150 
NATURE 
[APRIL 11, 1912 
Pithecanthropus at the beginning of the Pleistocene 
period, the Pliocene date originally assigned by Prof. 
Dubois seems the more probable one. There can 
be no doubt that the Javan fossil form is human 
in every point of structure save that of size of brain. 
Pithecanthropus, like Neanderthal man, was evidently 
a primitive form which had survived long after much 
higher types of mankind had been evolved. If we look 
upon Pithecanthropus as representative of mankind 
at the close of the Pliocene epoch, then we must sup- 
pose that the human brain was doubled in size during 
the earlier part of the Pleistocene period. Such a 
rapid degree of evolution is unknown in the whole 
history of paleontological discovery. It will probably 
be found that Pithecanthropus is representative rather 
of a Miocene than of a Pliocene stage in the evolution 
of man. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
CaMmBrRIDGE.—An exhibition of 5o0l. a year, tenable 
for two years, is offered each year by the governing | 
body of. Emmanuel College to an advanced student 
commencing residence at Cambridge as a member of | 
Emmanuel College in October. 
may 
should properly qualified applicants present themselves. 
The governing body 
The exhibitions will be awarded at the beginning of | 
October. Applications, accompanied by two certifi- 
cates of good character, should be sent to the master 
of Emmanuel not later than September 24. 
Tue sixth annual report of the president and 
treasurer of the Carnegie Foundation, covering the 
year ending September 30, 1911, has just been re- 
ceived, and is here summarised. The endowments 
award additional exhibitions of smaller value | 
now amount to 2,424,60ol., comprising Mr. Carnegie’s | 
original gift of 2,000,000l. in 1905, an accumulation 
from income of 224,600l., and 200,000l. received in | 
Ig1rt as the first instalment of Mr. Carnegie’s addi- 
tional gift of 1,000,0001. in 1908. Of the income of 
118,000l. for the year 1910-11, 105,200l1. was expended 
in retiring allowances and pensions, 7200]. in general 
administration, and 32001. in educational publication. 
Thirty-one retiring allowances and seventeen widows’ 
pensions were granted during the year, increasing the 
number in force to 373, the average annual payment 
being 326/., and the total distribution to date 349,200). 
The exchange of teachers conducted through’ the 
Foundation sent nine American teachers to Prussia 
during the year and received seven Prussian teachers | 
in the United States, in both instances with gratify- 
ing results. 
THE second part of the report referred to above is a 
comprehensive survey by the president of educational 
progress and tendencies from a national point of view. 
Private and local educational initiative without guid- 
ance and federal and State grants without supervision 
are so wasteful financially and so hurtful educationally 
that agreement and cooperation must _ inevitably 
increase. The great variation in educational efficiency 
that now exists is shown to be unnecessary and 
wasteful. It is neither necessary nor desirable that 
some States should spend only one-eighth as much 
as others per cabita for education, have only half as 
long a school year, enroll only half as large a pro- 
portion of their school children, and spend only one- 
fifth as much in educating each teacher. A _ better 
adjustment is developing between the colleges and 
the high schools. Many universities and colleges 
have advanced within ten vears from competing with 
NO. 2215, VOL. 89] 
| of young leaves and elongation of the shoots. 
high schools, while other institutions, like Harvard, 
have broadened their entrance requirements so that 
they can be met by the average good high school. 
The increase in the number and size of post-graduate 
schools—so per cent. in the last decade and tenfold 
in the last thirty years—has been much greater than 
the natural need. Poor and pretentious graduate 
schools, conducted with the funds of undergraduate 
colleges and attended chiefly by subsidised students, 
often merely impair the appreciation of good under- 
graduate teaching and hamper real research, through 
the multiplication of mechanical seminars, disserta- 
tions, and the like. Professional education, also, is 
hampered by an enormous duplication of facilities, 
resulting in great financial waste, and often in a com- 
petition in low entrance requirements and poor in- 
struction. Some States have four, five, seven, and 
nine schools of engineering each; New York city 
alone has six, and Pennsylvania has thirteen, five of 
these having fewer than forty students each. The 
report will be sent to any address upon request to the 
Carnegie Foundation, Fifth Avenue, New Yerl 
City. 
ee 
a7Y? 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
Lonpon. 
Geological Society, March 27.—Dr. Aubrey Strahan, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Bernard Smith: The 
glaciation of the Black Combe District (Cumberland). 
After a brief discussion of previous work and litera- 
ture, a short sketch is given of the geological structure 
of the district. With the exception of the western 
coastal plain the main topographical features are pre- 
Glacial, but they have been either subdued or accen- 
tuated by glaciation. The chief pre-Glacial drainage- 
lines determined those of the present day.—J. F. N. 
Green: The older Palaeozoic succession of the Duddon 
Estuary. 
DUBLIN. 
Royal Dublin Society, February 27.—Mr. R. LI. 
Praeger in the chair.—Prof. T. Johnson; Heterangium 
hibernicum, sp. nov., a seed-bearing Heterangium 
from Co. Cork. This is a fossil plant from the Car- 
boniferous slate, near Bandon, and is contained in the 
National Museum. The specimens were described in 
1864 by W. H. Baily, of the Geological Survey, as 
“linear plants’’ under the name of Filicites lineatus. 
They represent the recently discovered group of seed- 
bearing ferns which connect the ferns with the lowest 
group of flowering plants. The Bandon specimens are 
of special interest in that one of them bears a small 
““seed’’ in direct continuity with the parent plant.— 
Prof. Henry H.. Dixon and W. R. G,. Atkins: 
(a) Changes in the osmotic pressure of the sap of the 
developing leaves of Syringa vulgaris. The osmotic 
pressures were calculated from the depression of 
freezing point of the sap, determined by a thermo- 
electric method, before described. | Measurements 
were made from February to October, and _ it 
was found that the osmotic pressures ranged from 
tr to 13 atm. in the buds, from to to 15 atm. in the 
leaves, increasing with age. Mean molecular weight 
determinations of the sap solutes usually lay between 
160 and 180. (b) Variations in the osmotic pressures 
of some evergreens. The leaves of deciduous plants 
showed an increase of pressure with age. Tlex and 
Hedera were found to behave similarly. The highest 
pressures were observed in March and April, and also 
from October to December, as the leaves are then at 
their maximum average age just before the grove 
NO 
