45: 



NATURE 



[December 19, 1912 



It is understood by T/ze Times that the Royal Naval 

 College, Osborne, is to be rebuilt permanently on the 

 present site at a cost of 2oo,oooL, and that the work 

 will be begun almost immediately. A little time ago 

 a committee of Admiralty officials, including the 

 Director of Works, visited Christ's Hospital for the 

 purpose of inspecting the new buildings there, and it 

 was then stated to be likely that somewhat similar 

 building plans were in preparation for a new college 

 at Osborne. 



.'\ CONFERENCE Week of educational associations will 

 be held in the University of London, South Kensing- 

 ton, Lotidon, .S.W., from January 6 to ii. Sir Henry 

 Miers, F.R.S., Principal of the University, and Dr. 

 M. E. Sadler, Vice-Chancellor of the University of 

 Leeds, will speak at the opening meeting, to which 

 members of all the associations are invited. Thirteen 

 educational associations, including the Geographical 

 Association and the Association of Teachers of Domes- 

 tic Subjects, are taking part. We notice that the 

 presidential address to the Geographical .A.ssociation 

 will be delivered on January g by Prof. E. J. Gar- 

 wood, who will speak on .Arctic glaciers and glaciated 

 features of Britain. 



The annual meeting of the Mathematical Associa- 

 tion will be held on Wednesday, January 8, 1913, at 

 the London Day Training College, Southampton Row, 

 London, W.C. At the morning meeting an address 

 will be delivered by the president, Prof. E. W. Hob- 

 son, F.R.S., and there will be papers on map projec- 

 tions, by Mr. E. M. Langley, and the income and 

 prospects of the mathematical specialist, by Prof. 

 G. H. Bryan, F.R.S. After the election of president 

 and other officers of the council, in the afternoon, the 

 papers will be " Intuition," by Mr. G. St. L. Carson ; 

 "The Advisabilitv of Including some Instruction on 

 the Historv of Mathematics in the School Course," 

 by Miss M. E. Harwell; and "The Teaching of the 

 Scholarship Candidate in Secondary Schools," by Dr. 

 W. P. Milne. There will also be an exhibition of 

 scientific apparatus and books. Mr. E. M. Langley 

 will exhibit the set of mathematical plastographs (de- 

 signed and drawn by Mr. F. G. Smith) which were 

 shown bv him at the International Congress, and also 

 some folding-paper and other models connected with 

 the study of solid geometry. 



The London County Council has arranged to hold 

 its annua! conference of teachers on three days, 

 January 2-4 next, at Birkbeck College, Bream's 

 Buildings, Chancery Lane, London, E.C. The morn- 

 ing meetings will commence at 11 a.m., and those in 

 the afternoon at 2 p.m. .Addresses will be delivered at 

 the first meeting on the Montessori method of educa- 

 tion, at the second on reading and writing, at the 

 third on "attention," and at the fourth on school 

 liygiene, when Prof. Leonard E. Hill, F.R.S., will 

 speak nn open air and exercise. The last two meet- 

 ings will be devoted to descriptions of educational 

 experiments in schools. Application for tickets of 

 admission, for which no charge is made, should be 

 sent to the Chief Insoector, London County Council 

 Education Offices, Victoria Embankment, London, 

 W.C. The North of England Conference will meet on 

 January 2-4 in Nottingham, at the University College. 

 During the conference two united sessions will be 

 held ; the first, on January 3, will hear papers read 

 bv the Bishop of Lincoln, on the function of univer- 

 sity education in civic life, and bv Mr. P. E. Matheson 

 on the educational outlook. .At the second united 

 session Sir William Mather will speak on the co- 

 operation of employers and education authorities, and 

 Mr. George Cadbury on the educational responsibilities 

 of (he employer. Other subiects of educational in- 



NO. 2251, VOL. 90] 



terest will be dealt with in sectional meetings, for 

 which a very varied programme has been provided. 



A MEETING of the Junior Institution of Engineers 

 was held on December 11, when the president, Sir 

 A. Trevor Dawson, gave an address, taking for his 

 subject, "Staff Officers in Industrial Works: their 

 Scientific and Practical Training and Duties." The 

 demand now, he said, is for well-trained youths having 

 experience of materials, mechanical methods, and 

 men. There is a national need for more highly 

 trained engineers — men combining scientific and prac- 

 tical knowledge, and having experience of materials, 

 methods, and men, to serve on the staff of works. 

 Engineering is a profession which constantly extends 

 its boundaries. It is recognised, for instance, that 

 the advent of an oil turbine — the most desired of all 

 prime movers — was delayed largely by the absence of 

 a metal for the blades which would stand the tem- 

 perature of the gas impinging on them. This and 

 other examples prove the need for wider technical 

 training and sympathies. In all departments of 

 applied mechanics there is need, too, for the creative 

 mind, for inventive and adaptive genius. Is it not 

 obvious, he said later, that if we are to maintain our 

 position as a great industrial nation there must be 

 advance in the science and practice of engineering? 

 Other States adopt methods for assisting industry by 

 helping to train men capable to take staff appoint- 

 ments in industrial factories. It is true that our great 

 technical institutions are not excelled in any country 

 in the world, and it is creditable also that our great 

 Citv companies and many private endowments have 

 assisted many men to prosecute their engineering 

 studies at such institutions. Yet the results have 

 proved unsatisfactor\', alike from the point of view of 

 the student and the nation. The absence of practical 

 training, of early contact with the workshop, deprives 

 those students in most cases of an indispensable part 

 of their preparation for future industrial work, and 

 interferes with their finding a suitable vocation after 

 their college course has been completed. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Linnean Society, November 21. — Prof. E. B. Poulton, 

 F.R.S. , president, in the chair.— Dr. A. B. Rendle : 

 Mr. P. A. Talbot's collection of plants from Southern 

 Nigeria. — Rev. George Henslow : Vegetable mechanics. 

 The object of this paper is to show that plants respond to 

 gravity, strains, and stresses, in order to resist them 

 and so secure stability. — Miss Nellie Bancroft -. Some 

 Indian Jurassic Gymnosperms. The fossil plants 

 under consideration are of Liassic age, and come from 

 Amrapara in the Rajmahal Hills in Bengal. The 

 types represented are Gymnospermous, and include 

 examples of Brachyphyllum viamillare, Benstedtia, 

 coniferous wood, small bilateral seeds, and Cycadean 

 stems, leaves, and fructifications. The structural 

 evidence obtained, in conjunction with the external 

 morphology of the specimens, supports the already 

 accepted idea of a uniform Mesozoic flora. 



December 5, — Prof. E. B. Poulton, F.R.S., presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — E. J. Bedford : Notes on two 

 orchids new to east Sussex. Further notes on several 

 rarer species of the Orchidaceae. The author is 

 engaged in obtaining a series of photographs 

 of the British wild orchids, his intention 

 being to secure photographs of every possible 

 species in situ, as well as at closer quarters 

 at home, when arranged against a plain background. 

 During the season of 191 1 he was fortunate enough 

 to obtain two species not hitherto recorded for east 



