. 



Si c 1 ion M (Agriculture). — As usual in the agri- 

 cultural section, a special feature is being made of 

 joint discussions with other sections. An important 

 meeting is being held with the botanists, when pro- 

 lificness of barley is to be discussed. The chief British 

 authority, Mr. £. S. Beaven, is giving an account of 

 his extensive trials, and Messrs. Hunter, Hackett, 

 and Bennet are describing the experiments made by 

 the Irish Department of Agriculture. Another meet- 

 ing is arranged with the physiologists to discuss the 

 factors influencing sterility and fecundity in live-stock. 

 Dr. F. H. A. Marshall is opening the discussion, and 

 Messrs. K. J. J. Mackenzie, L. Doncaster, G. W. 

 Smith, and others are expected to take part. The 

 section is also participating in the biochemical dis- 

 cussion on fermentation. 



A number of papers of very general interest are 

 promised. Sir Richard Paget is dealing with the 

 possibility of partnership between landlord and tenant. 

 Prof. Fraser Storey describes the German forestry 

 methods, and Mr. Walter Collinge is to deal with a 

 curious disease of cereals. Considerable attention is 

 being devoted to soil problems. Mr. T. Goodev is 

 giving a summary of his investigations at Rotham- 

 sted on the protozoa of the soil, and Dr. Hutchinson 

 and Mr. McLennan are describing experiments show- 

 ing that soil may be partially sterilised by means of 

 caustic lime. Mr. C. T. Giminghnm is presenting 

 an account of ammonification and nitrification in 

 pasture soils. 



Ecologists will be interested in Dr. Winifred Brench- 

 ley's summary of the relationships of weeds to arable 

 land. Miss Taylor is dealing with ' certain fruit 

 problems, and Messrs. Barker and Giminsdiam with 

 Bordeaux mixture. The foreign gfuest is Prof. Soren- 

 snn, from Copenhagen, who will be very generally 

 welcomed by men of science in this country. 



Altogether the programme promises to be of con- 

 siderable interest. Among the excursions is a visit 

 to the Burbage Experimental Station, where Major 

 Hurst's breeding experiments are to be seen. 



NOTES. 



We announce with great regret that Prof. Francis 

 Gotch, F.R.S., Waynflete professor of physiology in 

 the University of Oxford, died on July 15 at sixty 

 years of age. 



We regret to announce the death on July 3, in his 

 fifty-sixth year, of Dr. R. Lendlmayr von Lendenfeld, 

 professor of zoology and rector of the German Univer- 

 sity at Prague. 



NO. 228l, VOL. 91] 



Prof. A. Fowler, F.R.S., has been awarded the 

 Valz prize of 450 francs by the French Academy of 

 Sciences for his investigation of the principal series of 

 hydrogen lines and other contributions to astronomical 

 physics. 



Dr. Hans Buscii has taken over the editorship of 

 the Physikalischen Zeitschrift, and it is requested that 

 contributions for that journal be addressed to him at 

 Gottingen, Friedlanderweg 61. 



The death is reported, in his seventy-first year, of 

 Dr. Charles Greene Rockwood, who was professor 

 of mathematics and natural philosophy at Bowdoin 

 College from 186S to 1873, professor of mathematics 

 and astronomy at Rutgers College from 1873 to 1877, 

 and professor of mathematics at Princeton from 1877 

 to 1905. Prof. Rockwood was a member of the 

 Princeton Eclipse Expedition to Colorado in 1878, 

 and contributed a large number of articles on seis- 

 mology to American scientific periodicals. 



The science section of the R. Accademia di Bologna 

 has issued a circular relating to the first biennial prize 

 of 3000 lire from the fund given by Prof. Elia De 

 Cyon for the encouragement of scientific research. 

 Memoirs are invited on a number of subjects, includ- 

 ing the functions of the cardiac and vasomotor nervous 

 systems, the functions of the thyroid and pineal 

 glands, and of the labyrinth of the ear. The memoirs 

 may be written in Latin, Italian, French, or English. 

 The award will be made on March 1, 1915. Full par- 

 timlnrs can be obtained from the secretary of the 

 academy, Mr. Ercole Giacomini, at Bologna. 



Mr. John Muir, the American naturalist, is appeal- 

 ing to nature-lovers throughout the United States to 

 use their influence to save the Yosemite National 

 Park from spoliation. The city of San Francisco is 

 trying to rush through Congress a Bill permitting it 

 to acquire the Hetch Hetchy Valley as a site for a 

 reservoir. The proposed scheme would turn this 

 valley into a lake, and would close to the public the 

 Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne, a river which at this 

 point is a succession of waterfalls of every variety of 

 height and beauty. This would mean depriving the 

 rest of the United States of 500 square miles, or more 

 than one-half the total area of the present National 

 Park. Mr. Muir supports his protest by showing that 

 this destructive scheme is not really essential to meet- 

 ing the needs of San Francisco, which could find 

 other, if more expensive, sources of water supply. He 

 quotes the report of an advisory board of army 

 engineers in support of this contention. 



L t ntil quite recently the discovery of pygmy flints, 

 established in England by Rev. R. A. Gatty, had 

 not been confirmed in Scotland. Mr. R. M. Leslie 

 Paterson, in Man for July, now reports the discovery 

 of flints of this type near the confluence of the river 

 Feugh with the Dee, on the 10-ft. terrace level. This 

 district abounds in stone circles, and contains burial- 

 places and pottery of the Bronze age, thus showing 

 that it was continuously occupied by prehistoric man. 

 The present discoveries include pygmy flints of various 

 types— rough knives, duck-bill and thumb scrapers, 

 borers, and a saw. But, curiously enough, not a 

 single arrow-head has yet been found. 



