December 26, 1912] 



NATURE 



479 



mining instruction is being advertised. It is proposed 

 to malce a levy of one-tenth of a penny per ton on 

 the output of the collieries concerned, which will pro- 

 vide upwards of 5000/. a year for the maintenance of 

 the school. The scheme" is really part of a larger 

 scheme recommended by Prof. Louis, of Newcastle- 

 on-Tyne, on the lines of the mining school at Bochum 

 in connection with the Westphalian coalfield, whereby 

 elementary instruction in mining, given at prepara- 

 tory schools spread over the whole district, leads up 

 to the higher work in the central mining school. 

 The portion of the general scheme which it is now- 

 proposed to develop does not embrace the all-round 

 training necessary tor mining engineers, such as that 

 provided for in some of the Englisli universities and 

 at University College, Cardiff. It is much to be hoped 

 that the mining courses now being arranged will not 

 overlap the higher work that comes more strictly 

 within the province of the University College at Car- 

 diff, and ihat the development of the mining depart- 

 ment .u that college will not sufler in the future from 

 <my want of sympathy and financial support from the 

 wealthy colliery proprietors of our richest coalfield. 



The report for the session 191 1-12 on the work of 

 the department of technology of the City and Guilds 

 of London Institute has been published by Mr. John 

 Murray. The number of subjects in which e.xamina- 

 tions were held by the department was 75, the same 

 number as in the previous year, the number of separate 

 classes increased from 4495 to 4552, the largest on 

 record, and the number of students in attendance rose 

 from 52,680 to 53,999- These figures represent the 

 numbers of students of registered classes, receiving 

 instruction mainly with a view to the institute's ex- 

 aminations, but they are only a proportion of the total 

 number of students in applied science and technology, 

 who are in attendance at courses of instruction largely 

 influenced by the work of the department. There can 

 be no doubt, the report states, that the teacliing ot 

 technology has improved greatly during the past few 

 years ; but it is noted that the e.xaminers have still 

 to direct attention to the insufficient knowledge that 

 some candidates possess of the principles of their sub- 

 jects, and to the lack of practical knowledge shown by 

 others. As regards the preliminary training of the 

 students, the examiners in several subjects comment 

 on the inability of the candidates to write good Eng- 

 lish, the poor handwriting and spelling, and the un- 

 satisfactory answers to questions involving calcula- 

 tions. The report urges that it is desirable, before 

 commencing the distinctly technical part of their 

 course of training, that the attendance of pupils at 

 day or evening continuation schools in which special 

 provision is made for manual instruction, the teaching 

 of English, and practical science should be further 

 encouraged. 



The Department of .'\griculture and Technical In- 

 struction for Ireland has issued its programme of tech- 

 nical school examinations for 1912. Both in day 

 secondary schools and in evening technical schools the 

 department has adopted a system of inspection, to the 

 exclusion of written examinations, as a test of 

 •efficiency, and has never prescribed written examina- 

 tions for the purpose of assessing grants for educa- 

 tional purposes. It is not proposed to depart from 

 this policy, which has been attended by excellent 

 results. In past years students requiring some certifi- 

 cate of efficiency have entered for certain English 

 public examinations in science and technology. The 

 Tecent changes made by the Board of Education in 

 its science examinations, together with other con- 

 siderations, have led the department to inaugurate 

 the examinations dealt with in the programme. The 

 NO. 2252, VOL. 90] 



scheme of examinations is designed to follow courses 

 of instruction extending over four years in the follow- 

 ing branches of technical knowledge : commerce, 

 building trades, applied chemistry, electrical engineer- 

 ing, mechanical engineering, domestic economy, art. 

 There will be, in general, two examinations in each 

 course in each of the four years, and the examinations 

 in each course must be taken in the order prescribed. 

 The department will not be concerned with the 

 examination of students other than those intending to 

 take out a course certificate. The syllabuses of examina- 

 tion are based upon the knowledge w'hich may be 

 acquired in following a definite course of instruction 

 in a technical school, though the department will not 

 for the present require attendance at a technical school 

 as a qualification for admission to the examinations. 



The Imperial University of Tokyo, the calendar of 

 which for the current session has been received, con- 

 sists of six colleges of law, medicine, engineering, 

 literature, science, and agriculture. In each, college 

 complete arrangements have been made for higher 

 education in accordance with the most modern 

 standards. It is possible here to refer to one or two 

 examples only. Attached to the College of Agricul- 

 ture are five forests, two in Tokyo Fu, one in Cliiba 

 Prefecture, one in Hokkaido, and one in Formosa. 

 That in Chiba Prefecture, to take one instance, covers 

 an area of about 535S acres, and is divided into the 

 Kiyosumi and the Okuzan forests, and it is intended 

 for use in practical instruction in forestry, for the 

 investigations undertaken by the professors and 

 students, and to serve as a model of scientific forest 

 management in Japan. The system of scholarships, 

 too, is of special interest. Research and loan scholar- 

 ships are awarded. The former are intended for 

 graduates of "high scholarship and of sound and 

 strong character " who wish to devote themselves con- 

 tinuously to study and research. Loan scholarships 

 are of two kinds — college scholarships and donation 

 scholarships. A college loan scholarship has a value 

 not exceeding 120 yen per annum, and is for students 

 unable to meet college expenses from their private 

 means. When the holder of a loan scholarship has 

 graduated, he is bound to refund the sum he has 

 received by monthly instalments, so as to complete 

 the repayment within the same number of months as 

 that during which he had been in receipt of the 

 scholarship ; and he also pays interest at the rate of 

 6 per cent, per annum. A donation loan scholarship 

 differs chiefly in being allotted according to the wishes 

 of the donor. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, December 5. — Sir .\rchibald Geikie, 

 K.C.B., president, in the chair.— Dr. J. H. Ashworth 

 and Dr. T. Rettie : A Gregarine — Steinina rotundaia, 

 nov. sp. — present in the mid-gut of bird-fleas of the 

 g-enus Ceratophyllus. This cephaline Gregarine was 

 first observed in the mid-gut of adult examples of 

 Ceratophyllus styx, and its life-history has been traced 

 in larvae and adults of this species, in which it has 

 been found to be common. Examples of C. farreni 

 and C. galliiiae have also proved to be infected, but 

 only sparingly.— G. Dreyer, W. Ray, and E. VV. X. 

 Walker : The size of the aorta in warm-blooded 

 animals, and its relationship to the body-weight and 

 to the surface-area e.xpressed in a formula. The con- 

 clusion reached is that in any given species of warm- 

 blooded animal the sectional area of the lumen of the 

 aorta (.\) is proportional to the body-surface, and can 

 be calculated from the body-weight by means of the 



