I4A 



NA rURE 



[December 2, 1909 



of the council of the association for the year iqoS-9. 

 From this report we note that the association has applied 

 to the Royal Commission on University and Higher Educa- 

 tion in London to be allowed to lay its views on the subject 

 before the commission, in the belief that the work of the 

 . commission will deal to a considerable extent with the 

 polytechnics and technical schools of London. We also 

 gather from an editorial note that the association, while 

 anxious to secure coordination of the work of the poly- 

 technics, looks on the scheme which has been put forward 

 by the Education Committee of the London County Council 

 as a curtailment of the powers of these institutions to 

 do work of a university character, and is therefore opposed 

 to the scheme. The association has also drawn up a 

 scale of salaries for teachers in technical institutions in 

 order to counteract the present tendency towards lower 

 salaries. They propose that salaries of' assistants begin 

 at 150/. and go to 250/., or 350;. for chief assistants in 

 London polytechnics, and that heads of departments in the 

 larger institutions have salaries from 350/. to 500?. per 

 annum. 



At the meeting on November 24 of the Education Com- 

 mittee of the London County Council an important applica- 

 tion from the Imperial College of Science and Technology 

 was considered. The governing bodv desires the Council 

 to make a grant of 8000?. to the college in respect of the 

 financial year ending August 31, iqio, as compared with 

 a grant of 5000/. for the previous financial vcar. .-Applica- 

 tion was also made for a special grant of 350/. in respect 

 of the teaching of aeronautics. The committee decided 

 that, without in any way committing the Council to the 

 payment of an annual grant, and subject to twenty-five 

 free places being reserved for the Council's scholars, Sooof. 

 should be allowed to the governing bodv of the Imperial 

 College for the year named, that 5000';. of the amount 

 should be paid during the current financial year, and the 

 remaining 3000?. between .April i and July '31 next. It 

 was further agreed that the Council, in considering any 

 future application for grant, should ask to be informed 

 what steps had been taken by the governing body " to 

 prevent overlapping and secure coordination of the work 

 already carried on by university colleges, polytechnics, and 

 other science and technological institutions, and the proper 

 connection of the whole with the university," and also 

 what further provision for maintenance is to be obtained 

 from funds of a national character. The special grant for 

 the teachmg of aeronautics will not be made. 



We have received a copy of the annual report on the 

 113th session's work of the Glasgow and West of Scotland 

 Technical College, adopted by the governors of the college 

 at their meeting last September. The record of the year 

 shows continued development in the work of the college; 

 full advantage has been taken of the new departures 

 enumerated in the report of last year, and these have had 

 a satisfactory influence upon the standard as well as upon 

 the volume of the work of the session. An important 

 modification has been made in the general curriculum for 

 the diploma awarded by the college, having especial refer- 

 ence to the examination tests to which candidates have 

 been subjected hitherto. It has been the practice in the 

 college to hold special sessional examinations in which it 

 w-as necessary that a candidate for the diploma should 

 show the attainment of a certain standard of proficiency. 

 Although the examiners were in the habit of taking some 

 note of the class-work before coming to a decision on the 

 merits of a candidate, it was inevitable that the greatest 

 weight should be attached to the results of these special 

 examinations. The departure referred to consists in a re- 

 organisation of the work for the diploma which will permit 

 of the special being combined with the class examinations, 

 and of a student's position each session being determined 

 bv the examiners after a review of his whole work for 

 that, and. if need be, for the previous sessions. This 

 review will take account of examinations, draw-ings, prac- 

 tical work as shown by laboratory books, and other class- 

 work. Part of the work for the final year will be the 

 preparation of a design, the composition of a thesis, or the 

 like, done, not under examination conditions, but as nearlv 

 as oossible under those which obtain in everyday pro- 

 fessional life. It is interesting in this connection to note 

 NO. 2092, VOL. 82] 



that Prof. Perry, F.R.S., who was appointed by the Scotch 

 Education Department to make the special inspection of 

 the college for this session, does not think it possible " for 

 the college to take its proper position until it can confer 

 the B.Sc. degree upon all its students who pass satisfactorily 

 through courses of study which satisfy its own council of 

 professors." His report has been brought before the notice 

 of the Court of the University of Glasgow, and of a com- 

 mittee appointed by them to consider the question of future 

 relations with the Glasgow and West of Scotland College. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



LOjNDON. 

