December 22, 1910] 



NATURE 



259 



' the habits and life-cycles of disease-bearing biting insects, 

 not only in the tropics, but also at home, is daily be- 

 coming more evident. Dr. Dutton was one who realised 

 this intensely, and it is fitting that his memorial should 

 take the form of a chair of medical entomology. The 

 aj)pointment to the chair has not yet been made by the 

 L'niversity, but will be announced in due course. 



An agreement has been arrived at between the Senate 

 of the Queen's University of Belfast and the Corporation 

 of Belfast by which the work of the University and of 

 the Belfast Municipal Technical Institute will be co- 

 ordinated. As the Vice-Chancellor of the University said 

 at the meeting of the Senate on December 15, when the 

 agreement was made, this will afford an opportunity to 

 young men in Belfast of obtaining a complete education 

 in such subjects as mechanical engineering, electrical 

 engineering, chemical technology, textile technology, and 

 naval architecture, and of securing the degree of B.Sc. 

 ar the conclusion of their course of work. The advantages 

 of this arrangement to the Technical Institute, on one 

 hand, and to the University on the other, will be very 

 great. By the proposed arrangement means will be pro- 

 vided for obtaining trained captains of industry for the 

 various great enterprises for which Belfast is' famous. 

 The_ coordination forges another link between the Uni- 

 versity and the city. The technical subjects mentioned 

 will be studied at the institute, which becomes an integral 

 part of the University in a manner analogous to several 

 cases in England. We learn, too, that a public textile 

 testing and conditioning house has been started in con- 

 nection with the institute at Belfast. The functions of 

 the testing house are to be similar to those of other public 

 textile testing and conditioning houses, namely, the 

 examination of textile materials with the view of ascer- 

 taining and certifying their true weight, length, condition, 

 and strength, and, in addition, the carrying out of such 

 other tests and investigations as may be required in order 

 that spinners, manufacturers, merchants, and others 

 desirous of having tests conducted and an oflficial certificate 

 issued may effect their object through the medium of an 

 independent public authority. 



As the result of representations made by the Old 

 Students Association of the Royal College of Science, 

 London, of which Sir Thomas H. Holland, K.C.I.E., 

 F.R.S., is president, the governing body of the Imperial 

 College of Science and Technology has granted the privi- 

 lege of wearing academic costume to associates of the 

 Royal College of Science, London, a like privilege being 

 also granted to associates of the Royal School of Mines, 

 of the City and Guilds of London Institute, and to diplo- 

 mate students of the Imperial College. Patterns for 

 academic costume have been approved by the governing 

 body. In each case the gown is as for the Universitv of 

 London B.A., of black silk or stuff, but with the fore- 

 arm seam open, and without button, cord, or pleats. The 

 hoods are differentiated for the several colleges as regards 

 the colour of the neckband, which for A.R.C.S.'s will be 

 white, for A.R.S.M.'s gold, for A.C.G.I.'s red (as in the 

 Arms of the City of London), and black for diplomate 

 students of the Imperial College, the hood in each case 

 bemg as the Oxford University M.A. hood in size and 

 shape, of black silk or stuff, partly lined with white 

 watered silk to a depth of 6 inches, wi'th an edging, i inch 

 in width, of royal purple velvet, \ inch from the outer ' 

 edge, and with a neckband i^ inches in width, lined with 

 white watered silk and edged with white watered silk 

 I inch in width. As regards the Associates of the Royal 

 College of Science, the decision of the governing body 

 removes a grievance of long standing, which was felt 

 more especially by teachers in secondary and technical 

 schools. It is generally recognised that the A.R.C.S. 

 diploma represents a course of training in no sense inferior 

 to that represented by a universitv degree and there is 

 therefore no reason why an invidious distinction should 

 be made between university graduates and associates of 

 the college in respect of academic costume. The claim 

 of associates to the privilege is strengthened bv the fact 

 that It has been granted to associates of various London 

 colleges, such as the Royal College of Art, King's College, 

 the Royal College of Organists, and the College of Pre- 

 NO. 2IA7. VOL. 8f^l 



ceptors. Several London firms of robe-makers have under- 

 taken to supply academic costume of the approved 

 patterns. 



