Septembkr io. 1896] 



NATURE 



455 



Tm; Holiday Courses of I.tcuires delivered la<;t month at 

 Jona are reported to have been a great success. The lectu'es 

 were i^rouped as follows : — (a) Natural Science, including As- 

 tronomy, Botany, Physics, Zoology ; (h) School Hygiene, 

 Physiological Psychology, Philosophy, Pedagogics ; (c) Con- 

 versational German, Literature, History. The attendance at 

 the courses was better than at those of last year's gathering, no 

 fewer than 108 being present, representing thirteen nationalities. 

 Seventeen of the students were English. 



The Committee of Technical Instruction, in their annual 

 report to the Oxfordshire County Council, remark " that the 

 District Committees have in most cases carried out their duties 

 in a satisfactory manner. Those District Committees who have 

 availed themselves of the assistance of the Parish Councils have 

 found the benefit of so doing, as they have been able to get 

 into closer touch with the needs of each parish." The wisdom 

 expressed in the last paragrapl\ seems obvious ; yet we are afraid 

 the hint needs to be repeated to other than the District Com- 

 mittees located in Oxfordshire. The report in question tells of 

 much good work accomplished. 



The Report of the Governing Body of the Battersea Poly- 

 technic for the years 1S93-94-95 contains much information of 

 3. gratifying character. During the period the institution has 

 been open — some two years — not less than 6000 individual 

 students have attended its classes. The sum of ^67,840 has 

 been raised ; the Polytechnic is in receipt of its full endowment, 

 and is now in its third educational session, with a regular attend- 

 ance of 2850 students. In accordance with the provisions of the 

 scheme, and the requirements of the chief industries of the 

 neighbourhood being borne in mind, it was, at the outset, 

 decided that the initial work of the Polytechnic should consist 

 of {a) evening classes for young men and women in technology, 

 science, art, domestic economy, music, commercial and general 

 subjects, with provision for g)mnastics and other recreative and 

 social work ; Qy) day schools for boys who have pa.ssed through 

 the elementary schools and desire further education of a technical 

 and scientific character ; (<) Saturday classes of an advanced 

 character for teachers. Success all along the line seems to be 

 the summing up of the report. 



The British Consul-General at Frankfort, in the course of his 

 latest report, quotes certain official information supplied to the 

 Italian Government in regard to the cost of University study in 

 Germany. To obtain the degree of Doctor of Law at Berlin 

 costs 1300 marks, and for a Doctor of .Medicine about twice 

 that sum. The details are as follows : — Fee for matriculation, 

 iS marks; fee for examination for the medical faculty, 242 

 marks ; diploma fees for the law faculty, 335 marks ; for the 

 faculty of medicine, 440 marks ; fees for all lectures necessary 

 to pass the various examinations in the law faculty, 400 to 500 

 marks, and in the medical schools, 800 to 1200 marks. To 

 these must be added 150 marks for printing the candidate's dis- 

 sertation, 300 marks for books for a law student, and 500 marks 

 for the books and instruments of a medical student. These, of 

 course, do not include the cost of living. For a law student 

 who studies in a town where his parents do not live, 5cxx5 marks 

 must be allowed for board, lodging, and clothing during his 

 course, and 7600 to 8000 marks for the 4! years of a medical 

 student's course. The cost of a civil engineer's course, including 

 that of living, is estimated at 6000 marks for four years. At other 

 German Universities the cost would be somewhat less, but the 

 difference would not be very great, for the main item — the cost 

 of living— is very much the same in all University towns. 

 Foreign students often prefer the smaller Universities, especially 

 those in South Germany. 



A RECEN fLY published Parliamentary paper shows that out 

 of the funds entrusted to the Board of Agriculture for educa- 

 tional purposes in Great Britain during the financial year ended 

 March 31 last, sums amounting to ^"7850 have been distributed 

 in specific grants to eighteen institutions named. Since the 

 first grant made by Parliament in 1S88 the sums have increased 

 from ;{,2930 to ^^7850. These sums are divided under two 

 main heads — general agricultural education under collegiate 

 centres, including dairying and experiments (this item has 

 increased from ^200 to ;^6ioo) ; and special and provisional 

 grants, which have decreased in eight years by nearly ;^iooo. 

 .■Nfajor P. t;. Craigie, Director of the Intelligence Division, who 

 has drawn up this report for the President of the Board, says 

 that considerable local efforts are now being made to make up 

 for the conspicuous lack of educational facilities among the 



NO. 1402, VOL. 54] 



agricultural community of Great Britain to which the inquiries 

 of the Departmental Committee of 1887-88 directed attention. 

