404 



NATURE 



[February 24, 1898 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — Mr. W. D. Niven, F. R.S., lias been appointed 

 an Elector to the Plumian Professorship of Astronomy, and Sir 

 W. H. Broadbent an Elector to the Downing Professorship of 

 Medicine. 



Mr. J. Graham Kerr, of Christ's College, well known for his 

 adventurous journeys as a naturalist in South America, has been 

 elected a Fellow of Christ's College 



Prof. G. B. Howes, F.R.S., is to receive the honorary 

 degree of LL.D. from the University of St. Andrews. 



When a shorthand writer, only familiar with the phonographic 

 signs of the vocabulary of every-day life, endeavours to take notes 

 of a science lecture, he soon finds his deficiencies. To exercise 

 pupils in the art of making shorthand notes during lectures, Mr. 

 Percy E. Kingsford, of Dover College, has inaugurated a course 

 of special science lectures (with experiments and other illustra- 

 tions) as nearly as possible of the character of those which his 

 students will receive when they pass to the science or technical 

 college, or medical school. The practice thus afforded the 

 students will be very valuable. Science lecturers who have 

 suffered at the hands of newspaper reporters, and have had ideas 

 fathered upon them which they would be the first to repudiate, 

 will join with us in wishing that all phonographers would undergo 

 a similar course of training in reporting scientific lectures. It is 

 very difficult to obtain an accurate verbatim report of the speeches 

 made at any meeting where scientific subjects are discussed. 



An open competitive examination for the entry of engineer 

 students in Her Majesty's Navy, and for the entry of students 

 in Naval Construction, will shortly be held. The opportun- 

 ities offered by this branch of the naval service are not so widely 

 known as they ought to be. Candidates for the studentships 

 must not be less than fourteen, nor more than seventeen years of 

 age. A competitive examination is held every year in April, 

 the subjects being arithmetic, writing from dictation, composi- 

 tion, grammar, French (or German or Italian), Latin, elemen- 

 tary physics and chemistry, geography (including physical 

 geography), algebra (including quadratic equations), Euclid's Ele- 

 ments (Books I.-IV. , VI., and definitions of V.), and freehand 

 drawing. Successful candidates go to the admirable Engineer- 

 ing College — the Royal Naval Engineering College — at Keyham, 

 Devonport, and there receive, under Prof. A. M. Worthington, 

 F.R.S., a thorough course of instruction in the various branches 

 of engineering science, while at the same time they receive 

 practical training in the Dockyard. The best of means is thus 

 afforded the students of acquiring the groundwork of the the- 

 oretical and practical knowledge required of a modern naval 

 engineer. During the five years which the students have to 

 serve at Keyham, the parents or guardians are required to pay 

 the sum of 40/. per annum ; but for this the students receive an 

 excellent education, as well as board and lodging and medical 

 attendance. At present, a large number of the students come 

 from naval ports, such as Portsmouth and Devonport ; but if 

 the studentships were more widely known, doubtless many 

 places which are now but rarely represented would send in 

 candidates for them. 



The jubilee of Queen's College, London, will be cele- 

 brated during the first week in May. The College was 

 founded in 1848, and incorporated by Royal Charter in 1853. 

 It was the pioneer of the movement for the development of 

 educational facilities for women, and in the list of past and 

 present professors and lecturers the names of a number of 

 distinguished men of science occur. Among the names of 

 Fellows of the Royal Society who have served the College, 

 but have now passed away, we notice D. T. Ansted, Edward 

 Forbes, W. B. Carpenter, and W. A. Miller ; while among 

 the present Fellows whose names figure in the list are 

 Prof. H. G. Seeley and Prof. J, M. Thomson. The 

 College curriculum is divided into three parts for students of 

 different ages, and in each of the departments the develop- 

 ment of mental powers without undue strain is the object of the 

 instruction, preparation for public examinations being given but 

 secondary consideration. A college which in these days does not 

 shape its curriculum according to the syllabuses of examining 

 bodies deserves encouragement ; and Queen's College should, 

 therefore, not lack responses to the appeal which the Council 

 has issued for means to enlarge and generally improve the 



NO. 1478, VOL. 57] 



premises, so as to meet the increased requirements of modern 

 education. Among the additions will be a large lecture-room 

 for science lectures. The estimated cost of the whole work 

 will exceed 7000/., of which sum more than 3000/. have still 

 to be raised. The College has no endowment for such pur- 

 poses, and it appeals for help to all who recognise the im- 

 portant share it has taken in the development of women's 

 education. The object is a worthy one, and it is to be hoped 

 that the greater portion of the sum required will be raised 

 before the jubilee celebration in May. The Lady Resident 

 would be glad to receive the names and addresses of old students, 

 in order to send invitations for the forthcoming event. 



