i^o 



NATURE 



[November 2^, 



1') 1 1 



that they were also liable to flash over if a circulating 

 current flowed round the two armatures of the dynamo* 

 on the same shaft running in parallel, when load was 

 thrown off. An electrical protective device was therefore 

 designed and fitted to each pair of generators, which auto- 

 matically breaks the field-circuit when either of these two 

 conditions arises. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 Oxford. — The opponents of the statute allowing exemp- 

 tion from Greek in the case of candidates for honours in 

 mathematics and natural science, which is to be submitted 

 to Convocation on November 28, have put out a circular 

 in which their objections are stated. One of their principal 

 contentions is that when Greek becomes optional at the 

 universities, the teaching of that language will be given 

 up at many of the smaller schools throughout the country, 

 and that in consequence many boys who are capable of 

 profiting by the study will be deprived of the opportunity 

 of instruction in Greek during their school career. The 

 authors of the document say that while deprecating the 

 abolition of compulsory Greek, they are favourable to a 

 reform in existing methods of teaching and examination. 



Prof. John Perry, F.R.S., will deliver an address at the 

 opening of the new mechanical engineering laboratory of 

 the Municipal Technical Institute, Belfast, on Friday, 

 November 24. 



Mr. S. Mangham, formerly Frank Smart student in 

 botany at Cambridge, has been appointed lecturer in botany 

 at Armstrong College (University of Durham). Lord Grey 

 has accepted the office of president of the college. 



Subscriptions for 30,000/. to meet the conditional pledge 

 of lo.oooL from the General Education Board have been 

 received by Middlebury College. It is stated in Science 

 that one-half of the fund will be reserved for general 

 endowment. 



At the Sir John Cass Technical Institute, Aldgate, E.C., 

 on Wednesday, November 29, Mr. H. Livingstone Sulman, 

 president of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, will 

 distribute the prizes and certificates gained by students 

 during the past session. 



The Ontario correspondent of The Times announced on 

 November 19 that the first day's subscriptions from 

 Montreal to the million-dollar fund for McGill University 

 reached 66,735/., including io,oooZ. telegraphed from 

 London by Dr. James Douglas, who was formerly pro- 

 fessor of chemistry at Morrin College, Quebec. 



The fourth annual dinner of old students of the Royal 

 College of Science, London, is to be held at the Imperial 

 College Union, Prince Consort Road, South Kensington, 

 on December 13, at 7.30 p.m. The sixth annual dinner of 

 the Finsbury Technical College Old Students' Association 

 is to be held at the Trocadero Restaurant on December 9, 

 at 7.30 p.m. 



Mrs. C. Kayler has given loooZ. to University College 

 Hospital to found and endow a lectureship in memory of 

 her father, the late Dr. Sydney Ringer, F.R.S., formerly 

 consulting physician to the hospital. The lecturer will be 

 selected every two years, and will take as the basis of his 

 lecture original research carried out by him in the physio- 

 logical or pharmacological laboratories of University 

 College or in University College Hospital Medical School. 



The death of Lady Reichel, which occurred at Bangor 

 the next day after the degree ceremony noted in last week's 

 Nature, will be felt as a loss by all those interested in 

 higher education in Wales. As wife of the principal of the 

 University College of North Wales, Lady Reichel, while 

 holding no important official position, had by her personality 

 and influence rendered indirect services, of the value of 

 which it would be difficult to form an adequate estimate, to 

 the cause of education. 



The Board of Agriculture and Fisheries has awarded the 

 following research scholarships in agricultural science : — 

 P. G. Bailey (Cambridge), J. Clayton (Cambridge), J. T. 



NO. 2195, VOL. 88] 



Kdwards, E. T. Hainan (Cambridge), J. 11 

 (Cambridge), J. A. Hanky, G. E. John.son (Birm 

 C. G. P. Laidlaw (Cambridge), A. E. Lcchnv . 

 J. W. Lesley (Cambridge), .\. Neville (Londoi, 

 Sptnks (Cambridgfj. These scholarships hav 

 lished in connection with the scheme for the 

 scientific research in agriculture, for the purp' 

 the Treasury ha« sanctioned a grant to the isoard ).• 

 the developn\ent fund. The scholarships, which are of 

 annual value of 150I., and are tenable for thrff " — ' 

 been established in order to train promising si 

 suitable supervision, with a view to their co. 

 the development of agriculture, either by carry 

 independent research or by acting in an advisory c:i|- 

 agriculturists. 



