May 12, 1910J 



NATURE 



327 



Cambridge. — On account of the death of his Majesty the 

 King all invitations issued for the laying of the foundation- 

 stone of the New Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology 

 are cancelled. 



The increased entry in the University is shown by the 

 fact that on May 3 seventeen undergraduates inatriculated. 

 This brings the total number of students for the academic 

 year 1909-10 up to the present date up to 1217, as con- 

 trasted with 116^ at the same date last year. 



The Special Board for Geographical Studies has reported 

 on the financial position of the Department of Geography. 

 The University makes an annual grant to the Board of 

 200/., and the Royal Geographical Society makes a grant 

 of a similar sum. This latter sum is primarily assigned 

 to the stipends of a university lecturer in regional and 

 physical geography and a university lecturer in surveying 

 and cartography, who are called the Royal Geographical 

 Society's lecturers in their respective subjects. The depart- 

 ment has, however, grown, and the Special Board is of 

 opinion that a further 200Z. a year is the smallest addi- 

 tional sum with which it will be possible to make adequate 

 provision for the study of the subject. The Board is of 

 opinion that further accommodation for the department is 

 urgently required. Application has already been made for 

 the assignment of a lecture room, a laboratory, and some 

 private rooms in the block of buildings now under con- 

 struction. In order that geography may assume its due 

 place in the studies of the University the Board looks for- 

 ward to the appointment of a professor and of a reader 

 with three lecturers under them. 



Mr. Cyril Strickland, of Gonville and Caius College, has 

 been appointed assistant to the Quick professor in place of 

 Mr. H. B. Fantham, who has resigned the post. 



Dr. T. G. LongstafT will deliver a lecture in Cambridge 

 on Thursday, May 19, at 5 p.m., on " Glacier Exploration 

 in the Eastern Karakoram Himalayas." The lecture, illus- 

 trated by lantern slides, will be given in the Sedgwick 

 Museum. 



Mr. E. Torday will give a lecture on his investigations 

 among the Bushongo of the Kasai basin on Thursday, 

 May 19, at 8.30 p.m., in the Museum of Archrcology and 

 Ethnology. 



Oxford. — Dr. G. C. Bourne, Linacre professor of com- 

 parative anatomy, and Mr. E. S. Goodrichj fellow of 

 Merton College, have been appointed representatives of 

 the University at the eighth International Congress of 

 Zoology, to be held at Graz in August next. 



Mr. W. Fischer Wilkinson has been appointed prin- 

 cipal of the newly constituted School of Metalliferous 

 Mining (Cornwall). Mr. Wilkinson's duties will not com- 

 mence until the next session in September, but he has 

 already associated himself with the governors in drafting 

 the prospectus of the new school, which will be issued 

 shortly. Mr. J. J. Beringer, who for twenty -eight years 

 has been principal of the Camborne Mining School, will 

 join the staff of the School of Metalliferous Mining and 

 will take charge of the metallurgical subjects. 



Science announces that Johns Hopkins University has tct 

 ceived an offer of 50,000/. from the General Education 

 Board for the purpose of aiding the University in its efforts 

 to put into operation certain extensions and improvements 

 that have been under consideration for several years, 

 including the erection of new buildings. This sum will be 

 contributed conditionally on the raising of a supplementary 

 sum of 125,000/. by the University by December 31, 1910. 

 The Universit}', however, is endeavouring to raise 400,000/., 

 half for new buildings, while the other 200,000/. will be 

 used for endowment. Among the extensions contemplated 

 are a school of engineering, a department of preventive 

 medicine, and a building for pathology. From the same 

 source we learn that a joint hearing on the Bills to appro- 

 priate 130,000/. for new buildings for the College of Agri- 

 culture and 26,000/. for new buildings for the Veterinary 

 College at Cornell University was given last month by the 

 finance committee of the Senate and the ways and means 

 committee of the assembly. 



The seventh annual meeting of the central council of 

 the -Association for the Advancement of the Scientific 

 Education ot Indians was held in Calcutta on April 14. 

