NATURE 



[June 27, 190; 



UNIVERSITY AXD EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 Cambridge. — Among the additions made during the year 

 1906 to the collections under the charge of the museums 

 and lecture-rooms syndicate, special mention has been 

 made in the forty-first annual report of the syndicate of 

 the gift to the school of botany, by Mr. Francis Darwin, 

 of the scientific library of his father. Dr. E. C. Stirling 

 has presented to the museum of zoology a cast of a skeleton 

 of the gigantic extinct marsupial Diprotodon australis, 

 and the Duke of Bedford two specimens of Przewalsky's 

 horse from the collection at Woburn Abbey. The collec- 

 tion of antelopes has been largely increased, principally 

 through the donations of Mr. C. B. C. Storey, Mr. A. L. 

 Butler, Major W. B. Emery, and Captain E. Mackenzie 

 Murray. The executors of the late Mr. J. S. Budgett 

 have presented a number of specimens to the museum of 

 zoology, and certain pieces of apparatus to the zoological 

 laboratory. The Strickland curator directs attention to the 

 completion of the late Prof. Newton's " Ootheca 

 \yolIeyana, " and to the fact that the whole of Prof. 

 Newton's magnificent collection of palaarctic eggs becomes 

 thereby the property of the University. Numerous anthro- 

 pological gifts to the museum of human anatomy are re- 

 corded in the reports of Dr. Barclay-Smith and Dr. 

 Duckworth. 



.'\ su.MMER school for university extension students will 

 be held at Oxford during August. The inaugural address 

 will be delivered in the examination schools on Thursdav, 

 August I, at 8.30 p.m., by the Earl of Halsbury, F.R.S. 

 The meeting will be divided into two parts, the first of 

 which will extend from August i to August 14, and the 

 second from ."August 15 to August 26. The lectures in the 

 science section will be arranged with the object of illus- 

 trating the part played by Oxford in the advancement of 

 science, particularly in the seventeenth century. Among the 

 lecturers will be Dr. T. B. Strong, Dr. W. Osier, F.R.S. , 

 Mr. J, Wells, Dr. Brereton Baker", F.R.S., Prof. F. Gotch, 

 F.R.S., Prof. H. H. Turner, F.R.S., Prof. E. B. Poulton, 

 F.R.S., and Mr. J. L. Myres. There will also be special 

 classes in practical map-making, nature-study, and prin- 

 ciples and practice of education. 



Prof. A. S. Hemmy, Government College, Lahore, 

 writes to correct a report as to the stale of science in 

 the Punjab which appeared in the Ci>i7 and Military 

 Gazette, and was summarised in N.-vture of May 16 (p. 70). 

 The local paper pointed out that comparatively few students 

 present themselves for examinations in the science facultv 

 of the Punjab University, and therefore suggested that 

 scientific studies are not making much headway in India. 

 Prof. Hemmy remarks that though the study of science in 

 the Punjab is in a somewhat backward condition, the 

 various laboratories being badly endowed, the article in 

 the local paper, upon which our note was based, is mis- 

 leading. The regulations of the Punjab University permit 

 science (of a very slightly lower standard) to be taken up 

 for the arts degree as well as for the B.Sc, and the 

 great majority of students who take up science do so as 

 part of the more popular B.A. course. It appears that the 

 numbers quoted in the note only represent, therefore, a 

 fraction of the total number studying science. For 1907, 

 in the arts faculty, out of 3666 candidates for matricula- 

 tion, 1426 took up physics and chemistry ; out of 689 

 candidates for the intermediate, 254 took the same sub- 

 ject; of the 340 for the B.A., 25 took physics and 32 

 chemistry; while of the 52 M..\. candidates, 3 took physics 

 and 4 chemistry. 