Sir Alfred Keogh, Rector of the Imperial College of 

 Science and Technology, delivered an address at the 

 Woolwich Polytechnic on Saturday, December 17, on the 

 occasion of the nineteenth annual prize distribution. In 

 the course of his remarks he said : — ^There are certain sub- 

 jects engaging our attention at the present moment which 

 are of enormous importance to the future of the country. 

 We have been told that we are losing our supremacy 

 because we do not keep science and industry in close touch 

 with one another ; we are told that the manufacturers 

 have not an appreciation of science, and as a consequence 

 are being ousted in various directions by other people. 

 However it may shock you to hear me say so, I have the 

 greatest sympathy with the manufacturers. As a matter 

 of fact, I know in this countrj- there are manufacturers 

 who have the greatest appreciation for scientific education, 

 and are employing foreigners in their workshops because 

 they have the required knowledge. The reason is this, 

 that we are not providing the class of men this country 

 needs, and until we do provide them the manufacturer will 

 turn aside and get people from abroad. We have been 

 told all this, we have been told that our industries are 

 failing in consequence, and an effort was made — which 

 has been passed unnoticed — to bring science and industries 

 together and to coordinate general scientific education in 

 London. Three of the great colleges at South Kensington 

 — the City and Guilds College, the Royal College of 

 Science, and the Royal School of Mines — were combined for 

 the purpose of coordinating knowledge, and that incident 

 passed almost unnoticed. The Imperial College was in- 

 tended to coordinate the whole scientific education in 

 London, and we have in London (I include, of course, 

 Woolwich) a number of polytechnic institutions doing 

 technical work, and we are not coordinated one with the 

 other. If something could be done to coordinate the poly- 

 technics with the Imperial College, I for one have no fear 

 of the foreigner. This I earnestly hope will come about 

 soon. Perhaps it may be possible to get the teachers in 

 the polytechnics of London to recognise that there is one 

 great need at the present moment, that professors and 

 teachers should come together and devise a scheme to work 

 for one solid purpose and one object, and that is the 

 correlation of science and industrial work. I do not know 

 what the opinion here is on this point, but we think at 

 the Imperial College that there should be a great imperial 

 college in London including this institution, including every 

 other polytechnic, in which we shall be able to give our 

 own degrees. The principals of the polytechnics have been 

 called upon to express their opinion. I earnestly hope that 

 they will not forget that upon their shoulders will rest 

 the responsibility of saying whether these young men who 

 are here to-night are simply to become B.Sc. 's and then 

 to be thrown aside, or whether they are to become learned 

 Britons to help forward the industries of our Empire ; 

 unless the polytechnics do come forward with their solu- 

 tion, of the difficulty, then I can only tell you that some 

 other authoritv will have to start other institutions. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 

 Royal Society, December 8. — Mr. A. B. Kempe, treasurer 

 and vice-president, in the chair. — Sir W. de W. Abney : 

 Colour-blindness and the trichromatic theory of colour- 

 vision. Part ii. : Incomplete red or green blindness. In 

 this paper the author continues the subject of the trichro- 

 matic tKeory of colour-vision and colour-blindness. In 

 part i. he treated of complete colour-blindness, and in this 

 paper, part ii., he treats of incomplete colour-blindness. 

 He shows how the amount of incompleteness can be 

 accurately determined from the luminosity curve of a 

 colour-blind person both red and green blind. He also 

 shows that the amount of incompleteness can be deter- 

 mined from observations made by the red- or green-blind 

 at any part of the spectrum if someone with normal vision 

 makes observations at the same place, using unchanged 

 white light for the comparison. Incidentally, he showr 



