February i6, 191 i] 



NATURE 



529 



number, were disposed of. The statute as amended has 

 now to pass the ordeal of Convocation, in which assem- 

 blage both non-residents and residents have a vote. 



The Board of Education is arranging to hold the 

 Imperial Education Conference on April 25-28 next. The 

 conference will be attended by representatives of all the 

 Home Education Departments, English, Scotch, and Irish, 

 and from most British dominions. It is proposed to 

 devote the first two days of the conference to the considera- 

 tion of problems connected with school education and the 

 training of school teachers, and tl^ last two days of the 

 conference to the consideration of problems connected with 

 education after the school stage and of certain adminis- 

 trative problems. 



We learn from Science that the Smithsonian Institution 

 is about to come into possession of a bequest by the recent 

 death of Mr. George W. Poore, of Lowell, Mass. Kis 

 will provides, after certain minor legacies, that the resi- 

 due of his estate be given to the Smithsonian Institution 

 to form the Lucy T. and George W. Poore Fund, the 

 income of which is to be used for the purposes for which 

 the institution was founded. Mr. Poore explains in his 

 will that he makes this bequest in the hope that " it will 

 form an example for other Americans to follow by support- 

 ing and encouraging so wise and beneficent an institution 

 as I believe the Smithsonian Institution to be." 



Sir Henry Roscoe, chairman of the Appeal Committee 

 for the new chemical laboratories at University College, 

 London, has issued a further letter with reference to the 

 appeal. As announced in Nature of February 2, the sum 

 of 25,oooZ. required for the site of the laboratories has 

 fortunately been acquired. It is now desirable to make 

 use of the site as quickly as possible by erecting the 

 chemical laboratories on it. The estimated cost is about 

 50,000/. The president and committee are particularly 

 anxious that this amount should be raised by Easter in 

 order that the building may be begun this year, and may 

 this way be associated with the year of the King's 

 Coronation. Gifts and promises can be addressed to his 

 Royal Highness Prince Arthur of Connaught, or to Sir 

 Henry Roscoe at University College, London. 



A MEETING was held at Aligarh on January lo at which 

 it was decided to form a committee to be called " The 

 Committee for the Foundation of a Mohammedan Uni- 

 versity," and to ask his Highness the Aga Khan to accept 

 the office of president. We learn from The Pioneer Mail 

 that many distinguished persons in India have accepted 

 the office of vice-president, and that a representative com- 

 mittee has been appointed. The members of the com- 

 mittee include all trustees of the M.A.O. College, all 

 members of the college and school staffs of Aligarh, all 

 members of the central standing committee of the All- 

 India Shia Conference, all editors of Mohammedan 

 journals, and many representatives of other public bodies. 

 Provincial committees are to be formed in each province, 

 and the local committees of the M.A.O. Educational Con- 

 ference are to be asked to become local branches of this 

 committee. An appeal in various languages has been 

 widely circulated, and the movement seems likely to be 

 successful. A Reuter message from Calcutta on 

 February 12 states that his Highness the Aga Khan and 

 the Nawab of Rampur have each given io,oooZ. towards 

 the scheme for the foundation of this Mohammedan uni- 

 versity at Aligarh. The donations to the fund now amount 

 to about 66,66oZ. The Aga Khan confidently expects that 

 the subscriptions will amount to twice this amount by 

 March. 



The ninth annual report, for the year 1909-10, of the 

 executive committee of the Carnegie Trust for the Uni- 

 versities of Scotland was adopted at the annual meeting 

 of the trust on February 7. In connection with the 

 endowment of research, the reports of the independent 

 authorities who have examined the records of the year's 

 work under the research scheme of the trust give evidence 

 that its past success is being well maintained. The com- 

 mittee acknowledges the assistance rendered by the uni- 

 versities in providing the scheme with so many able 

 Wiwkers, and in affording accommodation and supervision 



NO. 2155, VOL. 85] 



' in their various laboratories. In the laboratory of the 

 Royal College of Physicians, which in the department of 

 medicine has taken a prominent share in the trust's 

 scheme, the record of work for the past year is equally 

 encouraging. The expenditure for 1909-10 upon the 

 scheme of fellowships, scholarships, and grants, and upon 

 the laboratory, was respectively 0824/. and 2454/., towards 

 the latter of which the Royal College of Physicians and 

 the Royal College of Surgeons together contributed 1025/. 

