October 15, 1914] 



NATURE 



191 



universities, at Cape Town and Pretoria, composed of 

 constituent colleges. The central seat of the recon- 

 stituted Cape University will be Groote Schuur, where 

 it is proposed to erect two university buildings, desig- 

 nated the Wernher Hostel and Beit Hostel, for which 

 350,000/. of the Wernher-Beit gift of half a million 

 will be utilised. The remainder of the gift it is pro- 

 posed to devote to the other centres. The Commission 

 suggests that the Pretoria college shall embrace the 

 Transvaal, the Free State, and Natal. 



The calendar for the year 1914 of the National Uni- 

 versity of Ireland is now available. In it are printed 

 the Irish Universities Act, 1908, the charter of the 

 University and the various statutes. It will be remem- 

 bered that the constituent colleges of the University 

 are University College, Dublin ; University College, 

 Cork; and University College, Galway. In addition, 

 St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, is a recognised col- 

 lege of the University. There are eight faculties in 

 the University, namely, arts, philosophy and sociology, 

 Celtic studies, science, law, medicine, engineering and 

 architecture, and commerce. Full particulars • are 

 given as to the conditions under which degrees in 

 these faculties are conferred, and also detailed informa- 

 tion of the regulations and courses of the constituent 

 colleges. 



Interesting details as to the provision of facilities 

 for higher instruction in agriculture for the counties 

 in the north of Scotland are given in the 1914-15 

 calendar of the North of Scotland College of Agricul- 

 ture. The classes of the college are held in the Univer- 

 sity of Aberdeen, except those in agricultural and field 

 engineering, which are held in Robert Gordon's Tech- 

 nical College. Classes are arranged for the benefit 

 of every section of the agricultural community, and 

 there are courses of varj'ing lengths at different 

 seasons of the year, so that all grades of agricultural 

 workers may utilise their leisure periods to the best 

 advantage. The governors have acquired a college 

 farm where experiments and demonstrations are car- 

 ried out. Experimental plots, an experimental and 

 demonstration garden, and a horticultural department 

 are in course of construction. It is also intended to 

 carry on feeding' and other experiments upon stock. 

 The farm is conveniently situated about five miles from 

 Aberdeen. Students are expected to familiarise them- 

 selves with the experimental and other work upon the 

 farm, on which demonstrations are carried out. There 

 is a large area of timber, including both coniferous 

 and hard wood trees. This is to be made use of for 

 the purposes of the forestry department. 



The Department of Agriculture and Technical In- 

 struction for Ireland has issued, for the present ses- 

 sion, its programme of experimental science, drawing, 

 manual instruction, and domestic economy for day 

 secondary schools in Ireland, and it contains an ex- 

 planatory circular and regulations. It is interesting 

 to note in the circular to managers and principals of 

 schools that they are informed that the efficiency of 

 instruction will be tested by inspection, as a rule, 

 without notice. It is, however, proposed that special 

 inspections of a more thorough character shall be held, 

 of which due notice will be given to the school 

 managers. It is intended that such inspections shall 

 not, as a rule, be held more frequently than once in 

 three years for any one school. During the latter part 

 of the school session notice will be given of a visit 

 mainly for the purpose of holding the qualifying prac- 

 tical tests for candidates for honours. At any visit it 

 will be within the discretion of the inspector to test 

 any or all of the classes by practical exercises in the 

 laboratory ; by the examination of notebooks, etc. ; by 

 viva, voce examination of classes or of individuals ; 

 by written examinations, or by a combination of these 



NO. 2346, VOL. 94] 



methods. The courses of instruction in these schools 

 includes a preliminary obligatory two years' course,* 

 which may vary according to the character of the 

 school, but must include experimental science and 

 drawing. In subsequent years as many as three of a 

 large number of special courses in pure and applied 

 science may be taken, and, in the circumstances 

 detailed, grants may be earned on the instruction. 



A COPY has reached us of the forty-first annual report 

 of the Canterbury College, of the University of New 

 Zealand, together with a statement by the chairman 

 of the governors and the accounts for the year 1913. 

 Attached to the balance-sheet is a return showing 

 the value of the various buildings and sites to be 

 129,794!. The total receipts from current revenue for 

 the year amounted to 40,694/., while the expenditure 

 totalled 36,204/., the surplus of income amounting to 

 4490/., of which sum y^l. was utilised in reducing 

 overdraft. Grants and subsidies from the Government 

 totalled 11,372/., of which 3365/. was contributed to- 

 wards the cost of new buildings. The total amount 

 expended on salaries was 23,199/. Last year negotia- 

 tions were being entered into with the governors of 

 the Royal Holloway College with the view of a scholar- 

 ship being established there in connection with Canter- 

 bury College to enable women students from the latter 

 to continue their university studies at the London 

 University as a post-graduate course. Such arrange- 

 ments are now completed, the governors of the Hollo- 

 way College have set aside a scholarship of 50/. per 

 annum for the purpose. This has been subsidised by 

 the governors of Canterbury College with 100/. per 

 annum for two years, renewable for a third year if 

 the home authorities recommend the extension of their 

 scholarship. The chairman directed attention to the 

 fact that the museum in connection with the college 

 suffers financially from the fact that it is impossible 

 to allocate a sufficiently large sum from its special 

 source of revenue to meet even necessary requirements, 

 and when extra expenditure becomes an absolute 

 necessitv, the amount set aside for maintenance will 

 have to be curtailed. If no change takes place, it will 

 become increasingly difficult to keep it in the position 

 of being one of the leading museums south of the line, 

 while the question of an additional wing seems for 

 the present to be entirely beyond available resources. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, September 28.— M. P. Appell in 

 the chair.— Remarks bv M. Edmond Perrier on the 

 life work of the late M. Jean Perez.— P. Pniseux : The 

 photographs of the Delavan comet 19 13/, obtained at 

 the Paris Observatory with the Henrj-Gautier equa- 

 torial. From these photographs, taken September 

 5-6, the necessary elements can be obtained for deter- 

 mining ver\- exactly two positions of the comet. — ^J. 

 Boussinesq : ' The approximate evaluation of the con- 

 stant of filtration fi, for a filtering medium composed 

 of spherical grains of a given diameter. — M. Coggia : 

 Observations of the Delavan comet made at the Ob- 

 servatory of Marseilles with the comet-finder. Posi- 

 tions are given for September 14-15 (two observations), 

 17-18, with positions of the comparison stars. The 

 comet is visible to the naked eye with a tail of about 

 1°. — MM. Luizet and Gnillaume : Observation of the 

 solar eclipse of August 21, 1914, made at the Observa- 

 tory of Lyons. — D. Pompeiu : A problem relating to 

 abstract ensembles.— Ch. Tanret : The pluralitj- of the 

 amyloses. Determinations of the absolute and rela- 

 tive percentage of amyloses dissolved by water at 

 different temperatures in sixteen different kinds of 

 starches. 



