592 



NATURE 



[November i8, 1920 



would be essential to the future development of the 

 college, but the funds needed for its inception were not 

 yet forthcoming. They realised the vital importance 

 of research in those fields as in others. .Adult educa- 

 tion was one of the greatest problems of the modern 

 universities, and they sought to take the university 

 to the people in the fullest possible measure. 



It was a duty and an essential of success to asso- 

 ciate themselves as closely as possible with local needs 

 and national aspirations, but they had also to play 

 their part in the world-mission of the universities. 

 They were laying the foundations of a great institu- 

 tion which would exist and work in order to enrich 

 the life of the people. 



University and Educational Intelligence. 



Birmingham. — The Huxley lecture is to be delivered 

 In the Mason College on Friday, November 26, by 

 Prof. C. S. Sherrington, who has chosen as his sub- 

 ject "The Gateways of Sense." The lecture is open 

 to all members and friends of the University. 



Edinburgh. — Dr. John Stephenson, until recently 

 professor of zoologv in Government College, Lahore, 

 has been appointed lecturer in zoology in the Uni- 

 versity. 



Oxford. — On November 16 Convocation passed a 

 cordial vote of thanks to Prof. James Mark Baldwin 

 for his offer to pay for the present, in honour of his 

 friend. Prof. Poulton, an annual sum of looZ. into a 

 fund to be called "The Edward Bagnall Poulton 

 Fund," to be applied at the discretion of the Hope 

 professor of zoologv for the time being in the promo- 

 tion of the studv of evolution, organic and social. 

 Prof. Baldwin has also announced his intention of 

 leaving by will moneys for the sustentation of such a 

 fund. 



The nomination bv the Council of the Royal Society 

 of Prof. C. S. Sherrington, Wavnflete professor of 

 phvsiologv, to the presidencv of the society has given 

 jjreat satisfaction throughout the University. 



Mr. G. S. Robertson has been appointed lecturer 

 on agricultural chemistry in the newly founded 

 department of agriculture of the Queen's University 

 of Belfast. 



UoRD .Atholstan has given 100,000 dollars (more 

 than 25,000?. at the current rate of exchange) to the 

 special fund now being raised by McGill University, 

 Montreal. 



The Toronto correspondent of the Times, in illus- 

 tration of the liberal attitude of the Quebec Govern- 

 ment towards education, states that the Legislature 

 will be asked to vote 1,000,000 dollars (approximately 

 250,000?.) to McGill University. 



Col. S. L. Cummins, who in ign succeeded Sir 

 William Leishman as professor of pathologv of the 

 Roval Armv Medical College, Millbank, has been ap- 

 pointed to the new chair of tuberculosis at the Welsh 

 National Medical School, founded by Major David 

 Davies, M.P. 



We learn from the Times that the Government of 

 Burma has decided to establish a university at Ran- 

 goon. The administration will be in the hands of a 

 council, with an executive committee, comprising 

 representatives of such bodies as the Burma Chamber 

 of Commerce and the Rangoon Trades .Association, 

 while matters connected with teaching w'ill be in 

 charge of a Senate composed almost exclusively of 

 professors and lecturers. 



NO. 2664, VOL. 106] 



Dr. Russell Wells, Vice-Chancellor of the Uni- 

 versity, was entertained at a house dinner at the 

 University of London Club on November 10. Lord 

 Moulton, who presided, paid a high tribute to Dr. 

 Wells's work for the University, referring particularly 

 to his success in raising 3<jo,ooo/. for degrees in com- 

 merce, mainly from men of business. Work of this 

 kind tended, he said, to break down the isolation which 

 was so frequently the bane of universities. Dr. Wells 

 said that their object was to make the University of 

 London in the educational world what the City of 

 London was in the world of commerce. 



The first Congress of Universities, which was held 

 in London in 1912, was a conspicuous success. .AH 

 the universities of the Empire, to the number of fifty- 

 three, were represented, in most cases by their execu- 

 tive heads, together with several of their professors. 

 The report of the proceedings, an imposing volume 

 of some 460 pages, is a valuable contribution to the 

 politics of education. The Universities Bureau was 

 an outcome of this congress. To it was entrusted 

 the summoning of future congresses at intervals of 

 five vears. The war prevented this intention from 

 being carried into effect, and, since hostilities ceased, 

 the great pressure under which the universities have 

 been working has made it impossible for their 

 representatives to gather from the four corners 

 of the Empire earlier than next summer. It 

 has now been arranged that the second con- 

 gress shall be held in 1921. Dr. .Alex Hill, 

 who organised the first congress and has acted as 

 secretary to the Bureau since its institution, is en- 

 gaged in its promotion. The number of universities in 

 the Empire has now increased to fifty-eight. It is 

 hoped and anticipated that all will make a point of 

 sending delegates to this great council on higher 

 education. With great generosity the University of 

 Oxford has invited all members of the congress to be 

 its guests on July 5-8. The Chancellor of 

 the Universitv, Lord Curzon, will preside oyer the 

 rnorning session on July 5, and Mr. .A. J. Balfour, 

 Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, will pre- 

 side in the afternoon. On the preceding day the 

 congress will assemble in London for certain cere- 

 monial functions and entertainments, of which the 

 programme will be announced at a later date. During 

 the fortnight preceding the meeting of the congress 

 members from overseas will visit the various universi- 

 ties of the United Kingdom in turn, in order that 

 thev may become acquainted with their methods and 

 resources. 



Societies and Academies. 



London. 



Royal Society, November 11. — Sir J. J. Thomson, 

 president, in the chair. — Dr. W. G. Ridewood : The 



calcification of the vertebral centra in sharks and rays. 

 In the course of the inquiry 150 sharks and rays, 

 belonging to 68 species and 44 genera, were examined. 

 The investigation largely resolved itself into ascertain- 

 ing the limits of the three component cartilages of 

 the definitive centrum, namely, the sheath-cartilage, 

 the arch-cartilage, and the perichondrially produced 

 cartilage, and studying the relations of the calcified 

 lamellas to these parts. Similarity in pattern of the 

 calcified lamellae is shown in certain cases to be homo- 

 plastic, the lamellae being developed in sheath-cartilage 

 in some genera and in perichondrial cartilage in 

 others. In some cases the similarity may be accounted 

 for by convergent degeneration from ancestral types 

 which there is reason to believe were themselves dif- 



