>?4 



NA TURE 



[January 27, 1910 



strandis non sine laude praefuit. Ibi, tot laboribus 

 occupatus, tempora tamcn subsiciva (ut aiunt) fluminis 

 Indi regionis montanae annalibus antiquis diligenter 

 edendis et luculenter illustrandis non sine fructu dedicavit. 

 Ibi, tot laborum per intervalla, itinera ilia magna, Indiae 

 proconsulis niagni auspicio, est aggressus, unde gloriam 

 maximam merito est adeptus. Olim, ultra Indiae terminos 

 in regiones propiores prospere peregrinatus (ut alia 

 praeteream), petram Aornon accuratius investigandam esse 

 duxit, rupem illam praecipitem et abruptam " ab Hercule 

 frustra obsessam," ab Alexandre post pericula plurima 

 captam et Minervae Victoriae consecratam.' Idem viatoris 

 antiquissimi vestigiis sacris ingressus," Asiae in ipsa pene- 

 tralia plus quam semel peregrinatus est. lUic, itinere 

 longinquo in uno, regionis desertae ex arenis, quot 

 " oppidum cadavera "° diu sepulta, quot tabellarum litteris 

 priscis inscriptarum reliquias, per saecula longa quam 

 tuto conservatas, eruit ! In altero autem, regioncm quam 

 immensam minutissime permensus, quot tabulis pictis domi 

 delineandam tradidit ! Quot turres diu desolatas, quot 

 imperii Sinensis olim latius porrecti propugnacula, 

 dinumeravit ! Quam ingentem librorum in quanta lingu- 

 arum varietate scriptorum multitudinem, quam multa 

 denique artium Graecarum, artium Asiaticarum monu- 

 menta, aut pictoris aut sculptoris manu antiquitus 

 exornata, Britanniae in Museum maximum victor 

 reportavit ! Herculis praesertim et Minervae et Amoris 

 imagines, olim gemmis insculptis in creta impressas, 

 ab eodem inventas recordati, confitemur inventori tarn 

 strenuo, tarn sagaci, tam amabili, neque Herculis forti- 

 tudinem virtutemque, neque Minervae prudentiam, neque 

 Amorem ipsum, scientiarum et veritatis amorem incor- 

 ruptum, defuisse. 



Duco ad vos Asiae exploratorem impigrum, prudentem, 

 perdoctum, virtutis antiquae exemplar bene nominatum, 

 Marcum Aurelium Stein. 



Mr. R. C. Punnett, superintendent of the Museum of 

 Zoology, has been elected to the professorship of biology 

 recently vacated by Prof. \V. Bateson. Mr. Punnett took 

 his degree in i8q8, obtaining a first class in part ii. of 

 the natural sciences tripos. He was awarded the 

 Walsingham medal in 1900. He has also received the 

 Thruston medal. For some time he held the Balfour 

 studentship, to which he was elected in :qo4. He 

 succeeded Dr. Harmer as superintendent of the Museum of 

 Zoology at the beginning of last year. 



Prof. W. Bateson, who vacated an ordinary fellowship 

 at St. John's College on resigning the professorship of 

 biology, has been elected to an honorary fellowship. 



The chairman of the special board for anthropology 

 gives notice that Mr. Roscoe will give a course of lectures 

 du;ing the present term on the natives of Uganda. The 

 lectures will be given on Fridays (commencing on Friday, 

 January 28), at 5 p.m., in the lecture theatre of the 

 Archasological Museum. 



There is about to be introduced into Congress a Bill 

 " to promote health and efliciencv by the establishment in 

 the United States Bureau of Education of a division for 

 the collection of scientific data on ohysical education and 

 for the dissemination thereof." The proposal originated 

 at a recent convention of the National Education Associa- 

 tion, which appointed a committee to direct the attention 

 of Congress to the need of governmental action on the 

 subject. The association emphasises especially the growing 

 importance of physical culture in view of the increased 

 tendency to the congestion of the population of America 

 in cities. 



The first meeting of the newly formed London branch 

 of the Mathematical Association will be held at the Poly- 

 technic, Regent Street, on Saturday, January 2g, at 

 2.45 p.m. Mr. A. W. Siddons (Harrow) will read a paper 

 on the Board of Education circular on the teaching of 

 geometry, and amongst those who will contribute to the 

 discussion are Miss Home, Miss Gwatkin, Mr. G. St. L. 

