December 7, 191 1] 



NATURE 



197 



A STUDY of the calendar for the session 1911-12 of the 

 University College of \orth Wales emphasises how much 

 has been accomplished in recent years in making more 

 easily available the advantages of higher education. It 

 tan no longer be said that university education is possible 

 bnly for the child of wealthy parents. The present calendar 

 shows that the fees of an ordinary arts student at the 

 University College of Bangor amount only to 13Z. is. per 

 Session, and of a science student to 17Z. 15. per session. 

 The total cost of Uving in lodgings and tuition in Bangor 

 averages from 35Z. to 45Z. for the session. 



The annual meeting of the trustees of the Carnegie 

 Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching was held in 

 New York on November 17. According to a Press notice, 

 says Science, Mr. Carnegie gave 200,000/. of the 1,000,000/. 

 which he had promised in case the State-supported institu- 

 ions were admitted to the benefits of the foundation. The 

 ndowment is 2,425,200/., yielding an annual income of 

 18,000/. Last year, it is said, the sum of 105,200/. was 

 paid for pensions to 370 professors and widows of pro- 

 fessors. Forty-eight were added to the list for the year, 

 and fifteen died. The University of Virginia was added to 

 the list of accepted institutions. 



The fourth annual dinner of the old students of the 

 Royal College of Science, London, will be held at the new 

 Imperial College Union, Prince Consort Road, South 

 Kensington, on Wednesday, December 13. Sir Alexander 

 Pedler, F.R.S., president of the Old Students Association, 

 will preside : and the guests will include the President of 

 he Board of Education, the Rt. Hon. A. H. D. .^cland, 

 ;ir Robert Morant, K.C.B., Sir Arthur Church, K.C.V.O., 

 Bir Alfred Keogh, K.C.B., Prof. S. H. Cox, and Prof. 

 ^7. E. Dalby. Tickets for the dinner may be obtained on 

 pplication to the secretary of the Old Students Associa- 

 tion, 3 Selwood Place, S.W. 



It was proposed recently that steps should be taken to 

 establish a University of Brighton, and a meeting is to be 

 held on Tuesday next, December 12, by invitation of the 

 Mayor of the town, to consider the subject. It is sug- 

 gested that there might be affiliation with the Municipal 

 College at Pottsmouth and the Hartley University College, 

 Southampton, to constitute a new university for the South 

 Coast, or that the present radius of the University of 

 London should be extended to include the proposed new 

 University College. Hitherto, Brighton has not shown 

 ny very marked desire to take a prominent part in tech- 

 ical or university education. The town has a population 

 f 131,000, yet there are only between sixty and seventy 

 day students in the Municipal Technical College, and nearly 

 wo-thirds of these are first-year students. This does not 

 provide a very promising nucleus upon which to constitute 

 university or a university college, or indicate keen local 

 interest in higher education. We should be sorry, how- 

 ever, to discourage the proposal, and we trust that next 

 Tuesday's meeting will lead to the formation of a scheme 

 which will be successfully carried out in due course. 



The report of the council of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society, adopted at the annual general meeting held 

 yesterday, contains, among other interesting particulars, 

 information concerning certain alterations in the regula- 

 tions and syllabuses of the society's examination in agri- 

 culture. The National Agricultural Examination Board is 

 opinion that the time has arrived when the practice of 

 mining in elementary science might be discontinued, 

 the subjects of e.xamination will in future be : — prac- 

 Jcal agriculture (two papers), farm and estate engineering 

 including surveying, buildings, machinery, and imple- 

 ments), agricultural chemistry, agricultural botany, agri- 

 rultural book-keeping, agricultural zoology, and veterinarv 

 ^rif>nce. Candidates will have the option of taking the 

 le eight papers in one year, or of sitting for a group 

 iiy four in one year, and the remaining group of four 

 he next year. In order to be eligible to sit for the new 

 iiination, a candidate must present a certificate from a 

 L;nisrd agricultural college that his attainments in the 

 'Cts of general botany, general chemistry, geology, and 

 ics and mechanics, as attested hv ria«;s and other 



NO. 2197, VOL. 88] 



examinations, are, in the opinion of the authorities of the 

 college, such as to justify his admission to the examination. 



