2. Under what circumstances is an eclipse of the sun total, or annular, or partial?

3. What is meant by the regression of the moon's nodes? How often would the same eclipses return if there were no such regression?

Section 6.

1. Why does the planet Venus never appear in opposition to the sun? 2. Explain by the aid of a diagram, why it is that the sun's rays, falling more obliquely in winter than in summer, heat us less.

3. What is the occasion of the variations in brightness of the planets and of their retrograde motions.

Section 7.

1. The sun's meridian altitude towards the south was observed to be 67° 19' 6" on a day when his declination was 18° 15′ 19′′ north of the equator. What was the latitude?

2. An immersion of one of Jupiter's satellites was observed at 10h. 11′ 43′′ apparent time. The apparent Greenwich time of the immersion was by the Nautical Almanac 8h. 13′ 56′′. What is the longitude of the place of observation?

3. The periodic time of Venus is 224 days; what is the interval between the conjunction of this planet with the sun and another?

MENSURATION AND LAND-SURVEYING.

Section 1.

1. The diameter of a cylindrical vessel is 1ft. 9in., what is the area of its bottom?

2. How many square yards of paving are there in a trapezium whose diagonal measures 126ft. 3in. and perpendiculars 58ft. 6in. and 65ft. 9in. 3. If the radius of the sector of a circle be 12ft. 6in., and the length of the arc 16 feet, what is its area?

Section 2.

1. Describe the carpenter's sliding rule. How may the area of a rectangle be found by means of it?

2. What is the solidity of a block of stone whose length is 3ft. 5in., its height 1ft. 7in., and its breadth 1ft. 2in.?

3. The length and breadth of a rectangular pond at the top are 132 yards and 64 yards, and at the bottom 116 yards and 48 yards. The perpendicular depth is 25 feet. How many cubic yards of earth have been taken from it?

Section 3.

Find the area of an irregular plot of land from the following notes:

THE PROPERTIES OF BODIES.-OPTICS.
(COMSTOCK'S MANUAL.)

1. Give examples of the crystalline texture of bodies. Under what circumstances is it said to be dimorphous ?

2. On what principle does the regulating power of the pendulum of a clock, or the balance-spring of a watch, depend; and what is the contrivance of the 'scapement?

3. Describe any one of the forms of the compensation pendulum, and explain it.

Section 3.

1. Show that the intensity of light varies inversely as the square of the distance between the luminous and the illuminated body. If the intensity of the light of a candle falling, at the distance of two feet, upon a screen, be represented by unity, by what number will that of the light falling upon a screen at seven feet distance be represented?

2. Explain what is meant by the refraction of light, and give illustrations of it.

3. Show that the effect of a concave mirror is to render parallel rays convergent. Where is the principal focus of a concave spherical mirror?

Section 4.

1. Show that the effect of a convex lens, when placed before the eye, is to increase the visual angle, and that of a concave lens to diminish it.

2. Whence does the defect of vision, called long-sightedness, arise; and whence short-sightedness?

3. Describe and explain the refracting telescope.

1. By what means may oxygen gas be best procured? What are its properties, and how would you exhibit them to a class?

2. Of what substances does the inorganic portion of plants consist? How may it be separated from the organic portion, and what proportion does it bear to it in hay and wheat?

Section 2.

1. How may carbonic acid gas be obtained? What are its properties? 2. Of what elements does carbonic acid consist, and in what proportions? Whence do plants obtain it, and by what organs? What portion of it do they give off in the act of drinking it?

Section 3.

1. How may the starch and gluten of flour be separated?

2. Of what two substances are woody fibre, starch, gum, and sugar com posed, and in what proportions?

Section 4.

1. Whence is the inorganic or mineral portion of soils chiefly derived, and of what three substances does it principally consist.

"2. What is the chemical constitution of bone-dust, to what lands is it especially a good manure, and why? Under what form is it best applied, and why?

3. Under what circumstances is ammonia produced naturally, what does it consist of, and on what does its efficacy as a manure depend?

Report on the Institution at Whitelands for the Training of Schoolmistresses. By the Rev. FREDERICK WATKINS, B.D., one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools.

MY LORDS,

February 15, 1848.

I RECEIVED an intimation from your Secretary, in a letter dated December 2, 1847, that "your Lordships were desirous to confide to me the examination of candidates for certificates in the Training School for Schoolmistresses at Whitelands, Chelsea, and the general inspection of that establishment."

In a subsequent letter, dated December 11, 1847, the Secretary stated your desire that this examination should commence at the close of the first week of January, 1848. In compliance with these instructions I appointed Monday, the 10th of January, for the commencement of the examination.

On my arrival at Whitelands I found 16 settled schoolmistresses (ie. mistresses already in charge of schools) and 74 pupils in training, prepared for the trial. Of this latter number, 43 had been in the Institution for one year or upwards, and were therefore, together with the settled schoolmistresses, considered as candidates for your Lordships' certificates of merit. As no room in the Institution was sufficiently large for the whole number, I divided them into two classes; the first class consisting of the candidates for certificates, in number 59; the other, of pupils who had not been a year in training, amounting to 31 young women.

Subjects of Examination.-The subjects of examination for the two classes were the same. In four of these subjects, viz. the Church Catechism, English grammar, geography, and arithmetic, different papers were set to the candidates for certificates. The various subjects of examination, and the time occupied by each, were as follows: