November 20, 1919] 



NATURE 



325 



of graduates and students who had fallen in the war ; 

 and 2000/. from Mr. Bonar Law and other heirs of the 

 late Mr. J. R. K. Law, of Glasgow, for the founda- 

 tion of a post-graduate studentship in applied science, 

 to be held b}' bachelors of science pursuing advanced 

 studv or research at universities or scientific institu- 

 tions in Canada, the United States, or Frapce. The 

 Rector was also asked to accept, on behalf of the 

 French Government, a collection of about 500 volumes, 

 chieflv Scottish, illustrative of the ancient Franco- 

 Scottish alliance. These had been contributed by 

 members of the University as a fraternal gift to the 

 I'niversitv of Nancy, in M. Poincar^'s native pro- 

 vince of Lorraine, the library of which had been 

 completelv destroyed by a German incendiary bomb 

 in October, 1918, a few days before the armistice. 

 The Rector accepted the gift, and presented to the 

 University of Glasgow a fine Sevres vase ^or the 

 Hunterian Museum as a souvenir of his visit. In 

 the afternoon President Poincar^ was made an 

 honorary freeman of the Citv of Glasgow. 



Mr. Jolin T. Cargill has offered the I'niversitv a 

 gift of 20,000/. to found a chair of applied phvsics. 



Dk. R. H. Puk.vrd, F.R.S., principal of the Muni- 

 cipal Technical School, Blackburn, has been appointed 

 principal of the Battersea Polytechnic. 



Mrs. Maria Louisa Medley has bequeathed ;o,oooZ. 

 tb the L'niversity of Oxford to be applied for a George 

 Webb Medley scholarship for the promotion of the 

 study of political economy. 



Lord Milner, Secretary of State for the Colonies, 

 has appointed a Committee to consider whether the 

 staff of the .Agricultural Departments in the Colonial 

 Services is adequate, and, if necessary, to recommend 

 increases of staff; to consider whether the rates of 

 salary offered to the agricultural staff are adequate, 

 and, if necessary, to suggest improvements; and to 

 make recommendations for improving the arrange- 

 ments for recruiting agricultural staffs for the 

 Colonies. The members of the Committee are : — Sir 

 Herbert Read, Assistant Under-Secretary, Colonial 

 Office (chairman); Lt.-Col. Sir David Prain, director 

 of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew ; Sir Flenrv 

 Birchenough, chairman of the Empire Cotton-growing 

 Committee; Prof. J. B. Farmer, professor of botany. 

 Imperial College of Science; Sir Francis Watts, 

 Imperial Commissioner of Agriculture for the West 

 Indies; Major R. D. Furse, Assistant Private Secre- 

 tary (Appointments), Colonial Office ; and Mr. F. L. 

 Sidebotham, of the Colonial Office (secretary). 



The King has approved the appointment of Royal 

 Commissioners to consider the applications which have 

 been made by the Universities of Oxford and Cam- 

 bridge for financial assistance from the State, and for 

 this purpose to inquire into the financial resources of 

 the Universities and of the colleges and hrdls therein, 

 into the administration and application of these re- 

 sources, into the government of the Universities, and 

 into the relations of the colleges and halls to the 

 Universities and to each other, and to make recom- 

 mendations. The Commissioners constitute one body, 

 but are authorised to sit for purposes of inquiry in 

 three separate committees. They consist of the fol- 

 lowing :- Chairman of Commission: Mr. H. H. 

 .\squith. Oxford Comtnittec : Mr. H. H. .\squith 

 fchairinan). Lord Chalmers, Sir John A. Simon, the 

 Very Rev. T. B. .Strong (Dean of Christ Church, 

 Oxford), .Sir H. A. Miers (Vice-Chancellor of Man- 

 chester University), Prof. W. H. Bragg (Quain pro- 

 fe.ssor of physics in London l'niversity). Prof. W. G. S. 

