174 



NA TURE 



[April 8, 1909 



Bushy tank are : — effective length, 500 feet ; depth of 

 water, 125 feet; breadth of water, 30 feet; area of cross- 

 section, 40 square yards ; breadth of building, 42 feet ; 

 breadth of carriage, 31 feet; weight of carriage, 10 tons; 

 velocity of carriage, 25 feet per second ; horse-power on 

 carriage, 50. The opinions expressed by the members at 

 the meeting indicate that they arc satisfied that these 

 dimensions will amply provide for, not only ordinary com- 

 mercial problems, but also for any special problems that 

 may arise. One of the first systematic researches after the 

 tank has settled down to its work will be the investigation 

 of the many propeller problems regarding which little or 

 no knowledge exists. 



RURAL EDUCATION IN ITS VARIOUS 

 GRADES. 

 'T'HIS subject was discussed at a conference of the 

 County Councils' Association held at Caxton Hall, 

 Westminster, on March 31, under the presidency of Mr. 

 Henry Hobhouse. The conference had been convened at 

 the request of the Central Land Association, the Central 

 Chamber of Agriculture, and the Farmers' Club, and was 

 in every sense thoroughly representative. 



A resolution was moved by Sir J. Cockburn to the 

 effect that local education authorities should aim at 

 securing better instruction in rural subjects, and that the 

 teaching should be adapted to the circumstances of country 

 life ; school gardens and equipment for manual instruction 

 should be provided, and elementary-school teachers should 

 be specially trained for their work. The resolution was 

 referred to a special committee. 



To those unacquainted with country schools it must 

 come as a surprise that such a resolution should be neces- 

 sary nearly forty years after elementary education became 

 the business of a Government department. Yet, as a 

 matter of fact, it is only within quite recent years thai 

 the education of the country child has begun to have any 

 sort of relation to his environment ; he has been taught 

 the same subjects as the town child, and in the same 

 way, but often not quite as well. The teaching has been 

 didactic, and has not necessarily involved any observation 

 by the child of the things happening outside the school 

 doors. For this the teacher has not been to blame, for 

 country teachers, as a class, have as keen a professional 

 spirit as town teachers, but the system has been at fault. 

 Country children are sometimes said to be less intelligent 

 than town children of the same class. This is emphatic- 

 ally not the case ; on the contrary, the country child has 

 often a larger stock of experience than the town child, 

 and a proper system of education, based on his experi- 

 ence and dealing with the things about him, ought to 

 give admirable results. It is much to be hoped that Sir 

 J. Cockburn's resolution will be acted upon by those in 

 authority. 



After-education was also dealt with. The more promis- 

 ing children, it was urged, should be sent to secondary 

 schools, where nature-study and elementary science teach- 

 ing were given in close connection with pr.Tctical work 

 in the workshop and garden. The idea is admirable, but 

 there would be considerable difficulty in getting to the 

 school, especially in winter ; while, if the children had to 

 board at the school, the numbers would necessarily be 

 very limited. Both elementary and secondary schools 

 would remain under the Board of Education, but the more 

 special agricultur.nl education, the conference considered, 

 should be dealt with by the Board of .Agriculture. It was 

 proposed that each group of counties should be connected 

 with some asjricultural college, which should be responsible 

 for educating the students sent there, and for giving 

 lectures and other instruction to farmers who cannot 

 attend college. This system is already at work in some 

 places, and was discussed in Nature for March 25. 



It will be observed that the resolutions were verv com- 

 prehensive in their scone, and adeauately covered the 

 vnrious problems of rural education. Whether the Boards 

 of Education and of Agriculture could carry throu£<h so 

 bold a scheme remains to be .seen ; it is undoubtedly to 

 the interests of rural districts that they should. 



To those wishing to learn the present position of higher 



NO. 2058, VOL. 80] 



agricultural education in England, a White Paper (Cd. 