 The grants awarded were to the following eight collegiate 

 centres in England and Wales : — University College of North 

 Wales, Bangor, ^800 ; Yorkshire College, Leeds, £800 ; Dur- 

 ham College of Science, Newcastle-on-Tyne, ;f 800 ; University 

 College of Wales, Aberystwith, ^800 ; University Extension 

 College, Reading, ^700 ; University College, Nottingham, 

 ^450 ; Cambridge and Counties Agricultural Education Com- 

 mittee, /400 ; South-Eastern Agricultural College, Wye, £150 ; 

 to the Eastern Counties Dairy Institute, Ipswich, ;j3O0, and 

 the British Dairy Farmers' Association ^300 — in each of these 

 two cases for dairy instruction ; and to the Bath and West and 

 Southern Counties Society ;^35o, for special cheese and cider 

 research and agricultural experiments. This brings the total 

 for England and Wales to .,^5850. The remaining ;^20OO is 

 distributed in Scotland thus : — Tsvo collegiate centres, Glasgow 

 and West of Scotland Technical College ^650, and University 

 of Edinburgh ;^550 ; University of Aberdeen, for agricultural 

 instruction, .^150: Scottish Dairy Institute, Kilmarnock, for 

 dairy instruction, ^300 ; the Highland and Agricultural Society, 

 ;iioo, and the Aberdeen Agricultural Research Association. 

 1, 100 — in both cases for agricultural experiments ; and the Royal 

 Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, ^150, for instruction to working 

 foresters and gardeners. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Syiiions's Monthly Meteorological Magazine, August. — "The 

 Thames run dry," by the Editor. It is less than 200 years since 

 men walked across the bed of the river, near London Bridge ; 

 but the old bridges were almost like weirs in the obstruction 

 offered to the flow of the water. The various dates since the 

 year 11 14 are given, the last being September 14, 1716. In 

 this year, owing to a long drought and a strong westerly storm 

 at the time in question, the Thames lay perfectly dry above and 

 below bridge, with the exception of a very shallow channel, 

 and many thousand people are said to have passed it on foot. — 

 The first use of kites in meteorology, by A. L. Rotch. It has 

 been stated that the first use of a kite in connection with 

 meteorology was by Dr. Franklin in his experiments on atmo- 

 spheric electricity in 1752 ; but Mr. Rutch points out that Dr. 

 A. Wilson, of Glasgow, explored the temperature of the higher 

 regions by raising a number of paper kites, with thermometers 

 appended, in 1749. An account of one of the experiments is 

 contained in Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. , vol. x. part 2. This 

 method was successfully employed on several occasions in that 

 and the following year. 



Wiedemann'' s Annalen der Physik nnd Cheniie, No. S. — 

 Contact electricity, by W. Nernst. The author formulates a 

 theory of contact electricity based upon ionic velocities. Both 

 ions of an electrolyte must diffuse equally rapidly, as otherwise 

 an enormous accumulation of electricity would take place. The 

 unequal velocities due to the unequal mobility of different ions 



must be compensated by a potential difference -^. Hence the 



equation 



'dp 



^fe.-^ 



)-(g 



^P 



dx 



.dV\ 

 dx)' 



where U and V are the mobilities of the anion and kation, / 

 the osmotic pressure, and e the concentration of the solution. — 

 Bolometric investigations of the absorption spectra of fluorescent 

 substances and ethereal oils, by Bruno Donath. The measure- 

 ments were made with a quartz prism, and all lenses were replaced 

 by mirrors. It was found that the fluorescent bodies uranine, 

 eosene, fluoresceme, fesculine, and chlorophyll show no absorp- 

 tion of the thermal spectrum down to wave-lengths of 27 ,11. A 

 chlorophyll solution 3"2 mm. thick has a region of strong 

 absorption extending from the visible band in the red to the 

 green rays. This region cannot be detected by the eye alone. — 

 Emission spectrum of a black body, by Willy Wien. The 

 author endeavours to reduce the number of hypotheses at the 

 basis of the present theories of radiation. He also utilises 

 Maxwell's theory of the distribution of velocities of molecules, 

 but otherwise obtains his results on purely thermodynamic 

 lines. — The new elements in cleveite gas, by J. R. Rydberg. 

 This is an attempt to disentangle the spectrum of the supposed 

 third new constituent of the gas from cleveite. The author calls 



