December 9, 1909] 



NA TURE 



161 



desirable, is it possible to do so? The general trend 

 of opinion at the present time is that, except for 

 certain isolated trades, a revival of the apprenticeship 

 system is both undesirable and impossible. Appren- 

 ticeship gives manual dexterity, but not the general 

 industrial knowledge and intelligence which will 

 enable the boy to adapt himself to changing industrial 

 conditions. Hence it is desirable to make the neces- 

 sary provision for compulsory education in the prin- 

 ciples of different trades. The chief suggestions for 

 effecting this are as follows: — (a) that. the "leaving 

 age" should be raised to fifteen years, the later years 

 of school life being given partly to continuing the 

 general education of the boy or girl, and partly to 

 manual, scientific, and industrial work; (V) the estab- 

 lishment of "trade schools" for boys of from thirteen 

 to sixteen years, giving about fifteen hours per week 

 to class-room work in science and English, and about 

 fifteen hours per week in the workshops ; (c) compul- 

 sory attendance, for about twelve or more hours per 

 week, at day or evening continuation schools for all 

 young persons engaged in industrial work. 



The movement for the spread of industrial education 

 among the mass of the population of this country 

 merits the support of the scientific world because of 

 its bearing upon the general intellectual development 

 of the nation as a whole, if that industrial education 

 be framed upon sufficiently broad and generous lines. 

 National progress, whether industrial or scientific, 

 depends upon two main agencies — the organiser or 

 leader and the skilled subordinate. University and 

 higher technical education will produce the first of 

 these, but the second will only be forthcoming in suffi- 

 cient quantities through the operation of a broad 

 general scheme of industrial education. 



J. Wilson. 



NILOMETRY.' 



IT is the common fate of the ancient gods of flood 

 and field in these sternly practical days to find 

 their empires gone, their sceptres dishonoured, and 

 even their personal liberty endangered. The Nile is 

 no exception to the rule. The old age of the river of 

 Egypt finds his fitful temper curbed, his moods 

 controlled, 



"... all his faults observed, 

 Set in a note-book, learned and conned by rote." 



Where he was master, he has become a slave. Where 

 he ruled, he must now learn to obey. 



Such are the reflections induced on turning over the 

 pages of a report, recently issued by the Egyptian 

 Survey Department, dealing with the measurement of 

 the water discharged by the Nile. The patient, per- 

 sistent efforts of a Governmental bureau are gradually 

 transforming the excesses of a capricious river into 

 quiet and orderly processes adapted in every way to 

 the agricultural needs of the country through which it 

 flows. The construction of the Aswan Dam consti- 

 tuted the first great epoch-making achievement in this 

 direction, and it is being followed up by a series of 

 systematic observations of the regimen of the river 

 which will throw light upon many obscurities in its 

 phenomena, and enable further steps to be taken for 

 its improvement. 



The Nile, as is now generally known, is fed almost 

 exclusively by the rain which falls over two elevated 

 areas, the equatorial plateau of Central Africa and 

 the Abyssinian plateau. These two sources act in 

 very different ways, the first affording a relatively 



1 " Measurement of ihe Volumes Discharged by the Nile during 1905 and 

 1906." By E. M. Dowson, with a Note on Rating Foimula; for Current- 

 meters, by J. I. Craig. Egyptian Ministry of Finance. Survey Department 

 Paper, No. II. Pp. 82. (Cairo : National Printing Department.) Price 



small but continuous supply, and the latter, copious 

 but intermittent increments, producing the regular 

 flood eflect upon which, until quite recently, the 

 agricultural prosperity of the country depended. 



The admeasurement of the variation in the volume of 

 water which is thus discharged necessitated the estab- 

 lishment of a gauging station, and the report states 

 that, on grounds of expediency, a site was chosen at 

 Sarras Old Fort, a little above Wadi Haifa. Here 

 the necessary plant and apparatus were installed. It 

 would tnl^e too long, however, to recapitulate, even 

 succinctly, the dispositions which were made and the 

 manner in which various local obstacles were over- 

 come. These were duly related in the report, and the 

 results of the observations taken are tabulated in 

 part ii. of the volume. They include the mean velocitv 

 and cross-sectional area of the stream on successive 

 dates, also a chemical analysis of the water and the 

 percentage of mud in suspension. A third section 

 gives a brief mathematical account of various rating 

 formulae for current meters. 



NO. 2093, VOL. 82] 



NOTES. 

 We regret to see the announcement of the death, on 

 December 5, of Prof. H. Bauerman, at seventy-five years 

 of age. The funeral will take place at Brookwood 

 Cemetery on Friday, ember 10. 



Prof. A. C. Seward, F.R.S., professor of botany in the 

 University of Cambridge, has accepted the invitation of 

 the executive committee of the Yorkshire Naturalists' 

 Union to be president of that society for the year 1910. 



The council of the University of Paris has, we learn 

 from the Revue scientifique, passed a resolution to the 

 effect that monuments intended to commemorate men who 

 have brought distinction on the University of Paris since 

 180S shall be erected in the church of the Sorbonne. This 

 honour will be awarded on the decision of the council, bv 

 a majority of two-thirds, not earlier than ten years after 

 the decease of the person concerned. 



We notice with regret the death of Dr. Jean Binot, on 

 November 25, at the age of forty-two years. Dr. Binot 

 had charge of one of the laboratories of the Pasteur Insti- 

 tute of Paris. Before taking up the study of bacteriology 

 he was associated with astronomy. In 1901 he had charge 

 of an expedition for the study of the transit of Venus, and 

 in connection with this work he was awarded the Janssen 

 prize of the Paris Academy. 



.An appeal is being made to the Treasury for funds to 

 complete the publication gf the scientific reports of the 

 voyage of the Scotia. It appears that the Scottish expedi- 

 tion is the only one of the recent Antarctic expeditions — 

 British, Belgian, German, French, Swedish, and Argentine 

 — that has not received Government help. The appeal is 

 made by the committee of the Scottish National .Antarctic 

 Expedition through its honorary secretary, Mr. J. G. 

 Ferrier. An additional grant is asked for beyond the 

 funds for publication, to enable Dr. Bruce to reimburse 

 those who have advanced money beyond their regular sub- 

 scriptions to the expedition. 



The following are among the lecture arrangements at 

 the Royal Institution before Easter : — Mr. W. Duddell, a 

 Christmas course of six illustrated lectures on modern 

 electricity, adapted to a juvenile auditory : (i) first prin- 

 ciples ; (2) electrical instruments ; (3) Rbntgen rays ; 

 (4) the generation of electricity ; (5) electric oscillations ; 

 (6) electric lighting ; Prof. W. A. Herdman, three lectures 

 on the cultivation of the sea ; Rev. C. H. W. Johns, two 