 4569) issued by the Board of Education, giving certain 

 tables of expenditure, will be usefuL It was not possible 

 to ascertain the exact amount spent on higher agricultural 

 education, because in many cases agriculture only forms 

 part of the work, and a fine estimate of what it receives" 

 is impossible. The Board of Agriculture grants are, of 

 course, entirely ad hoc, but the Board of Education grants 

 are for the whole institution. We find that the former 

 Board gives SSooi. a year to colleges of university stand- 

 ing in England and 3350?. to smaller colleges and schools. 

 The Board of Education gives 72,856;. and 25,496!. re- 

 spectively. In one way and another the County Council 

 grants must be considerable, but as a whole institution is 

 often involved it is impossible to work out the exact 

 share that agriculture gets. Four counties, viz. Bucks, 

 Cumberland, Herefordshire, and Wiltshire, all active in 

 providing rural education, spend between them about 

 10,000!. annually. The paper goes on to point out that 

 the Board of Education is prepared to give still higher 

 grants when a properly coordinated scheme is submitted to 

 it, and we should imagine that considerable advantage 

 will be taken of the offer. 



SOME MARINE AND FRESH-WATER 

 ORGANISMS. 

 TN the first part of vol. xcii. of Zeitschrift fiir -Jiisscn' 

 ■*■ schaftliche Zoologie, Mr. L. Luders gives a full descrip- 

 tion of the wonderful ostracod crustacean described by Miiller 

 in 1895 under the name of Gigantocypris agassisi, together 

 with a brief reference to the second species of the same 

 genus. The first evidence of the typical species was a speci- 

 men dredged in deep water off Prince Edward's Island 

 during the cruise of the Challenger, which indicated a 

 veritable giant in the group, the shell measuring no less 

 than 25 mm. in length and 16 mm. in width. Of the soft 

 parts only the head was preserved, but this and the shell 

 were sufficient to indicate the distinctness of the species from 

 all shallow-water forms, and it was suggested at the time 

 that it might prove to represent a new family group. In 

 i8gi other examples were dredged by the Albatross off the 

 Pacific cpast at depths of as much as 1700 fathoms, and 

 these were duly described and named by G. W. Miiller. 

 Another specimen was obtained by the Prince of Monaco off 

 the Azores, while later still several others were dredged 

 in deep water bv the Valdivia. It is these last which form 

 the suljject of Mr. Luders 's paper, where full details of the 

 external form and anatomy of the species are given. One of 

 the specimens collected by the Valdivia was dredged in the 

 Gulf of Guinea, while the others 'were obtained in widely 

 separated localities. This, together with the structure of 

 the shell, suggests that it is a deep-sea pelagic organism, 

 which does not, like other ostracods, live in sand. 



In connection witli the foregoing may be conveniently 

 noticed a paper by Dr. Esther Byrnes on the fresh-water 

 species of Cyclops of Long Island, published in No. vii. of 

 Cold Spring Harbour Monographs. The observations in 

 this monograph, which are based on several years' work, 

 have special reference to the variabilitv displayed by the 

 fresh-water sf>ecies of these crustaceans. Those from Long 

 Island agree generallv with the forms from the western 

 lakes, and indicate their wide distribution. Variation of a 

 varietal type is strongly developed, but much more so in 

 some species than in others ; it attains its maximum in the 

 forms inhabiting stagnant waters, which can only exist 

 at all by the power of readily adapting themselves to environ- 

 ment. Size is largely dependent upon habitat. 



The American snapping shrimps of the genus Synalpheus 

 form the subject of a memoir by Mr. Henri Couti^re, pub- 

 lished as No. 1659 (vol. xxxvi., pp. 1—93) of the Proceedings 

 of the U.S. National Museum. Previous to the appearance 

 of this paper six .'\merican species of the group were 

 nominally recognised, under the generic title of Alpheus, 

 but the author is unable to retain more than three of these 

 names. On the other hand, he n.tmes a considerable number 

 of new species, not onlv from American waters, but from 

 other parts of the world. In No. 1663 of the Proceedings 

 of the U.S. National Museum (vol. xxxvi., pp. 173-7) Miss 

 H. Richardson describes a specimen, from Wood's Holl, 



