October 19, 1.905] 



NA TURE 



605 



their quickly altering enclosures of a constantly changing 

 number of the earth's lines of magnetic force, while thus 

 rapidly opening out or closing up. But the very short 

 extent, not probably nmch exceeding some few feet or yards, 

 which the swiftest moving part of such a circuit, in meteor- 

 nuclei of various sizes, would embrace, and again the oft- 

 proved weaktie6s of the earth's magnetic field- for exciting 

 such induced- electric currents, scarcely allow us to expect 

 that any very high voltages would be attained in even the 

 most select cases and the most favourable choices of con- 

 ditions of such meteoritically produced air-circuits. The 

 hottest, and therefore also probably the best conducting 

 jiortion of .each current's path, compressed against the 

 mrteorite's front surface, would also not, presumably, be 

 that in which the heat and light producing action of the 

 I urrcnt would be strongest, since this would rather be used 

 up in producing brush and' glow discharges through the 

 iiK.rc resisting portion of the circuit in the' outei- air. The 

 interior parts 'thefnselveS of stony meteorites, when' they 

 have fallen, have not been found, by either sight or touch, 

 to furnish any' proofs of having been much heated, but 

 ir tense effects of heat and fusion on the outer surfaces of 

 fallen meteorites are always very obvious. 



While nothing seems to point to any very easily dis- 

 eernible actions of electric currents immediately around a 

 meteor's head, unless we may ascribe to electric agency 

 the occasional production of an " aura " of sparks, or of 

 a misty envelope of light enshrouding it, the stream of 

 heated dust and vapours which travel in a meteor's wake, 

 extending to considerable widths and lengths, as may be 

 often noted, is perhaps a more visibly displayed, and a 

 inore evidently and distinctU active scene of luminous dis- 

 charges of induced electric currents : for the accumulated 

 How behind the mcteor-bcad resembles in some degree a 

 columnar, vaporous follower of the meteorite itself, left to 

 pursue its course along the meteor-track when the nucleus 

 lias disappeared. Being thus virtually a shooting-star of a 

 U)ng-e.xtended shape, but cf too dwarfed velocity to raise 

 it.self by heat to incandescence, the same induced electric 

 currents as were above inferred to be developed in the 

 meteor's head would here continue to evince themselves 

 along the column by glow discharges in the vapours and 

 the outer air, so long as sufficiently swift flow of the 

 vapours can be persistently maintained through the retard- 

 ing resistances of the opposing atmosphere. Thus a fairly 

 intelligible yaiaon d'etre by electric current interventions 

 may not impossibly have been incidentally divulged, by 

 means of the recourse proposed by Mr. BroVn to magneto- 

 electric actions, of the long-enduring light-streaks left along 

 the paths of all the swifter class of shooting-stars and 

 l.u-ger meteors ; the real modus operandi of those streaks 

 having always presented to meteor observers a mysterious 

 question for discussion, never admitting hitherto of satis- 

 factory solution by known experimental illustrations, or of 

 any quite' surely sound elucidation by less trustworthy con- 

 j'Ttures. ■ A. S. H. 



A R re Game Bird. 



1 THINK it is worth recording that on Thursdav, 

 (Ictober 5, Sub-Lieut. H. R. .Sawbridge, R.N., shot 'a 

 quail, Perdix coturnix, on Lopham Fen, close to the rising 

 of the waters, the common source of the VVaveney and 

 tile Ouse, near Diss, Norfolk. 



The bird, either a hen or a ycung male, was very fat — 

 a beautiful little specimen. 



The last quail known (by me) to have been shot in this 

 neighbourhood was in the 'fifties of the last century, by Mr. 

 Henry Button, of this parish. 



I understand that this bird was much more frequently 

 found in the middle cf last century in the- neighbourhood 

 of Great Yarmouth, and that, as a rule, it was found 

 singlv, as this was, in the autumn. 