 Carson, Dr. T. P. Nunn, Mr. J. G. Hamilton, Mr. F. J. G. 



1 Curlius, viiL 71, 2-2J. 



2 A reference lo Hiiien-Tsian?, the great Chin 

 whom Dr. Stein claimed as his " guide and patro 

 Ruin<: of Khotan." ed. TQ04, p. xxi., &c.). 



3 Ap. Cic. <»,/ /^am.. iv. 5, 4. 



NO. 2100, VOL. 82] 



Whipple, and Mr. T. J. Garstang. There will be an 

 exhibition of books and models. Those desiring to attend 

 are requested to communicate with the honorary secretarv, 

 Mr. P. Abbott, 5 West View, Highgate Hill, N. 



According to the Madras Educational Review, Sir F. D. 

 Lugard, the Governor of Hong Kong, has reported to the 

 Government that Mr. H. N. Mody has offered to present 

 the colony with the building necessary to start a university. 

 A committee has been formed, with the Governor as chair- 

 man, to promote the undertaking. Mr. Mody's original 

 offer was to give a sum of 30,000/. for this purpose, and 

 a further 6000/. towards the endowment. Plans of the 

 necessary buildings were prepared, and as the Director of 

 Public Works estimated that the cost would not be less 

 than 58,000/., Mr. Mody undertook to provide them in 

 accordance with the plans which he had approved, no 

 matter what the cost might be, stipulating, however, that 

 he should use on the buildings the 6000/. originally given 

 for endowment if it should be required. 



A COPY of the report of the principal of the Huddersfield 

 Technical College for the session 1908-g has reached us. 

 The number of students in attendance during the session 

 amounted to 1503, an increase of 106 over the previous 

 year. The principal directs attention to the urgent national 

 and civic importance of an early attempt to remedy by 

 legislation the defects in our present system of public 

 education. He points out that, after passing through the 

 standards in the primary schools, most of the nation's 

 children are cast adrift upon the world untouched by any 

 educational influence, the great majority before they reach 

 the age of fourteen, and many thousands before they are ' 

 thirteen. There are in England and Wales more than 

 i,Soo.ooO' bovs and girls below the age of seventeen who 

 are not in attendance at any school, whether day or even- 

 ing, primary, secondary, or technical. It is to be hoped 

 that the need for the continued educational oversight and 

 care of this army of adolescents will be recognised by our 

 legislators speedily. Half-time labour below the age of 

 fourteen, he insists, must be abolished, and the school- 

 leaving age raised to fourteen at least, while some 

 beginning should be made in the work of providing for 

 the continued instruction of those children who at present 

 escape from all educational supervision on leaving the day 

 school. 



The Builder for January 13 has an illustrated article on 

 the accepted design for the City of Leeds Training College. 

 The portion of the estate of Kirkstall Grange, Far Head- 

 ingley, near Leeds, which is to be utilised measures seventy 

 acres in extent. The major portion has been purchased 

 from Lord Grimthorpe, and about thirty acres have been 

 leased for seven years. The existing house, a fine example 

 of eighteenth-century wor'iv, is very wisely to be retained 

 in the scheme. A finer site could hardly have been 

 obtained. The scheme of buildings comprises educational 

 block; five hostels for women and two for men, in addition 

 to the existing mansion, which is to be utilised as a hostel 

 for men; baths and laundry; sanatorium; principal's and 

 vice-principal's houses; women's and men's games 

 pavilions, together with the requisite lodges. Sir Aston 

 Webb, as assessor appointed by the committee, placed the 

 design of Mr. C. W. Atkinson first. The front elevation 

 of the educational block in this design consists of a centre 

 and two end pavilions connected by wings ; crowning the 

 centre, where a recessed portico of the Corinthian order 

 standing on a basement is employed, is a low dome. 

 The whole composition has an air of Georgian refinement 

 which accords well with Kirkstall Grange, and the scheme, 

 when translated from paper to reality, will m.ake the 

 educational apparatus of Leeds Education Committee as 

 nearlv perfect as is possible in the present state of our 

 knowledge. 



The Maharaja of Durbhanga, presiding at the end of 

 December last at the Lahore industrial Conference, spoke 

 of the industrial activities of India. The Pioneer Mail 

 reports him to have said that the first and foremost of all 

 Indian industries is agriculture. Agriculture is receiving 

 the serious attention of the Government. Agricultural 

 colleges and Government farms planted here and there 

 have been doing fruitful work so far as they are able, but 



