2IO 



NATURE 



[June 28, 1900 



Emmanuel College : Nixon, Austin, Sutton, Rothera, 

 Banham. 



Sidney Sussex College : Bullough, Colt, Drap»s, Fearnsides, 

 Harrison, Humphrey, Robinson, Gough. 



The Appointments Gazette, which is the journal of the Cam- 

 bridge Appointments Association, gives in its last issue (June 

 1900) much valuable information regarding scientific and other 

 posts open to university graduates. It also contains articles on 

 post graduate work in medicine, by Prof. AUbutt ; on training 

 for business, by Mr. G. E. Foster ; and on Long Vacation courses 

 in French, by Mr. H. J. Millar. A list of some two hundred 

 graduates seeking appointments in various departments of in- 

 dustry, with their university qualifications, ages, &c., completes 

 the journal. This list might be consulted with advantage by 

 heads of departments and others in search of suitable candidates 

 for vacant appointments. The Association is doing a useful work 

 in bringing together employers and employed in the various 

 walks of life where university training is of importance, and it 

 already possesses a large and influential membership. The 

 Master of Trinity is chairman, Mr. W. N. Shaw, F. R.S., 

 vice-chairman, and Mr. W. A. J. Archbold, secretary. 



Prof. Oliver J. Lodge, F. R.S., has been appointed 

 Principal of the University of Birmingham. 



The following appointments at the University College of 

 North Wales, Bangor, are announced : — Mr. W. W. Firth to 

 be assistant lecturer in Electrical Engineering, and Mr. 

 Alexander Darroch to be assistant lecturer in the Day Training 

 Department. Mr. W. Cadwaladr Davies was appointed the 

 representative of the Council upon the Central Welsh Board, and 

 Mr. H. Bulkeley Price the representative on the Carnarvon- 

 shire County Governing Body. 



Dr. John William White, of Philadelphia, has been 

 elected to the John Rhea Barton Chair of Surgery in the Uni- 

 versity of Pennsylvania ; Dr. Frank Morley, of Haverford Col- 

 lege, has been appointed professor of mathematics in Johns 

 Hopkins University, vice Prof. Thomas Craig, resigned ; Prof. 

 Charles J. Bartlett takes the place of Prof. M. C. White, who 

 for thirty-three years has filled the chair of pathology in the 

 Medical School of Yale University. 



The Report of the Council to the Governors of the City and 

 Guilds of London Institute, dated March 1900, has just been 

 issued, and gives a full account of the work accomplished in 

 connection with the year 1899, and contains verbatim reports of 

 the addresses delivered respectively by Sir Andrew Noble and 

 Sir Douglas Fox at the opening of the session, and at the dis- 

 tribution of certificates and prizes. We notice from the report 

 that during the past twenty years the work of the Examinations 

 Department has developed to an enormous extent : thus in i888 

 the number of subjects of examination was 24, the number of 

 centres of examination 89, and the number of candidates 816. 

 In 1899 the number of subjects had increased to 63, the number 

 of centres to 397, and the number of cindidates to 14,004 ; the 

 number of registered classes being 1764, and of students in at- 

 tendance 34,176. These numbers are exclusive of those who 

 receive instruction in manual training. The total number of 

 students last year in the classes registered by the Institute was 

 36,155, as compared with 34,990 in the previous year. 



The following gifts and bequests for scientific and educational 

 purposes aie noticed in Science :—''&y the will of the late Jonas 

 G. Clark, of Worcester, Mass., who founded Clark University 

 in 1889, the entire estate is left to the University, providing the 

 people of Worcester raise a fund of 500,000 dollars. If the sum 

 of 250,000 dollars is raised, he bequeaths 500,000 dollars. If 

 500,000 dollars is raised, he bequeaths 1,000,000 dollars and 

 makes the University hi; residuary legatee. He also leaves 

 100,000 dollars for the University library and a similar sum for 

 a department of art. Messrs. Samuel Cupples and Robert S. 

 Brookings have each given to Washington University one-half 

 of the total capital stock of the St. Louis Terminal Cupples 

 Station and Property Company, which company owns the so- 

 called " Cupples Station." The annual income from this gift to 

 the University will be from 120,000 to 130,000 dollars per year. 

