8l2 



NATURE 



[December i, 192 



niversity Court has Bubmittcd for the 

 ;i; c,f His Majesty in Council an ordinance 



« ii{ the new honours deforce of li.Sc. in 



a: .10. The course will extend over four years, 



and the iifccHHary instruction will be furnished paitly 

 within the University, and partly in the Schtxjl of 

 Architecture, conducted under the joint direction of 

 the Hoval Technical College and the Glasgow School 

 of Art.' 



The Court has also, under powers given by a recent 

 Act of Parliament, approved an ordinance for the 

 superannuation ancl pensioning, under the Federated 

 System for Universities, of principals and professors 

 hereafter appointe<i. Principals will retire at seventy 

 and professors at sixty-five. Under the System, 

 years of service as assistant or lecturer, in this or 

 other Universities, may be counted as pensionable 

 S' 1 professor. 



1 Ihc Hull Education Comun!!,, h.is 



decided to make a grant of 800/. to iIk ly 



for the financial year 1924-25. 



The title of emeritus professor has been conferred 

 upon Dr. Arthur Smithells, who recently retired from 

 the chair of chemistry, on the grounds of intellectual 

 distinction and of long and meritorious service to the 

 University. 



London. — Mr. W. E. Le Gros Clark has been 

 appointed as from Jan. i, 1924, to the newly 

 instituted readership in anatomy tenable at St. 

 Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College. During 

 1919-20, Mr. Le Gros Clark was demonstrator in 

 anatomy at St. Thomas's Hospital, and since 1920 

 has been Principal Medical Officer at Sarawak, 

 Borneo. He has published papers entitled " Series 

 of Ancient Eskimo Skulls," and " On the Pacchionian 

 Bodies." 



The loUou ing doctorates have been conferred : 

 D.Sc. in Iimbryology , Miss Margaret Tribe, an internal 

 student (Universit)' and King's Colleges) for a thesis 

 entitled " The Development of the Hepatic Venous 

 System and the Postcaval Vein in the Marsupialia " ; 

 D.Sc. [Economics), Mr. B. R. Ambedkar, an internal 

 student (London School of Economics), for a thesis 

 entitled " The Problem of the Rupee." 



It was resolved that the Physiological Laboratory 

 Library should be kept together as part of the 

 University Library, and be developed in connexion 

 therewith as a memorial to the late Prof. A. D. 

 Waller. 



Three free public lectures on " Some Chapters in 

 the Recent Development of the Theory of Electrolytic 

 Dissociation " will be given by Prof. J. N. Bronsted, 

 of the University of Copenhagen, at University 

 College, on December 10, 12, and 14, at 5.30 o'clock. 



A course of five free public lectures on "The 

 Influence of Environment on the Life of Bacteria " 

 will be given by Mr. F. W. Twort, at the Royal 

 College of Surgeons of England on December 11 

 13, 17, 18, and 19, at 4 o'clock. 



The use of mental alertness tests for prospective 

 university and college students is strongly advocated 

 by President W. D. Scott, of North-western Uni- 

 versity. All institutions of higher education should, 

 he considers, have a " personal director " to perform 

 "an educational function similar to that of the 

 diagnostician in medicine. The giving of mentai 

 alertness tests will be as much a matter of the routine 

 with such a director as is the use of the clinical 

 thermometer by the diagnostician in medicine." 



The University College of South Wales and 

 Monmouthshire, Cardiff, issued an appeal in December 

 1921 for the sum of 250,000/. for purposes exclusive 



NO. 2822, VOL. I 12] 



of those connected with the development of 

 Medical School, and particularly with th<* view 

 the erection, ■ :it, and m. 'ora 



torics lor the nts of \\ try, 



I'or these }> xj/. had Jx'en suDscn 



by I^rd Glai ,74/, by other subs^ 



making a toi.u, nmui .t<<iued interest (12,000/.). 

 72,574/., part of thi.s sum having been received 



the appeal in Decemt>er 1921 was i-s^^ • 



luncheon given by I^rd Plymouth on -\ 



further gifts amounting to 56,700/. were 



thus bringing the total sum realised by th. 

 up to 129,27^/. It is of interest to noii- ' 

 foundations of the buildings are just beii 

 at a cost of approximately 15,000/., and t 

 of the superstructure to accommodate tJi- 

 departments, based on a recent estimate, is i ) 

 this figure is, of course ■ <• of the cost <<• 



ment and maintenance 



The second annual report of the E<: 

 Statistics branch of the Dominion Bureau of S- 

 of Canada gives the total number of un 

 students in 1921-22, excluding preparatory, s . 

 and other short courses and correspondence oourr.^^, 

 as 23,800. Included among these are : und- 1 

 graduates in arts and pure science, 6859 men ai; i 

 3872 women; graduates, 712 and 300; medic. 1, 

 3134 and 154 ; engineering and applied scienc- , 

 2513 and 3 ; music, 278 and 717 ; theology, ^54 

 and II. The teaching staffs numbered 3137, 1:1 

 eluding 307 women. The total assets of the ur.; 

 versities amounted to 67 million dollars, includm...; 

 endowments, 26 million, land and buildings, 27, a;! 

 scientific equipment, 5 million. Incomes amount' i 

 to 9 J million, and were derived from : investment- 

 . i^ million; government and municipal grants, 4^ 

 million; fees, 2 million iier sources, i\ 



million. 



Educational development and scientific research 

 are not figuring largely in the election pledges of th** 

 several political parties and the speeches of th« r 

 leaders, except those of the Labour party, aivl ' 

 party's promises are subject to considerable c. 

 in view of the disproportion between the stuj^- . 

 cost of carrying out its programme, including " if.' 

 abolition of the slums," etc., and the resources th.it 

 would be at the disposal of a Labour party govern- 

 ment. This disproportion would necessitate the 

 scrapping of a large part of the programme. The 

 Liberal party manifesto contains on the subject of 

 education only platitudes, but Mr. Asquith promise ! 

 the Women's National Liberal Federation " small' r 

 classes, provision of free places in secondary scho*/. 

 State scholarships for universities, more adequ.i' 

 training for teachers," and " the encouragement and 

 fuller development of adult education," while Lord 

 Grey, when speaking on adult education on November 

 23, is reported to have said, " What was wanted \v.i~ 

 not State control but State assistance. For the 

 small sum of 500,000/. they would get a better return 

 than in any other way. " It is part of the Conservative 

 election policy to concentrate attention on the main 

 issues of unemployment and protection, and the party 

 leaders are accordingly saying little about education. 

 Mr. Baldwin's speech of November 19 showed that 

 he is alive to the supreme importance of the evils m: 

 juvenile unemployment, but does not suggest tli..: 

 he beheves in retention in school as an appropriai 

 remedy at the present time. In his speech at Readi::., 

 on November 21 he referred to the imp>ortance ■ : 

 agricultural research and education as a permanc:.: 

 part of the life of the country', and remarked that tli> 

 Government, recognising this, has given 1,000,000. 

 for promoting them. 



