September 20, 1906J 



NA TURE 



531 



University College, Liverpool (now the University), and at 

 Erlangen, and has been assistant professor at University 

 College, Bristol, since 1903. He has published many papers 

 in journals of chemical societies, both in England and 

 Germany, among his most recent papers being one on 

 benzoyl nitrate, which describes a new method for the 

 nitration of organic compounds. 



The annual report of the South Australian School of 

 Mines and Industries for 1905 shows that excellent progress 

 in technical education is being made at Adelaide. The 

 number of students enrolled was 1507, and the number of 

 subjects taught was forty-five, courses having been started 

 during the year in agriculture, building drawing, dairy 

 work, motor management, veterinary science, and flower 

 culture. The report contains a detailed account of the 

 laying of the foundation-stone of the new metallurgical 

 building on October 3, 1905. 



From among recently made foreign appointments we 

 note the following : — Dr. Emil Bose, lecturer in physics 

 of Gottingen University, to be professor of physical 

 chemistry in the Danzig Technical High School ; Dr. 

 Alfred Kalahne, of Heidelberg University, to the physics 

 chair of the same institution ; Dr. Taddaus Godlewski to 

 be extraordinary professor of general and technical physics 

 in the Technical High School, Lemberg ; Dr. K. Fries to 

 be a departmental director of the chemical institute of 

 Marburg University in succession to Prof. R. Schenck, 

 who has received an appointment in Aachen ; Dr. Franz 

 Waterstradt, scientific assistant to the German .'\gricultural 

 Society, to be extraordinary professor in the University of 

 Breslau ; the lecture courses on inorganic and analytical 

 chemistry of the Faculty des Sciences of Paris University, 

 which Prof. Ribau is giving up on his retirement from active 

 academic life, have been deputed to MM. Paul Lebeau and 

 G. Urbain, while M. L. Ouvrard has been appointed 

 director des laboratoire d'enseignement et de rechen hes 

 chiniiques of the same faculty. 



The new laboratory of physical and electrochemistry 

 which has been presented to the University of Liverpool 

 b\ -Mr. E. K. Muspratt will be formally opened on 

 Saturday, October 13, by Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B.. 

 F.K.S. Besides many eminent English chemists, the 

 following distinguished foreign men of science have 

 accepted invitations to be present : — Profs. Ostwald 

 (Leipzig), .\begg (Breslau), Cohen (Utrecht), Goldschmidt 

 (Christiania) ; also Prof. Lash Miller (Toronto). .Addresses 

 will be delivered by Sir William Ramsay and Prof. 

 Ostwald. The distinguished guests will be entertained to 

 dinner by the University Association on October 12, and 

 by the Liverpool section of the Society of Chemical Industry 

 on October 13. The new laboratory contains twenty-one 

 rooms, and has been specially built and fitted for work in 

 physical and electrochemistry. Its electrical equipment in- 

 cludes an 80-kilowatt motor alternator, a 30-kilowatt motor 

 generator for direct current, a lo-kilowatt charging set 

 (all by Messrs. Siemens Bros.), and a 36-cell Tudor 

 accumulator battery. The name of the new laboratory is 

 to be " The Muspratt Laboratory of Physical and Electro- 

 chemistry." 



On Wednesday, October 3, Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., 

 will give a public lecture at University College, London, 

 on "The Chemical Nature of Electricity," and on 

 October 4 Prof. L. W. Lyde will give an introductory 

 lecture on " Geography as a ' Corollating ' Subject in 

 School Work." These two lectures are open to the public 

 without payment or ticket. Among the courses of free 

 lectures shortly to be commenced at the college are the 

 following : — Six lectures, open to the public without pay- 

 ment or ticket, on the " History of Statistics and the 

 Nature and Aims of Modern Statistical Methods," by Mr. 

