May 17, 1900] 



NA TURE 



69 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambriik.e. — The King of Sweden and Norway was on 

 Monday admitted by the Chancellor to the honorary degree of 

 LL.D. The ceremony was witnessed by a vast assembly, and 

 the King gave much pleasure by his gracious bearing and 

 evident interest in the proceedings. 



The General Board are about to appoint a lecturer in ex- 

 perimental physics in succession to Mr. VV. N. Shaw. Appli- 

 cations are to be sent to the Vice-Chancellor by May 19. 



The Master of Downing and Dr. Barclay-Smith announce a 

 course of instruction in practical histology, to be given during 

 the long vacation, beginning on July 7. 



The trustees of the late Miss R. F. Squire have offered the 

 University a sum of about 13,500/. for the erection of a law 

 library in connection with the new law school, and adjoining 

 the Sedgwick Memorial Museum. This timely benefaction will 

 probably facilitate the speedy erection of the the Botanical and 

 Medical Schools, plans for which are now under the consideration 

 of the Senate. 



The proposal to establish a special examination in the sciences 

 bearing on agriculture, as a qualification for the ordinary B. A. 

 degree, was favourably received in the Senate on May 10, and 

 a grace for its adoption has been sanctioned by the council. 



An examination for minor scholarships in Natural Science will 

 be held at Downing College in March 1901. Application for 

 particulars should be made to the tutor. 



A VERY satisfactory side of technical education is the work 

 carried on in the lecture-rooms and laboratories of University 

 Colleges, in connection wiih Technical Instruction Comniiitees. 

 Two short courses of evening lectures to teachers, just arranged 

 by the Technical Instruction Committee of Liverpool with Prof. 

 Oliver Lodge anl Prof. H.-rlmin, are ins'.anjes in point. The 

 lectures deal with some recent developments of physical and 

 natural science. Prof. Lodge taking for his subject " Electric 

 Vibrations," and Prof. Herdman "Oceanography." The 

 lectures are free to teachers who can give evidence that they are 

 able to profit by them. 



Visits to museums, and outdoor lessons, are counted as 

 school attendances by the Board of Education, with the result 

 that they are now given a definite place in the scheme of in- 

 struction of many schools. In a similar way, the National Zoo- 

 logical Park at Washington is used to place great object-lessons 

 before the hundreds of thousands of visitors to the national 

 capital from all parts of the United States. The pupils in the 

 public schools of Washington benefit greatly by these oppor- 

 tunities. It has become a part of their routine to visit, under 

 the care of a teacher, the Smithsonian Institution and National 

 Museum buildings, as well as the park ; while those outside the 

 city benefit indirectly through the numerous excursions of 

 teachers, and the stimulus and suggestion they may thus receive. 

 • Two new buildings in connection with the Yorkshire College, 

 Leeds, to be devoted to the development of cloth workers' re- 

 search and dyeing, &c., were formally opened, on Friday last, 

 by the Master of the Clothworkers' Company, Mr. A. C. Cronin. 

 Principal Bodington, of the Yorkshire College, the professors 

 and students, and mayors of various boroughs, also attended on 

 the occasion. It was explained that it was intended to raise the 

 tone of dyeing, and that the outlay on the extensions is likely to 

 yield a tenfold return. Mr. Cronin, in declaring the new 

 buildings open, expressed a hope that increased knowledge in 

 the industries would be the result of these extensions. At a 

 luncheon which followed, in responding to the toast of " The 

 Clothworkers' Company," he said it was the intention of the 

 Company that the Yorkshire College should become the first 

 and most complete example of a textile and dyeing school not 

 only in Europe, but in the world. There is now hardly any 

 manufacturing town of any size in Yorkshire which has not its 

 technical school or institute, and with which the Clothworkers' 

 Company has not been or is not still connected. 



The medical school of the future was the subject of an 

 address delivered before the fifth triennial Congress of American 

 Physicians and Surgeons, on May 2, by the president, Prof. 