 Physical Society, November 12. — Dr. C. Chree, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — P. V. Bevan : The absorption 

 spectrum of potassium vapour. The method of studying 

 the absorption spectrum was that used first by Roscoe and 

 Schuster, and of late years elaborated by Prof. R. W. 

 Wood. That the optically dense vapour has small density 

 makes it possible to heat the metal in a tube, and to have 

 enough vapour to show strong absorption of light with 

 little distillation to the colder parts of the tube. A tube 

 with quartz plate ends can be used, and the absorption 

 spectrum studied with a quartz spectrograph. The most 

 evident feature of the spectrum obtained is the appearance 

 of the lines of the principal series. None of the lines of 

 the two associated series appear, but additional channelled 

 space spectra unrepresented in the emission spectra. 

 Fifteen new lines have been obtained in the principal series 

 by this method. In the invisible region there appears a 

 channelled space spectrum in the red. This shows definite 

 edges of bands towards the violet end of the spectrum. 

 The wave-lengths of the edges of these bands were 

 measured. When the ratios of these wave-lengths to that 

 of the first member of the principal series are found, the 

 values are found to be in the same range as the corre- 

 sponding ratios as deduced from Wood's measurements on 

 sodium absorption. This the author regards as evidence 

 of connection between the channelled space spectrum and 

 the principal series of lines. The remarkable feature of 

 this absorption spectrum is the difference in the properties 

 of the principal series lines from those of other lines in 

 the emission spectrum. Some other lines are in emission 

 spectra far stronger than the higher members of the prin- 

 cipal series, vet do not appear at all in the absorption 

 spectrum. This fact may indicate that the metallic vapour 

 at the low temperature of these experiments is in a different 

 molecular state from its state in a spark or flame, or that 

 in these latter cases chemical action is going, on and the 

 emission spectrum is not a simple elementary spectrum.— 

 J. S. Dow ; Some further notes on the physiological, prin- 

 ciples underlying the flicker photometer. The author 

 suggests that something may be learned regarding .the 

 physiological phenomena governing the flicker photometer 

 by observing whether it is subject to certain physiological 

 effects, such as the " yellow spot " and " Purkinje " pheno- 

 mena. Experiments show that the effects referred to do 

 occur, but are apparently much less marked. The author 

 suggests an explanation based on the assumption that 

 the rod-elements on the retina, in addition to the peculiari- 

 ties attributed to these organs as regards the perception 

 of light and colour, also differ from the " cones " in the 

 fact that they seem to receive a luminous impression more 

 slowlv, and retain it longer than these organs. This 

 peculiarity is of little conseauence in an ordinary photo- 

 meter of the equality of brightness type, but mav play a 

 part in the flicker instrument: it seems to explain why 

 certain effects should be perceived more clearly in one case 

 than in the other. .According to this theory, we may 

 imagine the flicker effect to be due to two distinct portions, 

 received bv the agency of the rods and cones respectivel);. 

 L'nder certain conditions the speed of a flicker photometer 

 m.nv be supposed to be suitable for the use of ** cone- 

 flicker " but too high for the " rod-flicker," which becomes 

 fused into a steady luminous impression, and thus does 

 not affect the readings of the , instrument. The author 

 r'-^ards his experiments as hni^rr eoeontially of a suggestive 

 character, reauirinil more d'^f^.TlIed exnn^in.^tion. - One must 

 be cautious in seeking to draw deductions from c.nses of 

 colour-blindness, as many different varieties of this affliction 



