October 20, 192 1 J 



NATURE 



261 



frequently using words and ideas that bore no relation 

 to the mental development of the children. He advo- 

 cated more attention to methods of presenting the 

 matter of geography. 



Among many aspects of the subject on which Prof. 

 P. Geddes touched was the necessity- for travel, for 

 student and teacher alike, in order to broaden the 

 outlook and bring the study of geography into touch 

 with realities. Geography that relied solely, or even 

 mainly, on maps was as lifeless as anthropology which 

 depended solely on skulls. 



Centenary of McGill University, Montreal. 



V/TcGILL Universitv of Montreal, which has just 

 ■'•'-■■ been celebrating the centenar}- of its founda- 

 tion, has shown of late a capacity for attracting 

 prodigious benefactions, such as may well excite the 

 envy of less fortunate institutions even in America. A 

 ■ft of 1,000,000 dollars from the Carnegie Corporation, 



'W York, "'in recognition of the noble and devoted 

 service and sacrifice of McGill towards Canada's part 

 in the Great War," was followed by subscriptions 

 last year by citizens of Montreal and graduates 

 amounting to more than 4,000,000 dollars, a grant of 

 1,000,000 dollars by the Quebec Provincial Govern- 

 ment, and 1,000,000 dollars for medical education from 

 the Rockefeller Foundation of New York. To few 

 institutions has it been given to receive within a short 

 space of time such magnificent tributes from such 

 various sources. 



The University was founded by the Hon. James 

 McGill, a leading merchant of Montreal, who died in 

 18 13. Among the principal events in its history are : 

 the opening of the Peter Redpath Museum, 1882 ; 

 opening of Royal Victoria College, founded and en- 

 dowed by the late Lord Strathcona as the Women's 

 Department of the Universitv, 1899 ; opening of 

 Macdonald College, founded and endowed by the 

 late Sir Wm. C. Macdonald, including the School 

 of Agriculture, School for Teachers, and School of 

 Household Science, 1907 ; gifts of estates valued at 

 1,117.640 dollars by Sir Wm. C. Macdonald, and of 

 1,500,000 dollars by various donors, chiefly Montreal 

 citizens, 191 1. 



Of McGill's two most important professional 

 schools, the Medical and the Engineering, the former 

 will itself soon be able to celebrate its centenan.', its 

 first session having been opened in the Montreal 

 Medical Institution in November, 1824. Engineering 

 courses were first established thirtv years later. Thev 

 are now organised on a system thus described bv the 

 principal. Sir Arthur Currie, in an address delivered 

 at the Congress at Oxford last July : " Four academic 

 sessions of formal instruction, with the accompanv- 

 ing laboratory, drawing-room exercises, and shop- 

 work, alternating with three summers of practical 

 experience in some branch or branches of the work 

 of the student's future profession." Among recent 

 developments in the advanced courses in chemical 

 engineering is the provision for instruction in the 

 technology of the paper industry, for which the 

 Government Forests Products Research Institute, ad- 

 jacent to the University, affords special facilities. 





Canadian Insect Pests. 



T N the Report of the Dominion Entomologist and 

 •■■ Consulting Zoologist for the years 19 17-18 the 

 late Dr. C. G. Hewitt presents a record of much 

 useful work carried out on behalf of the Canadian 

 Ciovernment. During the two years under review 

 NO. 2712, VOL. 108] 



the work of controlling the brown-tail moth in Nova 

 Scotia and New Brunswick is regarded as satisfac- 

 tory, but it is solely due to the careful scouting for, 

 and destruction of, the winter webs during each 

 winter. The control of several indigenous insects is 

 being attempted by means of the introduction and 

 dissemination of their parasites. The " mussel scale '' 

 is largely preyed upon by the predaceous mite Hemi- 

 sarcoptes mains, and colonies of the latter have been 

 liberated in infected CM-chards ; the future of the 

 experiment will be awaited with interest. The cab- 

 bage-root maggot continues to extend its ravages, and 

 not onlv was the value of tarred felt-paper discs 

 again demonstrated, but promising results were also 

 obtained with bichloride of mercury. A remarkable 

 and extensive outbreak of the sugar-beet webworm, 

 Loxostege sticticalis, occurred in the Prairie Provinces. 

 The millions of migrating caterpillars caused much 

 alarm among the farmers, but, as usual, they confined 

 their attention in the fields to weeds, and the only 

 cultivated crops attacked were garden plants. Owing 

 to the increasing prevalence in manv parts of Canada 

 of insects affecting livestock, special attention is now- 

 being given to these oests, in conjunction with the 

 Health of Animals Branch of the Department of 

 Agriculture. A joint study ha? been entered upon 

 with reference to the bot-flies of horses, and many 

 new facts have been discovered relating to their life- 

 histories from the point of view of preventive 

 measures. Entomologists will also be interested in 

 the plans of an underground insectar>- which are 

 anoended to this report. It is hooed bv such a con- 

 trivance to overcome the difficulties in conducting 

 investigations on soil-infesting insects, particularly 

 during the high temperature which prevails in the 

 summer months. 



University and Educational Intelligence. 



Cambridge.— Dr. O. Inchley, St. John's College, 

 has been appointed assistant to the Downing professor 

 of medicine, and Mr. C. Warburton, Christ's College, 

 has been re-appointed demonstrator in medical 

 entomology. 



Glasgow. — The University Court has appointed 

 Dr. Percy A. Hillhouse to the John Elder chair of 

 naval architecture and marine engineering in suc- 

 cession to Sir John Biles, retired. Prof. Hillhouse was 

 appointed in 1898 the first European professor of 

 naval architecture in the Imperial University of 

 Tokvo. Since 1907 he has been the chief naval archi- 

 tect to the Fairfield Co., Govan. The Court has also 

 promoted Dr. William J. Goudie from the lectureship 

 in heat engines in the University to the newly estab- 

 lished James Watt chair of the theory and practice 

 of heat engines, endowed in commemoration of the 

 James Watt centenary by the Institution of Engineers 

 and Shipbuilders, Glasgow. Dr. Goudie was fcH-merly 

 reader in the University of London. 



The University Court has appointed Dr. G. W, O. 

 Howe, head of the department of electrical standards 

 and measurements at the National Physical Labora- 

 tory,', to be the first James W'att professor of electrical 

 engineering in the University of Glasgow. From 1909 

 to 192 1 Prof. Howe was assistant professor of elec- 

 trical engineering in the Imperial College of Science 

 and Technology (City and Guilds), South Kensington. 

 He is recorder of the Engineering Section of the 

 British Association and editor of the Radio Review. 

 The new chair was one of those endowed by the 

 Institution of Shipbuilders and Engineers of Glasgow 

 in commemoration of the James Watt centenar}-. 



