VOL. 7, NO. 11
LOCAL ACTIVITIES
the recent establishment of a national bureau of education in connection with the Department of Education of the Union of South Africa. The Bureau, i t is said, will follow to some extent the plan of the U. S. Office of Education and similar English and German systems. Its function will he the collection, evaluation, and dissemination of "information concerning educational needs and actual progress in various directions." It plans to deal with educational questions on broad lines from a South African point of vie^, making available the experience gained in other countries Educational Developments in Sweden. We quote from School and Society the following abstract (through the Times Educational Supplement) of a report of the British Board of Education: "Sweden has endeavored, by two successive pieces of legislation, t o bring her educational system more into keeping with the needs of a nation which in the last 30 years has become rapidly industrialized. . . . The Parliamentary Act of 1918, by setting up various types of 'Practical Schools for the Adolescent' (in particulx the whole-time high= primary schools), and by making partor whole-time attendance a t one of these compulsory between the ages of 13 and 15, has provided post-primary education for those unable t o profit by secondary education. I n the field of secondary education the legislation of 1927, by the partial adoption of the principle of the
2751
'single educational ladder' in the state schools, and by reorganization of entrance and leaving examinations and of curricula, has sought to emphasize more than formerly the development of character and initiative, and to provide equal educational opportunity for all, irrespective of economic status, for girls as well as for hoys, and in the country a s well as in the towns. "The main changes in the secondary system have been the throwing open to girls of the greater number of the state secondary schools (hitherto reserved to hoys), and the taking aver by the state of 54 secondary schools set up since 1904, with government aid, by the municipalities. There are a t present 135 state secondary schools, as against 77 formerly. Swedish secondary education now normally consists af two parts; the 'reolskole' course leading t o the 'realexamen' at about the age af 17, and the 'gymnasium' course, leading to the 'rtudcnlexarnen' a t about the age of 20. The 'realexamen' is a school-leaving certificate; the 'studenlemmen' qualifies for admission to the university."
University of Madrid. DR. E. MOLES of this university has spent the past few months on lecture tour in Argentina, Uruguay, and Chide. Dr. Moles, who is a member of the staff of foreign editors of the JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION, is expected to return t o Madrid a t the end of November.
Broken and Compressed Molecules May Explain Earth's Weight. Partly broken up and compressed molecules 2000 miles and deeper in the earth may account for this world's great weight, Dr. A. A. Bless, physicist a t the University of Florida, suggested recently before the American Physical Society. The earth is much heavier than it would be if i t were composed throughout of the materials found on its surface, and it is generally thought that this extra weight is supplied by an iron core. But Dr. Bless believes the dense material within the earth, whatever it is, would be lighter on the surface. Its molecules are ionized by the high temperatures, electrons being torn away from them, and thus the atoms are decreased in size, causing a sufficient inmeasin density to account for the observed mass of the earth, he explained.-Scienca Service