 The gift is to form a permanent endowment fund, the interest 

 of which is to be expended by the Board of Directors in any 

 way which it sees fit. Dr. D. K. Pearsons has offered 50,000 

 dollars to Carleton College, Northfield, Minn., on condition that 

 the college authorities raise 100,000 dollars before January i, 



NO. 1600, VOL. 62] 



1901. By the will of Henry M. Curry the Western University 

 of Pennsylvania receives 10,000 dollars for scholarships ; and 

 the University of Pennsylvania has received 20,000 dollars from 

 Mr. J. D. Lippencott and Mr. J. G. Carruth respectively. 



The second general meeting of the Agricultural Education 

 Committee was held on Friday last at the rooms of the Society 

 of Arts. The report of the executive to the general committee 

 gave a brief account of the constitution and proceedings of the 

 committee from its commencement, and explained that its ob- 

 jects were: (i) to secure systematic and efficient instruction, 

 both theoretical and practical, in agricultural subjects suitable 

 to every class engaged in agriculture ; and (2) to diffuse 

 among the agricultural classes a more thorough appreciation of 

 the advantages of instruction bearing directly or indirectly on 

 their industry. The policy of the committee, the report stated, 

 was largely recognised in the new Day School Code ; and the 

 block grant, the continuous course of rural instruction, lessons 

 in " common things" given through the standards, and the new 

 subject of household management for girls, were all on the lines 

 of the committee's resolutions. Moreover, the executive be- 

 lieved that it was largely due to the representations of 

 the committee that the new Board of Education, shortly after its 

 formation, issued a circular to managers and teachers of rural 

 elementary schools impressing on them the importance of making 

 education in the village school more consonant with the en- 

 vironment of the scholars than was now usually the case, and 

 especially encouraging the children to gain an intelligent know- 

 ledge of the common things which surround them in the country. 

 Other provisions of the new Code were referred to with satis- 

 faction, and the report stated that the committee had not failed 

 to co-operate with the Board of Education in bringing them into 

 effect. With regard to the work which remained to be done, 

 attention should be given to organisation. It would seem that 

 the precedent successfully set some years ago in Scotland of 

 handing over the educational work of the Board of Agriculture 

 to an educational authority, while leaving to the Board the in- 

 spection of experimental and research work, might well be fol- 

 lowed. If that was not done, and the present division of functions 

 continued, the cause of rural education, especially in its higher 

 branches, would undoubtedly suffer. It was also to be hoped 

 that attention would be given to the training of teachers, and 

 that the new Board would introduce some modifications into the 

 curricula of the training colleges to ensure the qualification of a 

 certain number of trained teachers to give instruction on 

 elementary science and common things required by the Code. 

 A good deal also remained to be done in placing evening con- 

 tinuation work on a satisf.ictory footing. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



American Journal of Science, June. — A method o. studying 

 the diffusion (transpiration) of air through water, and a method 

 of barometry, by C. Barus. The diffusion of air through water 

 is studied by observing the gradual loss of the air contained in 

 a Cartesian diver, and this loss is determined from the change 

 in the temperature coefficient contained in the equation of flota- 

 tion. The same equation also involves in a simple manner the 

 height of the barometer ; and a Cartesian diver apparatus is, 

 therefore, virtually a water barometer which need only be one 

 foot high instead of thirty feet. — Separation and determination 

 of mercury as mercurous oxalate, by C. A. Peters. The author 

 estimates mercurous salts volumetrically by precipitating with 

 ammonium oxalate, and determining the oxalic acid by potass- 

 ium permanganate, and gravimetrically by direct weighing of 

 the precipitate. — Electrical resistance of thin films deposited by 

 kathode discharge, by A. C. Longden. The thinnest films have 

 a resistance which is very much higher than is warranted by their 

 thinness. The sign of the temperature coefficient of resistance 

 varies with the thickness, and it is therefore possible to obtain 

 resistances by kathode- ray deposition which do not vary with the 

 temperature. Such resistances form valuable high -resistance 

 standards.— New meteorite from Oakley, Logan county, Kansas, 

 by H. L. Preston. This is a siderite of 61 lbs. found in 1895.— 

 Some observations on certain well-marked stages in the evolution 

 of the Testudinate humerus, by G. R. Wieland. The develop- 

 ment of the humerus of the turtle presents a special interest on 

 account of its graduated change of habitat from dry deserts to 

 the ocean.-— Geothermal gradient in Michigan, by A. C. Lane. 

 The geothermal gradient at Bay City is i '5 degrees F. per lOO 



