June 28, 19 17] 



NATURE 



3:)/ 



of institutions outside the council. This committee 

 has formulated a series of resolutions, which are now 

 issued with the general approval of the members of 

 the association, and among- them the following may 

 be noted : — 



That the Government be asked to prevent any child 

 leaving school before the end of the term in which 

 the child attains its foiu-teenth birthday; that the 

 State should make adequate grants for the mainten- 

 ance of free scholars proceeding from primary schools 

 to secondary and junior technical schools ; that there 

 shall be instituted compulsory attendance at continua- 

 tion classes up to the age of eighteen years, such 

 attendance to be made in the davtime, and the f>eriod 

 of instruction to be not less than eight hours per 

 week, such hours to be within the normal hours of 

 employment ; that the conditions for admission to 

 universities should be reconsidered and rendered more 

 uniform as between different universities, and less 

 uniform as between different faculties and different 

 honours schools in the same university, and that in 

 the interest of candidates of mature age and of other 

 candidates approaching the university otherwise than 

 through the normal avenue of the secondary school, 

 university entrance tests should be distinguished from 

 secondary-school examinations; that it is desirable that 

 there should be a large increase in the number of 

 scholarships with adequate maintenance grants to 

 enable candidates to proceed to day technical colleges ; 

 that teachers in technical departments of universities 

 and technical colleges be encouraged to undertake re- 

 search on behalf of, and in co-operation with, manu- 

 facturing firms : that in view of the national import- 

 ance of technical education the State should bear a 

 much larger proportion of its cost than is now the 

 case; that Gov^ernment grants in aid of technical re- 

 search should be largelv increased; that it is essential 

 that the chief officials of the Technological Branch of 

 the Board of Education should have had a scientific 

 training; and that the examinations of the Civil Service 

 and for other Government appointments, when not 

 directly on the subjects of the service, should include 

 such science subjects and syllabuses,- and should be 

 so marked as will eive the student with a scientific 

 training an equal chance with a student who has had 

 a literary training. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



London. — The Senate has elected Sir Cooper Perry, 

 physician at, and superintendent of, Guy's Hospital, 

 to the office of Vice-Chancellor for the year 1917-18, 

 in succession to Sir Alfred Pearce Gould'. 



The thanks of the Senate have been accorded to the 

 Right Hon. Lord Reay. K.T., for the gift of a portion 

 of his library to the Universitv for the University 

 College libraries, and to Mr. George Hare for the gift 

 of 5oi. to found a zoology prize at King's College, in 

 memon.' of his son, a medical student, who was killed 

 at the battle of Gaza. 



The following doctorates have been conferred : — 

 D.Sc. in Physiology, Mr. S. W. Patterson, an internal 

 student, of University College, for a thesis entitled 

 "The Action of Carbon Dioxide and Adrenalin on the 

 Heart"; D.Sc. {Economics), Mr. J. E. Holloway, an 

 internal student, of the London School of Economics, 

 for a thesis entitled " The Prelude to the Great Trek " ; 

 D.Sc. in Zoology, Mr. Cvril. Crossland. an external 

 student, for a thesis entitled " Desert and Water Gar- 

 dens of the Red Sea," and other papers. 



Oxford, — Sir Napier Shaw, Director of the Metegro- 

 logical Office, has been appointed Hiallev lecturer for 

 1918. 



NO. 2487, VO'l. 99] 



The School of Geography has published its arrange- 

 ments for the ensuing Michaelmas term. These in- 

 clude lectures, tutorial instruction, and field work. 

 Among the subjects announced are : — " Maps : their 

 Construction and Interpretation"; "The Alps and 

 Northern Italy," Mr. Beckit; "The British Isles," 

 Miss MacMunn ; " Eastern Australia and New 

 Zealand," Mr. Spicer; "Geology," Prof. SoUas; and 

 "Historical Geography of Great Britain," Mr, Grant 

 Robertson. 



A list of lectures and other courses of instruction for 

 the forthcoming term has also been issued by the De- 

 partment of Anthropology'. In physical anthropology 

 lectures will be given by Prof. Thomson and by Miss 

 Czaplicka, the latter on' ethnology. The geographical 

 distribution of man will be dealt with bv Mr. Beckit. 

 Mr. H. Balfour. Prof. Sollas, and Mr.' Griffith will 

 lecture respectively on prehistoric archaeology, on stages 

 of human culture, and on ancient Egypt. Various 

 topics of social anthropology will be taken in hand by 

 Dr. Marett, Sir P. Vinogradoff, Prof. Macdonell, Mr. 

 V. A. Smith, and Mr. Blunt. Prof. Wright will lec- 

 ture on philology-, and Prof. J. A. Smith on primitive 

 language in its relation to thought. 



Mr. T. H. Bickerton has been appointed lecturer 

 on ophthalmology in the University of Liverpool in 

 succession to Mr. E. A. Browne, who has resigned 

 the position. 



The title of Emeritus professor has been conferred 

 upon Col. de Burgh Birch, imtil lately professor of 

 physiology and histology, and dean of the faculty of 

 medicine, in the University of Leeds. 



The proceedings at the annual general meeting 

 (March 29) of the Council of Education, Witwaters- 

 rand, published in a report just received from Johan- 

 nesburg, show that we were right in our article of 

 August 10 last year when we said that apparent 

 grievances and jealousies would end in a unanimous 

 effort to establish a real university for Witwaters- 

 rand. We wish we could hope that the present en- 

 trance examination for the diploma of the School of 

 Mines might be regarded as sufficient for matricula- 

 tion in the new university, at all events for under- ^ 

 graduates proceeding to science degrees. 



Among the many problems connected with engineer- 

 ing upon which experience gained during the war 

 has shed fresh light is that of the workshop training 

 of apprentices. An article which appears in Engineer- 

 ing for June 22, by Mr. Neil J. Maclean, gives an 

 interesting account of the system which has been in 

 operation for twelve years at the works of Messrs. Barr 

 and Stroud, Ltd., Glasgow. The author lays down six 

 axioms which should be borne in mind in instituting 

 any apprenticeship system, (i) The apprentice must 

 be always busy, thus necessitating the time and atten- 

 tion of a skilled man. (2) The apprentice must be 

 always learning ; he must be taught to do a certain 

 thing properly, and must then be moved on to a 

 different kind of work. (3) Engineering is an exact 

 science, and the apprentice must develop the scientific 

 mind ; to obtain the desired result, the training must 

 involve an intimate mingling of practical and theo- 

 retical work, of shop experience and study, of things 

 seen and done, things noted and written down. (4) 

 The apprentice's course of training must not be deter- 

 mined by the shop foreman or manager responsible 

 for output; in our opinion, the author touches a fruit- 

 ful source of grievance here. A lad does well at a 

 certain job, and the foreman keeps him at it in order 

 to maintain output, regardless of the loss of experience 

 to the apprentice and the ultimate loss to the firm. 