An exhibition of selected specimens of work of pupils 

 in the rural schools of East SufTolk was held at the County 

 Hall, Ipswich, on June 15. The exhibition was arranged 

 by Alderman the Rev. C. J. Steward, chairman of the 

 Education Committee of the East Suffolk County Council, 

 to whose energy and enthusiasm this movement owes so 

 much. It is clear that valuable work is being done in 

 East Suffolk schools to train observational powers and 

 to stimulate interest in natural phenomena. Forty-three 

 distinct exhibits were shown, including some excellent 

 collections of the grasses and wild plants of each district, 



NO. 1965, VOL. 76] 



while mounted and labelled specimens illustrating the 



history of common plants and animals, meteorolog 



records kept and displayed in the form of charts, pi 

 of the villages and of the school buildings, carefi'^" 

 selected specimens showing the structure and growth'*' 

 common timber trees, plans of school gardens, records"* 

 the country month by month, and excellent studies of "y 

 changes in ditches and ponds during the year, were a°^ 

 shown. In addition, there were records of bee-keeping 8°' 

 illustrations of budding and grafting. East Suffolk V 

 made a good start in the newer teaching, and the exh{*° 

 tion itself, as well as the numbers of those who atten ^'^ 

 from all parts of the county, shows that a genuine inte: '.* 

 is Being taken in the matter. A selection of the exhi '■■ 

 is to be sent to the Royal Agricultural Society's show ■'* 

 Lincoln. =t 



A CONFERENXE will be held in Naini Tal this year, '? 

 learn from the Pioneer of Allahabad, for the purpose ' 

 considering many difficult questions connected n 

 technical education, and if possible to devise some prop< '^ 

 coordinated scheme which shall lead the way for the wK°' 

 of India. In an enlightened editorial article the Piot^^^ 

 reviews the objects the advocates of technical instrucC'y 

 have in view, and indicates many of the special requ°'^ 

 ments of the Indian population which must be bornef'^'' 

 tuind in devising a scheme suited to Eastern needs. '"" 

 is pointed out that for the success of any system provis''p" 

 must be made for the different classes of workers cnga{ '" 

 in modern productive industries, workmen or artisa '' 

 foremen or overseers, managers or masters, and that it°" 

 necessary to provide grades of technical education cop^'' 

 sponding to primary, secondary, and university or higP?> 

 education. The lowest grade is that which presents m| '® 

 difliculty in India. At the present time, the article stat'''^" 

 it is impossible to give instruction in elementary seic'^"" 

 in Indian village schools, but something might be d.°^' 

 to teach drawing and to give handicraft training ^*> 

 means of a form of apprenticeship to village craftsnrP^^ 

 It is proposed that the most promising of those so trai-""^ 

 might then be assisted to undergo a course at an indust'°y 

 school in the nearest large centre, and thus the instruct*^"- 

 in the primary schools of the country could be brought'.''" 

 touch with modern needs, and a system commenced wh.''"'' 

 would advance any scheme of technical education fina]" 

 adopted. It is suggested that workshop practice could bi'" 

 be given in India in apprenticeship schools of the Coa'i 

 nental type, and that evening classes would serve r'-^ 

 purpose of improving the workmen and selecting the';' 

 capable of profiting from a systematic course of higl|''" 

 study. No difficulty is anticipated so far as educating '"^ 

 fbremen is concerned, and technical institutes of the rii'*^ 

 kind are recommended as the best way to provide hig'^"^ 

 technical education. Undoubtedly, the article contini':"^ 

 much has already been done in India to provide a syst- 

 of technical education, and progress has been made '^^ 

 means of art schools, industrial schools, and engineer?*' 

 colleges, but there is a tendency to lose sight of modi!'" 

 developments, and the immediate need now is a svstem: -^ 

 arrangement of the work at present undertaken. "^ 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. t 



London. "■ 



Royal Society, May 9. — " The Ascent of Water in 'Trei ■ 

 (Second paper.) By Prof. A. J. Ewart. Communica 

 by Francis Darwin, For.Sec.R.S. „ 



The experiments detailed or quoted tend to show C' 

 the continuous ascent of water is only possible in liv 

 wood, and that the power of conduction is rapidly lost ^ 

 death, without any mechanical blocking of the ves;<'t " 

 being necessarily responsible for the change. Hence '^ft 

 are forced to conclude that the living cells in tall tron 

 continually restore the conditions for the ascent of wa'* 

 wherever these are affected by the excessive emptying '^'f 

 the vessels, and decrease the resistance to flow, as far '"^ 

 possible, by maintaining continuous water columns in pa'"" 

 at least of the wood. So long as these are presc*^'' 

 ab initio, a pumping action only becomes necessary in tre'''* 

 more than 20 to 50 metres in height, but suspend''^ 



