AucusT 29, 1912] 
NATURE 
677 
Students in Evening Schools. 
Recognised schools or centres in Th 73422 
Students who attended any time during the 
year :— 
(i) Age at date of first registration for the 
session :— 
Under 12 years of age 735 
12 and under 15 years of age 151,330 
15 ” 1d » 214,569 
1d A 21 * 118,082 
21 years of age and over 222,943 
(ii) Sex :— 
Boys and men 414,417 
Girls and women 293,542 
Total... 708,259 
In this large number of evening students, nearly 
one-third of whom are twenty-one years of age or 
above, and most of whom attend the classes after 
a day’s labour in workshop or office, we have a 
volunteer army from which many captains of industry 
and leaders of thought have been selected. It is true 
that some of the instruction given in these evening 
schools and classes is not far removed from that of 
continuation schools, but there is much of a higher 
standard, and in the combination of practical experi- 
ence in the works during the day with theoretical 
knowledge gained at night we have a means of 
technical education which has proved successful in the | 
past, and from which more may be expected in the 
future. Io Joke (Ci 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
Dr. Arruur J. Kenpa, instructor in preventive 
medicine and hygiene at the Harvard Medical School, 
has been appointed to the chair of bacteriology at 
Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill. This ap- 
pointment will give him the oversight of the 
researches in the problem of tuberculosis which have 
recently been endowed by Mr. James A. Patten at a 
cost of 50,000l. 
Tue Calendar of the Royal Technical College, 
Glasgow, for the one hundred and seventeenth session, 
1912-1913, has just been received. It contains much 
information as to the courses of work prescribed for 
candidates for the college diploma, as well as other 
details. We notice that the governors contemplate 
the extension and modification of the diploma courses 
in mechanical, electrical, and civil engineering, 
mining, and naval architecture. The whole building 
of the college extends over seven acres of floor space, 
and forms the largest structure in Great Britain 
devoted to education. With its equipment it has cost 
about 400,000l. 
In the Calendar of the Edinburgh and East of Scot- 
land College of Agriculture for 1912-1913, which has 
just been issued, full particulars are given of the | 
various courses that may be taken at the Central 
Institution in the departments of agriculture, horti- 
culture, and forestry. The new arrangements in 
forestry will come into operation next session, and 
in this subject a new class will be commenced, the 
syllabus of which has been laid down with a view to 
meet the needs of those who desire a general know- 
ledge of forestry from the practical point of view. It 
is intended that this side will be specially emphasised 
by work in the forest garden. The calendar contains 
full details of the large amount of extension work 
carried on in the counties of the college area. The 
numerous lecturers and instructresses engaged in this 
department take to the doors of the rural population 
teaching in many subjects bearing on country life. 
NO. 2235, VOL. 89] 
Tue Board of Agriculture and Fisheries has awarded 
the following research scholarships in agricultural 
| science :—A. W. Ashby, Oxford (economics of agri- 
_ culture); W. Buddin, Cambridge (plant nutrition and 
| tural zoology) ; 
| physiology). 
| capacity. 
A. E. Cameron, Aberdeen (agricul- 
F. Cook, London (animal nutrition) ; 
A. Cunningham, Edinburgh (bacteriology); J. David- 
son, Liverpool (agricultural zoology); F. C. Minett, 
London (animal pathology); P. A. Murphy, Dublin 
(plant pathology); M. S. Pease, Cambridge (genetics) ; 
W. W. P. Pittom, Cambridge (animal nutrition) ; 
J. A. Prescott, Manchester (plant nutrition and soil 
problems); F. Summers, London and Liverpool (plant 
The scholarships, which are of the 
annual value of 15ol., and are tenable for three years, 
have been established in connection with the scheme 
for the promotion of scientific research in agriculture, 
for the purposes of which the Treasury has sanctioned 
a grant to the Board from the Development Fund, and 
thev are designed to provide for the training of promis- 
ing students under suitable supervision with a view to 
enable them to contribute to the development of agri- 
soil problems) ; 
| cultural science. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
Paris. 
Academy of Sciences, August 19.—M. Bassot in the 
chair.—A. Lacroix: The gem-bearing pegmatites of 
Madagascar. These pegmatites fall into two groups: 
potassium pegmatites and sodium and lithium pegma- 
tites. The first contains beryls, and also rare minerals 
containing titanium, niobium, tantalum, uranium 
(radio-active), cerium, and yttrium; the latter is charac- 
terised by numerous lithium minerals, tourmalines of 
various colours, beryls, red triphane (lunzite), and also 
minerals containing boron and _ fluorine.—Richard 
Birkeland: The trajectory of an electrified particle in 
a magnetic field—L. Wertenstein: The absorption of 
radio-active projections and the ionisation which they pro- 
duce.—S. Ratner ; The mobilities of the radio-active atom- 
ions in gases. A study of the mobilities of the atoms of 
radium B, projected by radium A, Rutherford’s method 
of the alternating field being employed in the measure- 
ments.—Jean Bielecki and Victor Henri; The quantita- 
tive study of the absorption of the ultra-violet rays by 
alcohols, acids, esters, aldehydes, and ketones of the 
fatty series. The photometry of the spectrograms has 
been utilised as the basis of a quantitative study of 
the absorption in the ultra-violet. The absorption 
increases as the molecule becomes more complex. The 
acid group (CO-OH) possesses a very great absorptive 
Other groups possess specific absorption 
characteristics.—M. Portevin: The effect of tempering 
upon the electrical resistance of bronzes and brasses.— 
Georges Baume and F. Louis Perrot: The atomic 
weight of chlorine. Gaseous hydrochloric acid was 
| allowed to come in contact with liquid ammonia, and 
the weight of gas necessary to form neutral ammonium 
chloride determined. Taking N=14’009, the results 
lead to Cl=35'465, practically identical with the inter- 
national value 35°460.—E. C. Teodoresco ; The presence 
of a nuclease in Alge. 
Care Town. 
Royal Society of South Africa, July 17.—J. Medley 
Wood: Addendum to revised list of the flora of Natal. 
—J. Hewitt and Hon. P. A. Methuen: Descriptions of 
some new Batrachia and Lacertilia from South Africa. 
—Miss L. Currlé: Notes on Nantaqualand Bushmen. 
The account is taken from a gentleman whose early 
life afforded him ample facilities for obtaining a clear 
insight into the characteristics of Cape Colony Bush- 
men. Their wandering life is noted, also their mode 
