September 12, 1912] 



NATURE 



given to students to investigate problems on their own 

 account. In tlie metallurgy department, in addition 

 to the ordinary courses of instruction in general 

 metallurgj', several special courses of an advanced 

 character are provided. The special courses on liquid, 

 gaseous and solid fuel have also been extended, and 

 in addition to a course of lectures, will include labora- 

 tory work on fuel analysis, and on technical gas 

 analysis. It is also of interest to note that included 

 amongst the language classes is a course on scientific 

 and technical German. 



A LONG resolution embodying the oft-repeated 

 education demands of the Trade Union Congress was 

 adopted unanimously at a meeting of the congress at 

 Newport (Mon.) on September 4. The main points 

 are as follows : — (i) A national system of education 

 under full public control, free from the primary school 

 to the university ; (2) The adequate maintenance of 

 school children ; (3) Scientific physical education with 

 annual individual medical inspection, and records 

 showing the physical development of each child ; (4) 

 that secondary and technical education be an essential 

 part of every child's education, and secured by such a 

 reform and extension of the scholarship system as will 

 place a maintenance scholarship within the reach of 

 every child, and thus make it possible for all children 

 to be full-time day pupils up to the age of sixteen ; (5) 

 That the best intellectual and technical training be 

 provided for the teachers of the children, that each 

 educational district shall be required to train the 

 number of pupil teachers demanded by local needs, 

 and to establish training colleges, preferably in con- 

 nection with universities or university colleges ; (6) 

 that the provision of educational buildings and facili- 

 ties be obligator}' upon the local authority, which shall 

 always retain administrative control of the buildings 

 and facilities so provided ; (7) that the cost of educa- 

 tion be met by grants from the Imperial Exchequer, 

 and bv the restoration of misappropriated educational 

 endowments. The congress placed on record its 

 emphatic disapproval of the refusal of Ministers of 

 Education to grant the demand for a Royal Commis- 

 sion to inquire into such endowments ; and instructed 

 the Parliamentary Committee once more to press for 

 the appointment of such a Royal Commission, which 

 shall inquire into : — (a) The finances of the universi- 

 ties and of the great public schools ; and to issue a 

 report containing a statement of the history and pre- 

 sent value of those endowments which were originally 

 intended for the poor ; (&) the conditions of scholar- 

 ships and other aids in -universities and public schools ; 

 (f) the relations with lower education institutions; (rf) 

 tlie government of universities and public schools, 

 and to bring forward recommendations showing how 

 these institutions may be brought under full public 

 control. 



Secoxdary education in New South Wales has now 

 been organised completely, and Mr. Roard, the 

 director of education, in announcing at the beginning 

 of July last a series of appointments to the high 

 schools, described the character of the system which 

 has now been inaugurated. We learn, from The 

 Sydney Morning Herald, that Mr. Board claims for 

 the New South \\'ales scheme of secondary education 

 that it assigns a definite time for the studies of a 

 secondary school, making four years the minimum 

 which any student should spend on these studies. 

 .\nother good point is the certificating system, which 

 connects the secondary school with the primary school 

 on one hand and the university on the other, and also 

 leads definitely to certain well-marked types of career 

 — for example, the technical or the commercial. At- 

 tached to the scheme of certificates is the system of 

 e.xamination. The examinations are, in the first place, 



NO. 2237, VOL. go] 



school examinations as well as tests of individual 

 attainments. In the second place, the results of the 

 examination will be modified by consideration of the 

 school record of the pupil, and, again, the examina- 

 tion can only follow upon the completion of a specific 

 programme of studies that has occupied a definite 

 period of time, and in the last place the examinations 

 for the certificates are closely associated with the 

 thorough inspection of the schools. A specially con- 

 stituted board of examiners, representing both the 

 University and the Education Department, will deter- 

 mine the award of all certificates. In a few years 

 there will be a large number of efficient high schools 

 under the control of the Department of Public Instruc- 

 tion, and it is hoped that a leaving and intermediate 

 examination will be carried on somewhat on the lines 

 of that in Scotland. The alternative scheme, which 

 was not adopted, was a system of inspection and 

 examination bv the University of Sydney. That_ is 

 not, however,' the true function of a university. 

 Sydney has acted wisely in not undertaking it, though 

 the University may assist, as it has done, to strengthen 

 the State Education Department, and get it to 

 organise secondary education as well as primary and 

 technical. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 Calcutta. 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal, August 7. — R. K. Bhide : 



Two more new species of Graminese from Bombay. 

 Two new species of grasses are described, (i) Chloris 

 quin^uesetica, collected by Mr. G. A. Gammie, and 

 subsequently by the author, from Bassein, and (2) 

 Sporobolus scabrifolius, collected by the author from 

 Rannebennur.— Manindra Nath Banerjee : A measure 

 of chemical affinity. The chemical activity of an 

 element bears a simple relation to its density ; if its 

 atomic volume be divided by its density, the figure 

 obtained, for which the name "specific extensity " is 

 suggested, gives a measure of the chemical activity 

 of the element. For instance, platinum, which is a 

 very inactive element, is near one end of the scale 

 with a specific extensity of 0^42 ; hydrogen ,_ a very 

 active one, is near the other end with a specific exten- 

 sity of i27'25. There are a number of exceptions to 

 the rule, the most obvious being the inactive 

 gases found in the atmosphere. — Rev. H. Hosten : The 

 mouthless Indians of Megasthenes. According to 

 Megasthenes, there lived near the sources of the 

 Ganges a tribe of people, the .\stomoi, who had no 

 mouth, but merely orifices through which they 

 breathed. They ate and drank nothing. When they 

 went on a distant journev, they took with them certain 

 roots and flowers or wild app'les, on the perfumes of 

 which thev subsisted. " Should they inhale verj' foul 

 air death is inevitable." The tribe is found mentioned 

 in conjunction with the Trispithami (men of three 

 spans long), the Pvgmies, and the Scyritas or Scyratae 

 (Kiratas), tribes whose characteristic features are dis- 

 tinctly Mongolian or Himalayan. .\ number of texts 

 are quoted to prove that the "foul air" against which 

 the Astomoi had to protect themselves represents the 

 phenomenon known as nial-de-montagne, or breath- 

 seizure, and that the "wild apples" they used as 

 antidote were onions, dried apples, and apricots, 

 nostrums emploved in the Himalayas wherever breath- 

 seizure prevails.' The fact that some hill tribes used in 

 their travels fruits of which they inhaled the perfume, 

 lest the "foul air" should kill them, seems then_ to 

 have led to the idea that they subsisted on nothing 

 else. From this to the belief that they needed no 

 mouth, and, in fact, had none, or " instead of mouths 

 had orifices through which they breathed," the infer- 



