July 25, 1918] 



NATURE 



419 



tute, for a thesis entitled •" Stress and Strain Conditions 

 in Rectangular Flat Plates Fixed at the Edges and 

 Exposed to Uniform Pressure over Surface." 



The New York correspondent of the Times announces 

 that a legacy of 3,ooo,oooi. has been bequeathed to 

 Yale University by the will of Mr. J. W. Sterling, who 

 died suddenly on July 5. Mr. Sterling graduated from 

 Yale in 1864. 



Mr. R. Douglas Laurie, who has been chief demon- 

 strator and assistant lecturer in zoology and lecturer 

 in embryology in the University of Liverpool for some 

 years, has been appointed head of the department of 

 zoology in the L^niversity College of Wales, Aberyst- 

 wyth. 



A FEW days ago a meeting was held at the Cardiff 

 Exchange to consider the means of development of 

 technological institutions, and the suggestion was then 

 made that a sum of 5o,oooZ. a year should be raised 

 by the industrialists of the district. A beginning has 

 been made in this direction by a contribution of 

 25,oooZ. from Lord Glanely towards the cost of a 

 chemical laboratory, to be known as the Tatem 

 Laboratory, in the University College of South Wales 

 and Monmouthshire, Cardiff.' In making this princely 

 gift Lord Glanely remarks that the laboratory is the 

 first step in a scheme essential both to the welfare 

 of the college and the industrial corhmunity of South 

 Wales. He adds :— " I understand that for the com- 

 pletion of the scheme in a manner worthy of a great 

 industrial area a sum approaching 125,000^. is re- 

 quired, and I trust my contribution may be regarded 

 as but the first step towards the accomplishment of 

 this great undertaking. Slowly, but, I believe, surely, 

 the industrial community is awakening to the import- 

 ance of science and its application, and also to the 

 necessity for its encouragement if we are to hold our 

 own in the difficult times which are ahead of us. I 

 am aware of the efforts made by Principal Griffiths 

 to further the closer union of science and industry and 

 to promote the cause of research, especially in those 

 branches which most affect our local industries. It 

 is, therefore, my earnest hope that his successor may 

 be one who will realis? the vital importance of this 

 matter, and has the training and knowledge which 

 will enable him to appreciate the problems which must 

 be faced, and complete the work of which the founda- 

 tions have now been laid." 



The University of London proposes to establish a 

 ' gree in commerce. The scheme, to be really effec- 

 live, must be worked out as a whole with an inde- 

 pendent organisation, not as a mosaic of fragments 

 built up from variou.s faculties. The needs of the 

 teaching depend on the aim of the degree course and 

 the type of student for which it is intended. Finance 

 ind commerce in the broadest sense are the main 

 iterests of London, and likely to provide the mass 

 : the students. The training should be correlated 

 to the main interests of the individual, though in 

 no sen.se a substitute for actual experience of business. 

 Elementary economics, geography, and accounting, 

 together with a thorough knowledge of a modern 

 commercial language, with the addition of certain 

 optional subjects, such as a .science, or mathematics, 

 or history, would provide a broad basis for more 

 specialised work. The broad facts of commercial and 

 financial organisation, recent historical development 

 of the great commercial Powers, and the main prin- 

 ciples of commercial law are of importance to all. 

 Beyond these are two groups of subjects : on one 

 hand, business organisation, the banking and financ- 

 ing of production and trade, and the movements of 



NO. 2543, VOL. lOl] 



capital ; on the other, the industrial and commercial 

 conditions of the great markets of the world. Mr. 

 A. J. Balfour, on July 18, spoke at a meeting at the 

 Mansion House called to support the scheme of the 

 University. He pointed out the two main criticisms 

 that would be brought against degrees in commerce, 

 one bv those who argue that academic training is of 

 little value in the actual practice of life, and the 

 other by those who argue that vocational education is 

 narrowing, and, indeed, may be so narrow as not to 

 be education at all. He remarked that few subjects 

 have so many aspects and so much human interest 

 as the manv-sided life of commerce. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, June 27.— Sir J. J. Thomson, presi- 

 dent, in the chair.— Prof. T. H. Havelock : Periodic 

 irrotational waves of finite height. It is shown that 

 an extension of Michell's analysis for the highest 

 wave gives a method which includes waves of any 

 permissible height.— Dr. G. N. Watson: The diffrac- 

 tion of electric waves by the earth. Approximate for- 

 mulse have been obtained by Poincar^, Macdonald, 

 Nicholson, and others, which' express the disturbance 

 due to a Hertzian oscillator at a distant point of the 

 earth's surface. This paper contains a transfornia- 

 tion of the series for the magnetic force into a series 

 which converges verv rapidly except in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of the oscillator.— Dr. A. D. Waller: 

 Concerning emotive phenomena. Part ii. Periodic 

 variations of conductance of the palm of the human 

 hand. This paper gives an account of further ob- 

 servations of changes of electrical resistance asso- 

 ciated with emotive phenomena. Their physiological 

 lost time is between two and three seconds, and occurs 

 principally in the skin (palm of hand). With higher 

 and lower conductivity the effects are greater and 

 smaller. The electrical conductivity (palm of hand) 

 exhibits a diurnal periodicity concurrent with the 

 waxing and waning of physiological activity during 

 the twenty-four hours.— Prof. J. A. MacWilliara : The 

 mechanism and cfentrol of fibrillation in the mam- 

 malian heart. An essential condition in fibrillation is 

 an altered (fascicular) mode of conduction. This may 

 characterise even single beats as " fibrillar." The pro- 

 duction of a rapid, continuous series of contractions 

 in typical fibrillation depends on a disturbance in the 

 normal relations of conduction time and refractory 

 period, leading to the establishment of a mechanism 

 of circulating ' excitations. Gradations are traced 

 between fibrillar beats and rapid fibrillation. The chief 

 protective and remedial agents described are urethane, 

 adrenaline, strontium chloride, hirudine, and pilocar- 

 pine. The action of the last may reproduce the 

 different actions of the vagus in auricles and ventricles 

 respectively, promoting fibrillation in the former and 

 restraining it in the latter.— Dr. J. F. Gemmlll : The 

 development of the sea anemones, Actinoloba 

 dianthus and Adamsia palliata. An account is given 

 of the development of these anemones from fertilisa- 

 tion to the eight-mesenteried stage. In both species 

 the eggs are relatively small, those of Actinoloba con- 

 taining so little food-yolk that the free-swimming 

 planula feeds by the action of cilia on two precociously 

 formed mesenteries (the future sulco-laterals), and 

 afterwards crawls mouth-downwards with stomodaeum 

 everted, presumably obtaining food from the sub- 

 stratum. This is the only known instance of a feed- 

 ing Actinian planula, and, indeed, the only previous 

 detailed account of anemone development is that of 

 Appellof for Urticina. which has large yolkv eggs.— 



