May 6, 1897] 



NATURE 



21 



On account of the incidence of the Jubilee celebrations, the 

 degree days at the end of this term are displaced to June i8 

 and 19. 



The Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow each receive 

 the sum of 5000/. by the will of the late Miss Brown, of Water- 

 haughs, Ayrshire. Miss C. Trow has left a bequest of 2000/. to 

 found a scholarship, to be called the " Thomas Trow Scholar- 

 ship," in St. Andrews University. 



At a recent meeting of the Governors of McGill University, 

 it was resolved to institute forthwith a chair of Zoology in the 

 University, the Chancellor, Sir Donald A. Smith, generously 

 undertaking to defray the expenses of the foundation. With the 

 sister department of Botany suitably equipped and provided for, 

 il will be possible to make considerable advances along the 

 lines of biological research and investigation. 



The Lancet states that at the statutory half-yearly meeting of 

 ihe General Council of Edinburgh University, held last week, 

 the draft ordinance issued by the Universities Commission 

 instituting a " Professorship of Public Health and Sanitary 

 Science (to be called the Bruce and John Usher chair of Public 

 Health)" was approved. The professor of this new chair is to 

 have a salary of not less than 600/. Mr. A. L. Bruce's bequest 

 was " in acknowledgment of Pasteur's investigations." 



The March yottrnal of the South-Eastern Agricultural 

 College, Wye, does credit to that young and vigorous institu- 

 tion, and to the County Councils of Kent and Surrey. Mr. 

 1'. \'. Theobald contributes a number of instructive notes on 

 injurious insects ; and there are in the Joitmal several papers 

 which should prove of great value to hop-growers, one, by Mr. 

 John Percival, on the hourly temperatures of hops from the 

 Keyinning to the completion of an oasting, being of special 

 importance. 



The following are among recent appointments : — Dr. Becken- 

 nnp to be professor of mineralogy at Wiirzburg ; Prof. L. 

 iiisen, of Aix, to be professor of chemistry at Kiel ; Dr. 

 vi.iupp to be an assistant professor of anatomy in the University 

 of Freiburg ; Dr. E. H. Loomis, instructor of physics in 

 Princeton University, to be assistant professor of physics in the 

 same University ; Dr. Friedrich Grafe to be associate professor 

 of mathematics in the Technical High School at Darmstadt ; 

 Dr. E. Fischer, associate professor of botany at Berne, to be 

 professor and director of the botanical gardens in that place ; 

 Dr. P. Francotte to be professor of embryology at Brussels, 

 and Dr. P. Stroobant to be professor of astronomy at the same 

 place. 



We have received a copy of a memorandum drawn up by 

 Dr. R. W. Stewart, principal of the Hartley Institution, 

 Southampton, on behalf of the Hartley Council, and sent to the 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer. The memorandum urges the 

 claims of the Hartley Institution to a share of the increased grant 

 which it is proposed to give to the University Colleges of Great 

 Britain. That the Institution is doing valuable educational 

 work must be acknowledged, but, judging from the memo- 

 randum, it attempts too much. We also venture to say that 

 our University Colleges stand on a somewhat higher educational 

 plane than the Hartley Institution, in spite of Dr. Stewart's 

 reorganisation of the work, and the appointment of a "pro- 

 fessional " staff. Certainly, if the application is considered, 

 some of our best technical colleges will be justified in lodging a 

 similar claim. 



Mr. J. Passmore Edwards' contributions to the streams 

 which give life and strength to the physical and mental character 

 of many sections of the community are so numerous, that they 

 are almost past counting. We may be permitted to regret that 

 bat a minor rivulet having Mr. Passmore Edwards' generosity 

 as a source flows through the field of scientific investigation, but 

 at the same time we are glad that the growth and extension of 

 education has been encouraged by a constant flow of gifts. How 

 well Mr. Passmore Edwards has ministered to the general 

 (Ivancement of the people, may be seen from a recent publi- 

 lion containing illustrations of institutional buildings for 

 lucational and ameliorative purposes provided by him in 

 response to public requests, and which will be completed or 

 commenced during this year of the Jubilee. The buildings, 

 twenty-five in all, constitute a most worthy contribution to the 

 stream of individual and organised endeavour made during a 



NO. 1436, VOL. 56] 



notable year of a notable reign for the general good. Ten of 

 the institutions illustrated are public libraries ; two are public 

 libraries and technical schools combined ; and three will be 

 devoted exclusively to artistic, scientific and industrial educa- 

 tion ; while all have been, or are being, built with funds pro- 

 vided by Mr. Passmore Edwards. When it is remembered that 

 these do not include buildings of a similar character erected by 

 the same donor before the commencement of the Diamond 

 Jubilee year, a faint idea may be obtained of the valuable support 

 he has given to educational agencies. 



