March 25, 19091 



NA TURE 



117 



of great importance. Having proved by the expeditions 

 of 1905 and 1906 that the variation of solar radiation is 

 highly probable, and also that numerous days suitable for 

 solar-constant observations were found in the months from 

 May to November on Mount Wilson, it is now proposed 

 to erect on a small, well-isolated plot of ground leased 

 from the Carnegie Institution a fireproof observing shelter 

 to be occupied by Smithsonian observers each year during 

 the months mentioned. 



The annual report of the board of regents of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, showing the operations, expenditures, 

 and condition of the institution for the year ending June 

 30, 1907. has also been received. .\s is customary with 

 these handsome volumes, the greater part of the available 

 space, which here runs to 726 pages, is devoted to the 

 general appendix, composed of important papers by men 

 of science of different nationalities. Among papers in- 

 cluded in this appendix may be mentioned two Royal 

 Institution lectures, that of the Hon. Charles A. Parsons, 

 F.R.S., on the steam turbine on land and at sea, and 

 that of Prof. J. A. Fleming, F.R.S., on recent contribu- 

 tions to electric-wave telegraphy. Other papers by British 

 men of science include that of Prof. J. W. Gregory, 

 F.R.S., on the geology of the inner earth — igneous ores, 

 being his address as president of the geological section of 

 the British Association at the Leicester meeting in 1907 ; 

 Mr. G. G. Chisholm's paper to the Royal Geographical 

 Society, on inland waterways; that of Dr. D. H. Scott, 

 F.R.S., on the present position of Paleozoic botany; and 

 Mr. Henry Balfour's, on the fire piston. As is customary 

 with these volumes, the illustrations are numerous and 

 excellent. 



V\lVERS,nY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



The chair of chemistry in the United College of the 

 University of St. Andrews will be vacant at the end of the 

 summer session on account of the resignation of Prof. T. 

 Purdio owing to ill-health. 



The Senate of the University of Glasgow has decided 

 to confer the honorary degree of LL.D. upon Dr. C. S. 

 Sherrington, F.R.S., professor of physiology, Liverpool 

 University, and Mr. W. H. Maw, editor of Engineering, 

 and past-president of the Royal .Astronomical Society. 



Industrial education, says the Pioneer Mail, is receiv- 

 ing a considerable amount of attention in the Central 

 Provinces. During the last school year three students were 

 granted State scholarships and sent to England, and one 

 was given a scholarship to study under the director- 

 general of the Geological Survey. As it is difficult to 

 secure qualified candidates for State technical scholar- 

 ships, tenable in England, scholarships have been instituted 

 to enable students to take the preliminary course in textile 

 industries at the Victoria Institute in Bombay, but the 

 question of establishing similar scholarships at Sibpur 

 Engineering College has been deferred pending the settle- 

 ment of the scheme for starting a technical college or 

 school at Nagpur for engineering and mining. 



-American universities and colleges continue to benefit 

 from the munificence of wealthy citizens in the United 

 States. A recent issue of Science announces that Yale 

 University has received a gift of io,oooZ. from an unknown 

 donor for the purpose of establishing a memorial to the 

 late Prof. Ely. Hamilton College is to receive a bequest 

 of 10,000/. from Mrs. Annie P. Burgess, of New York 

 City, who died about three years ago, leaving for educa- 

 tional and charitable purposes upward of 40,000/. This 

 included zoool. to Columbia University and to Barnard 

 College for scholarships. After making some other specific 

 bequests, she left the remainder of her estate to Hamilton 

 College, Columbia University, and Barnard College. 

 Among the bequests left by the late Mrs. Emma 

 Cummings, of East Hampton, L.I., are 5000/. to Dart- 

 mouth College and 5000?. to Bowdoin College. The late 

 Dr. Charles H. Roberts, of Highland, N.J., in his wUl 

 provided for the founding of five scholarships of 48/. 

 annually at Cornell University. Finally, Harvard Uni- 

 ver-iitv has received a gift of 30,000/. for the endowment 

 of the L'niversity chapel. 



