to their Agricultural Revenues." The paper is based on the accounts, published annually, of the colleges (and the university) of Oxford, and is a continuation of one read in 1895. The gross external receipts of the colleges (and the university) in 1903 exhibited an increase on 1893 of 29,7971., and on 1883 of 16,343. The net external receipts of the colleges alone showed an increase of 16,5661. on 1893, and a decrease of 10,311. from 1883. Later in his paper Mr. Price states that it hardly seems extravagant to affirm that during a quarter of a century the colleges (and the university) have lost between a third and a fourth of their agricultural revenues. Had it not been for an increase in revenues derived from other sources, they would have been crippled yet more seriously. The most noticeable feature is the large increase in the receipts from houses and sites of houses. Between 1883 and 1903 these receipts were doubled, and between 1893 and 1903 they increased from 56,8771. to 91,3881. On the whole this gross increase has more than balanced the gross diminution in the receipts from lands and tithe. The internal receipts of the colleges increased by 58141. between 1883 and 1893, and by 11,4281. between 1893 and 1903.

THE annual conference of headmasters of public schools was held this year at Christ's Hospital, West Horsham, on Thursday and Friday last, December 22 and 23. Among the subjects discussed on Thursday were the recommendations of the consultative committee of the Board of Education for the establishment of school certificates, and the policy of the Board of Education in encouraging the sending of intending elementary school teachers to secondary schools in lieu of pupil teacher centres. The following resolutions were adopted :-"That the question of school certificates be referred to the committee of the conference with a view to immediate action, and that it be an instruction of the committee to obtain in writing the opinion of every member of the conference on the various points involved in the scheme of the consultative committee." "That this conference pledges itself to support the education authority in its policy of providing that candidates for pupil teacherships in public elementary schools shall receive a substantial portion of their education in a public secondary school, and considers it desirable that as many recruits as possible for teacherships in public elementary schools should be obtained from the ranks of ordinary pupils of secondary schools." On Friday a discussion took place on the subject of Greek, with special reference to the proposals of the Cambridge Syndicate, and the following resolution was carried by twenty-one votes to eight:"That, without committing itself to details, the conference generally disapproves of the Cambridge Syndicate with regard to Greek in the Previous Examination." The conference also expressed itself against some of the reforms of the new Army entrance examinations, and carried the following resolution unanimously:-" That this conference hopes that the scheme for qualifying certificates in the examination for Woolwich and Sandhurst will be so amended as to encourage the study of Latin." A strong representation is to be made to the War Office on this subject. It was also agreed that the committee of the conference should consider the syllabus issued by the Board of Education on the teaching of English literature, and should include their recommendations in the annual report.

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Royal Meteorological Society, December 21.- - Capt. D. Wilson-Barker, president, in the chair.-Decrease of fog in London during recent years: F. ). Brodie (Discussion). -The study of the minor fluctuations of atmospheric pressure: Dr. W. N. Shaw, F.R.S., and W. H. Dines. The authors described an apparatus called the "microbarograph," which they have designed to magnify the minor fluctuations, and at the same time to disentangle them from the general barometric surges. They also showed some records from three of these instruments. The authors wish to obtain information as to the nature of the disturbances and the causes to which they may be assigned. Among the causes which suggest themselves as likely to

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