It is being preserved by Mr. Cole, of Norwich. What 

 was a little foreign bird like this doing singly and alone 

 on our eastern counties' heaths and fens? 



Is it a case of lost or strayed, or what is it? 



It would be interesting to know whether other specimens 

 of the quail have been heard of inland in the eastern 

 counties of late years. JOHX S. S.^WBRIDGE. 



Thelnctham Rectory, Diss. Norfolk, October 16. 



PHYSICAL LABUKATOKIES IX GERMANY.' 

 'I^HE Director-Cieneral of Education in India has 

 ^ just published a valuable work in a report by 

 Prof. Kuchler,- of the. Presidency College, Calcutta, 

 on physical • laboratories in Germany. -It forms one 

 of a number to be included in a volume of the series 

 of occasional reports. ■ > 



Prof. Kuchler, " was placed on special duty, to in- 

 quire into (0 the methods adopted at the universities 

 and" poi\teclinics of- Berlin, Munich, . Vienna, and 

 other proinincnt uiiiversities and technical - institu- 

 tioiis in Geri-nany with regard both to' the. ordinary 

 studv of physical science and to the character of the 

 ifivesti-gatioris and the system pilrsued in the case of 

 students w,-ho are entering upon a course, of inde- 

 pendent research; (2) The construction and equip- 

 ment of- miSd^rn^ German . labor,atarJes,..; the, special 

 merits of scientific instruments of Geri-iian manufac- 

 ture, and the facilities for standardising these_ instru- 

 ments which are offered at central institutions in 

 Germany." 



In the course of his tour, lasting i-nore than six 

 weeks, the principal universities and technical schools 

 were visited, and the report sums up the information 

 in a useful manner. It is naturally divided ihto t-wo 

 j sections corresponding to the- two parts ,, of the 

 ' reference ; the first deals with the n-iethods of study, 

 the second treats of the construction, methods of 

 equipment, &c., of the laboratories. The training of 

 the university undergraduate of necessity : differs 

 from that of" the pupil of the high school, and both 

 rnethods are described at some length. Attention is 

 directed to the importance of the set lecture in the 

 scheme of education ; the number of lectures given 

 during the session in a university such as Berlin is 

 verv considerable, and each lecturer has the use of 

 a properlv equipped lecture-room and apparatus. 

 The importance of the organised teaching of prac- 

 tical phvsics, for medical students, chemists, and 

 engineers, in addition to the professed physicist, is 

 now realised in Geri-nany, and in an appendix,: which, 

 however, is not printed in the report, detail^ of the 

 practical instruction at some of the universitijes and 

 technical colleges are given. In view of the large 

 number of students in some of the German] univer- 

 sities, the numbers attending practical classes, as 

 given on p. 7, seem small. .-U Berlin there .are 140 

 students in two divisions, each under three assistants. 

 The average number. of students in the charge of a 

 single assistant comes to twenty-two or twenty-three, 

 which is probably about the sarne as in one of our 

 well organised English courses. 



Students who propose to take a degree in physics 

 work usuallv for two years at a dissertation. Prof. 

 Kuchler specially directs attention to the fact " that 

 students are discouraged from conirnencing the final 

 stages of their labours before they have been 

 thoroughly trained in practical manipulation and 

 nave carefullv gone through a complete course of 

 laboratory work such as is represented, say, by 

 Kohtrausch's very elaborate handbook." This fact 

 is sometimes conveniently forgotten by those w^ho 

 urge the adoption of the introduction of research 

 work at an earlier stage in our English training; the 

 avera,ge - number of these research students is said 

 to be five or six, though, of course, at Berlin, as 

 indeed at Cambridge, the number is much larger. 



To illustrate the construction and equipment of the 

 laboratories. Prof. Kuchler has given in full the plans 

 of a number of representative institutions, and these 

 plans form a most valuable part of the report. They 

 will enable a professor building or organising a 

 ■ 1 A Keport to the Director-General of Educalron in India by Prcf. G W. 



NO. 1877, VOL. 72] 