 We learn from the Pioneer Mail that the resolutions were 



VOL. 8 T, 



carried unanimously to the following effect : — That the 

 Government be asked to fulfil its promise of starting 

 graduate classes in mechanical and electrical engineering, 

 mining and industrial chemistry, in connection with the 

 Sibpur Engineering College at an early date ; that Indian 

 capitalists be appealed to to start industries and employ 

 Indian experts in preference to foreign experts ; that this 

 council strongly urges upon the University and the Govern- 

 ment to insist upon the training of the hand and eye of 

 students attending schools ; that Indian capitalists may, 

 with every prospect of success, start the following indus- 

 tries, which have proved successful in Japan : — matches, 

 pencils, porcelain, enamel, tobacco, sugar, hosiery, soap, 

 perfumery, paper, glass, umbrellas, biscuits, leather, and 

 printing-ink, industries for which experts trained by the 

 association are available ; that a syndicate be formed to 

 raise 25 lakhs of rupees from the people of Bengal for 

 starting industries to give employment to the large number 

 of students who have been sent to foreign countries for 

 industrial education- 



In view of the fact that the Union Government will 

 have to take over higher education shortly in Cape Colony, 

 Prof. A. S. Kidd, of Rhodes University College, has pre- 

 pared a brochure of forty-eight pages on the subject, and 

 it is published by Messrs. Grocott and Sherry, of Grahams- 

 town, at the price of one shilling. Prof. Kidd first ex- 

 plains the Higher Education Act of 1874, deals with the 

 recommendations of the commission of 1879, and then 

 describes the various colleges of the west and east of Cape 

 Colony. His concluding section is concerned with the 

 future of higher education in South Africa, and urges that 

 one of the first duties of the Union Parliament should be 

 to appoint a commission to inquire into and to report 

 upon the whole subject. The chief work of the com- 

 mission. Prof. Kidd thinks, should be the consideration of 

 '■ the following points : — which of the existing colleges 

 , deserve to be recognised as State colleges receiving 

 j generous support ; what should be the constitution and 

 I functions of the various college councils ; the special lines 

 : on which each college should be encouraged to develop ; 

 I the salaries, good service pensions, and status of pro- 

 j fessors ; the advisability of having some system of triennial 

 ; inspection of college progress and efficiency ; and the exist- 

 I ing debts on colleges in Cape Colony, endowed chairs, 

 bursaries, and scholarships. 



As has been announced alreadj- in these columns, the 

 third International Congress for School Hygiene is to be 

 I held in Paris from August 2 to .August 7. The president of 

 the congress is Dr. A. Mathieu, the honorary president 

 being the French Minister of Public Instruction. The busi- 

 ness of the congress will be transacted in ten sections, as 

 follows : — educational buildings and furnishings, president. 

 Prof. Courmont, of Lyons ; hygiene of residential schools, 

 president, M. Jules Gauthier, director of secondary educa- 

 tion to the Minister of Public Instruction ; medical inspec- 

 tion of schools and individual health records, president, 

 M. Le Gendre ; education and phv sical training, president, 

 M. ■ Cazalet ; the prevention of contagious diseases in 

 schools, president. Prof. Hutinel ; out-of-school hygiene, 

 president, M. E. Petit ; the hygiene of the teaching staff, 

 president, M. G. Lyon, rector of the University of Lille ; 

 teaching of hygiene, president. Prof. Pinard ; teaching 

 methods and syllabuses in relation -to school hygiene, presi- 

 dent. Prof. G. Lanson ; and special schools for abnormal 

 children, president, M. Gasquet, director of primary 

 instruction to the Minister of Public Instruction. The 

 general secretary of the congress is Dr. Dufestel, 10 Boule- 

 vard Magenta, Paris. Sir Lauder Brunton, Bart., F.R.S., 

 is the president of the English organisation committee, and 

 Dr. James Kerr and Mr. E. White Wallis are the honorary 

 secretaries, to whom inquiries should be addressed at the 

 Royal Sanitary Institute, 90 Buckingham Palace Road, 

 London. S.W. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Zoological Society, April 19.— Dr. S. F. Harmer, 



F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — Stanley Kemp : 



Notes on the photophores of decapod Crustacea. — J. Lewis 



Bonhote : Variations of Mus raitus, founded on an 



NO. 211 



D' 



