May 5, 1910] 



NATURE 



297 



confirms the results of Blaauw that the light of a mercury 

 vapour lamp or direct sunlight acting for a period of 

 I /2000th second is sufficient to produce a stimulus. Mr. 

 F. Kolbl, describing his experiments on the heliotropic 

 sensibilitj- of woody plants, notes that shrubs are more 

 sensitive than trees. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — Honorary degrees will be conferred this 

 term upon Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., principal of the 

 University of Birmingham, and Prof. W. H. Perkin, 

 F.R.S., professor of organic chemistry in the Victoria 

 Universit}- of Manchester. 



Mr. K. J. J. Mackenzie has been appointed university 

 lecturer in agriculture for five years as from January i, 

 1910. 



Dr. T. Percy Nunn, vice-principal of the London Day 

 Training College, will give a lecture on psychology and 

 some problems of education on Friday, May 13, at Gon- 

 ville and Caius College. The lecture will be open to all 

 interested in the subject. 



Oxford. — The Romanes lecture for 19 10 will be 

 delivered in the Sheldonian Theatre on Wednesday, May 18, 

 at 2.30 p.m., by the Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, ex-President 

 of the United States of America. The subject chosen by 

 Mr. Roosevelt is " Biological Analogies in History." Lord 

 Curzon of Kedleston, Chancellor of the University, will 

 preside. 



The first Halley lecture, established " in honour 

 and memory of Edmund Halley (sometime Savilian 

 professor of geometry in the University and Astronomer 

 Royal) in connection with his important contributions to 

 cometary astronomy and to our knowledge of the mag- 

 ^tism of the earth," will be delivered on Tuesday, 

 Liy 10, at 5.30 p.m., in the University Museum, by the 



under. Dr. Henrv Wilde, F.R.S. The' title of the lecture 

 - " On Celestial Ejectamenta. " 



Dr. E. J. GoDDARD, Linnean Macleay fellow in zoology. 

 -• dney, has been appointed by the council of Stellenbosch 

 "illege. South Africa, to the chair of zoo^5Sv and geology 

 succession to Prof. R. Broom. 



The thirty-seventh annual dinner of old students of the 

 Royal School of Mines will be held on Thursday, Mav 26, 

 at the Hotel Cecil. The chair will be taken by Sir 

 Thomas H. Holland, K.C.I. E., F.R.S. 



A COURSE of eight lectures on "The Chief Animal and 

 \ egetable Pigments " will be delivered in the Physiological 

 Institute (University College) of the University of London 

 on Fridays during May and June, commencing on Friday, 

 May 6, by Dr. S. B. Schryver. The lectures are open to 

 all students of the University, and also to all qualified 

 medical men and other persons who are specially admitted. 



In an article in the current number of the Oxford and 

 Cambridge Review, Mr. John C. V. Bevan, formerly 

 Rhodes scholar and fellow of University College, Oxford, 

 combats a statement which has been circulated that there 

 is no return to the countries which send Rhodes scholars 

 to Oxford. It appears that, of eighty-two .Americans, 

 eighty-one have returned home, while one has accepted a 

 university appointment in England. Of fifteen Germans, 

 fourteen have returned to the Fatherland, and one has gone 

 to America. Seventy-eight colonials have completed their 

 tenure as Rhodes scholars ; fifty-one have already returned 

 to their colonies ; twelve are completing a further course of 

 study before they return ; three have obtained appointments 

 in India ; two in colonies other than their own ; two in 

 foreign countries ; one is temporarily engaged in parochial 

 work in this country ; four have accepted teaching posts in 

 English universities, but are hoping to secure professorial 

 appointments in their own colonies ; three only have decided 

 definitely to settle in England. 



A REPORT as to the disposal of the balance of the grant 

 to university colleges of loo.oooZ. for 1909-10, and as to 

 changes in the list of participating colleges, has been sent 

 to the Treasurj- by the advisor}- committee on the grants. 

 The report, together with Treasury Minutes thereon, has 



NO. 2 114, VOL. 83] 



been printed and circulated as a Parliamentary Paper (no). 