 (i. L^ Yule, on Wednesdays at 5.30, commencing W'ednes- 

 day, October 10; ten lectures on " Recent Development in 

 the Teaching of Arithmetic and Elementary Mathematics." 

 by Mr. F. L. Grant, on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m., 

 beginning on Saturday, October 13 ; ten lectures on *' The 

 Hygienic Needs of the Scholar," by Prof. Henry Kenwood, 

 iin Thursday evenings at 7.30 p.m., beginning on Thurs- 

 dav. October 11. This course and that on mathematics 



are open, without fee, to all teachers in London schools. 

 Teachers wishing to attend should apply for forms to the 

 Executive Officer, London County Council Education 

 Offices, Victoria Embankment, W.C. Forms must be re- 

 turned not later than .Saturday, September 22. 



SPE.tKiNG at Hawardcn on .Monday on the objects and 

 advantages of education, Mr. Wyndham remarked that 

 " it was right to include science in the curriculum because 

 we are now living in an age of science. In the sixteenth 

 century people lived in an age of literature, and the minds 

 of men were attracted toward the old books written in 

 Greek and Latin." This difference between the needs of 

 the two ages was pointed out by Sir Norman Lockyer in 

 an address at the Borough Polytechnic Institute last 

 December, printed in Nature of March 29 (vol. Ixxiii., 

 p. 521), as the following extract from the address clearly 

 shows : — " We must arrange our education in some way 

 in relation to the crying needs of the time. The least 

 little dip into the history of the old universities will prick 

 the bubble of classical education as it is presented to us 

 to-day. Latin was not learned because it had the most 

 magnificent grammar of known languages. Greek was not 

 learned in consequence of the transcendental sublimity of 

 ancient Greek civilisation. Both these things were learned 

 because people had to learn them to get their daily bread, 

 either as theologians or doctors or lawyers, and while they 

 learned them the ' nature of things ' was not forgotten. 

 Now what is the problem of to-day? We are in a world 

 which has been entirely changed by the advent of modern 

 science, modern nations, and modern industries, and it is 

 therefore perfectly obvious that if we wish to do the best 

 for our education it must be in some relation to those three 

 great changes which have come on the world since the old 

 davs. " 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, May 31. — "On the Main Source of 

 ' Prccipitable " Substance and on the Ixole of the Homo- 

 logous Proteid in Precipitin Reactions." By Prof. D. A. 

 Welsh and Dr. H. G. Chapman. Communicated by Dr. 

 C. J. Martin, F.R.S. 



Conclusions. — (x) The homologous proteid is not wholly 

 removed from the superfluid of a precipitin interaction, 

 whether it is more than sufficient or less than sufficient to 

 neutralise all the precipitin present. 



(2) Conclusive evidence that the homologous proteid is 

 sensibly diminished in similar circumstances has not been 

 obtained. 



(3) The substance that is thrown out of solution is derived 

 mainly from the anti-serum. 



(4) The character of an anti-serum depends upon two 

 factors which are mutually independent, (a) the precipitable 

 content, (b) its precipitability. 



(5) The precipitable content is indicated by the maximum 

 precipitum obtainable from a given amount of the anti- 

 serum. 



(6) Its precipitability is indicated by the minimum 

 amount of homologous proteid that will completely 

 neutralise the precipitin in a given amount of the anti- 

 serum. 



(7) The solid content of precipitin anti-sera is increased 

 relatively to that of natural sera. 



June 28. — " On the ' Kew ' Scale of Temperature and 

 its Relation to the International Hydrogen Scale." By 

 Dr. J. .A. Marker. 



In 1S87 the International Committee of Weights and 

 Measures adopted as the standard thermometric scale the 

 constant-volume hydrogen thermometer. By far the 

 majority of teinperature measurements are made by means 

 of mercurv thermometers. The ideal mercury thermometer 

 would be one which, when subjected to any steady tempera- 

 ture, would assume immediatelv a steady reading identical 

 with that given by the hydrogen thermometer at the same 

 temperature. This idea! is, as might be expected, not 

 attained by any known mercury-in-glass thermometer, and 

 the amount of the departure from the ideal at different 



NO. 1925, VOL. 74] 