A COPY of the general report on public instruction in the 

 North-western Provinces of Oudh, for the year 1896-97, has 

 been received. The institution of a Faculty of Science in the 

 University of Allahabad is referred to, and mention is made of 

 various other efforts to encourage the study of science. What 

 appears to be more needed than anything else is a more liberal 

 supply of apparatus for experimental purposes. It is discredit- 

 able that Prof. Murray, who has charge of the physical science 

 classes in one of the Government colleges, should have to report : 

 " We have about nine metre scales in the laboratory ; no two are 

 exactly alike, and which (if any) is correct it is impossible to say. 

 Similarly the variations in our various measures of resistance one 

 with another are in some cases as much as 30 per cent, of the 

 whole. " But notwithstanding this unsatisfactory state of things, 

 the report shows that means are being taken to strengthen the 

 colleges on the science sides, both by providing additional 

 apparatus and by increasing the accommodation. The subjoined 

 extract from the report shows that the development is taking 

 place on the right lines : — "Steps have been and are being taken 

 to make school education less bookish, and more practical. An 

 English writer, after thirty years of teaching, has recently urged 

 that geography should be taught mainly by means of map draw- 

 ing ; that text-books should be used chiefly as books of reference ; 

 that lessons in arithmetic and geometry should include practical 

 work in measurement ; that in teaching modern languages the 

 written or spoken language should be made the basis, and in- 

 struction in grammar founded upon it ; that mastery of English 

 does not come by grammar and analysis, but by observation and 

 practice ; and that true science consists in a scientific habit of 

 mind, and not in a knowledge of scientific facts. These views 

 appear to me to be fully applicable to India, and as a matter of 

 fact similar aims have been kept in mind latterly in these provinces, 

 particularly as regards geography, arithmetic, geometry and 

 science. The idea of using text books in most subjects as books 

 of reference is, however, so contrary to the notions of masters 

 and boys that it will be long before the new revelation is generally 

 received." 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



American Journal of Science^ February. — The 27-day auroral 

 period and the moon, by H. H. Clayton. Auroras were ob- 

 served in 1895 on January 19, February 15, March 14, and 

 April 10, with no intermediate cases. The probability of an 

 accidental distribution in this manner is only i in 19,683. This 

 period is probably due to the varying position of the moon north 

 and south of the equator. When the moon's period is counted 

 from its greatest northern position, there is a maximum on the 

 14th day, which coincides with the moon's greatest southern 

 declination. There are minima on the 6th and 20th days, and a 

 secondary maximum on the first day. The moon is an elec- 

 trified body, charged negatively like the earth, and the potential 

 gradient at the earth's surface depends upon the moon's position 

 in the heavens. — Some products found in the hearth of an old 

 furnace upon the dismantling of the Trethellan tinworks, Truro, 

 Cornwall, by W. P. Headden. The ores smelted in this furnace 

 for about 100 years were the usual Cornish tin-ores carrying some 

 arsenopyrite, which is cobaltiferous, and accounts for the cobalt 

 in the samples. The chief products described are stannous sul- 

 phide, SnS, with some iron, a new iron arsenide, FeAs, an 

 arsenide of tin, SnjAs, and stannic oxide, or an artificial " wood 

 tin." The latter was an irregular mass weighing about one and 

 a half pounds. There was a central portion of metallic tin 

 running lengthwise through the mass. It was probably formed 

 by slow oxidation of a block of tin, but whether that was due 

 to simple air and moisture or to other hot gases cannot now be 

 determined. — Kant as a natural philosopher, by G. F. Becker. 



