May 29, 19 19] 



NATURE 



257 



t jTjoverning body of medical experts. In addition, 

 lie Tea, Jute, and Mininjj Associations are con- 

 nibuting 60,000 rupees a year for the support of 

 three additional workers to investigate on practical 

 lines those diseases which affect the value of the 

 labour forces. Bombay has always been noted for the 

 liberality of her citizens, so I confidently appeal to 

 this great city to do at least as much for my friend 

 Col. Liston's school here, which he has laboured so 

 long and patiently to found in connection with the 

 Parel Laboratory. 



Now that the world-wide devastation and the 



instruction of irreplaceable human life have at length 



.ased, I should like to see the flow of money diverted 



o the noble object of saving life by means of a great 



xtension of medical research, and I can conceive of 



no more fitting thank-offering for the delivery of the 



world from the greatest menace that has ever 



threatened modern civilisation. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



BiR.Mi.NGHAM. — The Council of the University has 

 approved of the representation of the non-professorial 

 members of the teaching staff on the faculties, the 

 representatives to be elected by the non-professorial 

 members. Hitherto this privilege has been confined 

 to the faculty of medicine, but it is now to be extended 

 to the other faculties. It is proposed that there shall 

 be three representatives on the faculty of science and 

 two on the faculty of arts. 



Cambridge. — The question as to whether the Uni- 

 versity is prepared to accept financial assistance from 

 the Government under the conditions laid down in 

 Mr. Fisher's letter, referred to last week (p. 229), 

 will be submitted to the Senate on May 31, 

 when the following grace will be offered : — That 

 (i) the Vice-Chancellor be authorised to inform Mr. 

 Fisher that the University would welcome a compre- 

 hensive inquiry into its financial resources instituted 

 by the Government, and give every assistance in its 

 power; and (2) pending such inquiry the Vice-Chan- 

 cellor be requested to draw the attention of the 

 Government to the pressing need for an emergency 

 i^rant. 



The Goldsmiths' Company has agreed to efive a sum, 

 not exceeding 5500Z., to the University for the pur- 

 pose of extending and equipping the department of 

 metallurgy. The Goldsmiths' readership in metallurgy 

 was founded by the company in 1908, and Mr. C. T. 

 Heycock was appointed reader. The metallurgical de- 

 partment was at first housed in two rooms in the 

 chemical laboratory, but the number of students 

 rapidly increased, and when the department of agri- 

 culture left the chemical laboratory in 1910, Sir William | 

 I'o|xj assigned the rooms thus vacated to metallurgy. 

 The Goldsmiths' Company most kindly contributed 

 the sum of 800/. for the alteration and equipment of 

 these rooms. Furnaces, muffles, and high-temperature 

 recording apparatus were installed, as well as the neces- 

 sary assay and other balances. In addition, the ap- 

 paratus used bv Messrs. Heycock and Neville in their 

 work on alloys was moved from their private labora- 

 torv into the new rooms, which thus became provided 

 with a complete photomicrographic equipment. The 

 number of students working at metaliurgv has now 

 increased beyond the capacity of th(> present laboratory, 

 and the grenerous gift of the Goldsmiths' Company 

 'ill provide a new analytical laboratory, with benches 

 ipplied with compressed air and high- and low-voltage 



NO. 2587, VOL. 103] 



direct current, a balance room, and also a room for 

 general galvanometer and photographic worK, with 

 gas furnaces round the walls. Accommodation for 

 sixteen students working at assaying and general 

 mineral analysis and for ten research students will thus 

 become available. 



Mr. R. I. Lynch, who has been curator of the 

 University Botanic Garden since 1879, has resig-ned his 

 office on medical grounds. Before coming to Cam- 

 bridge Mr. Lynch had held the post of senior foreman 

 at Kew. Under his care the Botanic Garden has played 

 a most important part in the University teaching, and 

 the University showed its appreciation of his scientific 

 work by conferring upon him in 1906 the honorary 

 degree of M.A. His devotion to the welfare of the 

 garden, and his readiness to assist all who made de- 

 mands upon his unrivalled knowledge, have grained for 

 him the respect and affection of many friends, and his 

 departure from Cambridge will be greatly regretted. 



Oxford. — Notice is given of the forthcoming elec- 

 tion to a tutorial fellowship at Exeter College for the 

 teaching of chemistry. Applications must be sent to 

 the Rector of the college by June 10. The fellowship 

 is of the annual value of' 200I., pins certain allow- 

 ances. 



Government grants to University institutions in 

 Oxford have hitherto been limited in amount, and 

 confined to one or two departments which were doing 

 work of special importance to the Government. The 

 question of larger subsidies has now been raised, 

 partly on the initiative of the Government itself. Re- 

 luctance has always been felt by many in Oxford to 

 seek pecuniary aid in this manner, from the appre- 

 hension that it might lead to the sacrifice of academic 

 independence. It is certain that no gratit would be 

 given without a comprehensive inquiry into present 

 resources and the use being made of them, and it 

 remains to be seen whether the prospect of rnuch- 

 needed financial assistance will outweigh the dislike 

 of interference with the autonomy so rnuch prized by 

 a large number of members of the University. 



The Hallev lecture was delivered by Prof. Horace 

 Lamb at the University Museuin, on May 20, before 

 a large and appreciative audience. In dealing with 

 the subject of the tides, Prof. Lamb directed atten- 

 tion to the discrepancy between the theoretical out- 

 come of calculation and the actual phenomena experi- 

 enced, pointing out that the equilibrium theory is a 

 theory of tidal forces, not of their results. The 

 method of computation originated by Kelvin and 

 George Darwin, known as the method of harmonic 

 analysis, rested on a combination of theory and 

 observation. It was suggested some fifty years ago 

 that the tides might ^ive some idea of the rigiditv 

 of the globe as a whole. Kelvin pointed out that if 

 the interior of the earth were fluid, tides would occur 

 internallv. Pendulum experiments had shown, bv 

 deflection of the plumb-line, that the earth does yield 

 somewhat to tidal influence. Its rigidity is about 

 equal to that of a globe of steel. 



Dr. Gisbert K.app is about to resign the professor- 

 ship of electrical engineering in the l^niversity of 

 Birmingham. 



Mr. W. Thomson, hitherto head of the physics 

 department of Battersea Polytechnic, has been ap- 

 pointed principal of the Croydon Polytechnics. 



Dr. H. Pringle, lecturer on histology in the Uni- 

 versity of Edinburgh, has been appointed to succeed 



