464 



NATURE 



[June i, 191 i 



A trust fund committee has been formed to receive 

 moneys given for the foregoing purpose, composed of the 

 following : — the Marquis of Anglesey (chairman), Sir 

 William Anson, M.P., Mrs. Asquilh, Mr. Balfour, Lord 

 Justice Buckley (hon. treasurer), Viscountess Esher, Lady 

 Meyer, Sir Arthur Riicker, F.R.S,, Lady Riickcr, and Dr. 

 John Atkins (hon. secretary). 



The funds will be administered in accordance with the 

 terms of the trust deed by an executive committee com- 

 j)osed of representatives of the donors and of King's College 

 for Women, including the Rev. Dr. Headlam, Prof. Jack- 

 son, Dr. Miers (the principal of the University of London), 

 Miss Oakeley, Lady Riicker, and Prof. Smithells. 



Among those who have generously contributed to the 

 fund raised for the purposes of the endowment of King's 

 College for Women are : — the Marquis of Anglesey, Mrs. 

 Asquith, the Duke of Devonshire, Sir Richard Carton, Sir 

 Carl Meyer, Lady Mond, Mr. Almeric Paget, M.P., Mrs. 

 Almeric Paget, the Earl of Plymouth, Messrs. Rothschild 

 and Sons, the Marquis of Salisbury, the Earl of Scar- 

 l)rough, Lady Wantage, and the Duke of Westminster. 



77ie Times in a leading article on Saturday, May 27, 

 warmly eul.>gises the new departure, which, it says, " will 

 be received throughout the country with universal satisfac- 

 tion and sympathy." 



This sudden and remarkable development will be hailed 

 with satisfaction by those who during the last two years 

 have been engaged in carrying out in connection with 

 King's College, under great difficulties, the first attempt 

 made in a university institution in this country to establish 

 a course of higher education for women, centring round 

 home and institutional life. In spite of the unsuitable 

 accommotlation and lack of funds, a beginning has been 

 made, and thos(> who are in charge of the scheme are 

 confident of its \.iluf ;iiul permanent success. Now that 

 funds and influential support are forthcoming, the chief 

 obstacle to progress will probably consist in the difficulty of 

 winning the goodwill of the educational world. 



It is a little unfortunate that there is no good term 

 available for indicating the range of studies that are 

 comprised in the King's College course. The expression 

 " horne science " is not very felicitous, and it is to be 

 regrcfted that its classical equivalent, economy ( OtKovofiXa) 

 or economic science, has lost its original significance. 

 The pleonasm, domestic economy, has, not without good 

 reason, fallen into disrepute. But whatever be the term 

 used, it can hardly be doubted that, as in agriculture and 

 other crafts, long left in the empiric state, it should be 

 possible to delimit and develop a tract of higher intellectual 

 studies which will rationalise and inform the vastly 

 important work of household administration. 



ANNUAL TABLES OF CONSTANTS AND 

 NUMERICAL DATA. 



A T the International Congress of Applied Chemistry 

 •*^ held in London in 1909, an International Com- 

 mission was appointed for the purpose of compiling and 

 publishing annual tables of constants and numerical data, 

 and this commission was subsequently accorded the 

 patronage of the International Association of Academies 

 at the meeting of that body held in Rome in 1910 (Nature, 

 May 26, 1910, p. 371). 



According to the programme drawn up by the com- 

 mission, the tables published in any one year are intended 

 to contain all the numerical data likely to be of interest 

 in connection with chemistry, physics, and allied sciences, 

 pure and applied, to be found in the literature published 

 during the previous year. The data are to be accompanied 

 by full bibliographic references. This programme has now 

 (May) so far matured that portions of the volume for 

 1910 are already in the press, while the manuscript of the 

 remaining portions is approaching completion. 



