October 20, 1923] 



NATURE 



607 



provisionally five Swiss members. This committee is 

 to be considered as distinct from the committee of the 

 Swiss Physical Society, which may contain non-Swiss 

 members, and the possibility was left open of its being 

 enlarged at a later date by the addition of electrical 

 engineers, or representatives of other branches of 

 applied physics. The committee will examine shortly 

 the question of sending a delegation to the meeting 

 which it is proposed to hold in December at Paris. 



In discussing the second matter, it was pointed out 

 that there does not exist at the moment any Swiss 

 periodical devoted exclusively to physics, and in which 

 memoirs in any one of the three national languages 

 equally are accepted . The consequence is that much of 

 the good work done in Swiss institutions is regarded 

 outside Switzerland as belonging to the countries where 

 the results are published. On the initiative of some of 

 its members, the Society decided to consider at an 

 early date the creation of a trilingual review, of the 

 type of the Helvetica Chimica Acta, recently created 

 for the purpose of publishing the work of Swiss 

 chemists in Switzerland itself. The question is more 

 difficult in the case of physics, since, unlike chemistry, 

 it cannot count on the regular support of the in- 

 dustrial people. A committee ad hoc is to examine 

 whether it will prove possible to transform and extend 

 the Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles, 

 hitherto published at Geneva. This was the wish of 

 Philippe Guye, and he had for years been working 

 with this aim in view, when his untimely death 

 deprived the world of science of one of its most valued 

 leaders. It is to be hoped that, the preparations 

 which he had made will be found to render this 

 transformation possible. The alternative would be 

 to create a totally new review, the Helvetica Physica 

 Acta. Grace Chisholm Young. 



University and Educational Intelligence. 



Bristol. — Prof. J. W. McBain has received the 

 degree of doctor of science from Brown University, 

 Rhode Island, United States, where he is delivering 

 a dedicatory address at the opening of the new 

 chemical laboratories. 



Cambridge. — Mr. H. Godwin, Clare College, has 

 been appointed junior demonstrator in botany, and 

 Mr. H. E. Green, Fitzwilliam Hall, re-appointed 

 second assistant at the Observatory. 



Dr. MoUison, Master of Clare College, has offered 

 a gift of 500/. to found a prize to be called the 

 " May hew Prize," to be awarded by the examiners 

 in Part II. of the Mathematical Tripos to the can- 

 didate of the greatest merit, preferably in the subjects 

 of applied mathematics. 



London. — Dr. A. Logan Turner will deliver the 

 Semon lecture in the lecture hall of the Royal Society 

 of Medicine, i Wimpole Street, W.i, on Thursday, 

 November i, at 5 o'clock, taking as his subject " The 

 Advancement of Laryngology : a plea for adequate 

 training and closer co-operative action." Admission 

 will be free, without tickets, 



A course of eight lectures on " Some Biochemical 

 Aspects of Animal Development " is being delivered 

 by Mr. H. G. Cannon in the Zoological Department of 

 the Imperial College of Science and Technology on 

 Mondays at 5.30, terminating on December 3. 



Sheffield. — The University Council has made the 

 following appointments : Prof. F. C. Lea, to the chair 

 of mechanical engineering, in succession to emeritus 

 Prof. Ripper ; Mr. R. R. S. Cox, to be assistant 

 lecturer and tutor in mathematics ; and Mr. M. H. 

 Evans, to be an assistant lecturer in physics. 



According to the Chemiker Zeitung, Dr. James 

 Franck has been appointed to the chair of physics in 

 the University of Berlin, vacant by the death of Dr. 

 Heinrich Rubens. 



Three residential scholarships for British women 

 graduates, tenable at the American University 

 Women's Club in Paris, have been awarded by the 

 British Federation of University Women to the 

 following candidates : Miss Olive Farmer (London 

 and Cambridge) — Mary Ewart Travelling Scholar, 

 1923-24 ; Miss Benedicta J. H. Rowe (Oxford) ; and 

 Miss Helen Waddell (Belfast) — Susette Taylor Fellow, 

 1923-24. 



The Department of Leather Industries of the U^ni- 

 versity of Leeds has issued a report on the sessions 

 1921-23, in which it is noted that the Ph.D. degree 

 of the university was conferred on completion of two 

 years' research work in the department on Mr. E. C. 

 Porter for a thesis on " The Alkaline Swelling of 

 Hide Powder," while another former student of the 

 department, Mr. F. L. Seymour-Jones, has been 

 awarded a Ph.D. degree by Columbia University 

 for a thesis on " The Hydrolysis of Collagen by 

 Trypsin." 



The University of Leeds entertained on September 

 13 a party of members of the Institute of Journalists. 

 In connexion with this visit a convenient summary 

 of the history and activities of the University was 

 printed, special prominence being given to the de- 

 partments of Leather Industries, Colour Chemistry, 

 and Textile Industries, all of which were inspected 

 by the visitors. It is noted that to provide university 

 instruction costs on an average 83/. a year for each 

 full-time student, while the average fee paid by such 

 students is 40/. 



An article on " The Civic University and the State " 

 in the Fortnightly Review for October contains a 

 timely plea for the recognition of the importance 

 from an Imperial point of view of adequate provision 

 in the English provincial universities for economic 

 and industrial research and advanced studies in civics. 

 Mr. Maclnnes, the writer of the article, points out 

 that were full advantage taken of the unique oppor- 

 tunities in the universities of Birmingham, Bristol, 

 Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, and Sheffield, for work 

 in these fields they would attract from the Dominions 

 many research students who would otherwise drift to 

 foreign countries. Hitherto these universities have 

 attracted very few of such students, owing partly to 

 failure to make their resources sufficiently well known 

 and to devise convenient procedures for students from 

 abroad. Nor is this surprising. Tlie university staffs 

 are hard put to it to meet the requirements of English 

 students, and in the absence of any special induce- 

 ment to cater for the needs of students from abroad, 

 it is not to be expected that they should go out of 

 their way to do so. Something has been done by 

 the Universities Bureau to disseminate in every part 

 of the Empire a knowledge of the resources of the 

 universities in other parts, but that is not enough 

 by itself to stimulate intra-Imperial migration of 

 students. Discussing the perils to which universities 

 are exposed by reason of dependence on State sub- 

 sidies, the article points out that a democratic com- 

 munity naturally inclines to the view that, since the 

 people pay for their maintenance, as many persons as 

 possible should enjoy their benefits, and as a large 

 majority fail to appreciate the benefit of having in 

 their midst a university pursuing, however efficiently, 

 its traditional aims, they are inclined to look for 

 benefits more flirect and easily recognisable. 



NO. 2816, VOL. 112] 



