November ii, 1909] 



NA TURE 



39 



who were able to run down from Johannesburg, 

 Pretoria, and Kimberley for the occasion, to whom 

 the usual two days and two nights' journey in the 

 train necessary to travel from one centre to another 

 would have been prohibitive. The meeting was the 

 most successful so far held, from the fact that the 

 Governor, the municipality, the Press, and the 

 citizens generally, united in welcoming the delegates 

 from the various centres, and in showing appreciation 

 ior the objects of the association. 



In the opening address the president struck the 

 dominant note of the meeting, namely, that science is 

 nut of purely academic interest, but that the results 

 won by scientific men could be understood by the 

 unlearned if they tried, and that the results could be 

 ;ipplied to everjday life with material benefit. The 

 ttxt of the address was the "Application of Chemistry 

 in .-Xgriculture." The mining industry has a very 

 important bearing on the prosperity of the country, 

 "yet agriculture must be considered as the main and 

 permanent foundation upon which the future progress 

 uf the nation must rest." 



The acting mayor, Mr. K. E. Parfitt, in welcoming 

 the delegates, said, " I daresay that from a sanitary 

 point of view this town excels all others in South 

 -Vfrica," a wonderful statement in view of what the 

 town was like only a few years ago. This fact was 

 more fully brought out by Dr. Tomory, medical officer 

 of health for the town, later on in his paper on 

 ■ Recent Methods of Water Purification," in which he 

 dealt with the merits of slow sand filtration and the 

 .\merican methods of rapid chemical treatment ; the 

 Bloemfontein system is a compromise between the 

 two. 



Prof. W. A. D. Rudge, of Grey College, Bloem- 

 fontein, president of the section of astronomy and 

 mathematics, opened the sectional meetings at the 

 Normal College buildings on .September 28 with an 

 iiddress on the " Genesis of Matter." Mr. Hugh Gunn, 

 Director of Education in the Orange Free State, 

 president of the education section, took for the subject 

 of his opening address "The Problem of Rural 

 Education." He considered this to be the most 

 exigent question of the moment. Farmers had done 

 their best, but the badly provided farm schools, staft'ed 

 with one teacher, whose emoluments were poor, and 

 whose qualifications corresponded, were inadequate. 

 Rural schools were regarded as being on the lowest 

 rung of the educational ladder. He calculated that 

 liarely one-quarter of the area of South Africa was 

 jirovided with school facilities, and that 80,000 children 

 of school age were not attending school. Of this 

 number he thought two-thirds lived in the rural dis- 

 tricts. He wished to abolish single-teacher schools, 

 mid to replace them with three-teacher schools. This 

 could be done by providing transport facilities. A 

 beginning had been made in the Orange Free State 

 with satisfactory results, and he hoped to see the 

 system extended. 



Dr. C. F. Juritz, of Cape Town, opened the section 

 devoted to chemistry and geology with an address on 

 ".Agricultural Chemistry." The following are the 

 more important papers read in the various sections. 

 L'nfortunately, the sections were, reduced to three, and 

 had subsequently to be divided to enable all the papers 

 to be read, hence some confusion ensued in regard to 

 jjlacing the papers in their proper section. 



Water vapour on Mars, J. de Fenton ; notes on the 

 geology of Natal, J. A. H. Armstrong; revised list of 

 the mammals of South Africa, E. C. Chubb ; puberty rites 

 of the Basuto, and prehistoric African fauna and flora as 

 evidenced by African philology, Rev. Father Norton ; maize 

 breeding, R. W. Thornton ; cultivation of maize, J. Burtt- 

 Davy ; solar radiation, H. E. Wood ; the great snow- 

 NO. 2089, VOL. 82] 



storm of August, 1909, H. E. Wood ; the Breede River 

 irrigation works, T. E. Scaife ; notes on the recent mag- 

 netic storm, G. W. Hopkinson ; the flora of Portuguese 

 East Africa, T. R. .Sim ; the vegetation of the southern 

 Namib, Dr. R. .Marloth ; lime and milk, R. Pape ; the 

 composition of milk in Cape Colony, St. C. O. Sinclair ; 

 notes on the fauna and flora of Sarawak, J. Hewitt; 

 mental healing, Right Rev. Bishop Chandler ; the value of 

 the practice and teaching of hygiene in schools. Dr. 

