38: 



NATURE 



[January 27, 1910 



equivalent of the Siwaliks of India. This has been 

 covered by later alluvium, but appears, highly inclined, on 

 the margin of the basin, and earth-movements have prob- 

 ably continued into Pleistocene times. 



Following on Mr. Yabe's recent review of the genus 

 Fusuliiia, particularly in its Asiatic bearings, which was 

 noticed in a previous article in Nature, Mr. H. H. Hayden 

 adds a critical and microscopic investigation in a paper 

 on FusulinidcE from Afghanistan (vol. xx.xviii., p. 230). 

 He shows good reason for the view, that Fusulina is 

 perforate, but urges that the appearance of its shell, and 

 its minutely granular character under the microscope, 

 should place it among the porcellanea. It does not appear, 

 however, that the fossil porcellanea selected for compari- 

 son are in their original condition, seeing how quickly 

 a granular calcific structure arises in shells that were 

 once composed of aragonite. Mr. Hayden regards the 

 shell of a modern Biloculina as also similar, and as com- 

 posed of calcite (p. 233). In the face of other determina- 

 tions it will be well to suspend judgment before Fusulina 

 becomes placed in a unique position. 



In Palaeontologia Indica, also published by the Indian 

 Geological Survey, Dr. k. S. Woodward (vol. iii.. 

 Memoir 3) has described fish-remains from the Lameta 

 beds of the Central Provinces, which fix the age of these 

 beds between Danian times and the close of Uie Eocene 

 period. 



The Mysore Geological Department (Bulletin No. 4) 

 has assisted the gravity observations of the Survey of 

 India by the determination of the densities of a large 

 number of specimens of hornblende schists obtained from 

 mine-shafts nearly 3000 feet in depth. The unaltered 

 rock, where it is below the zone of saturation by water, 

 has a density of 300. The effect on the superficial zone 

 of alternate wetting and drying in a tropical atmosphere 

 is shown by its being regarded as " weathered " down to 

 100 feet, the density in the first 10 feet being 1-65, inclusive 

 of air-spaces, and rising to 266 at 30 feet and 290 at 

 100 feet. The determinations give what are styled 

 " apparent specific gravities " in soil-analysis, and the 

 method of collection of the loose material in its field- 

 condition in a measured box might have proved simpler 

 than that actually adopted (p. q). In vol. viii. of the 

 Department's Records (for July, 1906, to June, 1907, 

 received in November, 1909), Mr. B. Jayaram makes the 

 MOW customary complaint (p. 84) that his oldest rocks in 

 Mysore are hornblende-schists, into which gneiss, and 

 subsequently pegmatite, have intruded. He presumes 

 below this " an hypothetical archaean basement rock, say 

 gneiss," but this is probably suggested out of deference to 

 the text-books. His notes on rocks and minerals express 

 a large amount of original observation, and he claims a 

 secondary origin for his pyroxene-hornblende granulites 

 fp. gq), without realising that he is thereby bringing them 

 into line with those of .Saxony, the nature of which was 

 so long misunderstood. .According to Dr. Smeeth, the State 

 geologist (p. 15), there is a good deal to be yet learned 

 about the origin of the Mysore laterites ; but Mr. H. K. 

 Slater's report on the Sorab Taluk (p. 31) has suggestive 

 remarks on the relation of laterite to lithomarge. and of 

 lithomarge to an original highlv felspathic granulite, else- 

 where referred to as a banded felsite or rhyolite. He 

 believes that the same granulite (p. <]9) passes, by impregna- 

 tion with silica and iron oxide, into a brecciated chalcedony- 

 h.TBmatite rock, which has been described, somewhat 

 misleadingly, as a quartzite. This paper needs some press- 

 correction. 



The Reports of the Mineral Survey of Ceylon for 1907 

 and 1908 include the last work of Mr. James Parsons, 

 whose tragic loss is recorded in that for iqo8. Consider- 

 able attention is given to thorianite, and the monazite of 

 Ceylon has yielded 10 per cent, of thoria. " Recon- 

 structed " rubies, as well as beautifully cut gems of a 

 class rich in lead and thallium, are now being sold in 

 Ceylon markets. Western science has much to answer for 

 in the east. The useful relations between the Survev and 

 the Imperial Institute in London are clearly seen in these 

 reports, and the same feature is .apnarent in the Geologists' 

 Annual Report of the Federated Malay States for 1908, 

 in which tin-deposits are naturally of foremost interest. 



