536 



NATURE 



[February 15, 191 2 



generated by the mere act of stretching or expanding 

 the cap over the end of the shell. If this be so, the 

 inertia of the metal in the cap must play an important 

 part. At the critical moment when the hard point of 

 the shell meets the plate, there is a sudden distortion 

 of the shell and plate near the point of contact. This 

 distortion is the cause of breakage. One can see that the 

 mass of mild steel surrounding the point of the shell, and 

 pressed into firm contact with it, might by its inertia 

 oppose a powerful resistance to this sudden change of form, 

 and so support the shell during the minute fraction of time 

 which determines whether it or the plate shall go. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Birmingham. — At the last meeting of the City Council 

 the recommendation of the Education Committee to allot 

 to the University the proceeds of a penny rate was dis- 

 cussed. The amount which would have been raised by 

 such a rate is about 16,000/. at present, and would increase 

 with the growth of the city. Some opposition to the 

 recommendation was made by the supporters of the 

 Birmingham and Midland Institute, who wished 1000/. 

 per annum to be granted to that institution. Further 

 opposition came from some of the Socialist members of 

 the Council on the ground that the money would be better 

 spent in increasing the facilities for secondary education 

 to the poorer classes. A letter was read from the Board 

 of Education pointing out that the ear-marking of so large 

 a sum as that required by the Education Committee for 

 additional scholarships would materially lessen the value of 

 the grant to the University for the purpose of diminishing 

 its present debt, and this would be taken into considera- 

 tion in allotting the Treasury grant, which was to be 

 allocated to the various applicants in proportion to the 

 amount of local support forthcoming. The result of the 

 discussion was the assigning of a sum of 15,000/. per 

 annum from April i until further notice. 



The annual reports of the University Council and Prin- 

 cipal have been published, from which it appears that the 

 total number of registered students during the past session 

 was 1017, as against 958 for the previous session. The 

 Principal again emphasised the need for a chair of Greek. 

 He also hoped that some further development in facilities 

 for agricultural studies would be made during the present 

 session. 



Prof. John Joly, F.R.S., has been appointed Huxley 

 lecturer for the current session. 



Oxford. — The following letter has been addressed to 

 the Vice-Chancellor by Prof. Karl Pearson, F.R.S. : — 



" Dear Mr. Vice-Chancellor, 



" I feel very deeply indeed the honour which has been 

 conferred on me by the award of the Weldon Prize. I 

 realise fully also the difficulties under which the Electors 

 have been placed owing to the terms of the statutes. But 

 as one who was partly instrumental in founding the prize, 

 and who also had many opportunities of knowing the 

 views held with regard to such prizes by the man whose 

 work it commemorates, will you allow me to be at once 

 very grateful for the award and yet to ask the University 

 to pass me over in its selection? 



" I feel strongly that, whatever the formal wording of 

 the statutes may be, the intention of the donors and the 

 spirit of the late Prof. Weldon, which influenced their 

 foundation, was the encouragement of younger men, to 

 whom timely recognition may mean an all-important 

 indication that their work is appreciated and their chosen 

 path a fitting one. 



" Karl Pearson." 



Dr. A. H. FisoN has been appointed secretary of the 

 (ulchrist Educational Trust, in succession to the late Dr. 

 R. D. Roberts. 



Mr. Alfred Schwartz has resigned the professorship of 

 electrical engineering in the Manchester University and the 



NO. 2207, VOL. 88] 



School of Technology on his appointment by the Pr<- 

 dent of the Board of Education to a staff inspectorship 

 engineering under thf Board. Th<- resignation ' * ' 

 March 31. 



The issue for January of The Technical Journal— i. 

 organ of the .Association of Teachers in Technical Instit 

 tions— is full of material of interest to the members of tl 

 association and others engaged in technical educatio 

 Among the most noteworthy contributions may be m< 

 tioned the statement of the evidence given by the -Asso( ; 

 tion of Teachers in Technical Institutions before the Ro\ 

 Commission on University Education in London, and the 

 presidential address of Mr. Barker North at the annual 

 meeting of the association last November. A portrait is 

 included of Mr. J. H. Reynolds, whose retirement from the 

 principalship of the Manchester Municipal School of 

 Technology will take place shortly. 



It is announced in Science that the directors of Bryn 

 Mawr College have formally accepted the bequest of 

 125,000/. made by the will of the late Emma C. Woeris- 

 hoffer, of New York, who was killed in an automobile 

 accident last summer. The whole sum has been consti- 

 tuted as a permanent endowment fund. From the same 

 source we learn that the sum of 10,000/. has been given 

 to Beloit College by Mrs. Rufus H. Sage, of Chicago. 

 The total endowment of this college — in interest-bearing 

 securities — is now increased to 250,000/., in addition to the 

 value of the buildings. A third gift, reported in the same 

 issue of our contemporary, is that of Mr. Robert \V. 

 Sayles, in charge of the geological section of the Harvard 

 University Museum, who has given the sum of 1000/. to 

 the Seismological Society of America, to aid in the publica- 

 tion of the society's Bulletin. 



The Child Study Society of London announces that a 

 conference of combined societies will be held in the Uni- 

 versity of London on May 9 to 11 next under the presi- 

 dency of Sir James Crichton Browne, F.R.S. The sub- 

 ject for discussion at the conference will be " The Health 

 of the Child in relation to its Mental and Physical Develop- 

 ment." Papers will be contributed to introduce dis- 

 cussions on the " Influence of Defects of Hearing, and of 

 Vision, in relation to the Mental and Physical Develop- 

 ment of the Child," by Dr. J. Kerr Love and Mr. N. 

 Bishop Harman ; "The Tuberculous Child," by Dr. Jane 

 Walker; "Mental Hygiene in relation to the Development 

 of the Child," by Dr. Theo Hyslop ; and "Instruction of 

 the Young in Sexual Hygiene," by Dr. G. Eric Pritchard. 

 A lecture to the conference on " Eugenics and Child- 

 study " will be delivered by Dr. C. W. Saleeby. 



The council of Bedford College has announced that the 

 100,000/. required to erect the new buildings at Regent's 

 Park and to inaugurate an endowment fund has now been 

 obtained. As has been recorded in these columns, 50,000/. 

 had been raised by the beginning of November last for the 

 building fund, 20,000/. of it being promised by the London 

 County Council, who also promised 10,000/. more if the 

 college could raise a similar sum immediately. By the 

 end of last year the college raised the amount named, and 

 secured the further grant. We learn from The Times 

 that the council has now been informed by Lord Haldane, 

 president of the building and endowment fund, that he 

 has received from a donor who desires at present to with- 

 hold his name the promise of 30,000/. towards the fund. 

 Simultaneously with this donation comes the promise from 

 another anonymous donor of 10,000/. for the erection of 

 a hall and common rooms, while the Worshipful Company 

 of Goldsmiths has granted 5000/. towards an endowment 

 fund. 



The International Commission on Mathematical Educa- 

 tion will meet at Cambridge on August 22-28, on the 

 occasion of the fifth International Congress of Mathe- 

 maticians. It will be remembered that the commission 

 owes its existence to a resolution of the Rome Congress of 

 1908. The educational subjects proposed for discussion are 

 the following : — (i) intuition and experiment in mathe- 

 matical teaching at secondary schools, in particular, the 

 use of drawing, measurement, and calculation (numerical 



