December 8, 1910] 



NATURE 



191 



on November 29, F. W. Green, of Jesus College, was 

 appointed honorary keeper of the Egyptian antiquities. 



Oxford. — ^At a Convocation held on December 6, the Vice- 

 Chancellor (Dr. Heberden, Principal of Brasenose) pre- 

 siding, the honorary degree of doctor of science was con- 

 ferred on Prof. Meidola, F.R.S., professor of chemistry in 

 the Finsbury Technical College (City and Guilds of London 

 Institute), in anticipation of the Herbert Spencer lecture to 

 be delivered by him on December 8. In making the pre- 

 sentation, the Sedelian professor natural philosophy, Prof. 

 A. E. H. Lowe, F.R.S., delivered the following oration: — 



" Adest vir quern omnes, qui scientiae et imprimis Chemiae 

 et Biologiae student, ornare gaudent, Societatis Regalis 

 Sodalis, Societatum Entomologiae, Chemiae, Chemicorum 

 idustriae, operam dantium Praeses emeritus, Raphael 

 tldola. Qui vir cum prima aetate Carolo Darwin 

 liunctissimus esset, ita de Natura formarum novarum 

 trice quaesivit ut plurimis eodem studio incensis illud 

 ilogiae genus quod ipse excoluerat nostratium fere 

 »prium fieret. Posteriora eius studia partim in Physice, 

 partim in Chemia versata sunt, quo e numero si pauca 

 quaedam momenti maximi commemorare liceat, et eligerem 

 quae de Chemia Photographiae inserviente, de chemicis car- 

 bonis dementis, de chemica umorum corporalium composi- 

 tione commentus est. Multos iam annos in hoc Chemiae 

 genere principem habitum atque latissimo in campo 

 evagatum nescio an nemo hunc virum laude superavit." 



The annual prize distribution and students' conversazione 

 of the Northampton Polytechnic Institute, Clerkenwell, 

 E.C., is to be held this evening, December 8. The Right 

 Hon. Lord Alverstone, G.C.M.G., P.C, Lord Chief Justice 

 of England, will distribute the prizes and certificates. 

 Lecturettes will be given by Mr. F. M. Denton on com- 

 mercial uses of electro-magnets, and Mr. F. Handley 

 Page on how to fly. 



Dr. Edgar F. Smith has been appointed to succeed Dr. 

 C. C. Harrison as provost of the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania, in which institution he has held a chair of chemistry 

 since 1888. His chief work has been done in electro- 

 chemistry, as a list of his principal publications would 

 show. He is a past-president of the American Chemical 

 Society and of the American Philosophical Society. He 

 has also been a member of the U.S. Assay Commission 

 and adviser in chemistry to the Carnegie Institution. 



The annual conversazione of the Royal College of Science 

 and Royal School of Mines will be held on Wednesday, 

 December 21. Both the new and old buildings will be 

 open in Imperial Institute and Exhibition Roads, South 

 Kensington, S.W., and many interesting exhibits will be 

 shown in chemistry, physics, mechanics, metallurgy, 

 mining, botany, and zoology, arranged by the respective 

 scientific societies. During the evening Dr. C. Gilbert 

 Cullis will give a lecture on " Coral Islands." 



It is announced, says Science, that Mr. Andrew 

 Carnegie has given a further sum of 300,000/. for the 

 construction of buildings of the Carnegie Technical Schools 

 at Pittsburgh. From the same source we learn that bv 

 the will of Prof. A. Marshall Elliott the Johns Hopkins 

 University receives his library, and the sum of 400Z. for 

 the establishment of a scholarship for graduate students ; 

 and that the American Museum of Natural History receives 

 SoooZ. by the will of the late Mr. Charles E. Tilford, of 

 New York City. 



Steps are being taken to inaugurate a Students' Union 

 in connection with Sheffield University. .An influential 

 committee, representative of all faculties, has been elected 

 from amongst the members of the Students' Representative 

 Council to proceed with the formation of the union. 

 Sheffield University stands alone amongst the universities 

 of the United Kingdom in not possessing such an institu- 

 tion, and we feel sure that the committee's appeal to 

 members of the University and their friends for contribu- 

 tions to the fund to provide premises where students mav 

 be united in the bonds of social intercourse will meet with 

 a generous response. Cheques may be made payable to 

 Mr. H. Khalifa, honorarv secretary and treasurer to the 

 jbtudents' Union Committee, The University, Sheffield. 