 Targett-Adams ; the salt pan of Haagenstad, G. W. Cook ; 

 the bearing of recent theories on the nature of the earth's 

 interior on the question of deep mining, Prof. E. H. L. 

 Schwarz ; itacolumite from Swaziland, Prof. G. H. 

 Stanley ; observations on the vascular system of Hemitelia 

 Capensis, H. G. Morris ; notes on the anatomy of 

 Widdringtonia and Callitris, W. T. Saxton ; the principles 

 of the naturalisation of forestry, C. Robertson ; architec- 

 ture, H. Baker; the relative growth of our white and 

 black population, J. M. P. Muirhead ; classics in our 

 secondary schools. Dr. J. Brill; biography of Mohlomi, 

 traveller, witch-doctor and chief, A. C. McGregor ; the 

 tercentenary of the telescope, H. B. Austin ; the English 

 language and literature in South Africa, Prof. Stanley 

 Kidd ; education in a Swiss canton, A. M. Robb ; practical 

 education, T. Lowden ; agricultural training of natives, 

 Hobart Houghton ; weights and measures for South ."Africa, 

 R. T. A. Innes. 



Members of the association were taken round the 

 new buildjngs of the Grey University College and the 

 Grey School. The admirable building stone from the 

 Bloemfontein commonage and the northern Free State 

 allows the local architects to build elegant buildings; 

 but this may become somewhat of a disadvantage, and 

 leads often to cases where the effect of a window from 

 the outside is considered more than its usefulness in 

 the inside. A second excursion was to the military 

 cantonments at Tenipe, but the most instructive 

 outing was to the dry farm at Groot Vlei, where 

 lucerne, fescue, burnet, sainfoin, and other fodder 

 plants, besides cereals, are grown without irrigation. 

 A large area of the farm is planted with the 

 .'Australian salt bush, which thrives admirably ; the 

 soil does not appear to be brak here, but, rather, is 

 unproductive on account of its being clogged with 

 fine silt. 



Two popular lectures were given in the Town Hall, 

 one on "Celestial Chemistry," by Dr. C. F. Juritz, 

 and one on "Explosives," by Mr. W. Cullen, of the 

 Modderfontein dynamite factory. .-\t the close of the 

 latter the British .Association medal and cheque of 

 40/. were presented to Dr. Harry Bolus, the botanist. 



.At the annual general meeting the report of the 

 council was presented, which showed a large decrease 

 of membership owing' to the prolonged depression in 

 South .Africa. To meet the decrease in income it was 

 proposed to abolish one of the permanent offices, 

 either the Johannesburg or the Cape Town one ; it 

 was also proposed to issue the Transactions in 

 monthly parts. In view of the opening of the Union 

 Parliament in Cape Town next year by His Royal 

 Highness the Prince of Wales, it was proposed to 

 hold the 1910 meeting in Cape Town at about the 

 same date. His Excellency Sir Hamilton Goold-.Adams 

 was asked to offer the presidency of Ihe association to 

 His Royal Highness. 



Mr. Lowden brought forward the subject of a prize 

 scheme, which was discussed at some length both at 

 Cape Town and at Johannesburg, and urged that 

 something should be done to induce young students to 

 take up science subjects. He suggested that if nothing 

 else could be done, the association should offer at 

 least a medal for the first two students matriculating 

 in each science subject, and that if the funds of the 

 association were not available, a subscription should 

 be raised for the purpose. After some discussion the 

 president stated that he would like to mark in some 