Owing to the immense volume of scientific and 

 technical literature which is continually being produced, 

 the difficulties in the way of finding out whether any 

 given measurement has been made or not are increasing 

 vear bv year. Existing systems of indexing and abstract- 

 mg offer only limited help, since a large number of 

 measurements are made in the course of researches to 

 which they are purely subsidiary, so that their existence 



NO. 2170, VOL. 86] 



cannot be inferred from the titles and «ubtitles of 

 papers in which they are recorded. Also tables w! 1 

 appear only at long intervals, such as those of Lai. 1. -it 

 and Bornstein, can of necessity cover only a small pan 

 of the ground, and, moreover, in most cases they are 

 hampered by the limitations of private enterpri ". ' 



annual tables should therefore till a serious gap 



hitherto existed in the systematic indexing of j»cic. ....J 



technical results. 



It is hoped that ultimately the enterprise may become 

 self-supporting ; but obviously this cannot be the case for 

 some time to come The commission has been greatly 

 assisted by grants from various societies ; for exani;>!.', 

 in this country, from the British .Association, Chen.:, a! 

 Society, Faraday Society, Royal Dublin Society, RowW 

 Irish Academy, Royal Society of Edinburgh, 'and the 

 Society of Chemical Industry. EXonations have also been 

 received from a few private persons, notably from the 

 Earl of Berkeley, F.R.S. The financial position is, how- 

 ever, still far from satisfactory, and further help froni 

 societies and private donors is urgently needed. In 'is 

 connection it may be mentioned that neither the g' ' 



secretary nor the members of the commission receive 



ment for their services, except in so far as they _, 



perform actual compiling or abstracting. 



The organisation of the commission is sufficiently com- 

 plete to deal effectively with the periodical literature, but 

 it happens occasionally that data are published only in 

 non-periodical publications, such as books or monographs, 

 and such data may easily be overlooked. .-Vccordingly, in 

 order that the annual tables may be as complete as 

 possible, the authors of such books, monographs, &c., are 

 requested" to communicate with one or other of the 

 members of the commission. In cases where the data are 

 numerous, specimen copies or corrected proofs of the 

 tables containing the data would be very acceptable. 



The members of the International Commission for the 

 United KingcTom are : — Dr. Alex. Findlav, The University, 

 Edgbaston, Birmingham ; "Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, C.B'., 

 F.R.S. , The National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, 

 Middlesex ; and Dr. N. ' T. M. W'ilsmo're, University 

 College, Gower Street, London, W.C. The general secre- 

 tary is Dr. Charles Marie, 98 Rue du Chcrches-Midi, 

 Paris VI. 



STANDARD TIME-KEEPING. 



A PPARENTLY the efforts of the British Science Guild 

 to show the commercial need that exists for a more 

 widespread observance of standard time than exists at 

 present (see Nature of February 16) have already attracted 

 some attention, for last week we had an opportunity for 

 inspecting a demonstration of yet another clock synchro- 

 nisation system, to be made available by the Greenwich 

 Time Co., which, we believe, is either a branch or off- 

 spring of the Normalzeitgesellschaft of Berlin, where there 

 are about 30,000 clocks under the control of the company. 



The company has offices in Albany Street, N.W., where 

 a Time Bureau is to be established, and by means of the 

 usual arrangements with the Post Office authorities, the 

 Greenwich time signal is transmitted to the bureau over 

 wires provided for the purpose. This signal controls a 

 regulator clock, the function of which is to control elec- . 

 trically, half a dozen times during the day, other clocks in 

 subscribers' premises. These clocks are arranged so as to 

 report back their behaviour at certain times. If the 

 synchronisation is reasonably efficient, the latter appears 

 to us to be a rather unnecessary procedure. We gather 

 that the company is prepared to let out, on hire, clocks 

 suitable for this purpose for an annual rental of something 

 under i\. per clock. This seems rather expensive for sub- 

 scribers who require a number of clocks, as must be so in 

 the majority of cases, for the whole of the utility of a 

 synchronisation scheme depends upon every clock showing 

 the same time. 



We observe that some of the reports in the daily Press 

 hailed the inauguration of this company as something 

 entirely novel, but, as readers of Nature will remember, 

 the scheme is not at all a new one ; in fact, the Post 

 Office authorities have for a long time been synchronising 

 their old clocks, and it seems desirable to place on record 