 The class fees paid in the universities and extra-mural 

 colleges amounted during the year to 48,540/., an increase 

 of 11842. as compared with the preceding year. The 

 average amount paid per beneficiary was 12/. 12s. gd. 

 The expenditure left a balance of 1240Z. to the credit of 

 the scheme of payment of class fees, but as the statistics 

 already to hand show an excess of expenditure of 2552/., 

 it is unlikely that any credit balance will remain at the 

 close of the current year. The committee thinks a stage 

 has been reached in the administration of the scheme of 

 payment of class fees at which it becomes the duty of the 

 committee to direct the special attention of the trustees 

 to its operation in the past, and the modifications which 

 now appear to be necessary. The committee is of opinion 

 that it cannot secure itself against a deficit in future 

 years under the present system, and that the scheme must 

 be amended without delay. The first step it has taken is 

 to announce that after the close of the current year it 

 cannot continue to pay the fees in full, but must avail 

 itself of .the provision in the trust deed to pay in whole 

 or in part. It follows that the system of paying for 

 separate classes must be abandoned, and it is suggested 

 that some scheme of paying a portion of the composite or 

 Inclusive fees for the several faculties shall be considered. 

 A table published as an appendix to the report shows that 

 up to September 30 seventy-five beneficiaries had volun- 

 tarily refunded the class fees paid by the trust on their 

 behalf, amounting in all to 1689/. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 

 Royal Society, February 9. — Sir Archibald Geikie, K.C.B., 

 president, in the chair. — V. H. Veley and W. L. Symes : 



Certain physical and physiological properties of stovaine 

 and its homologues. The bodies in question comprise the 

 methyl-, amyl-, phenyl-, and benzyl-homologues of stovaine, 

 and in addition a new compound recently prepared by M. 

 Fourneau, viz. the propyl ester of dimethyl-amino-oxy- 

 benzoyl-isobutyric acid. The densities of these diminish 

 with increasing molecular weight, and the affinity value of 

 the last-named is less than that already found by the 

 former of the authors for stovaine and for its methyl 

 homologue. Fourneau 's new compound abolishes the con- 

 tractility of muscle less rapidly than does stovaine or 

 methyl-stovaine. It has also less effect on blood pressure 

 and on respiration. Amyl-, phenyl-, and benzyl-stovaine 

 appear to act more slowly on muscle than does stovaine, 

 presumably on account of partial precipitation of their 

 bases. On blood pressure, amyl-stovaine has rather more 

 effect than has stovaine. The pronounced local anaesthetic 

 properties possessed by all these bodies are discussed in the 

 following paper. — W. L. Symes and V. H. Veley : The 

 effect of some local anaesthetics on nerve. The bodies 

 dealt with in the preceding paper have been compared with 

 one another, and also with cocaine, as to their effects in 

 blocking the physiological conductivity of frog's nerve. 

 The anaesthetic block produced by these bodies, when com- 

 plete for maximal single stimuli (Berne coil at 400 mm.), 

 is also complete for single stimuli many times more intense 

 {Berne coil at 200-100 mm.). A block complete to 

 maximal single stimuli (coil at 400 mm.) is usually also 

 complete to repeated stimuli with the same disposition of 

 the coil. Partial blockage of individual nerve fibres has 

 not been detected. Stovaine, its homologues, and Four- 

 neau 's new salt all block more actively than does cocaine. 

 Stovaine, methyl-stovaine, and Fourneau 's new salt block 

 more rapidly than do the remaining bodies. Amyl-, 

 phenyl-, and benzyl-stovaine block more slowly, and the 

 resulting block is less rapidly washed out. Considered as 

 local anaesthetics, phenyl- and benzyl-stovaine offer no 

 advantage over the remaining bodies, .\mvl-stovaine mav 



