574 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[June 15, 18 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



The Editor does not hold hitnself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents^ nor can he take notice ofa7ionymous cojn- 

 munications . All letters must be accompanied by the name and 

 address of the writer, not necessarily for publication, but as a 

 guarantee of good faith. 



POISONS IN THE WORKSHOP. 



In your last volume you inserted a very instructive article 

 on " Poisons in the Household," and you suggested at the 

 close that you might at some future time take up the ques- 

 tion of " Poisons in the Workshops." I am, I believe, not the 

 only one of your readers who is looking forward to the fulfil- 

 ment of this promise. Constant Reader. 



[Our correspondent is, possibly, a thought reader. We 

 have sketched out such an article, which will soon be com- 

 pleted. — Ed. Scientific News.] 



DREDGING EXPEDITION ON THE HY^NA. 

 Your report, published on June 8th, omits to mention that 

 the party was under the direction of Prof. Herdman, of Liver- 

 pool, to whose good management we must attribute the 

 success of this little expedition. L. C. M. 



"WORK FOR NATURALISTS' CLUBS." 

 A few weeks ago you gave us two very interesting articles 

 on this subject (Scientific News, pp. 446 and 469). In one 

 of these you say : " Now is the publication of local lists 

 a resource of any value ? This kind of literature is terribly 

 overdone." This statement is perfectly true as regards the 

 Lepidoptera and the Phaneregamous flora of most parts of 

 Britain. But the same can scarcely be asserted concerning 

 the mosses and fungi, the land and fresh-water shells, and 

 the orders of insects other than the Lepidoptera and perhaps 

 the Coleoptera. The local distribution of all these forms of 

 life, and especially their connection with the geological char- 

 acters of the districts, need much further investigation. 



Sigma. 



SAND GROUSE. 



Some of the sand grouse of which you give a notice in 

 this week's number, were shot in Northumberland on the 29th 

 of May; three of them came under my notice. I found that 

 if they had been spared they would probably have 

 been nesting by this. Their crops contained barley, 

 some small seeds, the seeds of grass, and the chrysalis of 

 some small fly or moth. Two or three small packs have been 

 seen passing over this neighbourhood. Joseph P. Nunn. 



Royston, June 8th, 1888. 



IS THE BURNET-MOTH PROTECTED ? 

 Can you or any of your readers inform me whether the 

 common six-spot burnet-moth (Zygaena filipendttlce) is 

 specially protected by an offensive smell, a bad taste, or by 

 poisonous properties ? Its slow flight and its striking appear- 

 ance, joined to its habit of sitting on roadside flowers in the 

 full sunshine, make me think that such must be the case. 

 Were it an acceptable morsel it would be seized by birds. 



Regner. 

 [The moth in question has an unpleasant smell. As to its 

 "taste, not having joined the new insect-eating movement, we 

 cannot say. — Ed. Scientific News.] 



Water Spout in Yorkshire. — A waterspout caused 

 immense destruction to growing crops on several farms 

 at Lantoft, near Driffield, on Saturday afternoon the 9th 

 inst. The water excavated one field in several places to 

 the depth of 7 ft. and swept hundreds of tons of soil and 

 gravel from arable lands, laying them bare to the rock. 

 One farmer had seven acres of turnips wholly destroyed, 

 The water afterwards swept into the village and flooded 

 the houses. 



TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 



The Bill for the Promotion of Technical Instruc- 

 tion. — The following is the Bill for the promotion of technical 

 instruction, introduced by the Government : — 1 



Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by 

 and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and 

 Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament as- 

 sembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows ; 



I. — (l) Any School Board in England may from time to 

 time supply or aid the supply of such manual or technical 

 instruction, or both, as may be required for supplementing the 

 instruction given in any public elementary school in its district, 

 whether under its own management or not. 



(2) Manual or technical instruction shall not be supplied 

 or aided under this section except for such scholars as — 



{a) are recognised by the Education Department as in 

 attendance at a public elementary school and receiving 

 instruction in the obligatory or standard subjects prescribed 

 by the minutes of the Education Department for the time 

 being ; and 



[b) (in the case of technical instruction only) have obtained 

 from the Education Department certificates of having passed 

 the examination in reading, writing, and arithmetic, prescribed 

 by the standard set forth in the schedule to this Act, or an 

 examination equivalent thereto. 



(3) For the purpose of supplying or aiding the supply 'of 

 manual or technical instruction under this section, a School 

 Board shall have the same powers, but subject to the same 

 conditions, as it has for providing sufficient public school 

 accommodation for its district, subject to this restriction that 

 the amount of the rate to be levied in any one year for the 

 additional purposes authorised by this section shall not exceed 

 the sum of 07ie penny in the pomid. 



2. — (i) If a School Board aids the supply of manual or 

 technical instruction in any school or schools under its own 

 management, it shall, on the request of the managers of any 

 other public elementary school in its district fulfilling like 

 conditions as to the supply of manual or technical instruction 

 in conformity with the requirements of the Department of 

 Science and Art, and on proof of sufficient demand tor such 

 instruction in that school, aid the supply of such instruction 

 in that school in like manner as it aids such supply in the 

 school or schools under its own management, subject to such 

 terms as may be agreed on or determined in pursuance of 

 this Act. 



(2) If the managers of a public elementary school in the 

 district of a School Board object to the terms on which the 

 School Board proposes to aid the supply of technical instruc- 

 tion in that school, the Department of Science and Art shall, 

 on the application of those managers, determine whether the 

 terms so proposed are reasonable. 



3. — (i) Any local authority empowered to carry into 

 execution the provisions of the Public Libraries Acts with 

 respect to the establishment and maintenance of public 

 libraries, public museums, schools for science, art galleries, 

 and schools for art, may from time to time supply or aid the 

 supply of technical instruction by providing or aiding in the 

 provision of teachers, apparatus, or buildings to such extent 

 and on such terms as the authority think expedient, and may 

 exercise its powers under this section either with or without 

 exercising any of its powers under the Public Libraries Acts, 



(2) Provided as follows : — 



{a) In a district for which there is a School Board, the 

 local authority shall not out of their own funds supply or aid 

 the supply of technical instruction suitable for scholars 

 receiving at a public elementary school instruction in the 

 obligatory or standard subjects prescribed by the minutes of 

 the Education Department for the time being, except to the 

 extent, if any, to which the authority was so supplying or 

 aiding before the establishment of a School Board. 



{b) In a district for which there is not a School Board, the 

 managers of a public elementary school shall not receive aid 

 under this section except for scholars for whom technical in- 

 struction may be supplied or aided by a School Board in a 

 district for which there is a School Board. 



(3) The amount of the rate to be levied in any one year 



