January 23, 19 13] 



NATURE 



585 



in French universities with a view to obtain the 

 licence or doctorate in law, the licence in science or 

 in letters, or the doctorate of the university in medi- 

 cine must produce (in the original) diplomas or certifi- 

 cates awarded to them by the universities or other 

 institutions where they have pursued their studies and 

 passed their examinations. These documents, which 

 must be accompanied by a translation by a certified 

 translator {traductcur jure), will be vis^d and certified 

 either by the Consul-General of France in the student's 

 native country or by one of the representatives of 

 that country accredited to France. 



The following lectures will be delivered at the 

 Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine on various 

 dates from February 4 to March 18: — "The Early 

 Bacteriological Work of Lord Lister," Prof. C. J. 

 Martin, F.R.S. ; "Various Products of the Tubercle 

 Bacillus used in Diagnosis and Treatment and Cur- 

 rent Views upon tlie^r Mode of Action," Dr. G. H. K. 

 Macalister ; " Some Recent Work on the Agglutination 

 of Bacteria with Special Reference to Agglutination 

 with Acids," Dr. J. A. Arkwright; (i) "Recent Work 

 on Haemolysis," (2) "Serum-fast Bacteria," Dr. J. 

 Henderson Smith; "Lipoids," Dr. H. Maclean; "The 

 Laws Governing Disinfection by Various Agencies," 

 Dr. H. Chick; "The Chemical Action of Bacteria," 

 Prof. A. Harden, F.R.S. The lectures are addressed 

 to advanced students and others interested in the sub- 

 jects discussed. Students of the University are ad- 

 mitted free, and others can obtain a card of admission 

 on application to the secretary of the institute. 



In the issue of Science for December 27 last, Prof. 

 Rudolf Tombo, jun., examines the registration re- 

 turns for November i, 1912, of twenty-nine of the 

 leading universities in the United States. Five uni- 

 versities show a decrease in the total enrolment, 

 namely Cornell, Illinois, Iowa, Johns Hopkins, and 

 Pennsylvania, while four institutions showed a loss 

 in the total enrolment in the previous year. The 

 largest gains were registered by Columbia (io6g), 

 California (733), Minnesota (515), New York Univer- 

 sity (488), Texas (475), Nebraska (391), and Harvard 

 {303). In the previous year there were four institu- 

 tions that showed a gain of more than three hundred 

 students, namely California, Columbia, Cornell, and 

 Ohio State. For 19 12 ten institutions exhibited an 

 increase of more than two hundred students in the 

 autumn attendance, as against four in 191 1. Of these 

 institutions four are in the east, five in the west, and 

 one is in the south. Of the universities dealt with 

 the six with the highest total attendance are as fol- 

 lows : — Columbia, 9007: California, 6457; Chicago, 

 6351; Harvard, 5729; Michigan, 5620; and Cornell, 

 5412. As regards the number of students in pure 

 science, Cornell continues to maintain its lead in 

 this branch, enrolling 1419 students, as , against 

 Michigan's 1284, Yale's 1139, and Illinois's 965. 



Mr. .[ames Gr.\ham, secretary for education in 

 Leeds, delivered on January 17, at the University of 

 Leeds, a lecture on methods of preparation for the 

 future life of our industrial army. In elementary 

 education in this country, he said, we are not at 

 present getting full value for the money spent, and 

 this is to be attributed to the early age of leaving 

 school and to local by-laws which allow the brightest 

 pupils to leave before they have obtained full benefit 

 from the education provided. The Government 

 should, he said, take steps to raise the school-leaving 

 age to fourteen years for urban districts throughout 

 the country. This would make it possible to organise 

 at the top of the elementapi' schools a special course 

 of work, thoroughly practical in character, and likely 

 to help in the production of the intelligent and adapt- 



No. 2256, VOL. go] 



able type of boy now required in industry. He de- 

 scribed an interesting educational experiment which 

 is being made in Leeds in the establishment of day 

 preparatory trades schools. These schools combine a pre- 

 liminary practical training in trades with a continued 

 general education for boys who have passed through 

 the elementary school. The course covers a period 

 of two years and aims at an all-round development 

 of the boy's faculties in a practical manner. For such 

 schools it is important, Mr. Graham insisted, to secure 

 a teaching staff wilii practical experience of the work- 

 shop. For boys who enter some trade or industry 

 directly they leave the elementary schools, a corre- 

 sponding course of study is required between the 

 ages of twelve and fourteen. The ultimate success 

 of such a scheme lies to a large extent with the 

 employer, and the Leeds employers are beginning to 

 appreciate the value of the training given in the pre- 

 paratory trades schools. During the years of youth 

 and adolescence, he continued, supervision and guid- 

 ance are needed, especially in regard to blind-alley 

 occupations where comparatively high wages are paid 

 for unskilled employment, often leading to the prema- 

 ture development of a spirit of independence in the 

 boy and to the withdrawal of discipline and guidance 

 on the part of the parent. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Meteorological Society, Januarv 15. — Annual 

 general meeting. — Dr. H. N. Dickson, president, in 

 the chair. — Mr. C. J. P. Cave was elected president 

 and Mr. F. Druce treasurer for the ensuing year. — 

 Ordinary meeting. — C. F. Brooks : The snowfall of the 

 United States. The author has collected the data 

 available from more than 2000 stations for the fifteen 

 vears 1895-1910, and from the results thus obtained 

 he has prepared a map showing the annual snowfall. 

 The effects of topography, prevailing winds, storm 

 frequency, and the location of the great lakes and 

 oceans in and about the United States on snowfall 

 are verv apparent. In the first place, the western 

 coast ranges, the Sierra Nevadas and Cascade ranges, 

 lying in the path of the prevailing westerlies blowing 

 from the Pacific Ocean, bring excessive snowfall (in 

 many places exceeding 400 in. per year) on their 

 western flanks. The dry interior basin just to leeward 

 of these mountains has very little snowfall, except 

 where mountains rise above the general level. The 

 great Rocky Mountain chain again brings copious 

 snowfall (exceeding 100 in. per year in a great many 

 places, from Idaho and Montana south to northern 

 New Mexico, and in some places in Colorado as high 

 as 400 in. a year, and 300 in. per year in southern 

 Wyoming). Again, in the lee of these mountains, the 

 drv western prairies suffer deficient snowfall. On 

 nearing the Great Lakes, snowfall increases, and on 

 the south-east shores of each of the lakes, 80 to more 

 than 100 in. of snow falls annually. The Appalachian 

 Mountain chain brings the lines of equal snowfall far 

 south, there being 50-100 in. in the mountains from 

 Maryland to Maine. In northern New England fre- 

 quent storms in winter cause a snowfall of more than 

 100 in. annually. In south-eastern United States 

 snowfall occurs practically everywhere, except in ex- 

 treme southern and eastern Florida and southern 

 Texas. The Gulf Stream shows its influence as far 

 as Cape Hatteras bv bending th" lines of equal snow- 

 fall far to the north. 



Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, Januarv 16. — 

 Mr. Edward Hooper, president, in the chair. — L. H. 



