94 



NATURE 



[NOVF.MBER 17, 1910 



departments of the University, at a cost of 50,000^., was 

 opened by Lord VVinterstoke on November 15. 



Cambridge. — On Saturday last, November 12, a large 

 assembly of physicists from all parts of Great Britain, and 

 many members of the University, came together in the 

 Cavendish Laboratory on the occasion of the presentation 

 to Sir J. J. Thomson of a volume entitled " A History of 

 the Cavendish Laboratory, 1871-1910." The volume had 

 been prepared to commemorate the completion of the 

 twenty-fifth year of Sir Joseph Thomson's tenure of the 

 Cavendish professorship of experimental physics. The 

 presentation was made by Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, director 

 of the National Physical Laboratory, who was for many 

 years associated with the late and present Cavendish pro- 

 fessors. The volume begins by recording the fact that 

 perhaps no post in the world has held three men of such 

 supreme and varied genius as James Clerk-Maxwell, Lord 

 Rayleigh, and Joseph John Thomson. It contains a re- 

 markable record of work, and concludes with a list of the 

 memoirs which have been published in connection with 

 the Cavendish Laboratory, which extends over forty-two 

 pages, and a list of some two hundred men of science who 

 have researched in the laboratory. We hope to publish a 

 review of the volume in an early issue. 



Mr. A. Hutchinson, of Pembroke College, has been 

 appointed chairman of the examiners, for the Natural 

 Sciences Tripos, iqii. 



Mr. J. -S. Edkins, of Gonville and Caius College, has 

 been approved by the general board of studies for the 

 degree of Doctor in Science. 



Liverpool. — On November 14 the honorary degree of 

 LL.D. was conferred by the University upon Sir Archibald 

 Geikie, K.C.B., president of the Royal Society. 



Oxford. — The Herbert Spencer lecture on " Evolution, 

 Darwinian and Spencerian," will be delivered by Prof. R. 

 Meldola, F.R.S., on December 8 at 2.15 p.m. 



It is announced in Science that the State legislature of 

 Arkansas has voted 70,000/. for the erection of four agri- 

 cultural schools, and 100,000/. additional has been raised 

 by the cities. 



We learn from the Revue Scientifique that the buildings 

 of the medical faculty of the University of Toulouse were 

 •partially destroyed by fire on October 27. The library of 

 more than 60,000 volumes was burnt entirely, and also the 

 physiological lecture theatre and other rooms. 



The Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruc- 

 tion for Ireland has issued a programme of the Irish 

 Training School of Domestic Economy for the session 

 191 1-2. The school is situated at St. Kevin's Park, 

 Kilmacud, Stillorgan, co. Dublin. The premises stand in 

 grounds of about three acres, and the house provides ample 

 accommodation for the staff and students, in addition to 

 class and recreation rooms. A large fruit and vegetable 

 garden is attached to the house. At the close of each 

 school year, the Department, on consideration of the results 

 of the examination held at the close of the course of 

 household management, and the reports of their inspectors 

 and of the teaching staff, selects for training as teachers 

 of domestic economy a limited number of students who 

 have shown themselves most capable of taking full advan- 

 tage of the course of training provided. The course of 

 training extends over at least two whole sessions, and 

 involves a complete course of domestic economy suitable 

 for teachers of this subject. It includes the principles of 

 practical elementary science involved in domestic work ; 

 cookery ; laundry ; dressmaking and home sewing ; house- 

 wifery (including household routine and the keeping of 

 accounts) ; and practice in the teaching of these subjects. 

 Practical instruction in home hygiene and sick nursing is 

 afforded, and instruction is given in the theory and practice 

 of education. 