NO. 2056, VOL. 80] 



The report of the Board of Education for the year 

 1907-S has now been published (Cd. 4566). Referring to 

 Ihe further education required by those who have already 

 taken as full advantage of the facilities afforded in 

 elementary or secondary schools as their circumstances 

 permit, the report states that the position is one of 

 promise ; the record of performance in all sections of the 

 work is improving steadily, there is a fairly widespread 

 recognition of existing shortcomings, and much serious 

 effort is being made to overcome the difficulties inher nt 

 in the case. The machinery for the education of those 

 who can give their whole time to study, including 

 technical study, until they reach manhood, is already in 

 existence. In particular centres and in relation to par- 

 ticular occupations there is a sufficient supply of adequately 

 prepared students to enable the teaching institutions to 

 develop their power to the full. Others still suffer from 

 tlie inadequacy of this supply and from the difliculty of 

 retaining their students long enough to complete the 

 allotted courses. In each typ'e of school improvement is 

 observable in several directions ; students are coming up 

 lietter prepared and with several years in hand for study, 

 technical colleges are adjusting their teaching more directly 

 to the requirements of the related occupations, and 

 employers are finding it of advantage to secure the services 

 of yoiing men who have had the technical trammg the 

 colleges afford. There is, the report maintains, sufficient 

 i-vidence that the teaching institutions are capable of 

 raising the standard of their work when they have the 

 opportunitv. Attention is directed also to some aspects of 

 evening-school organisation. It is a plain duty at the 

 present time, says the report, to increase the number ot 

 trained teachers available for work in evenmg schools 

 who. are capable of bringing their teaching to bear du'ectly 

 upon some of the courses of instruction required in these 

 schools in their areas. 



Abundant evidence of the growing desire on the part 

 of our educational authorities to adapt the instruction 

 provided in elementary schools to the future needs of the 

 children is given in the latest report CCd. 45bb) of the 

 Board of Education. For instance, the report sho\ys that 

 the tendency to organise rural education so that it may 

 be a real preparation for rural life is a growing one. In 

 one of the eastern counties (Lindsey) a rural education sub- 

 committee has been appointed to report to the Education 

 Committee on the subject. In this district the demand 

 for small holdings under the recent Act has been active, 

 and it is satisfactory that the authority should have recog- 

 nised in this way the important place that must be given 

 to education preparatory to rural life if small holdings are 

 to be successful. It is clear, as the report points out 

 that if rural education is to be efficient, the teachers must 

 be trained properly for the work. To meet this need 

 for suitable training, candidates for the preliminary 

 examination of the Board of Education for the certificate 

 can now take a course of nature-study alternatively to the 

 course of elementary science in which botany is optional, 

 and this should provide more inducement to secondary 

 schools to include these subjects in their curricula. More- 

 over for the certificate examination, candidates can now 

 either continue their course of botany or follow their nature- 

 study bv a course of rural science and gardening, itie 

 imp6rtance of this is that the summer courses and Satur- 

 day classes for teachers held at the agricultural colleges 

 can afford a direct preparation for the certificate examina- 

 tion. The course of rural science, introduced as an 

 optional subject for training colleges, has so far only been 

 adopted bv one college, and it is doubtful whether, in view 

 of the already crowded curriculum, many of the colleges 

 •will be able to adopt a comprehensive rural course. 10 

 provide an alternative method of preparing teachers tor 

 work in rural schools, the Board has expressed willing- 

 ness to approve an agricultural or horticultural college^ as 

 an institution affording a third year's course of training 

 for students who have completed already the ordinary 

 course. Up to the present little advantage has been t.aken 

 of this facility, but now that certain education authorities 

 are considering the establishment of speci.al rural schools 

 and are beginning to recognise that for rural (evening) 

 school work special qualifications are necessary, it seems 

 likely that advantage will be taken of it. 



