602 



NATURE 



[October 20, 



examination system lingers on, and yearly claims its 

 victims. 



The University of Wales is to be congratulated in 

 that so far it has recognised no examinational post- 

 graduate work at other universities as fit work for the 

 graduates sent out to represent it in the academic world. 

 If higher degrees than that of B.A., M.A., or B.Sc. are 

 required by these, there are the degrees of D.Litt., and 

 D.Sc. of their own university, which it is to be hoped 

 will be given solely as a reward for meritorious research. 



It is essential for success in research that the man 

 should be started when his mind is fresh, and he has not had 

 time to acquire that morbidly critical habit of mind which 

 residence at some of the universities seems to encourage 

 so much, and which has been so fatal to the performance 

 of real work by many highly gifted men. 



Research will encourage resource, and the application 

 of knowledge to real problems will foster a dependence 

 on self which cannot but be of the greatest value to the 

 possessor. Going out into the world of learning in a 

 self-respecting way, received with due recognition of the 

 position he has attained by the university to which he 

 goes to reside, he will gain experience of the world, and 

 be less apt to show that limitation of mental horizon, and 

 that superciliousness of intellect, so characteristic of 

 many, though happily by no means of all, who have 

 taken high honours at the old universities. 



But the best answer to the contention that a long and 

 arduous preparation beyond the Bachelor's degree is 

 necessary for successful research is to be found in the 

 fact that already the contrary has been demonstrated at 

 the Welsh colleges. One young man of great promise 

 did most excellent work in Germany in the difficult field 

 of the study of old Celtic manuscripts, another has made 

 his name known in physical research. Both have re- 

 turned to their college to teach, and their presence has 

 proved a stimulus and inspiration to others. If the 

 example thus set is followed by others in the Welsh 

 University, and the Fellowship system is allowed a 

 patient and fair trial, the results cannot fail to be of the 

 greatest benefit to all concerned. Knowledge will be 

 increased, the University by respecting itself and its 

 students will be respected and its work will be recog- 

 nised, and its alumni will have no cause to complain of 

 the estimation in which the public hold the credentials 

 they have received from their Alma Mater. 



A. Gray. 



NOTES. 



The meetings of the International Conference on Scientific 

 Literature, held last week at the Royal Society, came to an end 

 on Thursday. A list of the delegates appointed to attend the 

 Conference appeared in last week's Nature, with an account of 

 the dinner given by the Royal Society in their honour. We 

 hope shortly to give a report of the questions discussed and the 

 resolutions adopted. 



The annual general meeting of the London Mathematical 

 Society will be held on Thursday, November lo. Lord Kelvin 

 has acceded to the request of the Council, and will be nominated 

 for the office of President, Prof. H. Lamb, F.R.S., will be 

 nominated for a Vice-Presidentship. The retiring members 

 are Messrs. Jenkins and G. B. Mathews, F.R.S. The former 

 thus severs his long connection of more than thirty years — he 

 being almost an original member. Prof. Elliott, F. R S. , has 

 chosen for the subject of his address, "Some secondary needs 

 and opportunides of English mathematicians." 



With the object of comparing systems of electric traction 

 suitable for use in London, the London County Council have 

 consented to permit the London United Tramways Company to 

 NO. 15 1 2, VOL. 58] . 



re-construct one section of their lines in the neighbourhood of 

 Hammersmith on the overhead trolley system of electric trac- 

 tion, on condition that two other sections are laid down on the 

 underground conduit plan. 



In his opening lecture to the engineering students at Cam- 

 bridge on Friday last, October 14, Prof Ewing intimated that the 

 crowded state of their lecture-rooms and laboratories would soor» 

 be relieved. A gift of 5000/. had just been made for the 

 addition of a new wing to the engineering laboratory in memory 

 of the late Dr. John Hopkinson and of his son, John Gustave 

 Hopkinson, who recently lost their lives in the Alps. Dr. 

 Hopkinson's son was to have begun work at this time as a 

 student of engineering at Cambridge. This splendid and wel- 

 come gift was made by Mrs. Hopkinson jointly with her so» 

 Bertram and her surviving daughter. 



The Harveian Oration was delivered at the Royal College of 

 Physicians on Tuesday by Sir Dyce Duckworth, who, after 

 urging the claims of the college to the consideration of generous 

 benefactors, pointed out that Harvey had definitely charged 

 them to encourage research. The lecturer is reported by the 

 Times to have said that what were greatly needed now in Eng- 

 land were research laboratories attached to hospital wards and 

 post-mortem theatres, and also a select staff of fully trained in- 

 vestigators available for service throughout the Empire. It was 

 surely humiliating that researches were permitted to be made for 

 the public benefit in various parts of British territory by 

 foreigners, while many of their countrymen and countrywomen, 

 owing to ignorance and mawkish sentimentality, were doing 

 their best to debar the training of such men in England. After 

 alluding to the results of recent pathological research in regard to 

 the preventive treatment of tuberculosis. Sir Dyce Duckworth 

 observed that the Rontgen rays had as yet yielded little new in- 

 formation, and their therapeutic influence was not determined, 

 but, according to Rieder, of Munich, the rays emitted from 

 "hard," vacuum tubes killed bacteria. The influence of 

 glycerine in destroying some of the most noxious microbes 

 which gained access to ordinary vaccine lymph was very note- 

 worthy, and he could not but imagine that this agent might yet 

 be found of more extended usefulness as a bactericide. Express- 

 ing his private opinion, though he believed it to be shared by the 

 majority of those he addressed, he did not hesitate to stigmatise 

 the recent Vaccination Act as a piece of panic legislation, a 

 lamentable concession to ignorance, fraught with serious peril to 

 the whole community, and unworthy of the duty and dignity of 

 any British Government. He closed with a brief appreciation 

 of Harvey's chief scientific achievements, and of his great guiding 

 principle, devotion to truth. 



Mr. W. H. Preece, C.B., F.R.S., will deliver the inaugural 

 address at the new session of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 

 on Tuesday, November i. The Council of the Institution have 

 made the following awards out of the trust funds at their 

 disposal for the purpose for original papers dealt with during 

 the year 1897-98. The formal presentation will take place 

 on November i : — Telford medals and premiums — A. PL 

 Preece (London) and H. C. Stanley (Brisbane, Queensland) ; 

 Watt medals and premiums— H. L. Callendar, F.R.S. 

 (London), and J. T. Nicolson (Montreal, Canada) ; George 

 Stephenson medals and premiums— Whately Eliot (Plymouth), 

 W. O. E. Meade-King (London), and W. P. Marshall (Bir- 

 mingham) ; the Crampton prize— E. W. Anderson (Erith) ; 

 Telford premiums — L. B. Atkinson (Cardiff), Henry Fowler 

 (Horwich), W. L. Strange (Bombay), F. J. Waring (London), 

 D. W. Brunton (Denver, U.S.), Wilfred Airy (London), E. 

 M. Bryant (Newcastle-on-Tyne), D. B. Butler (London), and 

 H. V. Champion (Victoria) ; the James Forrest medal — W. L. 

 Brown (London); Miller prizes-C. E. Wolff" (Derby), A. D. 