G. A. J. C. 

 NO. 2100, VOL. S2I 



EDUCATIOX ABKOAD AND IN ENGLAND.' 

 1 N education, as in other matters, each nation must solve 

 its own problems for itself. Every system of education 

 should be the expression of national characteristics and 

 adapted to national idiosyncrasies. Still, lessons which 

 we can ill afford to neglect may be learnt from the study 

 of developments in other countries, and in some respects 

 it is much easier to ascertain what is being done abroad 

 than at home. Thanks to the admirable series of special 

 reports inaugurated by Prof. Sadler, wo can make our- 

 selves more or less familiar with the details of foreign 

 education. With regard to England, we are not so fortu- 

 nately situated ; the Board of Education gives little or no 

 information as to new and successful experiments, and its 

 reports have mainly a statistical value. This lack of 

 information as to the progress within recent years renders 

 a comparison between English and foreign systems difficult 

 and misleading. 



Attention is commonly concentrated upon Germany and 

 the United States. This is natural, having regard to their 

 extraordinary industrial development during the past 

 generation and the extent to which it may be attributable 

 to their systems of education. With regard to Germany, 

 it would be remarkable if a nation forced to repair the 

 ravages of war by intellectual effort — you remember Hum- 

 boldt's famous expression in 1807, " Der Staat mus durch 

 geistige krafte ersetzen was er an physischen verloren 

 hat " — had not in the course of a century become pre- 

 eminent in one or more departments ; but when you test 

 the value of the system you will find, I think, that the 

 general balance is in our favour. The facilities for 

 technical and scientific instruction are as great here as 

 there, but where the German has the advantage is in the 

 better quality of the pupils who attend those colleges and 

 schools. This is entirelv due to the excellence of their 

 secondary education, and until we can make the Board 

 of Education and the public realise that prolonged and 

 sound general education is the essential antecedent to 

 successful technical and scientific training, the quality of 

 the material supplied to our technical and scientific institu- 

 tions will remain inferior. By their regulations, the Board 

 of Education seem hardly to appreciate the supreme import- 

 ance of this. .\ course of four years compares most un- 

 favourably with the courses at the Gymnasia and Real- 

 schulen, and it is a fatal mistake to allow that course to 

 be shortened in any circumstances, or to permit individual 

 pupils or special classes to follow a curriculum varying 

 from the curriculum approved for the rest of the school. 

 To remedy the glaring defects in our system of secondary 

 education, and to place our pupils upon terms of equality 

 with those in Germany, it is imperative to fix a higher 

 standard and strictly to adhere to it. 



Of the United States as a whole it is difficult to speak. 

 Each State has its own system, and the only common 

 characteristic is the lavLsh expenditure upon buildings and 

 equipment. No one is more conscious than the American 

 himself that the results are far from satisfactory. 



In spite of this, however, valuable lessons may be learnt 

 from .America. We are indebted to them for the promotion 

 of international congresses, which will be of universal 

 benefit if thev only succeed in the standardising of uni- 

 versity education, which at present leads to endless mis- 

 apprehension and confusion. We might, too, with 

 advantage imitate their custom of holding frequent local 

 inquiries with a. view to the re-adjustment of existing 

 methods so as to satisfy modern requirements. At the 

 same time, thev have done much to solve the problem of 

 the connection between instruction and apprenticeship, the 

 workshop and the school. The fundamental principle there 

 is based upon the rational assumption that the proper and 

 only way for a young man to learn the practical side of 

 his profession, together with business details, is by work- 

 ing as a regular employee, and that the only place where 

 he can learn properly the scientific and the cultural sub- 

 jects is at a school under trained teachers. We need also 

 a bureau of education as well organised and endowed as 

 that at Washington to act as an imperial centre for 

 information and advice. 



1 From a paper read at the Norih of England Education Conference, 

 Leeds, on January P, ly John C. Medd. 



