644 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Societies. Regulations for the control of the Institute have been drafted by a 

 joint committee representing these bodies, but, at the time of writing, they had 

 not been approved for publication. 



The Senate of Cambridge University has at last abolished compulsory Greek 

 from the syllabus of the Previous Examination. Candidates have now a choice 

 of four languages : French, Greek, Italian, or Spanish. Latin is still compulsory, 

 so that the unfortunate science student, who must know French and German, is 

 still severely handicapped. 



At a joint meeting of the Headmasters' Conference and the Incorporated 

 Association of Head Masters it was resolved : (i) That suitable instruction in 

 natural science should be included in the curricula of preparatory schools, of the 

 upper standards of elementary schools, and of all boys in public and other 

 secondary schools up to the age of about sixteen. (2) That mathematics and 

 natural science should be necessary subjects in the entrance scholarship examina- 

 tions of public schools, in the first school examination, and in the examinations for 

 entrance into the Navy and Army, provided that good work in other subjects 

 should compensate for weakness in mathematics and natural science, and 

 vice versd. 



Science states that the Medical College in Pekin, which is being built for the 

 Rockefeller Foundation at a cost of $6,000,000, will be opened in 1920. The college 

 includes eighteen university buildings, forty faculty residences, and a hospital with 

 200 beds. A second medical school is to be established in Shanghai, and 

 subsidiary medical stations are to be maintained in different parts of China. 

 Subsidies will be granted to existing missionary hospitals which will be standardised 

 and will offer internships for the University. The over-all cost is expected to be 

 $10,000,000 and the annual up-keep $250,000 — 500,000. 



In his address as retiring President of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science Prof. T. W. Richards gave, last December, a most 

 interesting account of the work on radioactive lead which has been carried out in 

 the last few years, more particularly at Harvard University. The results which 

 have been obtained may be summarised thus : (1) The atomic weight of common 

 lead is 20719, and of the purest uranic lead 2o6'o8, a figure which is in remarkable 

 agreement with that deduced from the atomic weights of Uranium (238"i8 - 8 atoms 

 of Helium = 2o6'i8), and of Radium {22^'qb — 5 atoms of Helium = 205'96 ; mean 

 2o6"o7). (2) The atomic volumes of the two varieties are the same ; the densities 

 being proportional to the atomic weights. (3) The spectra are identical — except 

 for a minute shift equal to o"oooi per cent, of the wave length detected by Prof. 

 Harkins of Chicago in one of the lines. (4) The refractive indices of the salts are 

 the same, which would indicate that atomic volume rather than density is important 

 in determining the refractive index. (5) The solubilities are the same ; one 

 thousand fractional crystallisation of Australian lead nitrate, which contains both 

 varieties, having failed to produce any measurable separation. (6) The thermo- 

 electric effects are the same ; wires made of ordinary and uranic lead giving 

 no measurable thermoelectric effect. (7) The melting points are the same. 

 Finally, in the hope of determining whether ordinary lead (which has the same 

 atomic weight from whatever part of the earth it originates) is itself a mixture, 

 experiments on fractional diffusion are being conducted at Harvard. This work 

 is not yet sufficiently advanced for any conclusions to be drawn. The address is 

 published in full in Science, January 3, 1919. 



The Scientific Australian (September 1918) contained an abstract of a paper 

 read by Mr. J. H. Maiden, F.R.S., before the Royal Society of New South Wales, 



