444 



NATURE 



[December i6, 1915 



Subject to the limitations imposed on any compara- 

 tive treatment of the results recorded for the' towns 

 which have taken part in the inquiry, it may be of 

 interest to point out that, after allowances have been 

 made for differences in rainfall, Sheffield, according 

 to the analytical data published in the Lancet, is a 

 less smoky city than Manchester. This conclusion 

 follows from a comparison of the figures for the six 

 stations, N., E., and S., situated within three miles 

 of Manchester Town Hall (Salford, on the west, did 

 not take part in the inquiry), with those for the four 

 stations, roughly, N., E., S., and W., situated within 

 two miles of the Sheffield Town Hall. How far such 

 evidence justifies the conclusion that Manchester 

 chimneys pour into its atmosphere a correspondingly 

 larger amount of impurity is doubtful ; the contour 

 of the land as promoting or retarding the dispersal 

 of smoke is one of many factors to be taken into 

 account before a definite opinion should be hazarded, 

 and no two towns could differ more than Manchester 

 and Sheffield in this respect. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



It is stated in the issue of Science for November 

 26 that approximately 2oo,oooZ. is to go to Yale Uni- 

 versity under the will of the late Mr. Justus S. Hotch- 

 kiss, of New Haven. The trust fund thus established 

 is to be shared equally among the academic, law, and 

 theological departments. 



The Cambridge University Press has published "The 

 Book of Matriculations and Degrees : a Catalogue of 

 those who have been matriculated or admitted to any 

 Degree in the University of Cambridge from iqoi to 

 19 12." With the present volume the period covered, 

 so far as a record of degrees is concerned, is from 

 1544 to 1912. Honorary titles of degrees conferred 

 from 1901 to 1912 are included. The catalogue has 

 been prepared for the press by Mr. B. Benham, the 

 assistant registrary, and Mr. C. J. Stonebridge, the 

 registrary's clerk. The price of the volume is 12s. 6d. 

 net. 



Dr. John Read, lecturer and demonstrator in chem- 

 istry in the University of Cambridge, has been elected 

 to the chair of organic chemistry — pure and applied— 

 in the University of Sydney, in succession to Prof. R. 

 Robinson, lately appointed to the chair of organic 

 chemistry at Liverpool. Dr. Read was educated at 

 Sexey's School, Bruton, Somerset, passed through the 

 Finsbury Technical College, under Prof. R. Meldola, 

 in 1901-1904, was at Zurich with Prof. Alfred Werner, 

 i905--7» and has since been associated with Prof. W. J.. 

 Pope at Manchester and Cambridge, having published 

 in' collaboration with him a considerable number of 

 papers of stereochemical interest. 



The sixteenth annual meeting of the Association of 

 Public School Science Masters will be held on January 

 4 and 5, under the presidency of Sir William Osier, 

 who will open the proceedings with an address entitled 

 "The Fateful Years, 1915-1917," in which he will 

 make a plea for earlier and more intensive work in 

 science subjects so as to save time at the universities. 

 The programme also includes the following papers 

 and subjects for discussion : — " Desirability of Giving 

 a Bias towards Agriculture in the Science Teaching in 

 Schools," C. Turnor ;." School Museums," M. D. Hill; 

 "War- Work in Schools," S. J. Hough; "The Extent 

 to which it is Desirable to Modify the Teaching of 

 Science in Schools to Meet the Requirements of 

 War," C. L. Bryant. 



Dr. E. Fox Nichols has resigned the presidency of 

 Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, which he has 

 NO. 2407, VOL. 96] 



held since 1909, in order to accept an invitation to 

 a chair of physics at Yale. In his letter to the Dart- 

 mouth trustees he explains that the special needs of 

 the college which led him to accept the headship have 

 now been largely met, and that there seems therefore 

 no compelling reason why he should not go back to 

 his earlier work, the duties and recompenses of which 

 are in fuller accord with his individual taste and pre- 

 ference. The incident has aroused a good deal of 

 favourable comment in the American Press, as indicat- 

 ing a break in the general tendency, in American 

 academic circles, to prefer the attractions of an ad- 

 ministrative post to the claims of scientific research 

 and teaching. 



The approaching retirement of Dr. William Garnett 

 from the post of educational adviser to the London 

 County Council demands some grateful reference to 

 years of work that have left a permanent mark upon 

 London education. A student of the Royal School of 

 Mines and a Whitworth scholar, a fellow of St. John's 

 and first demonstrator under Clerk Maxwell in the 

 Cavendish Laboratory, Dr. Garnett illustrated in his 

 training the happy union between pure and applied 

 science upon which the well-being, and even the 

 security, of our national life depend. His principal- 

 ship of the Durham College of Science showed how 

 clearly he had grasped the essential principles of tech- 

 nical education ; his opportunity of applying those prin- 

 ciples on a large scale came with his appointment, in 

 1893, as secretary and educational adviser to the Tech- 

 nical Education iBoard of the London County Council. 

 The eleven years of the board's activity must always 

 be regarded as of momentous importance in the history 

 of London education. Polytechnics sprang into being 

 or were revivified, a clearly conceived system of central 

 and local technical institutes materialised, the condi- 

 tions of science teaching in secondary schools were 

 enormously improved, and the scientific and technical 

 work of the University was greatly stimulated and 

 aided. The hand of Dr. Garnett was plainly visible 

 in all these good works, and they will be his enduring 

 monument. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Physical Society, November 26. — Dr. A. Russell, vice- 

 president, in the chair. — J. Guild : Obtaining and 

 maintaining a bright hydrogen spectrum, with special 

 reference to the 4341 line. The paper treats of the 

 conditions of pressure, discharge, etc., most suitable 

 for the production of a bright hydrogen spectrum, such 

 as is required for refractometry and similar purposes. 

 The rapid deterioration of the tubes with use is shown 

 to be caused by a rise of pressure due to the evolution 

 of hydrogen by the electrodes. The trouble may be 

 obviated by sealing an auxiliary bulb of i^ or 2 Utres 

 capacity to the discharge tube. This reduces the rate 

 of pressure variation and prolongs the useful life of 

 the tube nearly a hundredfold. The use of capacity 

 and inductance is shown to be very helpful with 

 partially deteriorated tubes. — A. Griffiths, J. M. Dickson, 

 and C. H. Griffiths : The determination of the co- 

 efficient of diffusion of potassium chloride by an 

 analytical method. This paper represents an attempt 

 to develop an analytical method of determining the 

 coefficient of diffusion of a salt in water capable of 

 giving consistent and accurate results. The lower 

 ends of a number of vertical and parallel diffusion tubes 

 terminate in a reservoir of large capacity containing 

 a solution of potassium chloride. The greater part of 

 the,reservoir is above the lower ends of the tubes, and 

 by gravity the solution at the lower ends is kept at an 

 approximately constant concentration. The upper 



