286 



NA TURE 



[January 20, 1898 



The day school is a technical college, and provides extended 

 courses in mechanical and electrical engineering, chemistry, 

 natural sciences, and for the Arts and Science degrees of 

 London University. The evening school provides courses in all 

 science subjects, with practical trade classes in building, engineer- 

 ing, printing and chemical trades ; languages, commercial 

 subjects, and women's work. The staff of the school is com- 

 posed as follows : — Principal, C. H. Draper, B.A. , D.Sc. ; 

 chemistry, M. C. Clutterbuck, B.Sc. , Ph.D. ; natural science, 

 H. Edmonds, B.Sc. ; engineering, G. Armstrong, M.Sc. The 

 total cost of buildings and equipment will be about 25,000/. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — Mr. W. Ridgeway has been re-elected Disney 

 Professor of Archaeology. 



Mr. Yule Oldham, University Lecturer in Geography, lec- 

 tures this term on the Geography of Central Europe, and on 

 Physical Geography, on Mondays and Thursdays respectively. 

 He is also giving an extension course in the town on the Great 

 Explorers, which is largely attended. 



Sir Ernest Clarke, Gilbey Lecturer, gives his second series of 

 lectures on Agricultural History and Economics on Thursdays 

 during February, at noon, in St. John's College. 



Mr. Osbert Salvin, F.R.S., and Mr. Ainger, Master of the 

 Temple, have been elected to Honorary Fellowships at Trinity 

 Hall. 



Mr. John D. Rockefeller has just given the Chicago 

 University 200,000 dols. , this being in addition to many pre- 

 vious gifts. 



The following are among recent appointments : — Dr. Julius 

 Istvanlify to be professor of botany at Klausenburg ; Dr. Alex- 

 ander Magocsy-Dietz to be assistant professor of botany at 

 Budapest ; and Prof. Dr. Zacharias to be director of the 

 Botanic Garden at Hamburg. 



The Finance Committee of the Corporation have recently 

 reported on the application of the Council of the City and Guilds 

 of London Institute for a renewal of the grant from the Cor- 

 poration to the funds of the institute. They state from inquiry 

 that the work of the institute has been successfully and 

 economically managed, and the results achieved are fully com- 

 mensurate with the expenditure involved. The Corporation 

 have, in consequence of this report, voted 400/. in respect of 

 last year towards the funds of the institute, to be devoted to the 

 Finsbury Technical College. 



A COPY of the Calendar of the University College of Sheffield 

 has been received. It will be remembered that the present 

 College was constituted by Royal Charter last May, and was 

 formed by the amalgamation of three pre-existing institutions — 

 the Firth College, the Sheffield Technical School, and the 

 Sheffield School of Medicine. These institutions had previously 

 worked hand in hand, although under independent governing 

 bodies. By the charter they were merged into one corporation 

 with a single Court of Governors. The new Calendar shows 

 that the College is doing valuable work by providing the people 

 of Sheffield and the district with the means of higher scientific 

 and literary education by University methods of teaching. 



At a meeting of Convocation of the University of London on 

 Monday, the report of the special committee appointed to con- 

 sider the Commission Bill was adopted. After a discussion the 

 following resolution, recommended by the special committee 

 and moved by Dr. J. B. Benson, was carried, an amendment to 

 it being rejected by seventy-six votes to forty-two : " That this 

 House accepts the scheme embodied in the London University 

 Commission Bill, 1897." The special featureof the resolution 

 adopted rests upon the fact that it was supported by one of the 

 sections that had always hitherto opposed the Cowper scheme. 

 The opponents belong to two classes : the no change — that is, 

 the two Universities section, who are still irreconcileable, and 

 the section which favoured procedure by charter, and not by 

 statutory commission. It was this section that was mainly re- 

 sponsible for the compromise embodied in the Bill of last year — 

 a compromise which has been accepted by all the bodies con- 

 cerned, and which Convocation has now approved. 



