.^.i8 



NATURE 



[June 20, 19 18 



the seed is rendered soluble and absorbed by a flat 

 sucker (scutellum), which is attached to the base of 

 the coleoptile, and together with it represents the single 

 <otyledon characteristic of the division of flowering 

 plants, Monocotyledons, to which the grass family 

 belongs. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 BiRMixNGHAM. — Sir William Ashley, Dean of the 

 faculty of commerce, has been invited to become Vice- 

 Principal in succession to Dr. R. S. Heath, whose 

 resignation takes effect at the end of the current ses- 

 sion. The post of registrar, hitherto occupied by Dr. 

 Heath, is to be filled by Prof. Alfred Hughes, Dean 

 of the faculty of arts. 



Cambridge. — ^The governing body of Emmanuel 

 College offers two exhibitions, each of the value of 

 50L and tenable for two years, to research students 

 commencing residence at the college in October, 19 18. 

 The governing body may also make additional grants 

 to students whose means are insuf^cient to cover the 

 expense of residence at Cambridge or whose course 

 of research may entail any considerable outlay in the 

 provision of apparatus or materials. 



Oxford. — Prof. Horace Lamb, professor of mathe- 

 matics in the University of Manchester, has been 

 appointed Halley lecturer for next year. 



The Times correspondent at Toronto states that a 

 prominent citizen, whose name is not }'et disclosed, 

 will give from ioo,oooL to 6oo,oooL to endow chairs 

 in the faculty of medicine at the University of 

 Toronto. 



By the will of Sir G. H. Philipson, the sum of 

 2000L has been left to tlie University of Durham Col- 

 lege of Medicine, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, for the founda- 

 tion of two Phjlipson scholarships to be awarded to 

 the undergraduate of the college obtaining the highest 

 marks at the M.B. final examination. 



The sum of 2500Z. has been given to the Armstrong 

 College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, by Miss Stephenson, 

 for the endowment of a studentship in the faculty of 

 arts, in memory of her late father. Sir W. H. Stephen- 

 son ; and Messrs. Cochrane, Ltd., of Middlesbrough, 

 have given 3000/. to the same institution for the 

 foundation of scholarships, primarily for residents of 

 Middlesbrough and New Brancepeth. 



The Regulations for Secondary Schools for 1918-19 

 (Cd. 9076, price 2d.), now published by the Board of 

 Education, are in substance the same a,s those for the 

 present year. The definition of advanced courses for 

 pupils remaining in secondary schools until eighteen 

 years of age has been revised and modified. It will 

 be remembered that the Board's circular of 19 13 on 

 the curricula qf secondary schools pointed out that the 

 legitimate requirements of the great majoritv of pupils 

 would be met by the provision of three different 

 types of advanced course, viz. (a) science and mathe- 

 matics, (b) classics, and (c) modern humanistic studies. 

 The requirement that the work of an advanced course 

 in group (a) must include both science and mathe- 

 rnatics has now been relaxed. In schools, especiallv 

 girls' schools, where biology occupies a prominent 

 place in the curriculum, it is not always possible 

 without risk of serious overstrain to require the in- 

 clusion both of mathematics and of the auxiliary 

 sciences of chemistry and physics. The Board has 

 therefore reserved discretionary power to dispense with 

 NO. 2538, VOL. lOll 



the requirement of mathematics in such cases. It ^s 

 expected that chemistry will always be continued in 

 the advanced course in connection with biology, and 

 that physics will also be continued unless it has 

 previously been carried to an adequate standard. Tho 

 claims of geography for recognition as an advanced 

 course are discussed in an explanatory note to the 

 regulations, and it is stated that the Board is prepared 

 to give sympathetic consideration to any practicable 

 proposals made by suitable schools for advanced 

 courses in which geography is made a predominant 

 subject. 



One chapter of the recently published report of the 

 Board of Education for the year 1916-17 (Cd. 9045) 

 is concerned with the work of universities and univer- 

 sity colleges. It includes a section dealing with the 

 gifts and bequests received during the year under 

 review by the university institutions which come within 

 the scope of the report. The majority of the founda- 

 tions were directed to promoting the study of subjects 

 the importance of which has been ernphasised by 

 the war. Among the gifts recorded the following may 

 be mentioned : — A legacy to the University of Bir- 

 mingham of 5000L from the late Sir Charles Holcroft, 

 the income of which is to be devoted to research work 

 in science and engineering; a bequest of io,oooZ. from 

 the estate of Miss Craddock for the purpose of found- 

 ing a chair of commerce at the University of Liver- 

 pool ; 25,000^. under the will of Sir George Franklin 

 for the foundation of chairs at the University of 

 Sheffield ; 30,000!!. contributed to the Ramsay Memorial 

 Fund ; some 30,000/. given towards the erection of new 

 science buildings at Bangor University College ; 

 20,oooL promised by anonymous donors to Aberyst- 

 wyth College for buildings required by the Agricultural 

 Department; and at Cardiff 25,000/. received from 

 Sir W. J. Tatem towards the provision of new 

 chemical laboratories, a bequest of 20,000/. to the 

 Medical Department, and a sum of 30,000/. from Miss 

 Emily Talbot to eridow a chair of preventive medi- 

 cine. Altogether, well over 200,000/. was found by 

 private donors for the improvement and development 

 of higher education, in addition to the gifts of land, 

 like the site of nine acres in the heart of Bristol 

 given to the University there by Mr. Henry Wills, 

 part of which is marlced out for the erection of a 

 department of physics. The benefactions to universi- 

 ties and colleges in the United States exceed 

 5,000,000/. annually, or twenty-five times more than 

 the gifts to similar institutions in Great Britain. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, June 6. — Sir J. J. Thomson, presi- 

 dent, in the chair.— N. B. Dreyer and Prof. C. S. 

 Sherrington : Brevity, frequence of rhythm, and amount 

 of reflex nervous discharge as indicated by reflex 

 contraction. A single momentary stimulus of 

 moderate intensity, e.g. a break-shock, even though 

 not far above threshold value of stimulation, applied 

 to the afferent nerve of a spinal reflex-centre, evokes 

 from that centre not uncommonly a repetitive series of 

 volleys of motor impulses. It tends to do so more as 

 the stimulus, within limits, is increased in intensity, 

 but the state of the reflex-centre at the time is also a 

 decisive factor. The rhythm of repetition of volley- 

 discharges from the spinal reflex-centre was traced, 

 by the ordinary mechanical method, to be of syn- 

 chronous rate, with that of stimulation of the afferent 

 nerve up to a frequence of 55 per sec, and by a 

 mechanical resonance method up to a frequence of 

 65 per sec. By a "dovibling frequency" method it 