In a letter to the Yorkshire Observer of November 11 

 Prof. R. Meldola, F.R.S., urges the need for the pro- 

 vision in this country of a larger number of scholarships 

 for research. " Why, in the name of all that is sacred 

 to the industrial welfare of this country, are not some 

 of the vast sums now devoted to educational purposes 

 available for research scholarships in existing institu- 

 tions? " asks Prof. Meldola. Later in his letter he says, 



NO. 2142, VOL. 85] 



everything is ripe for the movement. There are com- 

 petent teaching staffs ; there is always a supply of promis- 

 ing students ; there are funds from county councils and 

 from public and private endowments ; and there is the 

 Treasury behind the Board of Education. There are 

 scholarships given for all kinds of purposes other than for 

 the continuation of the education of the most promising 

 technical students in the institutions in which they re- 

 ceived their preliminary training so as to enable them to 

 add one or two years in learning to wield that most 

 powerful of all educational and industrial weapons — the 

 faculty of originality. And to crown all, the manufac- 

 turers and employers in this country are now beginning 

 to take a more enlightened view of the situation, and are 

 prepared to employ such men — when they can get them. 

 It seems preposterous that year after year we should see 

 ability, talent, and even genius slipping through our hands 

 for want of means, when educators on one hand and 

 employers on the other are both ready to play their part 

 in promoting the industrial development of the country. 

 We want, he concludes, a system of technical research 

 scholarships which will be looked upon as a distinction to ' 

 gain, for none but the most competent would be allowed 

 to hold them. We want through such means to strengthen 

 and encourage the work of the teachers by filling their 

 laboratories with research students, and we want to 

 advance British industry by handing over to the manu- 

 facturers the picked material from our educational institu- 

 tions. As a leading article in our contemporary points 

 out, there is no reason why the success which has attended 

 the efforts of Prof. Arthur G. Green and his colleagues 

 at Leeds L'niversity in encouraging among the advanced 

 students of applied chemistry research in connection with 

 the art of dyeing should not follow similar efforts in other 

 centres. 



In Dr. Muir's report on education in Cape Colony in 

 1909, which has come to hand, he shows that in 1891 there 

 were five colleges in the colony where students could 

 pursue courses of study for a university degree, viz. the 

 South African College, Cape Town, the Diocesan College, 

 Rondebosch, the Victoria College, Stellenbosch, St. 

 Andrew's College, Grahamstown, and the Gill College, 

 Somerset East. A large proportion of the teaching power, 

 however, in all these institutions was given to what 

 was, projierly speaking, school work, namely, the prepara- 

 tion of large classes for matriculation. Mathematics and 

 chemistr\-, too, were the only sciences for the teaching of 

 which provision was made. From its inauguration the 

 policy pursued by the Education Department kept three 

 aims in view. The first was the removal of the matricula- 

 tion classes from the colleges, so that professors might 

 have more time for advanced work, while the pupils of the 

 junior classes might in the public schools be under a 

 discipline more suitable to their years. The second was 

 the institution of new professorships, . more especially in 

 the sciences, until then unrepresented ; and the third was 

 a reduction in the number of colleges — a number which 

 seemed at the time excessive for the total number of 

 students. \'ictoria College, Stellenbosch, was the first 

 that agreed to part with its matriculation classes, the 

 junior class in 1896 and the senior in 1899. In the latter 

 year the South -African College was induced to follow the 

 example. Al present practically all the colleges have ceased 

 to retain matriculation classes. Since 1891 there have been 

 instituted in connection with the colleges professorships of 

 physics, applied mathematics, geology, botany, and zoology. 

 In addition to the then existing courses in arts, law, and 

 survey, there have been opened new courses in arts as 

 well as professional courses in mining, civil and electrical 

 ei;gineering, medicine (preliminary), and forestry. On the 

 literature side there has also been development, professor- 

 ships in history and lectureships in Hebrew having been 

 established in connection with the larger colleges. The 

 n;ovement towards greater concentration of effort in fewer 

 colleges has been brought to a successful issue in the 

 eastern province. The Gill College, .Somerset East, has 

 been closed, St. .Andrew's College has restricted itself to 

 school work, and in Grahamstown, by the happy union of 

 all interests, the Rhodes University College has taken 

 their places and become the centre of higher education for 

 the eastern province. 



