60 



A nn ire /•■scry Meeting. 



[Nov. 30. 



Institute. The demands made upon the Institute by Chambers of 

 Commerce in different parts of England satisfactorily indicate the 

 usefulness of this part of the Institute's work. 



The programme of Technological Examinations for 1881-82. just 

 issued, shows 32 subjects in which examinations may be held, some of 

 which are divided into four or fire branches, so that they may be 

 better adapted to individual industries. Whilst attention has in this 

 way been given to the details of different trades, the attempt has been 

 made to secure from candidates passing the Institute's examinations a 

 general knowledge of the principles of their subject and of the relation 

 of closely connected industries with one another. 



In order to secure in future efficient teachers, the Council of the 

 Institute have determined after March next not to register as teachers 

 any persons except those who have passed the Institute's Honours 

 Examination, or such as already possess sjoecial or distinct qualifica- 

 tions. 



The interest which the subject of technical education is beginning 

 to arouse has led to the appointment by the Crown of a Commission 

 to inquire into the education of the industrial classes in England and 

 in other countries ; and the City and Guilds of London Institute is 

 represented on this Commission by Professor Roscoe, who. as Presi- 

 dent of the Chemical Society, occupies a seat on the Executive Com- 

 mittee, and also by Mr. Philip Magnus, its director and secretary. 

 The Commissioners are at present engaged in making a tour of inspec- 

 tion in France, a section of them having already visited some of the 

 principal technical schools and factories in the north of Italy. 



In Meteorological Science the present year has been marked by the 

 publication of an important work.* by Professor Wild, of St. Peters- 

 burg, on the Temperature of the Russian Empire, embodying, in 

 charts and tables, a great amount of information, hitherto either 

 inaccessible or existing only in scattered memoirs, relating to the 

 meteorology of the vast tracts of Northern Asia. As an interesting 

 particular result it may be mentioned that Professor Wild has trans- 

 ferred the " Siberian pole of cold in winter " from the neighbourhood 

 of Jakutsk to a point somewhat further north, lying on the Arctic 

 Circle in (about) E. longitude 125". At this centre of maximum cold, 

 round which the isotherms lie in fairly regular ovals, the mean tem- 

 perature in January sinks as low as —51' Fahrenheit, the mean tem- 

 perature at Jakutsk being 11" higher. In close relation to the 

 phenomena exhibited by these charts, Professor Wild, in St. Peters- 

 burg, has been led to study the connexion between areas of permanent 

 high or low mean pressure on the one hand, and areas of permanent 

 high or low mean temperature on the other ; and he has found this 



* u Die Temperatur Yerhaltmsse cles Kussischen Reiclis.*' St. Petersburg, 1SS0. 



