ii8 



NA TURE 



[July 



19C9 



(2) That the characters of plants, having always been 

 as highly adaptive as they now are, natural selection 

 appears to afford the only key to evolution which we at 

 present possess, for all periods covered by the palseonto- 

 logical record. 



(3) That this record only reveals a relatively short section 

 of the whole evolution of plants, during which, though 

 there has been considerable change, there has not been, 

 on the whole, any very marked advance in organisation 

 except in cases where the conditions have become more 

 complex, as shown especially in the floral adaptations of 

 angiosperms. 



(4) That simple forms existing at the present day are, 

 as a rule, of a reduced rather than a primitive nature, 

 but that such reduction may have often set in at a 

 relatively early stage of evolution, and is, therefore, con- 

 sistent with a considerable degree of antiquity in the 

 reduced forms. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Dr. C. G. Barkla, demonstrator and assistant lecturer 

 in physics at the University of Liverpool, has been 

 appointed professor of physics in King's College, London, 

 in succession to Prof. Harold A. Wilson, F.R.S., who has 

 accepted an appointment in McGill University, Montreal. 

 Mr. P. H. Kirkaldv h.'is been appointed an assjstant pro- 

 fessor in chemistry in the same college. 



Harvard has this year conferred only one honorary 

 doctorate of science. The recipient is Mr. S. F. Emmons, 

 of the U.S. Geological Survey. The LTniversity has con- 

 ferred upon its late president, Dr. C. W. Eliot, not only 

 the honorary LL.D., but the honorary M.D. " It has not 

 been our custom," said the new president. Prof. "Cowell, 

 " to confer the degree of Doctor of Medicine honoris 

 causa, but an exception is fitting in the case of one who, 

 in the opinion of professors of medicine, has accomplished 

 more for the progress of medical education in this country 

 than anv other living man, Charles William Eliot. Not 

 in its buildings alone, but also in the instruction and 

 research within its walls, he found our medical school 

 brick and left it marble." At Yale the honorary D.Sc. 

 has been conferred on Profs. E. W. Morlev, W. T. Sedg- 

 wick, and E. H. Moore — a chemist, a biologist, and a 

 mathematician I'cspectively. 



A FOURTH scries of lectures on scientific microscopy is to 

 be held at the institute for microscopy of the University 

 of Jena from October 11-16 next. Prof. H. Ambronn will 

 give two lectures, the first on Abbe's theory of the forma- 

 tion of the microscopic image, and the second on the 

 method of testing objective systems. Dr. H. Siedentopf 

 also will lecture twice, dealing with dark-ground illumina- 

 tion and ulframicroscopv. Dr. A. Ktihler's two lectures 

 have for their subjects photomicrography : (a) proiection of 

 the image on the plate, (/>) illumination of the object with 

 transmitted and incident light, and photomicrography with 

 ultra-violet light. In connection with each lecture suitable 

 practical work has been arranucd, and demonstrations also 

 will he oi'ovided. .Annlicntion for admission to the lectures 

 should be made to Dr. Ehlers. Jena. Reethovenstr. No. tj. 

 A fifth series of lectures will be held from March 7-12, 

 1910, in the anatomical institute of the Leipzig University. 



