November 29, 19 17] 



NATURE 



257 



Mr. Durell pleads, aim at developing in her sons the 

 roadest scholarship and deepest general culture, and 

 ilms safeguard specialism from vagaries and develop 

 it to the highest pitch. 



We have received a report on trade catalogues 

 drawn up by the Technical and Commercial Libraries 

 ' Committee of the Librar}- Association. The report 

 points out that much information of value to students 

 of science is contained in these catalogues, and that 

 therefore it is desirable that they should be collected 

 and indexed in such a way that students may readily 

 ascertain what new apparatus and inventions have 

 been devised relating to the field of study in which 

 they are working. The Library Association is of 

 opinion that a National Lending Library of books 

 suitable for giving assistance in scientific and indus- 

 trial research would be of the greatest advantage to 

 technologists. In such a library trade catalogues 

 would hold an important place. It is pointed out that 

 there are peculiar difficulties in indexing trade cata- 

 logues. They are seldom dated, and are therefore not 

 easily identified, though the name of the firm by which 

 they are issued can be given. Moreover, they are 

 frequently without any -precise description of their 

 contents. The librarian would therefore find it neces- 

 sary to call in the aid of scientific experts to help 

 in the special indexing required. The report refers 

 to the index to the collection of tiade catalogues at 

 the Department of Commercial Intelligence (foreign 

 samples) published by the Board of Trade as an 

 example of an alphabetical subject-index of such cata- 

 logues. In view of the special difficulties inherent 

 in collecting and organising the literature of the 

 trade catalogues, and with a view to the widest pos- 

 sible dissemination ot the undoubtedly valuable in- 

 formation which these catalogues contain, the com- 

 mittee of the Library Association recommends that 

 . proposals be submitted to the leading professional 

 societies and trade journals for the organisation of 

 this class of literature on standardised lines, and 

 possibly for the publication of periodical condensed 

 catalogues of British manufacturing firms. 



In proposing his amendment to the Representation 

 of the People Bill, which, as we recorded in our issue 

 for November 15 (vol. c, p. 216), was adopted, giving 

 separate Parliamentary representation with one seat 

 to the University of London, Sir Philip Magnus gave 

 the House of Commons some interesting details of the 

 size and activities of the University. London Univer- 

 sity consists of a collection of colleges and special 

 schools, about eighty in number, scattered over the 

 County of London. It was founded in the year 1837, 

 and for the past fifty years it has been represented in 

 Parliament. It includes under its aegis three large and 

 important classes of teaching institutions. First, there 

 are the Incorporated Colleges, with endowments and 

 other funds, administered by the Senate of the Univer- 

 sity. These comprise University College and King's 

 College, each of which is a complete university in 

 itself. The second group of teaching institutions, 

 known as the " Schools of the University," are thirtv- 

 three in number, and include the Imperial College of 

 Science and Technology and the School of Oriental 

 Studies, both of which have been established to meet 

 not only national, but also Imperial needs Somewhat 

 similar in its Imperial character is the School of 

 Economics. But among these thirty-three schools of 

 the University are the eleven medical schools attached 

 to our hospitals, the Royal Hollowav College, Bedford 

 College for Women, and other institutions. The third 

 class of teaching institutions, twenty-seven in number, 

 include all our polytechnic schools, the laboratories of 

 which are now rendering valuable help to the Ministry 

 of Munitions. There is also the vast scheme of LTni- 

 NO. 2509, VOL. 100] 



versity Extension Lectures. In the session imme- 

 diately preceding the war 135 courses of lectures were 

 delivered on philosophy, economics, history, and other 

 subjects, and were attended by 12,902 students. At- 

 tached to the University itself are more than 100 pro- 

 fessors ; and, in addition, there are 1200 recognised 

 teachers; 21,000 members of the University are or have 

 been serving in his Majesty's forces, and of these 

 nearly 700 have already made the supreme sacrifice. 

 At the General Election in December, 19 10, the number 

 of graduates who voted at the University of Oxford 

 was 6895, at the University of Cambridge 7145, 

 and at the University of London 6072. The number 

 of graduates, therefore, who voted at the London elec- 

 tion was only 823 fewer than those who voted for 

 Oxford, which has the privilege of sending two rnem- 

 bers to Parliament. The total number of male London 

 graduates is about 11,500. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, November 22.— Sir J. J. Thomson, 

 president, in the chair.— C. H. Browning and R. 

 Suibransen : Bactericidal properties conferred on the 

 blood by intravenous injections of diaminoacridine 

 sulphate. Whereas antiseptic compounds are in general 

 greatly reduced in their bactericidal activity by the 

 presence of serum, it has* been found that salts of 

 3 : 6-diaminoacridine, both unsubstituted and also 

 various derivatives with methyl groups substituted in 

 the amino-side-chains, or in the benzol-rings, or in 

 both situations, are enhanced in their lethal action on 

 bacteria by the presence of serum ; this is also the case 

 with the salt of 3 : 6-diamino-io-methylacridinium. The 

 sulphate of 3 : 6-diaminoacridine has been found 

 specially suitable for intravenous injection on account 

 of its low toxicity. By means of an intravenous injec- 

 tion of diaminoacridine sulphate in a dose which had 

 no harmful effect on the treated animal (rabbit), it has 

 been possible to confer antiseptic properties on the 

 blood so that the serum from a specimen of blood 

 withdrawn as late as from two to two and a half 

 hours after the treatment failed to yield a culture when 

 inoculated with Staphylococcus aureus or B. coli. — 

 W. D. Lang: The Pelmatoporinee : an essay on the 

 evolution of a group of Cretaceous Polyzoa. The 

 evolution of this sub-family is considered in detail. In 

 order to present the facts intelligibly, they are mar- 

 shalled according to the following theoretical considera- 

 tions : — The species lie along diverging lineages ; to- 

 wards the bases or proximal ends of these are forms 

 (radicals) with less calcareous skeletal matter and less 

 elaboration of structure, and these forms appeared 

 earlier in geological time ; towards their higher or 

 distal ends are forms with more skeletal matter and 

 more elaborate structure, appearing later in geological 

 time. The evolutionary tendency was to deposit the 

 increasing superfluity of calcium carbonate where it 

 least interfered with the organism's bionomics, if pos- 

 sible in such position and shape as might even be use- 

 ful to the organism. Sooner or later the race perished 

 through being unable to cope with its constitutional 

 and increasing habit of excessive secretion of calcium 

 carbonate. 



Geological Society, November 7.— Dr. Alfred Harker, 

 president, in the chair. — Dr. F. Oswald : The Nimrud 

 crater in Turkish Armenia. The Nimrud volcano, 

 one of the largest craters in the world, is situated on 

 the western shore of Lake Van. and was surveyed 

 geologically for the first time by Dr. Oswald in 1898. 

 The western half of the crater is occupied by a deep 

 fresh-water lake, while the eastern half is composed of 

 recent augite-rhyolites. The crater-wall is highest on 



