538 



NATURE 



[JU-XL 15, 191 I 



Cantabrigipnsis non sine supcrbia quadam contemplatur. 

 Krgo niatris alm;ii' nomine siientiac chcmicae profcssoreni 

 Harvardianuni non sine gaudio salutamus, virum et inter 

 sues et inter Germanos doctrinac in sedibus sex praeciariti 

 cdiicatum. Quod si Latino potissimum in sermone de 

 mcritis eiiis vuitis admoneri, videor mihi " propter 

 cgestatem linguae et rerum novitalem " ' rem admodum 

 difficilem ingredi. Peritis tamen comprobavit, sese, in 

 rerum elementis fere quindccim, atomorum pondera ipsuni 

 comperisse, atque discipulis suis primordiorum tam minu- 

 torum subtilissime examinandorum excmplum practulisse 

 viamquc ostendisse. Idem primus indicavit, elementi 

 cuiusque in atomo quo minor vis insit, eo artius elementum 

 illud comprimi posse. Idem etiam metallorum in pro- 

 vincia, computationibus usus accuratissimis, Faradii legem 

 quandam pracclare confirmavit. Academiae nostrae, scien- 

 tiarum accuratarum cultrici tam assiduae, pro certo 

 novimus rerum exploratorem tam accuratum perquam esse 

 cordi. 



Duco ad vos scientiae chcmicae professorem accuratissi- 

 mum, Theodorum Wilielmum Richards. 



The general board of studies has reappointed the follow- 

 ing university lecturers from October i, 191 1, until 

 September 30, 1916, and the appointments have been con- 

 firmed by the special boards with which thev are con- 

 nected :— Botany. A. G. Tansley; mathematics, H. \V. 

 Richmond and R. A. Herman ; pathology, Dr. Cobbett. 



Dr. James, Provost of King's College, has been 

 nominated to represent the University at Rennes on the 

 occasion of the inauguration, in October, of new university 

 buildings and of a monument commemorative of the union 

 of Brittany with France. 



The board of managers gives notice that an Arnold 

 Gerstenberg studentship will be offered for competition in 

 the Michaelmas term of 1912. The competition will be 

 open to men and women who have obtained honours in 

 part i. or part ii. of the natural sciences tripos, and whose 

 first term of residence was not earlier than the Michaelmas 

 term of 1906. 



Glasgow. — Captain Lyons, F.R.S., has announced his 

 resignation of the University lectureship in geography, on 

 his removal to London to take up his duties at the Roval 

 Geographical Society. He has succeeded in establishing 

 a flourishing department at the University, where geo- 

 graphy is now recognised as a subject for the M.A. and 

 for the B.Sc. degree. The University Court will proceed 

 to make an appointment to the office during the summer. 



Prof. R. A. Stewart Macalister, of Dublin, has been 

 appointed Dalrymple lecturer in archaeology for the ensuing 

 academical year. 



A scheme for the affiliation to the University of the 

 Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College has re- 

 ceived the approval of the Scottish Universities Committee 

 of the Privy Council. Ordinances for the purpose of 

 carrying the scheme into effect and admitting the students 

 of the college to university privileges and degrees will 

 now be framed and laid before Parliament in due course. 



The Royal Infirmary of Glasgow has received a new 

 charter, which, inter alia, provides for the representation 

 of the Court and Senate of the University on its board 

 of management. From the University side an ordinance 

 has been promoted, and now awaits 'the approval of his 

 Majesty in Council, which establishes four new professor- 

 ships at the Royal Infirmary, namely, in medicine, surgerv, 

 obstetrics, and pathology. The existing (regius) chairs in 

 these subjects continue to be connected with the Western 

 Infirmary. Both institutions, which between them con- 

 ^«'n about 1200 beds and well-equipped extern depart- 

 ments, will thus have equal rank as the clinical schools 

 ^ the University. All the instruction provided at the 

 Royal Infirmary wnll be open to women students of the 

 tniversity on the same terms as to men. A new clinical 

 Uboratory for study and research has been erected at the 

 Western, to which a director will presentlv be appointed. 

