.^82 



NATURE 



[December 3, 1914 



they could then afford to smile at the idea of an in- 

 vader setting foot within our little sea-girt land, sure 

 in the prospect of its remaining the centre of "a 

 greater Empire than has been." 



And I think I may venture to assert that if we 

 had adopted at home the principle of universal ser- 

 vice for the defence of that Empire, a principle which 

 that great man and soldier Lord Roberts has so per- 

 sistently advocated, the present iniquitous war would 

 never perhaps have been set on foot. 



I suppose that, on the whole, one thing regarding 

 the population of Australia that strikes the visitor 

 fiom the Old Country more than another is the 

 enormous disproportion between the extent of habit- 

 able country and the number of actual inhabitants. 

 That a continent nearly as large as Europe should 

 have far fewer inhabitants than London alone, and 

 a density of only about one seventy-fifth that of 

 Europe is an obvious incongruity. But it is one 

 which will naturally tend to right itself as the years 

 roll by ; and since the necessity for a great increase 

 of population in order to develop the country is forcing 

 itself upon the attention of those who guide the for- 

 tunes of the several States, we shall no doubt witness, 

 in the near future, a much more rapid rise of popu- 

 lation than has occurred in the past. Fortunately, 

 the increase which has taken place is of the right 

 sort. Australia has, to its credit, long refused to be 

 the dumping-ground for the dregs of the Old World, 

 and is developing a race which will, in the course of 

 a few decades, probably be more purely British, both 

 in physique and character, than any other extensive 

 area of population in the world, not even excepting 

 the mother countrj'. No nation has greater possi- 

 bilities for the future. Assured of peace and of free- 

 dom from outside interference, there is nothing to 

 impede that advance which, in her adopted motto, 

 Australia puts before herself as her constant aim ; and 

 her invitation to us to visit her shores was, we may 

 take it, not intended merely as an act of graceful 

 hospitality, but also as a means of promoting within 

 her borders that advancement of science which, as 

 its title expresses, is the essential object of the 

 existence of the British Association. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Oxford. — Mr. T. V. Barker, fellow of Brasenose 

 College, has been appointed University lecturer in 

 chemical crystallography for five years from January 

 I, 1915; and Mr. A. G. Gibson, Christ Church, as 

 University lecturer in morbid anatomy for five years 

 frorn the same date. 



Speaking at the annual meeting of the Sheffield 

 University on Monday, the Vice-Chancellor, Mr. 

 H. A. L. Fisher, said he believes that when the war is 

 concluded it will be possible for England very largely 

 to step into the place hitherto occupied by Germany. 

 If our universities will only be a little more imagina- 

 tive and try to reproduce some of the perfection of 

 organisation which prevails in Germany, and has 

 brought eternal honour to the German nation, our 

 universities may become cosmopolitan in the sense in 

 which Oxford was the great cosmopolitan university 

 of the Middle Ages. It is only since the Reformation 

 that English universities have become, in a sense, pro- 

 vincial. In certain regions of applied science there 

 is no reason why in the next fifteen or twenty years 

 Sheffield should not be the technical capital of Europe. 



A COPY of the annual report of the ii8th session, 

 1913-14, of the Royal Technical College, Glasgow, 

 has been received. Judged by the tests now univers- 



NO. 2353, VOL. 94] 



ally applied the session was one of the most successful 

 in the history of the college. The number of day 

 students continues to increase steadily ; but the most 

 satisfactory feature is the accession to the number of 

 those attending full courses, resulting in a great ex- 

 pansion in " student-hours " of actual attendance and 

 work. The total number of " student-hours " of the 

 day classes was 237,908, an increase of more than 

 15 per cent, on the corresponding figure for the pre- 

 ceding session. The scheme affiliating the college to 

 the University of Glasgow came into operation at the 

 beginning of the session, with satisfactory results. 

 Forty-one matriculated students were in attendance 

 on qualifying classes within the college, and of these 

 twenty-eight were following a full course of study. 

 At present the scheme applies only to degrees in 

 engineering, but the advisory joint-committee, estab- 

 lished by the University and the college, has prepared 

 a draft Ordinance for degrees in applied chemistry, 

 which is now under consideration. It is hoped that 

 this Ordinance will receive the approval of the Privy 

 Council during the coming session, and thus give to 

 college students in chemistry the opportunities for 

 graduation now open to students in engineering. The 

 report points out it is believed that more than a 

 thousand past students have now joined H.M. Forces; 

 the First Company of the 3rd Glasgow Battalion 

 H.L.I, consists of college students exclusivel}'. The 

 Carnegie Trust for the Scottish Universities recently 

 considered the position of the college in view of their 

 allocation of grants for the next quinquennium. In 

 the result, the trust made a grant to the college of 

 loool. per annum for five years. Of this sum, looZ. 

 is for the maintenance of the library, 300Z. for pro- 

 visional assistance, and 600Z. towards a superannua- 

 tion scheme. The college received during the year, 

 among other gifts, legacies of 5000Z. from the late 

 Mr. William Weir, and 500Z. from the late Mr. J. C. 

 Alston. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, November 19. — Sir William Crookes, 

 president, in the chair. — A. Mallock : Note on the cir- 

 culation of the atmosphere. — Sir Sidney Burrard : The 

 origin of the Indo-Gangetic Trough, commonly called 

 the Himalayan Foredeep.— G. W. Walker : Approxi- 

 mately permanent electronic orbits and the origin of 

 spectral series. In this paper an endeavour is made 

 to find a basis of explanation of spectrum series in 

 terms of strict electrodynamics. The illustrative 

 system consists of a spherical nucleus radius a, with 

 a positive electric charge E and a fixed magnetic 

 moment /jl. It is constrained to be fixed and may be 

 regarded as corresponding to a comparatively massive 

 atom. A single corpuscle with a negative charge e 

 and mass m is free to move under the influence of 

 the forces exerted on it by the nucleus. When the 

 effect of radiation is neglected circular orbits are 

 shown to be possible. The circumstances, stability, 

 and range of these orbits are examined in detail, both 

 for orbits outside and inside the nucleus. Only the 

 inside orbits appear to have a bearing on the problem 

 in hand. It is found that there is a class of circular 

 orbits in each of which the angular momentum of 

 the corpuscle has the same value. This result has 

 already been obtained by Conway, who sought to 

 identify the value with Planck's unit. It is here 

 shown that these orbits occur only if the charge of 

 the nucleus is concentrated mainly at the surface, or 

 if the material of the nucleus has a large dielectric 

 ratio. Another class of circular orbits exists. They 

 lie in the equatorial plane of the nucleus, and have 



