A' A TURE 



[August 2, 1906 



these methods have become stereotyped. But the late Mr. 

 Stirling, as an engineer, had to thinlc for himself, and, 

 moreover, his occupation removed him to places far from 

 the busy crowd. He could scarcely have had the oppor- 

 tunity of e.'iamining and testing his opinions by comparison 

 with those of others who have been differently trained, for 

 he passed much of his life in furthering railway enterprise 

 in Chili and Peru. There he was free to follow the lines 

 of thought that his uncurbed fancies suggested. His book 

 is therefore marked with much freshness, but also with 

 some errors. In many respects it is interesting, since it 

 shows the confusion which an intelligent mind may create 

 for itself when it disregards the trammels of authority and 

 attacks problems for the study of which it is not fitted 

 by previous training. 



We get the first insight into this mutinous disregard 

 for authority when we find our author describing, in his 

 first chapter, the experiments which the late Sir George 

 Airy carried out at the Harton Colliery. It cannot be 

 denied but that these experiments are open to some objec- 

 tion, though possibly not entirely on the grounds on which 

 the author insists. But there is a. certain refreshing keen- 

 ness in his criticism which one can read and enjoy. We 

 next find our author hopelessly blundering over that 

 terrible question of the moon's rotation, and we cannot 

 help thinking that the late Mr. Stirling must have had 

 in his nature a considerable spice of obstinacy. He was 

 far too intelligent not to have recognised the true character 

 of the problem and to have found its solution. It is to be 

 regretted, perhaps, that he did not rely upon his own good 

 sense, and that he consulted so many authorities. He has 

 our sympathy to the extent that these authorities have 

 not always expressed themselves with clearness, and in 

 some cases not even with accuracy. But with perverted 

 ingenuity he seems to have fastened upon any looseness of 

 expression he could find, and has endeavoured to give it 

 a construction that it will not legitimatelv bear. But 

 when we find the centrifugal force due to the moon's 

 rotation introduced as a cause to explain the transference 

 of air and water from the visible hemisphere of the moon 

 to the hemisphere that we do not sec, we are disposed to 

 give up our author as incorrigible. It is not at all sur- 

 prising after this that he should turn his attention to the 

 nebular hypothesis, that he should find its explanation 

 inadequate, and to need some finishing touches which ho 

 is ready to supply. For this is a subject that attracts those 

 most keenly who are least qualified to handle it intelli- 

 sjently. Unfettered by close reasoning .ind unfamiliar with 

 the bearing of material facts and deductions, thev lose 

 themselves in apparently plausible intricacies, and hope- 

 lessly puzzle those who attempt to follow them." 



w. E. r. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge.— Dr. H. W. Marett Tims, of King's College, 

 demonstrator of anatomy in the University, has been 

 appointed professor of biology at the Roy.-il Veterinary 

 College, London. 



.\t a meeting of the president and fellows of Queens', 

 held on Wednesday, July i8. Prof. H. T. Bovev, ~F.R.S.. 

 professor of engineering in the University of Montreal, 

 was elected an honorary fellow. Mr. Bovey was formerlv 

 a fellow of the society. 



The master and fellows of Christ's College have elected 

 Mr. Francis Darwin, foreign secretary to the Roval Society, 

 honorary fellow. Mr. Darwin for many year's held the 

 readership of botany in the University and a fellowship 

 at Christ's. Dr. G. H. F. Nuttall. F.R.S., has been 

 elected a fellow of the same college. Dr. Nuttall has held 

 teaching posts at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 

 and at the University of Berlin. He is at present reade'- 

 in hygiene at Cambridge and chief editor of the Journal 

 of Hygiene, which he largely helped to found. 



Dr. G. C. Bourne has been appointed I.inacre professor 

 of comparative anatomy at Oxford, in succession to the 

 late Prof. Weldon. 



A CLASS in experimental psychology, including practical' 

 work and demonstrations, will be held by Prof. C. S. 

 Myers on Saturdays in the psychological laboratory of 

 King's College, London, beginning on October 6. 



Mr. V. H. Blaci^man has been appointed lecturer in 

 plant cytology in the department of botany of University 

 College, London. In view of the new relationship between 

 the college and the University of London, and in order to- 

 avoid confusion with the principal of the University of 

 London, the title of the Principal of University College 

 will be changed to that of Provost of University College. 



Mr. Clarence H. Mackay and Mrs. John W. Mackay 

 have given 20,000/. to the University of California, to 

 endow the chair of electrical engineering. It will be 

 known, says Science, as the John W. Mackay, jun., pro- 

 fessorship, in memory of Mr. Mackay's brother, and will 

 be filled by Prof. C. L. Cory, head of the department of 

 mechanical and electrical engineering. 



The Board of niducation has issued its instructions for 

 the year August r, igo6, to July 31, 1907, to technical 

 schools, schools of art, and other day and evening schools 

 and classes for further education. As is becoming common 

 in the Board's publications, the volume begins with a 

 prefatory memorandum, and in it great stress is laid upon 

 the value to the student of science and technology of what 

 is commonly called " general " education. Steps are de- 

 tailed by which the Board proposes to encourage this side 

 of the work of these schools and classes. It is pointed out 

 that the lower classes of a good evening school afford to- 

 pupils, who have just left an elementary school, both a 

 continuation of their general training and instruction in 

 the application of that training to matters that come before 

 them in their daily work. It is where, says the memor- 

 andum, this double aspect of evening schools is best de- 

 veloped, and where the lower and higher classes are most 

 fully knit together, that the best records of attendance and 

 of real progress are to be found. A distinct advance is 

 recorded, we are glad to find, in the preliminary education 

 of students entering higher classes in day technical schools, 

 and this is to be traced to more efficient evening continu- 

 ation schools. These regulations also make provision for 

 an inclusive grant to local education authorities, other than 

 London, in place of the separate grants assessed by taking 

 into consideration the number of hours of instruction 

 received by registered students in approved subjects. An 

 authority wishing to receive such an inclusive grant must 

 submit to the Board particulars of the manner in which 

 it is proposed to make provision for the educational needs 

 of the area and for the coordination of the several types 

 and grades of this instruction with the other forms 

 of education available for the area. All such endeavours 

 to prevent overlapping and duplication of educational facili- 

 ties, and to bring about economy and efficiency, are 

 welcome. It is to be hoped the new plan proposed by the 

 Board will effect the object in view. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, June 21. — " The Transition from the Liquid 

 to the Solid State and the Foam-structure of Matter." 

 By Prof. G. Quincke, For.Mem.R.S. 



On June 19, 1905, the author laid before the Royal 

 Society the results of his researches on ice-formation and 

 glacier-grains (see Nature, September 28, 1905, vol. Ixxii., 

 p. 543). The further prosecution of these researches has 

 -.hown that phenomena similar to those observed in the 

 freezing of water occur in all bodies in nature, and are in 

 agreement with the structure of metals as observed by the 

 author and also by other investigators. Solid bodies, then, 

 are never homogeneous, but always exhibit a foam- 

 structure. 



.-Ml liquids in nature resemble water in forming, as they 

 cool, oily foam walls, which may be very thin and invisible. 

 The shape and position of these foam walls become visible 

 on freezing or thawing in the following ways :— (o) By 

 fissures or fractures at the surface of the foam walls. 



NO. I918, VOL. 74] 