NO. 2145, VOL. 85] 



The Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, founded in 

 1845 and reorganised in 1908, is now definitely associated 

 with the University of Bristol for the purpose of instruc- 

 tion in agriculture, forestry, estate management, land 

 surveying, veterinary science, natural history, agricultural 

 chemistry, botany, zoology, and geology, to which other 

 allied subjects may subsequently be added. Instruction 

 given at the college in these subjects to undergraduates 

 will be deemed to be instruction given in and by the 

 University for the purpose of degrees and diplomas in 

 agriculture and forestry. The present principal, Mr. 

 Ainsworth-Davis, is recognised as professor of natural 

 history in the University, and Mr. Drysdale Turner as 

 professor of agriculture, this recognition carrying with it 

 membership of the University Senate. While the associa- 

 tion will in no way interfere with the primary work of 

 the Royal Agricultural College, which will still retain its 

 distinctive and time-honoured diploma, a new class of 

 students will come into existence, and an important 

 advance be made in the correlation of agricultural educa- 

 tion in the west of England. 



Under the auspices of the London County Council, 

 another conference of teachers will be held on three days, 

 Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, January 5, 6, and 7, 191 1, 

 at Birkbeck College, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane, 

 E.C. The programme includes the following subjects, 

 among others : — Thursday, January 5, Specialisation in 

 Schools : Addresses by Mrs. Sophie Bryant on the value of 

 specialisation in secondary schools, and F. Bulley on an 

 experiment in specialisation in elementary schools. Memory : 

 Addresses by Dr. C. Spearman on the relation of the 

 memory to the will. Dr. E. O. Lewis on some interesting 

 investigations on memory, and Dr. F. H. Hayward on the 

 cultivation of memory. Friday, January 6, The Teaching of 

 Geography : Addresses by B. C. Wallis on the teaching of 

 geography in secondary schools, J. Fairgrieve on a practical 

 room for the teaching of geography, and C. J. Rose on 

 open air teaching in geography. Saturday Januau-y 7, 

 Education Experiments in Schools : Addresses by B. Lewis 

 on a combined scheme of history and geography teaching, 

 E. Thomas on pictorial aids for the teaching of geography 

 and history, A. G. Gawler on how to secure individual work 

 in large classes, J. Greer on an experiment in number 

 teaching, A. E. D. Lowden on stencilling — a valuable form 

 of handwork, and Mrs. Sandford on animals in infants' 

 schools. No charge will be made for admission to the 

 conference. Application for tickets of admission should be 

 made to the Chief Inspector, London County Council, 

 Education Offices, Victoria Embankment, W.C. 



By the passing of the Education (Choice of Employment) 

 Bill into law on the day of dissolution of Parliament, the 

 English and Welsh local education authorities have after 

 a keen controversy been accorded statutory powers to 

 " give boys and girls information, advice, and assistance 

 with respect to the choice of employment." The School 

 Boards of Scotland were put in possession of these powers 

 by the Education (Scotland) Act, 1908, and the School 

 Board of Edinburgh took the lead in making the powers 

 operative. The originator of the conception of a national 

 system of school information and employment bureaux was 

 Mrs. Ogilvie Gordon, D.Sc, who first placed her scheme 

 before the public at the annual meeting of the Glasgow 

 Union of Women Workers, held in March, 1904. The full 

 draft of her scheme was submitted to the President of the 

 Board of Education and to the Secretary for Scotland, and 

 was supported by numerous resolutions passed in its favour 

 at public meetings. It was afterwards published in Mrs. 

 Ogilvie Gordon's " Handbook of Employments " (.Aber- 

 deen : Rosemount Press). The aim of the scheme is to 

 bring the teachers' knowledge of the individual boy and 

 girl effectively to bear upon their choice of a future career, 

 and it is based upon the sound economic principle that 

 work on ^such lines ought to be nationally organised in 

 order to make sure that it should reach every child, and 

 that the work ought to cover all the openings and occupa- 

 tions for our youth — skilled or unskilled, mercantile or 

 personal. By the measure which has at last become law, 

 there is now a prospect of an effective advisory service 

 being organised throughout the country, administered by 

 committees formed under the education authorities, and 

 there should be no difficulty in arrangements being made 