 H. P. Bowditch, of Harvard. According to Prof. Bowditch, we 

 may expect that a medical school of the first rank will, in the 

 immediate future, be organised and administered somewhat as 

 follows: — (l) It will be connected with a university, but will be 



NO. 1594, VOL. 62] 



so far independent of university control that the faculty will 

 practically decide all questions relating to methods of instruc- 

 tion and the personnel of the teaching body. (2) It will offer 

 advanced instruction in every department of medicine, and will 

 therefore necessarily adopt an elective system of some sort, since 

 the amount of instruction provided will be far more than any 

 one student can follow. (3) The laboratory method of instruc- 

 tion will be greatly extended, and students will be trained to 

 get their knowledge, as far as possible, by the direct study of 

 nature, but the didactic lecture, though reduced in importance, 

 will not be displaced from its position as an educational agency. 

 (4) The work of the students will probably be so arranged that 

 their attention will be concentrated upon one principal subject 

 at a lime, and these subjects will follow each other in a natural 

 order. (5) Examinations will be so conducted as to afford a 

 test of both the faithfulness with which a student performs his 

 daily work and of his permanent acquisition of medical know- 

 ledge fitting him to practise his profession. 



The first official ceremony of the University of London in the 

 new home at South Kensington was the presentation of degrees 

 by the Prince of Wales on Wednesday, May 9. The University 

 has thus entered upon a new phase of its career. As the 

 Chancellor of the University remarked in his address, nothing 

 has been more striking within the last few years than the pro- 

 gress of new universities in different parts of the country. i'he 

 University of Wales, of which the Prince of Wales is Chan- 

 cellor, has been founded, and, although very young, it is 

 already making notable progress and will ultimately be a great 

 success. Besides this, there is the Victoria University, of which 

 Lord Spencer is Chancellor, and which has made remarkable 

 progress ; and also the completely new University of Bir- 

 mingham. What does all this mean? It means that the 

 country is stirred up on the subject of education ; and among 

 all classes and places there is a greater sense of the import- 

 ance of it than ever there has been before. As to the Uni- 

 versity of London, the Chancellor quoted figures to show the 

 great progress which has taken place, and made special refer- 

 ence to the great stimulus to the improvement of the education 

 of women throughout the country arising out of the action of 

 the University in obiaining a supplementary charter to enable 

 women to be admitted to the examinations. Up to the present 

 time the University has been only an examining body. It 

 has by its examinations done a good work for the education 

 of the people, and it has set an example which has had a 

 very important effect upon all the schools throughout the 

 country. But it is now a teaching University, and with its 

 large list of faculties its work will be very widespread. The 

 Prince of Wales then made a few remarks, in the course of 

 which he said : " No one wishes more sincerely than I do 

 happiness and prosperity to this University ; and from all ihatt 

 we have heard from the Chancellor I think the University is in 

 a fair way of becoming one of the greatest importance, and one 

 that will hold its own, no doubt, with many of the others which 

 are of more ancient origin. I am glad to think that, as the 

 result of somewhat difficult, and I may say somewhat delicate, 

 negotiations, the London University has now found a home in 

 this large building, better known as the Imperial Institute, in 

 which, as you all know, I take a deep interest. We are very 

 grateful to Her Majesty's Government for all they have done, 

 and for having facilitated the arrangements which I hope are- 

 now complete. It only rests with me to express the fervent 

 wish that the London University will not regret having come liv 

 a more distant part of London, and that they will find that they 

 have ample room for all their requirements in this University." — 

 Sir Michael Foster, M. P., then addressed those who had 

 received awards at the hands of the Chancellor. He reminded 

 them that the value of the degree was not in the degree itself, 

 but in the labour which had led up to it. The degree might be 

 the guinea stamp, but it was the work and the mental discipline;.- 

 which was the real gold. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, April. — 

 Prof, F. N. Cole summarises the Proceedings of the February 

 meeting of the Society, and abstracts a few of the papers com- 

 municated. The bye-laws were revised. By this amendment 

 it is provided that the ex-presidents shall be life-members of 

 the council, and that the presidential term of office shall be 