NO. 1473. VOL. 57] 



The annual general meeting of the Incorporated Association 

 of Head Masters was held on Thursday last. Resolutions were 

 passed referring to the new regulations of the matriculation 

 examination of the University of London, the dates of scholar- 

 ship examinations at Oxford and Cambridge, and the training of 

 teachers. At the second day's meeting of the Association, this 

 year's president, the Rev. A. R. Yardy, Head Master of King 

 Edward's School, Birmingham, delivered an address in which 

 he referred to some of the more important educational work 

 accomplished by the Association during the past year. The 

 Rev. R. D. Swallow, in moving ' ' That this Association ap- 

 proves the steps taken by its representatives at the Delimitation 

 Conference held at the Education Department, and hereby 

 adopts the joint memorandum as agreed to at the conference," 

 remarked that the conference, though under the chairmanship 

 of Sir G. Kekewich, was unofficial. It was understood by all 

 that State aid would be needed by secondary schools if they 

 were to take their proper place. The great aim recognised in 

 the memorandum was that the object of secondary schools was 

 to form character in its fullest sense. As to applica!tion of prin- 

 ciples, the masters of higher grade schools had acknowledged 

 that there must be differentiation. The higher grade schools 

 accepted a place as definitely higher primary schools. These 

 schools had also accepted the assignment of scholarships to 

 primary and secondary schools, and claimed no exclusive use of 

 public funds. The Association also accepted the position that, 

 being primary, these higher grade .schools should also be free. 

 There was also a common agreement as to a central authority. 

 After some discussion, the resolution was adopted. A resolution 

 was also carried to the effect that Parliamentary assistance was 

 needed both for the cost of annual maintenance and the pro- 

 vision and equipment of adequate buildings for secondary 

 education. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Royal Society, December 16, 1897. — "On the Thermal 

 Conductivities of Single and Mixed Solids and Liquids, and their 

 Variation with Temperature." By Dr. Charles H. Lees, As- 

 sistant Lecturer irt Physics in the Owens College. 



These experiments were undertaken with a view to deter- 

 mining the effect of temperature on thermal conductivities, and 

 the relation between the conductivity of a mixture and the con- 

 ductivities of its constituents. About thirty solids, liquids, sub- 

 stances near their' melting points, and mixtures of liquids, were 

 tested between 'temperatures of 15° and 50° C. , and the following 

 statements embody the results : — 



(i) Solids not very good conductors of heat in general de- 

 crease in conductivity with increase of temperature in the neigh- 

 bourhood of 40° C. Glass is an exception to this rule. 



{2) Liquids follow the same law in the neighbourhood of 



30° C. 



(3) The conductivity of a substance does not invariably 

 change abruptly at the melting point. 



(4) The thermal conductivity of a mixture lies between the 

 /;onductivities of its constituents, but is not a linear function of 



its composition. 



(5) Mixtures of liquids decrease in conductivity with increase 

 of temperature in the neighbourhood of 30° C, at about the 

 same rate as their constituents. 



"On the Biology oi Steretim hirstihun, Fr." By H. Marshal 

 Ward, Sc.D., F.R.S., Professor of Botany in the University of 

 Cambridge. 



The author has cultivated the mycelium of this fungus ob- 

 tained from spores, on sterilised wood, and after several months 

 the cultures developed yellow bosses which proved to be the 

 hymenophores bearing the basidia. This fungus has not 

 hitherto been made to produce spores in cultures, and Basi- 

 diomycetes generally have rarely been made to do so. The 

 actions of the mycelium on the wood of yEsculus, Pinus, 

 Querciis, and Sabx are also examined, and this is, so far as 

 known, the first time this has been done with pure cultures. 



Mathematical Society, January 13. — Prof. Elliott, F.R.S. , 

 President, in the chair. — The President informed the Members 

 of the recent decease of Signer Brioschi, a Foreign Member of 

 the Society, gave a slight sketch of some of his work, and dwelt 

 upon the loss occasioned by his death to the mathematical 



