28 



NATURE 



[March 3, 192 1 



Grants have been made for the Gordon Wigan 

 Fund towards plant-breeding, museum cases for 

 insects, standard slides for petrology, and a solar 

 radiation recorder for the botanical school. A recom- 

 mendation is put forward to increase the value of the 

 Balfour studentship from 250L to 300L a year. 



The London -County Council Education Officer an- 

 nounces that a lecture on "Chemical Technology" 

 will be given by Dr. M. O. Forster at Salters' Hall, 

 St. Swithin's Lane, E.C.4, on Saturday, March 5, at 

 10.30 a.m.; and one on "The Romance of Science" 

 by Sir W. H. Bragg at University College, Gower 

 Street, on Tuesday, March 15, at 6 p.m. 



In an answer to a question concerning the London 

 University site, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has 

 made the following statement : — " In October last the 

 University of London accepted the offer made by the 

 Government in the preceding April of a site behind 

 the British Museum and the site has been purchased. 

 For the funds required for building the University 

 headquarters the University must look primarily to 

 private generosity, but it will be open to the Univer- 

 sity Grants Committee to supplement local contribu- 

 tions if the funds at their disposal allow." The pur- 

 chase price of the site is 425,000^. 



The University of Melbourne has issued a state- 

 ment with reference to an important lectureship and 

 demonstratorship just established in natural philo- 

 sophy. The lecturer will deliver the lectures in 

 natural philosophy to medical students, and be 

 generally responsible for the organisation of the 

 teaching of this part of the work of the natural 

 philosophy department. He will be appointed in the 

 first instance for a period of five years, the appoint- 

 ment to date from March i, 1922. The salary of the 

 lecturer will be 75oi. per annum, payable monthly. 

 Candidates should not be above thirty-five years of 

 age, and applications for the post should be lodged 

 with the Registrar, University of Melbourne, by 

 April 15 next. Facilities for original research in 

 physics will be given. The Grayson gratings (see 

 Proc. Roy. Soc. Vict., September, 1917) were ruled 

 in a workshop of the natural philosophy department 

 of the University, 



A COURSE designed to meet the needs of qualified 

 medical practitioners who may wish to obtain the 

 diploma in public health of the Royal Colleges of 

 Physicians of London and Surgeons of England has 

 been arranged by the committee of the Technical 

 College, Bradford, and the Health Committee of the 

 City Council. For this purpose the Technical Col- 

 lege has recently been placed upon the list of recog-- 

 nised institutions by the Royal Colleges. The pro- 

 posed course will extend over twenty-five weeks, and 

 include lectures and laboratory work in bacterio- 

 logv and pathology and in chemistry. In connection 

 with the course in bacteriology, Dr. W. Campbell 

 has been appointed lecturer in bacteriology and the 

 pathology of industrial diseases, and Dr. R. Cecil 

 Robertson assistant lecturer and demonstrator in 

 serology and immunologfv in the college. The course 

 in chemistry will be under the direction of the head 

 of the chemistry department of the Technical College 

 (Dr. R. D. Abell). The recognition of the college for 

 post-graduate work of this nature marks an important 

 point in the development of the work of the college. 



The announcement that the Rockefeller Foundation 

 intends to assist the medical schools of Central Europe 

 is yet another step in the fulfilment of its purpose 

 " to promote the well-being of mankind throughout the 

 world." A programme is announced which provides 

 for assistance in the rehabilitation of scientific equip- 

 NO. 2679, VOL. 107] 



ment for medical purposes, for aid in furnishing 

 medical journals to universities, and invites the 

 authorities of the Medical School of Belgrade Uni- 

 versity to study medical education in England and 

 America as guests of the Foundation. These decisions 

 are the result of investigations into medical conditions 

 in Central Europe made by representatives of the 

 Trust, who reported that, with the exception of Aus- 

 tria, all the countries in this region are suffering from 

 a shortage of physicians ; there are only nine medical 

 schools of repute to provide medical men for some 

 75,000,000 people. Belgrade is regarded as one of 

 the strategic points in a medical campaign, so the 

 invitation to study English and American methods 

 has been given to the men who are responsible for its 

 development ; they have also been authorised to 

 recommend candidates to the Foundation for fellow- 

 ships for specialised post-graduate medical study. 

 Germany is not included iij the scheme, for she is 

 considered to be adequately supplied with well- 

 equipped medical schools. The International Health 

 Boafd of the Rockefeller Foundatioa has come to an 

 agreement with the Government of Czecho-Slovakia 

 whereby the latter will borrow the services of a com- 

 petent American public health administrator, and 

 co-operate with the Board in the development of a 

 national public health laboratory service, in the provi- 

 sion of fellowships for Czechs for public health train- 

 ing, and the dispatch of a Czech Commission to 

 study public health administration in England and 

 America. Nine medical men have already been 

 awarded fellowships, and five members of the Com- 

 mission from the Ministry of Hygiene have arrived 

 in America as guests of the Foundation. 



In an address delivered in September last to the 

 Old Students' Association of the Royal College of 

 Science (Lamley and Co., South Kensington, S.W.7, 

 price 2s. 6d.), Prof. H. E. Armstrong recalled his 

 early training at the Royal College of Chemistry 

 as it existed in 1865 at the close of Hofmann's career 

 as professor in that institution. The freedom of 

 choice of study left to an independent student of those 

 days was contrasted with the examinational restraints 

 imposed at present on candidates for university 

 degrees. The lecturer referred to his later studies 

 at Leipzig under Kolbe, in the golden era of German 

 hern- and Lehr-freiheit, and to his early teaching 

 experiences at the London Institution. In 1879 Prof. 

 Armstrong entered the service of the City and Guilds 

 of London Institute, and thus became the founder 

 successively of the chemical departments of the Fins- 

 bury Technical College and the Central Technical 

 College. An intimate knowledge of the educational 

 requirements of London extending over a period of 

 fifty years leads the lecturer to the conclusion that 

 the Imperial College must be autonomous, and that 

 its functions should be restricted to the physical and 

 mathematical sciences. Conversely, University Col- 

 lege should he constituted as an Imperial College of 

 Biological Science and Technology dealing with the 

 special requirements of biology. It is suggested further 

 that King's College should become an Imperial Col- 

 lege of Arts and Economics. The three colleges thus 

 reconstituted should be federated in one Imperial 

 university. The social needs of the new university 

 in regard to plaving-fields would be met by estab- 

 lishing the Arts College on a country site such as at 

 Kenwood. Students' hostels would be required at 

 the urban centres. Each college should be granted 

 the power to confer its own degrees, but the federal 

 scheme should be sufficiently elastic to leave a student 

 free to attend courses at a college other than his own 

 so that his studies "could be as broad as his heredity, 

 would permit." 