 .\dams (Gladstone professor of political theory and 

 institutions, Oxford). Miss Emily Penrose (Principal ' 



NO. 2612, VOL. I04I 



of Somerville College, Oxford), and Mr. Albert Mans- 

 bridge. Cambridge Committee: Mr. G. W. Balfour 

 (chairman), Mr. Arthur Henderson, Sir W. Morlev 

 Fletcher (fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge), Sir 

 Horace Darwin, Mr. G.. M. Trevelyan, Dr. H. K. 

 Anderson (Master of Gonville and Caius College, Cam- 

 bridge), Miss B. A. Clough (Vice-Principal of Newn- 

 ham College, Cambridge), Dr. Montagu R. James 

 (Provost of Eton College), and Prof. A. Schuster 

 (secretary of the Royal Society). Committee on 

 Estates Management : Lord Ernie (chairman), the 

 Hon. Edward Strutt, Sir Howard Frank, Sir J. H. 

 Oakley (past-president of the Surveyors' Institution), 

 and Mr. H. M. Cobb (fellow and member of the 

 council of the Surveyors' Institution). The secretary 

 of the Commission is Mr. C. L. Stocks. There are 

 three assistant secretaries, namely : — For the Oxford 

 Committee, Mr. Marcus N. Tod,' fellow and tutor of 

 Oriel College, Oxford ; for the Cambridge Committee, 

 Mr. Edward Bullough, fellow of Gonville and Caius 

 College, Cambridge ; and for the Estates Committee, 

 Mr. C. B. Marshall. The offices of the Commission 

 are at 2 Oueen .Vnne's Gate Buildings, Oueen Anne's 

 Gate, S.W.I. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Physical Society, October 24.— Prof. C. H. Lees, 

 president, in the chair. — Dr. N. W. McLachlan ; The 

 effect of pressure and temperature on a meter for 

 measuring the rate of flow of a gas. The theory of 

 an instrument for measuring the rate of flow of a gas 

 is outlined, the effects of variation in the temperature 

 and pressure of the gas being taken into consideration. 

 This theory is tested experimentally for pressures 

 varying from 1250 to 250 mm. Hg, and for tempera- 

 tures from 10° C. to ioo° C. It is found to be fairly 

 accurate. The results are applied to the measurement 

 of the rate of flow of gas on an aeroplane in the upper 

 atmosphere, where a reduction in temperature and 

 pressure is encountered. It is shown that the instru- 

 ment reading for a certain N.T.P. volume of gas 

 depends on the altitude, but that this volume can be 

 obtained by using a correction factor. — Capt. J. H. 

 Shaxby : A cheap and simple microbalance. ^The in- 

 strument, devised for bacteriological use, had to be 

 cheap and moderately robust. It consists of a long 

 horizontal fibre joining the lower ends of two vertical 

 beams, each pivoted very little above its centre of 

 mass. A small weight acting at the middle of the 

 fibre thus causes a considerable depression. This is 

 read off by arranging a slider on a vertical millimetre 

 scale about 2 ft. in front, so that the middle of the 

 fibre and a second short fibre placed just behind it are 

 in line with a "peephole" on the slider. Adjustment 

 is provided for quickly and largely altering the sensi- 

 tiveness. The deflections are converted to masses by 

 the use of calibrating weights. The apparatus is built 

 up from a "Meccano" .set.— J. W. T. Walsh; The 

 resolution of a curve into a number of exponential 

 components. The paper gives a method for the resolu- 

 tion of a curve of the compound exponential form 



H 



H= 2(i,f^i' into its components, the values of a and 



1 

 A for the n different exponential terms being found 

 from 2n values of B equidistant along the axis pf t., 

 .\ method is also given for finding the most prpbable 

 values of these constants from any number (>2fi) of 

 observed values of B taken at irregular intervals of t. , 

 Aristotelian Society, November 3.— Prof. James Ward, 

 president, in the chair.^The President: Tnaugufal ad- 

 dress : In the beginning . . . The problem that the uni- 



