June 17, 1922] 



NATURE 



797 



The mean temperature for the year ended on April 

 30 was 50-9° F., or 1-4° above the average. October 

 was 6-3° above the average, the warmest October for 

 So years. The rainfall was 16-49 in., or 7-75 in. below 

 the average. 



Wireless time signals from Eiffel Tower, Nauen, 

 Bordeaux, Lyons, and Moscow are recorded on a 

 syphon recorder ; a special series of rhythmic signals 

 from Lyons, for longitude purposes, was observed 

 between June 20 and July 12. 



The Carnegie Trust and Scientific 

 Research. 



THE twentieth annual report (1920-21) of the 

 Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland 

 contains several points of interest. In relation to 

 scientific training and research there are three im- 

 portant matters to distinguish, namely, buildings and 

 equipment ; scholarships and fellowships ; and part- 

 time research assistants and lecturers. This last is 

 a new feature of the research scheme and is to be 

 commended as combining facility for research with 

 experience in teaching. 



So far there are thirteen of these combined posts in 

 the four universities of Scotland and all in the depart- 

 ments of chemistry and physics. They are covered by 

 an annual outlay of 3600/. Of the 14,419/. awarded 

 to the four universities for research fellowships, 

 scholarships and grants, nearly half is given to his- 

 tory, the remainder being fairly well distributed among 

 the departments of physics, chemistry, natural his- 

 tory, and medicine. Of this sum 26 per cent, goes to 

 St. Andrews, 16 per cent, to Glasgow, 15 per cent, to 

 Aberdeen, and 43 per cent, to Edinburgh. Thus 

 Edinburgh distinctly leads in research ; but activity 

 is specially noteworthy in St. Andrews, which, as 

 regards the number of students in attendance, is 

 much the weakest of the four. 



As is natural, the conditions of tenure of scholar- 

 ships and fellowships, which cannot be held with 

 other remunerative appointments, lead to many 

 resignations in the course of the year, so that of the 

 sum initially awarded only a total of 8123/. has been 

 expended. From the point of view of research this 

 is to be regretted. The further development of the 

 part-time assistantship scheme may in future supply 

 a remedy. 



Under the quinquennial distribution, the schemes 

 of the universities and other institutes of learning 

 include buildings, equipment, libraries, and endow- 

 ments of chairs and lectureships. These require on 

 the average 50,000/. per annum ; and of this sum 

 72 per cent, is devoted to buildings. For new build- 

 ings in the Faculty of Arts and the Department of 

 Zoology, Glasgow University has appropriated 91 per 

 cent, of its share ; and the new King's buildings for 

 chemistry are absorbing 81 per cent, of Edinburgh's 

 share. The ultimate influence of these developments 

 on scientific research will no doubt be great ; the 

 more immediate effect will be a demand for increase 

 of staff and a corresponding increased expenditure in 

 the teaching of science. 



Of the 65,000/. expended under what is known as 

 Clause A, nearly 13,000/. is devoted directly to 

 individual research ; while of the remainder by far 

 the greater part is being used for providing suitable 

 laboratories, for extending libraries, for endowing 

 chairs and lectureships, and for helping in the pub- 

 lication of books and memoirs, the influence of which on 

 scientific progress cannot be over-estimated. In these 

 respects the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of 

 Scotland seems to be fulfilling admirably its high 

 function in the advancement of science. 



NO. 2746, VOL. 109] 



University and Educational Intelligence. 



Cambridge. — Dr. Roderick, Emmanuel College, has 

 been reappointed demonstrator in surgery, and Mr. 

 E. A. Milne, Trinity College, has been appointed 

 University lecturer in astrophysics. A grant of 50/. 

 from the Worts Fund is to be made to Mr. J. L. 

 Evans, St. John's College, towards the expenses of 

 a journey to make researches on the economic con- 

 ditions of south, central, and south-eastern Europe 

 since the treaties of peace, and on the question of the 

 protection of minorities under the various treaties in 

 the same region. 



It is proposed to confer Honorary Degrees on 

 H.R.H. the Duke of Aosta, K.G., and on Col. Sir 

 Gerald Lenox-Cony ngham. 



The Statute giving the University power to confer 

 by diploma titles of degrees upon women students 

 of a recognised institution has now been approved 

 by His Majesty the King in Council. The University 

 now has power to name the recognised institutions 

 and to lay down the conditions under which students 

 of these institutions may qualify for these titles. 

 It may admit members of such institutions to 

 instruction in the University as well as to the use 

 of its libraries, laboratories, and museums, in such 

 numbers and on such conditions as it may determine. 

 It may allow past residence kept and examinations 

 passed by students of Girton College or of Newnham 

 College as partial or complete qualification for titles 

 of degrees. 



Thus after four years of struggle does the Uni- 

 versity yield what the supporters of women's higher 

 education asked twenty-five years ago, and one is 

 tempted to wonder what the next twenty-five years 

 will bring, and how long it will be before the next 

 step in this old controversy will be taken. 



Col. Sir Gerald Lenox -Conyngham, Trinity College, 

 has been appointed reader in geodesy, and Mr. W. 

 Dawson, Gonville and Caius College, has been re- 

 appointed reader in forestry. Mr. C. Fox, Christ's 

 College, has been re-appointed principal of the 

 Cambridge University Training College for School- 

 masters. 



Sir Ernest Moir has offered to endow a prize in 

 the Engineering Department in memory of his son. 

 Rex Moir, Gonville and Caius College, who was killed 

 in the war. This offer has been accepted. 



Edinburgh. — On Thursday, June 8, Prof. T. H. 

 Morgan, professor of experimental zoology in Columbia 

 University, New York, delivered a lecture in the 

 Natural History Theatre of the University of Edin- 

 burgh to a large audience of the staff and students 

 on " Old and New Ideas about Heredity." The 

 vice-chancellor. Sir Alfred Ewing, presided. Prof. 

 Morgan gave an account of the more recent develop- 

 ments of the work on inheritance in Drosophila 

 which is being carried on in his laboratory. After 

 showing that the facts of inheritance lead to the 

 conclusion that the Mendelian characters are carried 

 by the chromosomes and that the hereditary factors 

 or genes are arranged in a linear series in each chromo- 

 some, he discussed briefly the evidence available 

 for forming a rough estimate of the upper limits of 

 size of the factors. At the close of the lecture the 

 dean of the faculty of law presented Prof. Morgan to 

 the vice-chancellor for the honorary degree of LL.D. 

 The dean remarked that the ceremony was reminiscent 

 of the graduation proceedings of an older time when 

 the candidate for university honours was required 

 to maintain against all comers a thesis upon 'some 

 abstruse subject of his choice, and he thought the 

 audience would agree that Prof. Morgan's treatment 



