September 27, 1917] 



NATURE 



79 



,- essential. A start was made in June in electro- 

 icinical industries, when a factory for the manufac- 

 ture of carbide was inaugurated on the Rand ; but 

 electro-chemical industries in other parts of the world 

 rely mainly upon cheap electricity derived from water 

 power, and it is of the utmost importance in the indus- 

 trial development of this country that the Government 

 should spare no expense in having the water-power 

 resources of South Africa immediately investigated. 



The great mistake in South Africa has been to look 

 too much to the mines. Just as the discovery of the 

 diamond mines saved the Cape Colony from dire finan- 

 cial distress, so we have the President of the Transvaal 

 hamber of Mines saying, at the last annual meeting 

 that body, that "'the prosj>erity, and, indeed, the 

 ^^hole fabric, of the Union are largely based on the 

 mining industry." But the mineral wealth of the 

 Transvaal will not last for ever — the gold mines are 

 a diminishing asset. Transvaal dividends amounted 

 in 1916 to more than nine million pounds, but the 

 Rand cannot go on indefinitely contributing more 

 than 50 per cent, of the total revenue of the Union. 

 We have examples from history to show that, where 

 enlightened action has prevailed, the revenues derived 

 from mineral wealth, instead of being utilised to 

 lighten the burdens of the general taxpayer, have, to 

 a liberal extent, been devoted to the general develop- 

 ment of the country, and the establishment of indus- 

 tries to take the place of the worked-out mines, 

 including of necessity ample provision for education 

 and technical training and research. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



A CHAIR of tuberculosis was instituted by the Edin- 

 burgh University Court on Monday, September 24, and 

 Sir Robert Philip was appointed as the first professor 

 of the subject. 



On Wednesday, October 17, at 5.30 p.m.. Prof. J. A. 

 Fleming will deliver at University College (University 

 of London) a public lecture on "The Work of a 

 Telephone Exchange." The lecture is open to the 

 public without fee or ticket. 



The inaugural address of the new session of the 

 School of Pharmacy of the Pharmaceutical Society of 

 Great Britain will be delivered by Lt.-Col. E. F. 

 Harrison on Wednesday, October 3, on which day the 

 Hanbury gold medal will be presented to Prof. H. G. 

 Greenish. 



The annual meeting of the Library Association will 

 be held at Caxton Hall, W^estmipster, on October 3 

 to 5. The subjects to be discussed on the opening 

 day are "'The Relation of Libraries to Education " 

 and "Work with Children," and the speakers will 

 include Dr. Addison and Lord Bryce. On the other 

 days "Commercial Libraries," "Technical Libraries," 

 " Nlunicipal Reference Libraries," and "The Educa- 

 tion and Training of Librarians " will be discussed. 



It is reported in Science that provision has been 

 made by the Texas Legislature for establishing a 

 third agricultural college, to be known as the North- 

 East Texas Agricultural College. A grant of 50,000!. 

 has been made for its establishment and maintenance. 

 The board of directors of the State Agricultural and 

 Mechanical College is given control over the institu- 

 tion. State grants have also been made for the station 

 and sub-stations amounting to 45,000?. for the year 

 beginning September i, and 36,300/. for the following 

 year. 



NO. 2500, VOL. 100] 



A SERIES of popular lectures on "The Countries of 

 the Empire and their Resources," illustrated by the 

 collections of the Imperial Institute, is being delivered 

 by Miss Edith A. Browne, on Wednesdays in Septem- 

 ber, October, November, and December, at the Impe- 

 rial Institute at 3 o'clock, commencing yesterday. 

 Admission to the series of lectures is free by ticket, 

 for which application should be made to the director 

 of the Imperial Institute, South Kensington, S.W.7. 

 A special course of lectures of the same character has 

 again been arranged this autumn for public schools 

 in and near London, in connection with the teaching 

 of the commercial geography of the Empire. 



Several large bequests and gifts for higher educa- 

 tion in the United States have been announced thi-- 

 year in Science. Among these may be mentioned the 

 addition of ioo,oooL to the permanent endowment 

 fund of Washburn College, Topeka, Kansas ^coooL 

 of which was contributed by the citizens of Topeka, 

 and 40,000/. from outside contributors. Bequests of 

 40,000!. have been received by Princeton University 

 and by the University of California, in the latter case 

 for the maintenance of professorships in law. Gifts of 

 3o,oooZ. have been made to Muskingum College, New 

 Concord, Ohio, to Columbia University, and to the 

 University of Michigan. The most recently 'announced 

 bequest, one of 20,000!. to Middlebury College, by 

 Dr. H. F. Walker, is to provide full salary for a 

 professor on Sabbatical leave, any balance to be used 

 as an emergency fund. 



With two minor alterations, parts i.-iii. and v. of 

 the Regulations for Technical Schools in England and 

 Wales (Cd. 7996) will continue in force for the school 

 year 19 17- 18. The Board of Education withdrew 

 part iv, of the Regulations in August, 1916. The 

 alterations referred to came into force on August i 

 last, and provide that institutions giving instruction 

 in preparation for a trade for students formerl)^ in 

 attendance at special schools will in future be aided 

 under the new regulations for such institutions, and 

 will not receive grants under the regulations for tech- 

 nical schools The second alteration concerns a few 

 schools of the junior technical school or nautical school 

 type, which, owing to the exigencies of war, have been 

 unable to conform to their appropriate regulations; but 

 the Board of Education proposes for the present to 

 continue to recognise these schools. 



It is announced in the Tunes that Lord Lovat, Mr. 

 Otto Beit, and Mr. Rudyard Kipling have accepted the 

 positions of trustees under the will of the late Mr. 

 Cecil Rhodes in succession to Lord Rosebery and Sir 

 Lewis Mitchell, who resigned recently, and of the late 

 Earl Grev, who had resigned shortly before his death. 

 The trustees have decided to allot the four new 

 scholarships created in substitution for the scholar- 

 ships formerly held by Germans to the provinces of 

 •Mberta and Saskatchewan, to the Transvaal, to the 

 Orange Free State, and alternately to tho towns of 

 Kimberlev and Port Elizabeth in the Cape Province. 

 .As Alberta and Saskatchewan have hitherto had one 

 scholarship between them, the effect of this decision 

 will be that each of these provinces will now have a 

 scholarship. The trustees have decided not to make 

 anv appointments to any scholarships this year, either 

 in the I'nited States or in any part of the British 

 Empire, although the qualifying examinations in the 

 United States will be held as already arranged. This 

 decision is based upon the fact that as all candidates 

 m.ust be men of military age it would not be in 

 accordance with the spirit ot the testator's design if 

 young men who first respondel to the call of patriot- 

 ism were to be penalised for having done so. Any 

 candidate who is eligible this year will be equally 

 qualified for election next vear. 