 A pathological institute on a large scale, including a 

 Clinical laboratory, is approaching completion at the 

 Royal ; and by the gift of an anonymous benefactor, a 

 similar building is in progre.ss at the Victoria Infirmary. 

 Which will also be available for university students. The 

 ' I U' retiu«. i. 139. 



NO. 2 [72. VOL. 86] 



a] 

 ! 



medical school of Glasgow is becoming one of the bestj^ 

 equipped in the country, especially as regards its pn 

 vision for .<«cientific teaching and investigation. 



Oxford. — On Tuesday, June 13, another stage 

 reached in the discussion of the proposed statute e>. 

 ing students of natural science and mathematics 

 compulsory Greek. .An amendment prohibiting exi;..,,. . 

 candidates from offering themselves in any other final 

 honour school except these two was carried by 93 to 3(1. 

 .'\ further amendment, moved by the Master of Balliol, 

 which sought to limit the exemption to candidates wh<< 

 should obtain certain qualifications before entering th. 

 University, was rejected by 105 to 39. The statute a-< 

 amended will now be submitted to Congregation, and if it 

 passes will come before Convocation for final decision. 



Prof. John Milne, F.R.S., has been ap{)ointed Hall, s 

 lecturer for 1912. 



We learn from Science that Mr. T. C. Du Pont has 

 given 100,000/. to the .Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 

 nology toward its proposed new site. Announcement is 

 also made of two bequests of about this amount. A trust 

 fund of between ioo,oooJ. and 120,000/., created by Mr 

 Francis B. Greene some five years ago, will be received 

 by the institute for the assistance of students, and it will 

 receive nearly 100,000/. from the bequest of Mrs. Emma 

 Rogers, widow of the first president of the institute. 

 These large gifts, in addition to the 20,000/. for ten years 

 voted by the State, will make it possible for the institutr- 

 to purchase a new site and erect the necessary buildings. 

 From the same source we learn that, by the will of Mrs. 

 Lydia A. Barnard, of Milton, Mass., Radcliffe Collegf^ 

 receives 23,000/. and Harvard University 12,000/. 



The fourteenth annual Conference of the National Head 

 Teachers' .Association was held in Manchester last week. 

 The association adopted a resolution to the effect that no 

 exemption should be allowed from school attendance until 

 the age of fourteen has been reached ; that there be com- 

 pulsory attendance at continuation schools from the age 

 of fourteen to seventeen ; that a well-devised scheme of 

 physical development of young people should form part of 

 the curriculum of every continuation school ; that it be 

 the statutory duty of every local education authority to 

 make suitable provision for the carrying on of such con- 

 tinuation schools in its area as may be necessary ; that 

 the Government provide suitable grants for this purpose : 

 and that it should be the statutory duty of employers of 

 young persons under seventeen to enable them to attend 

 continuation classes at such hours as mav be required bv 

 the .Act. 



The Department of .Agriculture and Technical Instruc- 

 tion for Ireland would appear to have adopted the view 

 that geography is a science, and should be taught as such 

 in schools. For the session 1911-12 a course of physical 

 and commercial geography will form one of the subjects 

 of experimental science which may be taken up in Irish 

 intermediate schools. Anticipating the difficulty which 

 principals of schools may experience in finding teachers 

 competent to deal with geography in a scientific manner, 

 the Department is arranging for a summer course of 

 instruction in the subject, to be held, from July 4 to 28. 

 at the Royal College of Science, Dublin, for teachers who 

 have already qualified themselves in elementary experi- 

 mental science. The Department has circulated an outline 

 syllabus in physical and commercial geography suitable 

 for pupils in their third and fourth years. The work for 

 the former year includes a practical study of the geo- 

 graphy of the home district ; the figure, motions, and posi- 

 tion of the earth ; the atmosphere ; the land ; and the 

 general geography of Ireland. The fourth year's work 

 comprises the physical geography of the sea and a course 

 of commercial geography of a general kind. 



The second volume of the report of the U.S. Com- 

 missioner of Education for the year which ended on 

 June 30, 1910, is now available. The 746 pages are 

 devoted almost exclusively to statistics, which supplement 

 in an admirable manner the descriptive articles in the 

 previous volume, alreadv noticed in these columns. 



