572 



NATURE 



[June 30, 192 1 



X-chromosomes. The sex-chromosomes, it is true, 

 frequently differ in their behaviour from the other 

 chromosomes, but the usual assumption that the Y in 

 insects is undergoing gradual reduction has strong 

 evidence in its favour, and the XO condition in males 

 can be accounted for either by its ultimate disappear- 

 ance in this way or by non-disjunction. This, how- 

 ever, admittedly leaves unexplained the origin of the 

 condition in moths and birds, in which the female is 

 the heterozygous sex. 



Finally, it rnay be added that the discovery of sex 

 chromosomes in the liverwort Sphajrocarpos by Prof. 

 Allen (Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc. , vol. Iviii., n. 289) places 

 the sex differentiation of this group of plants in a new 

 light, and affords a basis for an instructive comparison 

 with the conditions in animals. For a larg^e X-chromo- 

 some is found in the nuclei of the female eametophyte, 

 and a small Y in the cells of the male gametophyte. 

 The fertilised egg then contains an X and a Y, which 

 are separated in sporogenesis. Half the spores con- 

 tain an X and half a Y. This is quite different from 

 the situation in insects where the XY combination 

 produces a male. It is. also simpler, the differentiation 

 of the sexes arising through segregation of the X 

 and Y, and the chromosome combination of the sporo- 

 phyte corresponding to that of males in animal species 

 in which the male is the heterozygous sex. 



University and Educational Intelligence. 



Cambridge. — Mr. P. Lake, St. John's College, has 

 been reappointed to the Royal Geographical Society's 

 readership in geography; Dr. J. A. Crowther, St. 

 John's College, appointed University lecturer in 

 physics as applied to medical radiology ; and Mr. S. E. 

 Hollingworth, of Clare College, elected to the Hark- 

 ness scholarship in geology. The Wiltshire prize in 

 geology has been awarded to Mr. A. G. Brighton, 

 Christ's College, and Mr. H. C. G. Vincent, Fitz- 

 william Hail. 



Mr. W. Campbell Smith and Mr. R. H. Thouless 

 have been elected fellows of Corpus Christi College. 



Liverpool. — Dr. McLean Thompson, of the Univer- 

 sity of Glasgow, has been appointed to the Hdlbrook 

 Gaskell chair of botany in succession to Prof. R. J. 

 Harvey-Gibson, resigned. 



London. — At a meeting of the Senate held on 

 June 22 Sir Sydney Russell-Wells was re-elected 

 Vice-Chancellor for the year 1921-22. 



Dr. G. Cook was appointed to the University chair 

 of mechanical engineering tenable at King's College, 

 and Mr. L. Hawkes to the University readership in 

 geology at Bedford College. The title of emeritus 

 professor of philosophy and comparative psychol6gy 

 in the University was conferred on Mr. Carveth 

 Read. 



Grants were made from the Dixon Fund to Mr. 

 F. J. F. Barrington, Mr. E. J. Evans, Prof. J. P. 

 Hill, Miss G. Z. L. Le Bas, Mrs. M. M. Neilson- 

 Jones, Prof. Karl Pearson, Mr. J. W. D. Robinson, 

 Mr. D. M. Shaw, Mr. H. G. Smith, and Miss D. M. 

 Wrinch. 



The following doctorates w-ere conferred : — D.Sc. in 

 Zoology: Mr. W. A. Cunnington. Ph.D. in the 

 Faculty of Economics : Mr. S. G. Panandikar. Ph.D. 

 in the Facultv of Science: Mr. H. E. Cox and Mr, 

 H. H. Morgan. 



Manchester. — The sum of loooZ. has been con- 

 tributed to the appeal fund by Alderman H, Plummer. 



NO. 2696, VOL. 107] 



Oxford.— On Wednesday, June 22, the honorary 

 degree of Doctor of Science was conferred on Prof. 

 C. S. Sherrington, president of the Royal Society. 



It is announced that Mr. F. S. Edie, lecturer in 

 biochemistry at Aberdeen University, has been ap- 

 pointed to the chair of biochemistrv in the University 

 of Cape Town. 



M. E. Deutsch de la Meurthe has made a dona- 

 tion of 10,000,000 francs to the University of Paris 

 to provide for a university quarter where students 

 may live at a moderate cost. 



Mr. W. J. Jones, senior lecturer in chemistry in 

 the University of Manchester, has been appointed pro- 

 fessor of chemistry in the Universitv College of South 

 Wales and Monmouthshire, Cardiff'; and Prof. A. W. 

 Sheen, of the Welsh National School of Medicine, to 

 the chair of medicine at the same institution. 



The Aitchison memorial scholarship of the value of 

 36Z., tenable in the full-time dav courses in technical 

 optics at the Northampton Polytechnic Institute, 

 Clerkenwell, is being offered. The examination for 

 the scholarship, open to both sexes, will be held on 

 September 27 and 28. Full particulars can be ob- 

 tained from Mr. H. F. Purser, 35 Charles Street, 

 Hatton Garden, E.C.i. 



Two scholarships, each of the value 6f 200I., are 

 being offered by the Rubber Advisory Committee of 

 the Northern Polytechnic Institute, Holloway, to en- 

 able students who have obtained a good degree in 

 chemistry to attend for a year's special training in 

 rubber technology. Applications, with particulars of 

 the candidates' careers, copies of recent testimonials, 

 and names of referees, must be sent to the Principal 

 of the institute not later than July 5. 



The announcement which appeared in the daily 

 Press last week of the retirement of Prof. Henri 

 Bergson from his chair at the College de France 

 merely meant to his friends that he had at last given 

 effect to an intention long contemplated. Owing to 

 the strain of the international work which he under- 

 took for the French Government with such fervour 

 during the critical years of the war, he was compelled 

 to avail himself of the privilege which the College 

 allows its members of nominating a deputy, and for 

 some time past M. Edouard Le Roy has occupied 

 his place in the lecture-room. Now that Prof. Berg- 

 son is able to take up again the interrupted work 

 of philosophy, he finds that he can hope to do original 

 research only by obtaining relief from the routine 

 work of lecturing. This, and nothing else, is the 

 reason of the resignation which is now announced. 

 The College de France, in which Prof. Bergson has 

 held the chair of philosophy for more than twenty 

 years, is a unique institution. Founded by Francis I. 

 in i.i^^o, in opposition to the Sorbonne and the uni- 

 versities, it has retained Its high position and char- 

 acter. It is perhaps the only educational institution 

 which survived the Revolution unchanged. Its lec- 

 tures are without exception open to the public and 

 free. Even a registered student cannot obtain the 

 privilege of a reserved seat. When a professorial 

 chair becomes vacant the successor is elected by the 

 professors, who are not handicapped in their choice 

 by academical regulations of any kind. The appoint- 

 ment entails the duty of delivering two courses of 

 lectures in each session, neither of which may be a 

 repetition of a course previously delivered either in 

 the College or elsewhere. 



