552 



NATURE 



[December 23, 1920 



University and Educational Intelligence. 



London. — On his resignation after twenty-seven 

 years' service of the chair of botany at King's College 

 the Senate of the University has conferred the title of 

 emeritus professor of botany in the University on Dr. 

 W. B. Bottomley. 



The following doctorates have been conferred : — 

 D.Sc. in Geology: Mr. H. A. Baker, an internal 

 student, of University and Birkbeck Colleges, for a 

 thesis entitled "On the Investigationof the Mechanical 

 Constitution of Loose Arenaceous Sediments by the 

 Method of Elutriation." D.Sc. in Mathematics : Mr._ 

 H. E. J. Curzon, an internal student, of University 

 College, for a thesis entitled "The Reversal of 

 Halphen's Transformation." D.Sc. (Economics) : Mr. 

 E. H. J. N. Dalton, an internal student, of the London 

 School of Economics, for a thesis entitled " Some 

 Aspects of the Inequality of Incomes in Modern Com- 

 munities." 



Dr. Harriette Chick has been awarded the William 

 Julius Mickle fellowship, of the value of 200!., in 

 recognition of the important work she has carried out 

 during the past five years on diseases due to defective 

 nutrition. 



Dr. David Owen, senior lecturer in physics at the 

 Birkbeck College, has been appointed head of the 

 department of physics and mathematics at the Sir 

 John Cass Technical Institute, Aldgate, E.C.3. 



The Drapers' Company has made a grant of 5000/. 

 to the East London College (University of London) 

 •for the equipment of its new library. The remark- 

 able growth and success of this University college in 

 the Mile End Road, built up under the auspices of 

 the Drapers" Company, form one of the outstanding 

 features in modern educational activity. The under- 

 graduates in the college now number nearly 600. 



A MEETING for the purpose of considering the desir- 

 ability of establishing a Federal Council of Associa- 

 tions of Teachers in Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somer- 

 set, and Wiltshire, held at the University of Bristol 

 on December 4, was attended bv representatives of 

 numerous associations and institutions. Prof. J. 

 Wertheimer was elected chairman, and it was decided 

 that, subject to the approval of the majority of the 

 associations represented, the council should be estab- 

 lished. The objects of the council will be : — To bring 

 together representatives of teachers of all types in 

 ■order to give them opportunities of exchanging views, 

 of becoming acquainted with one another's work, and 

 of formulating, when desirable, expressions of opinion 

 in regard to educational problems of general interest. 



The statement for the year 1919-20 of the Rhodes 

 Scholarships Trust has been received. During that 

 period 185 scholars, of whom 105 were from the 

 British Empire and the remainder from the United 

 States, were in residence; of this number 98 were 

 freshmen. By the end of the year 32 of the scholars 

 either completed the term of their scholarship or 

 went down, in spite of which the present year opened 

 with as many as 220 Rhodes scholars in residence. 

 A record of the results achieved during the past vear 

 by holders of those scholarships is given, among which 

 may be noted three students who were admitted to 

 read for the degree of Ph.D. in natural sciences; 

 while the books which have been published in the 

 academic year by Rhodes scholars include a transla- 

 tion by Mr. H. L. Brose of Moritz Schlick's book 

 entitled "Space and Time in Contemporary Phvsics." 



It is announced in the Lancet of December 18 that 

 an anonymous donor has given 20,000!. for the endow, 

 Tnent of the University chair of physiology at the 



NO. 2669, VOL. 106] 



Middlesex Hospital Medical School. The present 

 occupant of the chair is Prof. Swale Vincent, who is 

 well known for his publications dealing with the duct- 

 less glands and internal secretions. Prof. Vincent has 

 one of the physicians of the hospital associated with 

 him in his department in order to facilitate the introduc- 

 tion of new discoveries in the laboratories into medicSI 

 practice in the clinical wards. This generous gift is 

 a big step in the direction of the co-ordination of 

 medical education with research and treatment which 

 Lord Athlone, chairman of the hospital, is anxious to 

 secure, and it will also form another bond in the 

 relations between the hospital and London University. 

 Of the six professorial chairs now existing in con- 

 nection with the Middlesex Hospital that of physio- 

 logy is the second to receive permanent endowment, 

 the chair of physics having been endowed early in the 

 present year. 



The first annual dinner of the Imperial College of 

 -Science and Technology, held on December 14, was 

 an outward and visible sign of the common interests 

 of the three constituent colleges — the Royal College of 

 Science, the Citv and Guilds (Engineering) College, 

 and the Royal School of Mines. The Marquess of 

 Crewe, chairman of the governing body of the Im- 

 perial College, presided, and a large number of leading 

 representatives of science and technology supported 

 him. Several notable speeches were made in the 

 course of the evening. Sir .Alfred Keogh, rector of 

 the college, said that long before the late conflict the 

 college had been urging the principle of the relation 

 of science to industry, which was the same thing as 

 the relation of science to war, but neither the nation 

 nor the Government had paid heed to it until the war 

 broke out and it was found that war could not be 

 waged without science. It was then that the three 

 constituent colleges were able to render essential ser- 

 vice in many fields. Lord Moulton said that science 

 and technology were mutually complementary, science 

 procuring the seed while technology used it to secure 

 bountiful harvests for human needs. Sure success is 

 built upon accurate knowledge such as the college 

 diffuses in all its branches. The Marquess of Crewe 

 remarked that the Imperial College has all the attri- 

 butes of a university,, and the courses taken by its 

 students are no more specialised than those pursued 

 bv science students in the older seats of learning. He 

 followed with much interest the proefress of the Uni- 

 versity of London, and it was hoped that the college 

 would advance on parallel, but not on identical, lines, 

 both institutions agreeing to pursue the. twin figures 

 of knowledge and wisdom in still wider fields. 



A conference on recent advances in physics will 

 be held in the physics laboratory of the University 

 of Toronto between January 5 and 26 of the coming 

 year. The principal event will be a series of eighteen 

 lectures by Dr. L. Silberstein on "The Special and 

 Generalised Theories of Relativity and Gravitation " 

 and on some of the recent advances in spectroscopy 

 and the theory of atomic structure. Einstein's theories 

 of general relativity and gravitation, and the more 

 recent theory of electromagnetism put forward by 

 Weyl, will occupv some five or six lectures, and a 

 similar period will be devoted to Bohr's quantum 

 theory of spectra, Sommerf eld's relativistic theory of 

 the structure of spectral lines, the Epstein theory of 

 the Stark effect, and the lecturer's own theory of non- 

 .spherical nuclei. The course will be mainly mathe- 

 matical in character. Dr. Irving Langmuir will 

 deliver a short course of lectures on the theories of 

 atomic structure and allied subjects from the chemical 

 as well as from the physical aspect. Prof. E. F. 

 Burton is giving a course of twelve lectures on the 

 fundamental properties of colloidal solutions, which 