So much attention has been directed during the year to 

 the question of the legitimate place of public examinations 

 in our system of education that a special interest is 

 attached to an unsigned article in the Journal of the Royal 

 Society of Arts of November 10 on the number of candi- 

 dates offering themselves for the public examinations held 

 during the year 19 10. It appears that some 300,000 pupils 

 were examined, without counting students presenting 

 themselves for university and professional examinations and 

 all the competitive examinations for the Army, Home and 

 Indian Civil Services, and so on. This very large total 

 included about 23,000 candidates in each case for the Local 

 examinations held by the Universities of Oxford and Cam- 

 bridge, some 6000 for the London Matriculation examina- 

 tions, about 113,500 for the science and art examinations 

 of the Board of Education, 24,500 for the technological 

 examinations of the City and Guilds of London Institute, 

 11,500 for the London Chamber of Commerce examina- 

 tions, 9000 for those of the College of Preceptors, about 

 14,500 for those of the National Union of Teachers, 42,000 

 for the examinations of the Lancashire and Cheshire Union 

 of Institutes, and more than 27,000 for those of the Roynl 

 Society of Arts. As the writer of the article remarks : 

 " Most people will admit that, whether examinations are 

 or are not desirable, the thing is somewhat overdone." 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, November 23. — Sir Archibald Geikie, 

 K.C.B., president, in the chair. — Sir Norman Lockyer : 

 The iron flame spectrum and those of sun-spots and lower- 

 type stars. Previous publications are referred to indicating 

 that the spectral lines of the metallic elements have been 

 separated into two series, one seen best in the hotter stars 

 and when high temperature and great electric energy are 

 employed. These were termed " enhanced lines." The 

 other set, existing in stars of the solar type, but not in 

 high-temperature stars, and seen with lower degrees of 

 heat and electric energy in the laboratory, were called 

 "arc lines." These lines have been shown to be 

 strengthened in sun-spot spectra, while the enhanced lines 

 are weakened. It seemed important to consider as a third 

 term the spectrum given by the comparatively low tempera- 

 ture of the oxyhydrogen flame and see how the lines in 

 the spectrum behave in the spectra of sun-spots and lower- 

 type stars. Photographs have been recently obtained of 

 the oxyhydrogen flame spectrum of iron, using greater dis- 

 persion than has hitherto been employed on that spectrum 

 at Kensington. It has been found that the lines existing 

 in the flame spectrum nearly all behave in a similar way 

 in sun-spot spectra, these lines being extensively winged in 

 passing from the Fraunhoferic spectrum to the sun-spot 

 spectrum, and, generally speaking, more conspicuous in 

 the latter. It has also been found that the flame lines 

 are just those which are relatively strong in the electric 

 furnace spectra of iron, the spectrum furnished by the 

 lowest temperature conditions dealt with in the furnace 

 being almost identical with the oxyhydrogen flame spec- 

 trum. With regard to the behaviour of the flame lines in 

 the spectra of lower-type stars, it is found that in the 

 region \ 4000 to X 4330 they are mainly unaff^ectcd in the 

 spectrum of Arcturus. In the region \ 4330 to X 4500 the 

 evidence tends to show that most of the lines are 

 strengthened both in Arcturus and o Orionis, but this 

 point cannot be definitely established until stellar spectra 

 of greater dispersion are available. — Sir Robert Hadfleld : 

 Sinhalese iron of ancient origin. There being little 

 definite evidence regarding ancient iron, the author 

 describes some specimens from the buried cities of Ceylon. 

 His paper supplements one by Dr. G. Pearson, read to 

 the society in 1795, on Indian steel of modern manu- 

 facture. The specimens investigated, obtained through the 

 kindness of the Governor-General of Ceylon, Sir Henry 

 McCallum, are (i) a steel chisel, fifth century A.n. ; (2) an 

 ancient nail, probably of s.iiiic pinco nnd dale ; (3) a bill 



