February 17, 192 1] 



NATURE 



81.7 



University and Educational Intelligence. 



Cambridge. — As was generally expected, Report B 

 in favour of the foundation of a separate women's 

 university at Cambridge was rejected last week. 

 Tliree of the six signatories, who produced the scheme 

 after six months' labour, had signed its death-warrant 

 bv issuing a fly-sheet against it. The new scheme — 

 C it may well be called — is supported now by a group 

 of fifty-two. It offers women students degrees, 

 t teaching by the University for a limited number, also 

 certain undefined privileges, but no power and no 

 votes in the Senate or any controlling body of the 

 University. Even this scheme seems to open up too 

 many and too serious risks to the more conservative 

 members of the University, who are appealing for 

 support for a fourth scheme D. While rigidly 

 limiting the number of women students ad- 

 mitted to the University and ensuring that they 

 shall pay proper fees foV teaching and examina- 

 tions, this scheme limits any advance from the 

 present position to the granting by diploma of titular 

 degrees. Already several defections have taken place 

 from the moderate party to the extreme conservative 

 wing. 



What might have been an agreed solution in 1897 

 can scarcely be accepted in that light in 192 1, and 

 unless the moderates, having shed their right wing, are 

 Drepared to go further than their fly-sheet suggests, 

 it seems probable that the intervention of some out- 

 side bodv — the Royal Commission at present sitting 

 on the financial resources of the University — will be 

 sought. 



The annual prize distribution at the Sir John 

 Cass Technical Institute was held on Thursday, 

 February 10, when the prizes were distributed by Sir 

 Frederick Black, who afterwards delivered an address 

 on "Liquid Fuel in Peace and War." A summary 

 of the work of the institute during the past session 

 shows that the total number of students was 1060 — a 

 higher figure than in any previous year, and an in- 

 crease of more than 50 per cent, on the previous ses- 

 sion. An important development contemplated was 

 the initiation of courses of instruction on petroleum 

 technologv adapted to the needs of those already 

 engaged in the industry. In the course of his ad- 

 dress Sir Frederick Black said that whilst the United 

 Kingdom had become an important consuming centre 

 of petroleum products, it was at present only on a 

 comparatively small scale that petroleum was pro- 

 duced in this country. So far as manufacture or 

 refining was concerned, much more work of that 

 nature was likely to be undertaken at home, for large 

 British companies interested in oil had their head- 

 quarters and distributing agencies here. After briefly 

 describing how the products of petroleum used for 

 fuel were obtained, Sir Frederick gave a general 

 description of their use in internal-combustion engines 

 and for steam raising. The war has developed enor- 

 mously their use and established their importance. 

 The relative advantages of oil and coal for marine 

 riurposes were discussed, special reference being made 

 to the progress in the building of motor-driven ships 

 since 1912. Great attention was being given to such 

 important matters as the elimination of waste on the 

 oilfields and in the use of liquid fuels. Oils that ad- 

 mitted of complete refining into such products as 

 motor spirit and lighting and lubricating oils should 

 be so dealt with in preference to burning the more 

 valuable fractions for steam raising, provided that a 

 heavier oil not capable of such complete refining 

 could be made available. 



NO. 2677, VOL. 106I 



Calendar of Scientific Pioneers. 



February 17, 1600. Giordano Bruno died.— -Vn 



enthusiastic supporter of the views of Copernicus and 

 of other new learning, Bruno, after several years 

 spent in visiting France, England, and Germany, 

 returned to his native country, was arrested, and, 

 refusing to recant his philosophical and scientific 

 heresies, was burnt at the stake in the Campo di 

 Fiori, Rome. 



February 17, 1867. Alexander Dallas Bache died. — 

 One of the most influential of American men of 

 science, Bache was director of the United States Coast 

 Survey. He played a leading part in the founding 

 of the National Academy of Sciences. 



February 17, 1874. Lambert Adolphe Jacques 

 Quetelet died. — The designer and first director of the 

 Brussels Observatory, Quetelet was also a statistician 

 and applied the theory of probabilities to the physical 

 and intellectual qualities of man. 



February 17, 1875. Friedrich Wilhelm August 

 Argelander died. — Trained under Bessel, Argelander 

 in 1837 became professor of astronomy at Bonn, 

 where he compiled his great catalogue and atlas con- 

 taining 324,000 stars visible in the northern hemi- 

 sphere. 



February 18, 1899. Marlus Sophie Lie died. 

 February 19, 1897. Karl Theodor Wilhelm Weierstrass 

 died. — Both Lie and Weierstrass were among the 

 most prominent workers in pure mathematics of last 

 century. The former, though a Norwegian, for some 

 years held a chair of mathematics at Leipzig, while 

 Weierstrass was long connected with Berlin Univer- 

 sity. Lie's chief work was on the theory of trans- 

 formation groups ; Weierstrass's on elliptic functions 

 and the theory of functions. 



February 20, 1762. Johann Tobias Mayer died. — 

 Director of Gottingen Observatory, Mayer left behind 

 him valuable lunar tables which greatly aided in 

 solving the problem of finding the longitude at sea. 



February 20, 1907. Henri Moissan died. — Moissan 

 in 1886 was the first to isolate fluorine. He improved 

 the electric furnace, and bv suddenly cooling a solu- 

 tion of carbon in molten iron produced small artificial 

 diamonds. 



February 22, 1875. Sir Charles Lyell died.— Lyell 

 was the greatest master of English geology, and the 

 publication of his "Principles of Geology" marked 

 an epoch in the history of that science. This work 

 was "an attempt to explain thj former changes of 

 the earth's surface by reference to causes now in 

 operation." Lyell is buried in Westminster Abbey. 



February 22, 1901. George Francis FitzGerald died. 

 — Erasmus Smith professor of natural philosophy at 

 Trinity College, Dublin, FitzGerald is remembered for 

 his knowledge and versatility, his brilliant conceptions, 

 and his stimulating influence on his fellow-physicists. 



February 23, 1812. Etienne Louis Malus died.— A 

 French military engineer of distinction, Malus died at 

 the age of thirty-six, having three years previously 

 made his great discovery of the polarisation of light by 

 reflection. 



February 23, 1855. Karl Friedrich Gauss died. — 

 Mathematics, astronomy, optics, and magnetism all 

 engaged the attention of Gauss, who in 1807 became 

 professor of mathematics and director of the observa- 

 tory at Gottingen. His important investigation of 

 terrestrial magnetism belongs to the latter part of his 

 life. With Weber he invented new instruments, set 

 up an electric telegraph, and built the first magnetic 

 observatory. The Gauss Tower on the Hohenhagen, 

 near Dransfeld, was erected to his memory in iqn. 



E. C.S. 