 The committee has already recommended the payment to 

 the recognised colleges of general grants for the year 

 1909-10 on the same basis as in the two preceding years, 

 and it now recommends the payment of further grants to 

 thirteen colleges, varying in amount from 2000/. to Victoria 

 University, Manchester, to 500/. to University College, 

 Reading. The committee has had under consideration 

 whether any new colleges should be added to the list of 

 those which participate in the Treasury grants. Special 

 attention has been given to the claims of Hartley College, 

 Southampton ; Royal Albert Memorial College, Exeter ; 

 East London College ; and Birkbeck College, London. 

 The committee recommends in regard to Hartley College, 

 Southampton, that it shall not remain permanently on the 

 list of university colleges in receipt of Treasury grants, and 

 that its grant, reduced to 1500Z., shall be continued for the 

 year ending March 31, 191 1, but no longer. The committee 

 has felt unable to recommend the award of a Treasury 

 grant to the Royal Albert Memorial College, Exeter, and 

 Birkbeck College. It recommends, however, that the East 

 London College be awarded a grant subject to conditions 

 set forth in the report, and will consider at what amount 

 the grant for the quinquennium beginning with the year 

 1910-11 shall be fixed. The Treasury has concurred in the 

 committee's recommendations, and will give effect to them. 



Two fellowships, to be known as the " A.K. Travelling 

 Fellowships," are to be established in the British Isles by 

 M. Albert Kahn, of Paris, for the purpose of providing 

 selected persons with bourses de voyage to enable them to 

 travel in foreign countries. Each fellowship is to be of 

 the value of 660/. This sum is to be expended by each 

 fellow as to 600Z. in defraying his travelling expenses, and 

 as to Sol. in the purchase of books and souvenirs. The 

 only condition which each fellow is required to fulfil is 

 that he shall, at the expiration of his fellowship, prepare 

 a report containing his impression of the countries he has 

 visited. It is the desire of the founder that these travels 

 shall be used as an opportunity of acquiring knowledge 

 and experience which will be of use to the fellows in their 

 future careers as teachers, scholars, or investigators. M. 

 Kahn has arranged that his intentions shall be carried out 

 by a board of trustees, consisting, in the first instance, of 

 the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice, the Speaker 

 of the House of Commons, the principal of the University 

 of London, Lord Avebury as nominee of the founder, and 

 a sixth person to be elected by the other trustees. From 

 an article in the Times it appears that the trust is to be 

 associated permanently with the University of London, and 

 this has been carried into effect by the principal of that 

 University being appointed as one of the trustees. He will 

 also act as the honorary secretary' to the trust, and the 

 office through which the trust will be administered will be 

 in the University building. The trustees have been in- 

 structed to invite nominations from the Vice-Chancellor or 

 other executive head of each of the universities in the 

 United Kingdom, from the president of the Royal Society, 

 and from the president of the British .Academy, although 

 they are not required to confine their election to the persons 

 so nominated. 



Last September Dr. .\. D. Waller, F.R.S., delivered an 

 address to the University- of California, and the substance 

 of it is published in the current issue of Science Progress 

 as an article entitled " The University of London and an 

 Imperial Institute of Science." Dr. Waller directed atten- 

 tion to the immediate future of the University' and to some 

 of the first principles that determine the healthy university 

 in the healthy community. Incidentally, he pointed out 

 that it is upon the combination between teaching and re- 

 search, and not upon their separation, that the intellectual 

 welfare of a community and of an individual depends. The 

 best guide to any district of knowledge is the man who has 

 been there himself as an explorer or as a pioneer. Discuss- 

 ing university research fellowships, he maintains that no 

 condition of life is more enviable than that of a keen- 

 brained man during the best ten years of intellectual life, 

 from, say, the age of twenty-five to that of thirty-five, in 

 receipt of a salary of 200Z. for teaching during half the 

 week and of a fellowship of 200/. for " researching " during 

 the other half. Under such conditions of life the return 



