208 



NATURE 



[May r6, 191 8 



by him, together with the executive committee of 

 the Universities Bureau, were appointed to con- 

 sider any matters of common interest arising out 

 of the proceedings of the conference or submitted 

 to it by the Government. 



. The title of the degree to be obtainable by stu- 

 dents of the King's Dominions overseas or of 

 foreign countries as the result of post-graduate 

 work and research was discussed at considerable 

 length, reveaHng a much higher degree of unani- 

 rnity than seemed to be likely when the conference 

 met a year ago. 



It was recognised by the conference that the 

 question of the title of a degree and the conditions 

 under which it could be obtained were of far 

 greater import than the influence which the degree 

 might have in attracting graduate students to the 

 United Kingdom. It involves the whole question 

 of the function of universities in the modern world. 

 In our own country the tradition still lingers that 

 a university is a place of post-school education, 

 whereas in the modern world there is greater need 

 for the provision of highly trained men and women 

 capable not merely of absorbing knowledge, but 

 also of increasing the common stock. This posi- 

 tion was well defined by Sir Ernest Rutherford, 

 whose speech may be quoted as an epitome of the 

 views of the conference :— 



It should be made clear that the new degree which 

 many universities propose is an entire innovation. It 

 will involve a full period of post-graduate training, 

 introducing into Britain a system practically identical 

 with that which obtains in America, and to a large 

 extent in Canada also. It is of great importance that 

 it should be adopted by the English-speaking world. 

 In Britain" it is likely to be a degree of very high 

 standard, because we have the opportunity of building 

 it on an honours basis. It Is generally considered 

 that the course should last for not less than two 

 years, and this, I consider, is as it should be for a 

 student who has already taken an honours degree, 

 say in the first class, before he starts post-graduate 

 work and investigation. If he shows promise and 

 ability he will be able to take the M.A. in a year. 

 We must also consider those who come to us from 

 a distance, who will already in many cases have done 

 a certain amount of research. It will be a real and 

 very great departure in English education — the greatest 

 revolution, in my opinion, of modern times. It is true 

 that some universities have already attempted post- 

 graduate training in a somewhat spasmodic manner. 

 To carry out the -scheme in its entirety will involve 

 a much larger and more highly specialised staff and 

 much more money for equipment. 



NOTES. 



We deeply regret to announce that Sir Alexander 

 Pedler, .E.R.S., died suddenly on Monday, May 13, 

 at sixty-eight years of age, while attending a coml 

 mittee meeting at the Ministry of Munitions. Sir 

 Alexander was formerly Vice-Chancellor of the Uni- 

 versity of Calcutta and Director of Public Instruction 

 for Bengal. He retired in 1906, and since 1907 had. 

 been the honorary secretary of the British Science 

 Guild, as well as an active member of many other 

 public and scientific bodies. 



We learn with great pleasure that Oliver Heaviside 

 has been elected an honorary fellow of the American 

 Institute of Electrical Engineers. He is the fifth 

 NO. 2533, VOL. lOll 



honorary fellow, the others being Marconi, iFerranti^. 

 Blondel, and C. E. L. Brown. Heaviside has often' 

 contributed to our columns on scientific theory and on ' 

 educational -matters. He holds very strong views- 

 about the mathematical teaching that used to be given 

 in our schools, and has little patience with concen- 

 tration upon its logic and philosophy. In his own 

 books he does not spare the reader, but makes him 

 master his own peculiar nomenclature and notation 

 before he can learn those principles of electro- 

 magnetic theory which he has developed so success- 

 fully, and some of which are of great importance to 

 practical engineers. His books would have a far 

 wider vogue if he had conformed more to conven- 

 tional methods, but the value of his work would 

 probably have suffered, and he would have lost much 

 of the pleasure which he obviously felt in writing 

 them. Standardisation has its uses, but it has also 

 serious limitations. Many of us are grateful to 

 Lodge, Perry, and Searle for explaining many of the 

 good things in his books which we might otherwise 

 have passed over. From the practical point of view 

 Heaviside 's most important discovery was the "dis- 

 tortionless " circuit for speech transmission and his 

 suggestion of the use of inductance coils at intervals 

 in long telephonic lines. This suggestion was taken 

 up and developed by Pupin and other American elec- 

 tricians, and has been largely and most successfully 

 utilised in many submarine telephone lines all over 

 the world. We rejoice that our American confreres 

 have done Oliver Heaviside honour ; we thank them 

 and offer to him our warmest congratulations. 



The Pereira medal of the Pharmaceutical Society 

 of Great Britain has been awarded to Miss H. C. M. 

 Winch. 



Lord Rothschild has been elected an honorary 

 member of the Entomological Society of Spain, of 

 which we recently noted the foundation. 



The Decimal Association informs us that the 

 Federation of British Industries, by a unanimous 

 resolution of the executive council, has now given its 

 support to the Decimal Coinage Bill which is before, 

 the House of Lords. 



Mr. W. B. Randall, of Waltham Cross, has 

 generously provided funds for the establishment of a 

 new research post at the Rothamsted Experimental 

 Statiori, and the committee has appointed Mrs. D. J. 

 Matthews (formerly Miss Isgrove) to occupy it. Mrs. 

 Matthews will devote herself to the study of some 

 of the problems corinected with soil sterilisation as it 

 is now being carried out in certain types of nurseries. 



The annual congress of the South-Eastern Union 

 of Scientific Societies will be held at Burlington 

 House on May ag^June i, and will follow the usual 

 lines. The president will be Sir Daniel Morris, who 

 will deliver his address on the evening of Wednesday, 

 May 29, when his subject will be "A Chapter in the 

 Geographical Distribution of Plants." On Thursday 

 evening. May 30, at 8 p.m.. Sir Ronald Ross will open 

 a discussion on mosquitoes in England. 



TiiE death is announced, on May 1.2, of Dr. R. G. 

 Hebb, consulting physician and physician pathologist 

 to Westminster Hospital, lecturer on pathology at 

 Westminster Hospital Medical School, reader in 

 morbid anatomy at the University of London, and 

 editor of the Journal of the Royal Microscopical 

 Society. 



We regret to record the death at Newcastle-upon- 

 Tyne on May 7 of Sir William Haswell Stephenson, 

 aged eighty-two years. Sir William joined the Tyne 

 Improvement Commission in 1878, and from 1900 