At the annual meeting of the Mathematical Associar 

 to be held in January next, the following papers will 

 presented: — What should be omitted in arithmetic? J. 

 Sachs; mathematical work in training colleges, Re\ '" 

 Radford; some unrealised possibilities in matli 



education, G. St. L. Carson; the work of the Inter, 



Commission on mathematical teaching, C. Godfrey ; 

 calculus as a school subject, C. V. Dure!!. In addition 

 following subjects for discussion are proposed : — A rei 

 nised universal sequence of propositions in geometry 

 schools, H. G. Mayo; the educational value of th' 

 matics examination, E. F. Edwards ; the logic of 

 whether or where we should teach it, S. Andra.n.- , mc 

 treatment of parallel lines, Rev. J. J. Milne; differentiation 

 and integration as purely algebraic processes, W. F. 

 Sheppard ; is the educational prestige of ma;' 

 lessening? G. St. L. Carson; the elementary tea 

 the calculus. Rev. E. M. Radford ; first lessons in algtl 

 W. A. Richardson. 



In connection with the work of the General Educa 

 Board of the United States, we learn from Science t 

 conditional appropriations amounting to 127,000/. have 

 been granted to six colleges and universities by the board 

 of trustees. Applications from twenty-four instituti'^''^* 

 were presented. From this list the board selected 

 among which is distributed conditionally the avaihi 

 funds as follows : — to Bucknell University, Lewisburg, 

 Pa., 7000/. towards 32,000/. ; to Earlham College, Rich- 

 mond, Ind., 15,000/. towards 80,000/. ; to Furman Uni- 

 versity, Greenville, S.C., 5000/. towards 20,000/. ; to 

 Grinnell College, Grinnell, la., 20,000/. towards 100,000/.; 

 to Smith College, 40,000/. towards 200,000/. ; to Southern 

 Methodist University, Dallas, Tex., 40,000/. towards 

 200,000/. During the meeting attention was directed to 

 the fact that since Mr. Rockefeller made his first contribu- 

 tion to the board for the promotion of higher education, 

 contributions have been made to ninety-one institutions, 

 amounting to 1,525,000/., towards a total of 7,182,000/. 

 Fifty-one institutions to which the board has made con- 

 ditional contributions have completed the subscriptions for 

 the supplemental sums required, and to these institutions 

 the board has already paid 700,000/. in cash. As a result 

 of the campaigns made by these fifty-one institutions, their 

 assets have been increased by more than 3,800,000/. Their 

 student bodies have increased by 2047, 183 new professors 

 have been employed, and the annual payment to professors 

 in these fifty-one institutions has been increased S4.300/. 



As indicative of the growing appreciation of the value 

 of higher education in science and technology among the 

 native aristocracy of India, the following remarks, re- 

 corded in The Pioneer Mail, from a speech at an educa- 

 tional conference by the Nawab Bahadur of Dacca are 

 interesting. Supporting the statement that " the want of 

 a combined course of education has to answer for the 

 degraded state of our community," he said: — " It is none 

 the less due also to our utter indifference to technical, 

 industrial, agricultural, and commercial education. If we 

 had developed our industrial resources, improved our agri- 

 culture, and learnt business, hunger would not have 

 peeped in our peasants' houses. Our interests would not 

 have clashed had we not flocked to the general line of 

 education only, but turned to other branches for which 

 we might have special aptitude and be better fitted. The 

 inevitable consequences of this wanton neglect of these 

 branches have been the cramming of all offices and pro- 



