382 



NA TURE 



[August 15, 1907 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 

 [The Editor docs tiot hold himself responsible for opinions 

 expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] 



British Association; Section A. 

 As an old member interested in the welfare of 

 Section A, and appreciative of the useful work it has 

 long done in bringing physicists and mathematicians of 

 various I-iinds together, I w'ant to suggest that the com- 

 paratively recent practice of crowding all its multifarious 

 work on' to a few days, and getting through it by sitting 

 in duplicate and by hurry, is unsatisfactory. This sugges- 

 tion is not intended as a complaint, but as a warning that 

 such a method of dealing with Section A must sooner or 

 later result in its disintegration into two or more sections. 



So long as it keeps together — and it is much to be 

 desired that it should keep together, so that workers in 

 different fields may hear something of each other's results 

 — it is necessary that it should take all the time allowed 

 to it, and sit as a rule both on Saturday and on Wednes- 

 day. The Saturday meeting is especially important. In 

 ithe old days the mathematicians frequently had an excel- 

 lent opportunity on that day, of which they took full 

 advantage. So also the final meeting on Wednesday, for 

 some of the papers on minor experimental points, and for 

 such as had been postponed from other days, has also 

 been often quite interesting. 



If Saturday is not utilised, some of the senior members 

 are apt to leave at the week end, and the discussions on 

 future days then lack some of their interest and importance. 

 The only reason for not meeting on Saturday is on account 

 ■of excursions. It is to be hoped that excursions will not be 

 allowed to ruin the meeting. Saturday excursions are an 

 innovation : they began as visits to works and the like, 

 in the immediate neighbourhood, on the afternoon ; and the 

 full-day excursions were kept for the second Thursday. 



An attempt was made to diminish the excursions by 

 abolishing the second Thursday, with the unfortunate result 

 that excursions have now encroached on and consumed 

 the Saturday — which is much worse. There are sections 

 perhaps, such as C, and no doubt others, of which 

 excursions are an important feature ; but it is not so 

 with A. Let me urge the officers of that section to return 

 to the older practice, and to aim at taking meteorology on 

 Monday, general physics and astronomy on Thursday and 

 Monday, pure physics on Friday and Tuesday, pure mathe- 

 matics on Saturday, and an overflow, together with experi- 

 mental papers, on Wednesday. Then allied sections, such 

 as B and G, can take papers of more interest to physicists 

 on the Monday, as indeed used to be, and perhaps is, their 

 custom ; and Section L might perhaps then assist Section A 

 with some of the interesting and important papers on 

 details connected with teaching. 



Arjother minor matter is to express my belief that 

 sectional committee meetings would be more convenient, 

 and likely to be better attended, in the afternoon than 

 in the early morning. But on that there may easily be 

 differences of opinion. Oliver Lodge. 



Fecundity of the Leopard Moth. 



A SPECIMEN of the above {Zeuzera acsculi) was sent to 

 me by post in a tin box a few days ago from Felixstowe. 

 The moth was dead when it reached me, but had laid eggs 

 in the box. As there seemed to be such a large number 

 I had the curiosity to have the eggs counted, and it was 

 found that there were 725. It is, of course, impossible 

 to say whether this represents the whole family or 

 whether she may have laid some eggs previous to capture. 



The relative fecundity of different species of insects in 

 relation to their life-habits is an interesting subject from 

 the selectionist's point of view. The caterpillar of this 

 moth is a wood borer, and the conditions for favourable 

 nutrition may be difficult to find, so that a high fecundity 

 has been developed in order to meet precarious conditions 

 of survival. Other wood borers seem also to lay large 

 numbers nf eggs, but I do not know w-hether the families 

 have ever been counted. .\s a contribution to the subject 

 this observation appeared worthy of record. 



Nairn, N.B., .August 10. R. Meldola. 



NO. 1972, VOL. 76] 



THE .SECOND INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS 

 ON SCHOOL HYGIENE. 



THE Second International Congress on School 

 Hygiene was opened on August 5, and closed 

 on August 10. The papers were mainly practical. At 

 the first congress (Nureinberg, 1904) there was a 

 distinctly greater proportion of research work ; but this 

 was due to the fact that the medical examination of 

 school children had been longer established in Ger- 

 manv, Au-tria, and other European countries than it 

 has been in England. Such scientific investigation as 

 the present congress has evoked is almost exclu- 

 sively directed towards justifying immediate adminis- 

 trative measures, or developing existing organisations. 

 For example, medical inspection has, in England and 

 Scotland, now all but become a widespread reality, and 

 the hygiene of >chool buildings and school work has 

 rapidly grown into a speciality. We here indicate the 

 main problems raised for discussion. 



(i) Methods of Medical luspectioit. — The desirability 

 of medical inspection has been assumed at every sec- 

 tion. The chief concern is to what extent it shall 

 proceed. Dr. Mc'rv (Paris) maintained that the first 

 examination on entry to school should include (a) an 

 anthropometric record of weight, height, chest 

 measure, dyn;imometric observations ; {b) physiological 

 record of the primary educational senses — eye and ear; 

 (c) a medical record of all the organs — throat, lym- 

 phatic system, skin, skeleton, lungs, heart, &c. He 

 insisted on the extreme value of minute thoracic 

 measurements, as shown by insurance results. Experi- 

 ment has shown that spirometry as a test of lung 

 conditions is not practicable with children. The minute 

 measurements required to establish the " thoracic 

 index " can be carried out only by skilled specialists. 



The other papers on medical inspection recommend 

 onlv a medical examination, conducted strictly in rela- 

 tion to the school-work required. Accounts were given 

 of the methods of report and examination employed in 

 Sweden, Breslau, Wiesbaden, Leipzig, Nice, and other 

 places. 



Dr. Clement Dukes (Rugby) gave the results of an 

 elaborate physical examination of 1000 boys of ages 

 thirteen to fifteen. The boys were taken as they 

 entered the public school. This paper is of great 

 practical value. It deals with boys whose home- 

 nurture was of the best possible. As tested by Dr. 

 Roberts's standard tables, 522 boys were above the 

 normal height ; 1 13 were average ; 365 below normal. 

 In weight, 472 were above normal; 57 average; 471 

 below normal. In chest measurement, 445 were above 

 normal; 132 average; 423 below, .\cquired deformi- 

 ties (such as spinal curvatures, pigeon-breast, bow- 

 legs, flat feet) were surprisingly numerous. E.g. 

 there were 52c) cases of knock-knee ; of lateral curvature 

 of spine, 445 ; of flat-feet, 329. There were 13 cases of 

 eustachian deafness ; ig of aural deafness. Hyper- 

 metropia, 40; myopia, 128; astigmatism (considerable), 

 27. Heart disease, 10. .-Mbuminuria, i.:;7. This is a 

 startling figure. As to puberty, 317 had attained the 

 state between thirteen and fifteen years ; in a few cases, 

 not until fifteen. This research is the most elaborate 

 vet published regarding English public school boys. 

 It has an important bearing on the question of en- 

 vironmental vcrsii.<; germinal deterioration. 



(2) Effect of School nil Health.— Dr. Huttel (Prague) 

 records that the upper classes suffer more in nutrition 

 than the lower from bad teeth. Myopia is admitted 

 to be a result of school work. Girls suffer more than 

 bovs from spinal curvature. Nervous diseases, head- 

 aches, insomnia, night-terrors, are more frequent in 

 the higher classes. 



Tuberculosis. — Dr. Oldwright (Toronto) deals with 

 the schoolroom as a factor in tuberculosis. As to 



