532 



NATURE 



[April 22, 1922 



be difficult to do so in face of the existence of the 

 British Civil Service, and the report wisely refrains 

 from the attempt. 



In regar(J to the " problem of transfer " the report 

 is greatly at fault. It is a pity the writer of it did 

 not seek more accurate sources of information or at 

 least endeavour to understand the facts of the case. 

 At the present moment, and for the future unless a 

 change is made, a teacher who " transfers " to a 

 university sacrifices superannuation benefits in whole 

 or in part. This is acting adversely upon the recruiting 

 of university staffs, and will continue so to act unless 

 some attempt is made to obviate this loss. We can 

 assure the writer that the question of transfer from the 

 lower to the higher branches of the profession in this 

 country is a really serious one, and one which is felt 

 especially in the departments of science and technology, 

 as well as in those for the training of teachers. For 

 exainple, some schools of the University of London 

 come under the Act and others under the Federated 

 Superannuation System, two totally different schemes, 

 and in consequence transfers from one college to 

 another in one and the same university are difficult 

 if not impossible. 



It may interest American university teachers to 

 know that the British Government has made a 

 grant of half-a-million towards retrospective benefits 

 (" accrued liabilities ") for the senior members of the 

 teaching staffs in the universities — a sum which, by 

 the way, is quite inadequate for the purpose — but 

 for some extraordinary reason has made no provision 

 for retrospective benefits in regard to teaching service 

 in institutions and schools outside the universities. 

 Is there any better way of making watertight com- 

 partments of the various branches of the teaching 

 profession ? 



University and Educational Intelligence. 



Cambridge. — Close on the publication of the report 

 of the Royal Commission commending the women's 

 colleges to private benefactors comes the welcome 

 announcement of a bequest to Girton College of 

 20,000/. This money, left by Rosalind, Countess of 

 Carlisle, is earmarked for scholarships of 80/. per 

 annum for girl students unable to pay for themselves. 



London. — The following doctorates have been con- 

 ferred : — Ph.D. (Science) on Mr. A. C. Chibnall, for a 

 thesis entitled " The Distribution of Nitrogen in the 

 Leaves of the Runner Bean " ; Mr. T. J. Drakeley, for 

 a thesis entitled " The Ultimate Composition of 

 British Coal " ; Mr. H. S. Hatfield, for a thesis entitled 

 " On a New Method for the Separation of Mechanical 

 Mixtures of Powdered Substances " ; Mr. G. H. G. 

 Plymen, for a thesis entitled " The Geology of Jersey 

 and Alderney " ; Thirza Redman, for a thesis en- 

 titled " Observations on (Experimental) Intestinal 

 Tuberculosis " ; Barbara Russel-Wells, for a thesis 

 entitled " The Constitution of the Cell Wall in Plants, 

 more particularly that of the Red Seaweeds " ; and 

 Mr. T. Thomas, for a thesis entitled " The Effect of 

 Stress on the Thermo-Electric Properties of Metal 

 Wires with and without a Magnetic Field." 

 \ At University College, Gower Street, W.C, a 

 course of six lectures on the Early History of the Land 

 Flora will be given by Dr. D. H. Scott at 5.15 p.m., 

 on Wednesdays April 26 and May 3, 10, 17, 24, and 

 31. The lectures will be illustrated by lantern slides. 



At King's College, Strand, a course of four lectures 

 on Biological Aspects of Oceanography will be given 

 by Dr. Johan Hjort (of the University of Christiania) 

 at 5.30 P.M., on April 28, May i, 2, and 5. The 

 lectures will be delivered in English. 



At Bedford College for Women, Regent's Park, a 

 course of three lectures on " L'Intelligence et la 

 Volontd " will be given by Prof. E. Clapardde (pro- 



NO. 2738, VJL. 109] 



fessor of psychology in the University of Geneva) 

 at 5.15 on April 28, May i and 2. The lectures will 

 be delivered in French. Admission to all these 

 lectures is free without ticket. 



Two Munitions Committee Fellowships in research 

 in engineering are offered by the University of Liver- 

 pool. The fellowships are tenable in the first place 

 for one year, value 250/. each, but may be renewed for 

 a second year when their value will be 350/. each. 

 Forms of application and all particulars may be 

 obtained from the Registrar of the University. 

 Applications for the fellowships must be received 

 before June i. 



Some interesting summaries are provided in Science 

 of March 17 showing the number of doctorates in 

 science conferred by American universities in the year 

 1920-1921, and their distribution according to subject. 

 In all, 332 doctorates in science were conferred by 32 

 institutions, an increase of nine on the corrected 

 figures for the previous year ; with one exception, 

 they were distributed over the same universities. In 

 spite of the increase, the number still falls far short of 

 the maximum, 372, recorded for 1917. As has been 

 the case for several years past, the biggest number, 

 42, was awarded by the University of Chicago, though 

 Cornell, Columbia, Yale, Harvard, California, and Johns 

 Hopkins Universities all conferred more than 20 

 doctorates each. Chemistry has, since 191 2, claimed 

 a great many more doctorates than any other subject, 

 and in 1921 it seems to have been more popular than 

 ever ; no less than 134 doctorates of the total of 332 

 were given for this subject while the next highest 

 figure is 36, the number of doctorates awarded for 

 zoology. Botany, physics, and psychology were each 

 of them the subjects of the theses of 25 to 30 

 doctorates. 



On Monday, April 24, Dr. Malinowski, the well- 

 known Polish sociologist, will deliver at the London 

 School of Economics the first of a course of eighteen 

 lectures on " The Sociology and Economics of Some 

 Island Communities." This course of lectures em- 

 bodies the results of an investigation of four years' 

 duration in the course of which Dr. Malinowski made 

 an intensive study of the culture of the Papuo- 

 Melanesian communities on the coastal mainland and 

 on the archipelago around the eastern end of New 

 Guinea and more particularly of those of the Tro- 

 briand Islands. The complex economic system, of 

 which Dr. Malinowski has already given some account 

 in a previous course, will be analysed, and the remark- 

 able manner in which their intricate economic system 

 permeates their whole life will be described. In this 

 field of investigation. Dr. Malinowski 's results were 

 not only unexpected, but they threw an entirely new 

 light upon certain elements in primitive life. In 

 like manner his investigations have revealed a 

 definite, though rudimentary, legal machinery for the 

 preservation of law and order. The regulation of sex 

 life by taboos has given rise to a mythical cycle and 

 a whole svstem of love-magic ; while sorcery, which 

 plays a large part in the life of the native, is based upon 

 a complex system of auto-suggestion and counter- 

 suggestion. The most significant feature in the 

 material which Dr. Malinowski has collected, is the 

 extraordinary complexity and inter-relation of the 

 elements of native life. On more than one occasion 

 reference has been made to difficulties arising out of 

 this complexity when native custom is modified under 

 European authority. Dr. Malinowski's results, from 

 this point of view, are a strong argument in favour of 

 the institution of a central organisation at which such 

 data as these may be made available for the use of 

 administrators. 