The Report of the Council of the City and Guilds of London 

 Institute upon the work of the Institute during 1896, may be 

 taken as a complete reply to the few short-sighted people who, 

 about this time last year, wished to see whether the results 

 attained could be expressed in pounds, shillings and pence. In 

 the Central College, and the Technical College, Finsbury, the 

 Institute possesses establishments which show the way to im- 

 prove technical education in this country. At the opening of 

 the former College, the late I^rd Selborne stated that " in the 

 several laboratories with which this College is provided new 

 and increased facilities will be afforded for the prosecution of 

 original research, having for its object the more thorough train- 

 ing of the students, and the elucidation of the theory of indus- 

 trial processes." As a supplement to the education which a 

 student should receive at a college in the technical applications 

 of science, Prof. W. E. Ayrton, the Dean of the College, points 

 out that the experience which the student gains by carrying out a 

 research is of great value in teaching him to think for himself, 

 and acquire habits of self-reliance. Further, his having to 

 adopt expedients for overcoming the experimental difficulties 

 which are met with in all original researches trains his ingenuity, 

 and this is necessarily of great value to one who is about to 

 become an engineer, and who may, therefore, be brought face 

 to face with totally new problems in practical life. The long 

 list of investigations carried out in the various laboratories 

 during the Sessions 1893-96, shows that this prosecution 

 of original research has been carefully kept in view. — Dr. 

 Sydney Williamson, who now holds the Salters' Company 

 Research Fellowship at the College, has selected as his 

 subject of investigation food stuffs generally, and more 

 particularly some of the more definite albumenoids, with 

 the ultimate object of ascertaining the influence of various 

 manures on the growth of crops in so far as quality of produce 

 is concerned. The subject is one of which we know practically 

 nothing, and is obviously of great economic importance. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 

 American journal of Science, April. — Experimental investi- 

 gation of the equilibrium of the forces acting in the flotation of 

 discs and rings of metal ; leading to measures of surface tension, 

 by A. M. Mayer. The author describes a number of experi- 

 ments on the flotation of clean ungreased wires on water. By 

 observing the weight required to make them break through the 

 water surface, a good value for the surface tension of water may 

 be obtained. It is a mistake to suppose that a wire ring will 

 not float unless it is greased. A ring of i mm. aluminium wire 

 5 cm. in diameter will make a depression of 5 mm. in a clean 

 water surface, and requires 26 grams to make it break through. 

 The value of the surface tension of water at 0° obtained by the 

 author is o'o8o9, which is 3J per cent, higher than the mean of 

 all determinations hitherto made. — Note on computing diffusion, 

 by G. F. Becker. Introduces a simplified method of treating 

 diffusion of substances in solvents and of heat in rocks, for the 

 use of geologists, together with skeleton tables for the rapid 

 computation of diffusions — The application of iodic acid to the 

 analysis of iodides, by F. A. Gooch and C. F. Walker. Iodic 

 acid is easily and completely reduced by an excess of hydriodic 

 acid with the liberation of iodine according to the equation : 

 HIO.J + 5HI = 61-1- 3H2O. The authors work out a method 

 for the quantitative estimation of iodides, dependent upon the 

 action of iodic acid or an iodate in the presence of free sulphuric 

 acid, neutralisation of the solution by means of an acid carbonate, 

 and titration of the free iodine by arsenious acid, five-sixths of 

 the iodine thus found being credited to the iodide to be 

 estimated. In the absence of large amounts of chlorides or 

 bromides, the method is simple, rapid, and fairly accurate.— 

 Difference in the climate of the Greenland and American sides 

 of Davis and Baffin'5 Bay, by R. S. Tarr. The climate of 



