AIarch j, 1920] 



NATURE 



17 



^^including structure and materials; and (4) instru- 

 j^^Vments, meteorology, and navigation. It would follow, 

 [^^■therefore, that certain of the professors or lecturers 

 I^^Kn each of these subjects will discharge double respon- 

 ^^■Lsibilities (a) as members of the staff of the Imperial 

 ^■TClollege and {b) as officers of the research organisa- 

 ^^r tion directed by the Aeronautical Research Com- 

 ^B mittee. 



^^ The Interim and Final Reports of Special Com- 

 mittee No. 5 of the Civil Aerial Transport Committee 

 contain much valuable information as to the organisa- 

 tion of teaching and research. One factor of import- 

 ance which they emphasise is the need for a trained 

 staff to act as a clearing-house for the co-ordination 

 and dissemination of aeronautical knowledge in all its 

 aspects. The Central School of Aeronautics should, 

 in our view, serve this purpose. 



The functions of the teaching staff of the School 

 rnay be stated under four distinct, though closely 

 related, purposes : — (a) To study, co-ordinate, sum- 

 marise, apply, and extend the knowledge derived from 

 the experimental work carried out by the individual 

 workers at various experimental stations in this 

 country and abroad, (b) To stimulate research bv 

 Indicating what information is most urgently required 

 and what line of attack is likely to prove most profit- 

 able, (c) To guide and encourage research by con- 

 structive criticism based on a careful study of past 

 and current work in this country and abroad, (d) To 

 impart this knowledge by personal teaching to a 

 limited number of post-graduate students. 



A similar clearing-house for current knowledge 

 would be of value in any science, but for aeronautics 

 it is, for the present, essential; for whereas in 

 older sciences — physics, for instance — the bulk of the 

 experimental data has, throughout the course of 

 generations, crystallised into well-defined laws which 

 form a framework ready to receive any new facts and 

 a criterion by which their accuracy can be estimated, 

 in aeronautics the facts are the result of the work of 

 the last five or ten years, and the framework uniting 

 them exists only in the minds of the few men who 

 have been personally connected with the process of 

 development. 



Before the war the total available knowledge was 

 small, and it was possible for the members of the 

 Advisorv Committee to keep all the facts in mind 

 while devoting most of their time to other duties. 

 They then provided the necessary co-ordinating 

 factor. This is no longer possible, and the function 

 rould best be discharged by the staff of the School 

 working under their director with the view of co- 

 ordinating and making available all the knowledge in 

 each branch of the work as existing at the moment. 

 For these reasons it is essential that the permanent 

 staff of the Central School should be adequate both 

 In numbers and in range of experience to the duties 

 outlined above. 



The subject of meteorology, including with it 

 training in navigation and the use of instruments 

 i^mployed in flight, is one of great importance. The 

 position, however, of the teacher of this subject must 

 Itpend on the action taken with regard to research 

 ind inquiry into meteorological science generally. We 

 have made provision in the estimates for a teacher in 

 meteorological subjects closely connected with aero- 

 nautics who should combine this work with research 

 at one of the experimental stations. His work would 

 bo brought into connection with the central meteoro- 

 logical establishment. We would add that, quite apart 

 from the other interests concerned, we feel it our duty 

 to press for the establishment of a properly equipped 

 centre of teaching in this subject, the need for which 

 has been felt for some years and is now acute. 

 NO. 2627, VOL. 105] 



Notes. 



Bv a majority of seventy-five in a House of close 

 on eight hundred Oxford has decided, for good or ill, 

 that the Greek language shall no longer be a com- 

 pulsory study for any of her alumni. In favour of 

 the statute embodying this policy, which came before 

 a full meeting of Convocation on March 2, speeches 

 were delivered by Mr. C. Bailey, of Balliol College, 

 Dr. Farnell, Rector of Exeter College, and Dr. David, 

 Headmaster of Rugby. The opposition was under- 

 taken by Mr. R. W. Livingstone, of Corpus, Mr. R. 

 Carter, Headmaster of Bedford Grammar School, and 

 Mr. John Murray, M.P., of Christ Church. The issue 

 before Convocation was, perhaps, not quite so clear 

 as it might have been; for it is probable that many 

 voters thought that the rejection of the statute would 

 have meant the perpetuation of the old form of 

 Responsions, an examination which is allowed on 

 all hands to be in need of radical reform. There is 

 no doubt that in any case, whether the statute passed 

 or was rejected, no attempt would have been made by 

 the advocates of Greek in Responsions to make that 

 language compulsory for passmen or for honours candi- 

 dates in science or mathematics. But the feeling against 

 compulsory Greek in any circumstances prevailed with 

 the majority of voters, and Oxford has distinctly and 

 definitely decided that, so far as she is concerned, the 

 Greek language, however desirable as a study for 

 sf>ecialists, is no longer to be considered a necessary 

 element in a general education. The present vote may 

 be taken as the final settlement of a keenly debated 

 and long-protracted controversy. 



The council of the Royal Society has decided to 

 recommend for election into the fellowship of the 

 society the following fifteen from the list of candi- 

 dates : — Dr. Edward Frankland Armstrong, Sir 

 Jagadis Chunder Bose, Dr. Robert Broom, Prof. 

 Edward Provan Cathcart, Mr. .Alfred Chaston Chap- 

 man, Dr. Arthur Price Chattock, Mr. Arthur William 

 Hill, Dr. Cargill Gilston Knott, Prof. Frederick 

 Alexander Lindemann, Dr. Francis Hugh Adam 

 Marshall, Dr. Thomas Ralph Merton, Dr. Robert 

 Cyril Layton Perkins, Prof. Henry Crozier Plummer, 

 Prof. Robert Robinson, and Prof. John William 

 Watson Stephens. 



The King has been pleased to approve the appoint- 

 ment of the Right Hon. Sir Auckland C. Geddes, 

 K.C.B., President of the Board of Trade, as his 

 Majesty's .Ambassador Extraordinary and Pleni- 

 potentiary in Washington. Sir .Auckland Geddes was 

 formerly demonstrator and assistant professor of 

 anatomy in the University of Edinburgh ; professor 

 of anatomy, Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin ; and 

 late professor of anatomy, McGill University, Mont- 

 real. A year ago he was appointed to succeed the 

 late Sir William Peterson as principal of McGill Uni- 

 versity, and he has now cabled his resignation of 

 this post. 



During the war little was heard of wireless tele- 

 graphy except that its use by unauthorised persons 

 was entirely prohibited, but a great deal of pioneering 

 research in the development of new methods and the 



