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NA TURE 



[June 10, 192: 



ment gave their support to the Universities Bureau 

 they did so with the view of inducing the Universities 

 to take counsel together, to encourage co-operation, 

 and to enable overlapping to be avoided, without 

 that external interference which they all deprecated. 

 The development of applied science has reached 

 dimensions which make it imperative, if the nation 

 as a whole is to advance, that much more considera- 

 tion than has hitherto been thought necessary 

 should be given to the distribution of studies. The 

 more conference there is between those responsible 

 for University policy in England and Scotland the 

 better it will be, especially if we are to look forward 

 to a certain number of lean years. He suggested 

 that the Vice-Chancellors' Committee be asked to 

 consider (i) what new specialist departments, requir- 

 ing for their development new endowments, may be 

 appropriate to particular Universities ; (2) whether 

 existing trust funds in particular Universities could 

 be applied to better uses within those Universities ; 

 and (3) whether the statutes of the different Uni- 

 versities could be so altered as to facilitate migration, 

 in order that students may obtain specialist teaching. 

 The chairman promised to report Mr. Fisher's 



proposals for inquiry to the next meeting of the 

 Vice-Chancellors' Committee. 



The subject of the Organisation of Adult Education 

 as an integral part of the work of the Universities 

 was introduced by Sir Henry A. Miers (Manchester), 

 chairman of the Conjoint Committee of the Univer- 

 sities and the Workers' Educational Association, 

 who pointed out the desirability of bringing into 

 co-operation many bodies in addition to the one in 

 which he is especially interested. He and subsequent 

 speakers emphasised the importance of restricting 

 the expression " Higher Education " to its legitimate 

 sense as such a standard of education as only 

 Universities can provide. There is a real danger 

 of the Universities, moved by sympathy for those 

 who have done great things in the way of making 

 good early deficiencies, accepting as " higher," 

 education which is not of a University type. There 

 is also danger of trade-unions imagining that they 

 can employ imperfectly trained persons as instructors. 

 Mr. R. Peers, head of the Department of Extra-mural 

 Teaching, gave a very interesting account of the 

 organisation of Adult Education undertaken by the 

 University College of Nottingham. 



The Centenary of the Royal Astronomical Society. 



'T'HE actual date of the centenary of this Society 

 -*• was February 1920. Prof. A. Fowler, who was 

 then president, delivered an appropriate address 

 on that occasion, recapitulating the circumstances 

 of the origin and early history of the Society. It 

 was felt, however, that the conditions of foreign travel 

 were still too difficult to render the occasion suitable 

 for a full celebration of the event. Early in the 

 present year it was thought that it would be well to 

 take advantage of the presence of a large number of 

 astronomers in Rome, at the meeting of the Inter- 

 national Astronomical Union, many of whom, it was 

 hoped, would be able to visit London on their way 

 home. The end of May was therefore chosen as the 

 date for the celebration, which was attended by a 

 considerable number of associates. 



The celebration opened with a conversazione on 

 May 29, for which the Royal Society kindly lent its 

 rooms ; more than 300 guests were present ; the 

 exhibits included a collection of Newton relics, a 

 number of ancient astronomical and mathematical 

 books, calculating machines, and a model illustrating 

 the probability curve. Five short lectures were 

 delivered in the meeting room, on Sunspots, Planets, 

 Comets, Instruments, and an anecdotal lecture on 

 some former Fellows. 



The morning of May 30 was devoted to addresses 

 on the history of the Society. Prof. Eddington, the 

 president, read the loyal message which had been 

 sent to the King, as Patron of the Society, also his 

 gracious reply, of which the following is an extract : 



" You can rest assured that the King watches with 

 interest and admiration the patient, diligent, and 

 unobtrusive manner in which the Fellows of the 

 Society conduct their unremitting research, in the 

 hope that they may, by piercing the hidden mysteries 

 of the skies, add step by step to the store of scientific 

 knowledge, and thus contribute so much that is 

 essential to the progress of mankind on land and sea." 



He then read messages from many of the absent 

 associates, which spoke of the great work that the 

 Society had done for astronomy during the century 

 of its existence, and expressed confident hope that 

 its future would be equally fruitful. Similar messages 

 of congratulation were received from many scientific 

 societies. 



NO. 2745, VOL. 109] 



The inaugural address by the president was a 

 general survey of the progress of astronomy during 

 the century ; he suggested the following six events 

 as marking definite steps of progress: 1839, the first 

 stellar parallaxes were measured by Bessel and 

 Henderson; 1846, Neptune was discovered as a 

 result of the solution of the problem of inverse 

 perturbations by Adams and Le Verier; 1854-58, 

 the commencement of astronomical spectroscopy by 

 Huggins and Lockyer ; 1882-87, the beginning of 

 stellar photography ; 1904, Kapteyn's discovery of 

 the two star-streams, which led to the beginning of 

 stellar dynamics ; 1920, the first direct measure of 

 a star's diameter, by the Mt. Wilson interferometer. 

 On the whole the twentieth century has been marked 

 by the shift of the main interest from the solar to tht 

 stellar system. The former, however, is not entirely 

 neglected ; Prof. Eddington instanced planetary photo- 

 graphy, the discovery of new faint satellites, and the 

 Trojan group of asteroids, Einstein's explanation 

 of the motion of Mercury's perihelion, the work oi 

 Taylor and Jeffreys on tidal friction in the Irish Sea, 

 and Jeans's work on the cosmogony of the solai 

 system. 



Dr. Dreyer then delivered an address on the 

 history of the Society, referring to the low ebb that 

 astronomy and mathematics had reached in England 

 before its foundation. One reason given was the 

 continuance of the clumsy fluctional notation, which 

 had already been superseded on the continent. One 

 method attempted for encouraging research did not 

 meet with great success ; this was the offer of prizes 

 for the solution of certain problems ; it was noted 

 that the prize offei-ed for the mathematical treatment 

 of the Saturnian satellite system met with a reply 

 80 years later, when Dr. Hermann Struve was 

 awarded the Gold Medal for his work on Saturn's 

 system. Reform of the Nautical Almanac was 

 another work in which the Society interested itself. 

 It awarded the Gold Medal in 1830 to Encke for his 

 improved Berliner Jahrbuch ; in 1834 our own 

 Almanac followed suit. In 1835 the Society was given 

 rooms in Somerset House, where it remained till it 

 occupied its present abode in 1874. Allusion was 

 made to the absorption of the Spitalfields Mathe- 

 matical Society in 1845 ; it enabled them to claim 



