=i20 



NATURE 



[January 9, 19 13 



The Next Return of Encke's Comet. — In a com- 

 munication to M. Flammarion, Mr. F. E. Seagrave 

 gives the results of his calculations concerning the 

 return of Encke's comet in 1914. From the elements, 

 corrected for the Jovian perturbations, it is seen that 

 perihelion passage should take place on December 

 5S9, 1914, while the ephemeris shows that the comet 

 should be circumpolar and near to the earth about 

 October 27, 1914; on this date its distance from us 

 will be about 42 million kilometres (26'2 million miles), 

 and the comet should be of about the fourth magni- 

 tude. The period found by Mr. Seagrave is i204'8ooi 

 davs. {U Asironomie , December.) 



The Magnitude .\nd Colour of Brooks's Comet, 

 igiic. — In a note appearing in No. 4619 of the Astro- 

 iwmische Nachrichten, Herr Max Valier gives the 

 magnitudes, diameters, and colours of Brooks's comet 

 (19HC), as observed by him during the period Sep- 

 tember 7 to November 4, 191 1. Both magnitudes and 

 colours were regularly progressive until October 21, 

 the former going from 5'o to I'S, the latter from 

 bluish, through blue, greenish, greenish-yellow, 

 yellowish-red, to white ; the order was then reversed 

 in both cases. 



John Goodricke. — A portrait of John Goodricke, 

 the astronomer who discovered the periodicity of Algol 

 in 178^, and suggested the accepted explanation of 

 the star's variability, has recently been presented to 

 the Royal Astronomical Society by Mr. C. A. Good- 

 ricke, of Hampstead. It is not generally known that 

 John Goodricke was deaf and dumb from birth, yet, 

 although he died in 1786, at the early age of twenty- 

 two, his scientific attainments had earned for him the 

 fellowship of the Royal Society and the award of the 

 Copley medal ; his astronomical work was done at 

 York. An interesting letter, giving the chief facts 

 concerning Goodricke's life, appears in No. 1, 

 vol. Ixxlii., of The Monthly Notices. 



■•The Co.mpanion to the Observatory." — This use- 

 ful annual, for 1913, contains practically the same 

 matter as last year, with the various tables revised. 

 Messrs. Denning and Lewis have revised the " Meteor 

 Showers " and " Double Stars " sections respectively, 

 and a welcome addition is a list of the principal star 

 clustirs and nebute. It is interesting to note, from 

 the vage dealing with the universal time system, that 

 cverv State of any importance, except Russia, now 

 uses a standard time directly depending upon the 

 Greenwich meridian ; Russian time depends upon the 

 Pulkowa meridian, and is 2h. im. fast on Greenwich. 

 We remark that the editorship of The Observatory 

 has changed hands, the new editors being Mr. F. J. M. 

 Stratlon,"of Cambridge, and Mr. .'\. S. Eddington and 

 Dr. S. Chapman, of Greenwich, in place of Messrs. 

 T Lewis and H. P. Hollis. The " Companion " is pub- 

 lished bv Taylor and Francis at is. 6d., and should be 

 in the hands of everv astronomical observer. 



DEVELOPMENTS OF NATIONAL 

 EDUCATION. 



THE papers read at the North of England Educa- 

 tion Conference, at Nottingham, on January 2, 

 •^, and 4, give evidence of a growing realisation of 

 the princip.-il weaknesses of English public education. 

 One of the most remarkable and significant develop- 

 ments in national education, and one to which con- 

 siderable prominence was given in papers read by the 

 Rev. W. Temple, headmaster of Repton School, and 

 Mr. P. E. Matheson, New College, Oxford, respec- 

 tively, is the valuable work of university level being 

 done by the Workers' Educational Association. Mr. 

 Temple stated that there are now more than 100 

 university tutorial classes in different parts of the 

 '■ountry, with nearly 3000 students, which have been 

 NO. 2254, VOL. 90] 



organised and provided by this association. These 

 classes are limited to thirty students, who undertake 

 to attend throughout a three-years' course. The class 

 meets once a week for twenty-four weeks during the 

 winter session. Each student writes an essay once a 

 fortnight. The essays are pronounced by distin- 

 guished scholars to be equal in value to the work 

 done in Oxford by men who take a first class in tlie 

 honours history school. Mr. Temple concludes from 

 the experience of the association, that "not only is a 

 vast amount of intellectual capacity going to waste 

 in England at this moment for lack of opportunity," 

 but " that men who have only had an elementary 

 education and no secondai-y can none the less do work 

 of a university type at the proper age. Of course, 

 they have not the knowledge . . . but apparently 

 their intellectual capacity has gone on growing." 



The advantages of practical and manual work of 

 various types in elementary schools were frequently 

 insisted upon. Mr. Bird, superintendent of handi- 

 craft, Leicester Education Committee, criticised 

 effectively the defects of the present methods of 

 manual training in schools, in which so much stress 

 is laid upon mere copying of models, and so little 

 attention given to developing the ingenuity and 

 originality of the boys. A suggestive criticism was 

 made bv Mrs. Ogilvie Gordon in a paper on " trade 

 schools " upon the much-quoted Continuation Trade 

 Schools of Munich. She stated that " a weak point 

 in the Munich system, and in most of the Continental 

 systems, is that there is no easy bridge by which the 

 public elementary and trade continuation class scholar 

 can pass into the higher ranks of his vocation and 

 complete his studies in the polytechnic or universitv. 

 The avenue to these higher courses is solelv through 

 the gymnasial high schools." 



Sir William Mather, in a weighty and important 

 paper on the cooperation of employers and education 

 authorities, complained " of the want of aptitude and 

 intelligence, application and interest, displayed b}' a 

 considerable majority of the boys and girls coming to 

 work direct from the elementary schools." From his 

 experience as an employer who had for some years 

 made attendance at evening continuation schools com- 

 pulsory upon his junior employees, he strongly urged 

 a similar course of action upon all employers of 

 labour. In a paper upon the educational responsibili- 

 ties of the employer. Councillor George Cadbury, jun., 

 described the remarkably complete scheme of con- 

 tinued education (mental and physical) in operation 

 at the Bournville Works for the junior employees. 

 The main features of the scheme are fi) compulsory 

 attendance at evening continuation school, with re- 

 mission of fees, and the award of prizes ; (2) physical 

 exercises .^nd swimming during the firm's time ; (t,) 

 special technical and commercial classes within the 

 works during working hours. J. Wilson. 



THE INHERITANCE OF FECUNDITY IN 



FOWLS.^ 

 'T'HE application of Mendelian principles to the 



' inheritance of an economically productive char- 

 acter of an animal has a twofold importance, viz. 

 first, because it may be questioned whether or not 

 it is possible to apply a Mendelian interpretation to 

 the facts, and, secondly, the data and conclusions 

 arrived at make it possible for others to outline a 

 practical scheme of breeding with the view of an 

 increased egg-production. 



In the study before us, Mr. Raymond Pearl, an 

 investigator well known bv his vi'ork on the fecundity 

 and breeding of fowls, sets forth in great detail the 



1 "The Mode of Inherit.ince of Fecundity in the Domestic Fowl.' By 

 Raymond Pearl, /oiim. F.x/-. Zool., 1912, pp. 153-268. 