The first volume of the report on attendance, compulsory 

 or otherwise, at continuation schools, prepared by the 

 Consultative Committee for the Board of Education, was 

 published (Cd. 4757) a few days ago. The evidence on 

 which the recommendations of the committee have been 

 based will be issued later as a separate volume. The com- 

 mittee was instructed to consider, among other matters, 

 " whether any means, and if so what, can be devised, in 

 respect of rural areas and of urban areas respectively, for 

 securing (i.) that a much larger proportion of boys and 

 gn-ls should on leaving the public elementary school com- 

 mence and continue attendance at evening schools than 

 at present do so, and (ii.) that employers and other persons 

 or bodies in a position to give effective help shall co- 

 operate in arranging facilities for such attendance on the 

 part of their employees, and in planning suitable courses 

 and subjects for the schools and classes!" The witnesses 

 e.xammed by the committee included representatives of 

 NO. 2073, VOL. 81I 



employers of labour, of labour organisations, the Public 

 Services, local education authorities, teachers of all grades, 

 inspectors of schools, and persons specially interested in 

 philanthropy. The volume available, with its careful con- 

 sideration of every aspect of the problem, brings home 

 forcibly to the reader its complexity and importance, and 

 we hope to deal more fully with the whole question in a 

 future issue. Here we will only express satisfaction that 

 the views of enlightened educationists are being brought 

 prominently into public view by reports such as that before 

 us. The resolutions as to leaving age and continuation 

 schools contained in the report of the Education Committee 

 of the British Science Guild (Nature, January 28, vol. 

 Ixxix., p. 3S2) receive substantial support from the Con- 

 sultative Committee's conclusions, and it may be hoped 

 that action will be taken before long in the direction in- 

 dicated by them. Most of the German States have com- 

 pulsory continuation schools, and .Scotland was placed in 

 the same position by its Education Act of last year. It 

 remains for England to adopt a like standard of educational 

 efficiency for its children. 



On the vote of 13,648,792?. for the expenses of the Board 

 of Education, Mr. Runciman, President of the Board, made 

 a statement in the House of Commons last week reviewing 

 the state of education in the country. Dealing with 

 technical education, the Minister spoke hopefully. It has 

 been, he said, the object of the Board of Education to 

 make technical education more practical, with a closer 

 bearing on the duties likely to be required from the young 

 men and women who pass through technical classes. In 

 agriculture there is one remark.able fact, namely, that 

 garden classes in elementary schools have been enormously 

 on the increase, and during the last few years the number 

 of these classes which are now carried on in these schools 

 has been trebled. There has been considerable development' 

 in technical classes which can be attended by those who 

 intend to enter on an agricultural career, by young farmers 

 and young labourers who at the present time have to 

 spend long and laborious days in the fields or farmhouses, 

 but who are prepared to devote one or two evenings a 

 week to the specialised training which can be provided in 

 technical classes. The cumulative effect of technical train- 

 mg on the young men and women of our country must 

 show itself sooner or later. The great employers have 

 been giving help, said Mr. Runciman, in many parts of 

 (he country to those who organise the technical schools, j 

 Messenger boys, for instance, are induced more and more 

 to take advantage of the classes in the evening. Some 

 great employers, like the General Post Office, not only 

 give direct inducement to their messenger boys, but put a 

 certain amount of pressure on them to take advantage of 

 classes, and many employers all over the country have made 

 it a condition of service in their works or their great busi- 

 ness establishments that the boys should attend a certain 

 number of classes every week. The inspectors of the 

 Board are not only taking a keen interest in the curriculum, 

 but they are also acting as missionaries in what is one of 

 the most useful forms of educational work initiated during 

 the last few years. In concluding his speech. Mr. Runci- 

 man pointed out that we still have nothing but an old, 

 lemporary building in which our valuable science collection j 

 is housed, and he expressed the hone that it may be f 

 nossible in the near future to give this trreat collection a 

 better building in which it may be exhibited, and to give < 

 to those who have lent or given to that museum .some 

 security that the objects which they have given will be 

 well preserved and well exhibited. 



The new engineering buildings of the University of 

 Manchester were opened by Sir Alexander Kennedy on 

 July 15. The general scheme comprises four adjacent 

 buildings ; the main block, a three-storied building, con- 

 tains the lecture rooms, tutorial rooms, drawing offices, 

 private rooms, and research room. The hydraulic and , 

 testing laboratory covers the space at the back of this j 

 building, and connected to it by a covered way are the ! 

 thermodynamic laboratories and the workshop. Principal ] 

 Hopkinson presided at the opening ceremony, and in the ' 

 course of his remarks pointed out that the example set by 

 the Owens College in 1S66, in providing for the profession.!] 

 education of engineers, has been followed by all the 



