I 



November 21, 1895] 



NA TURE 



69 



ime to come. We learn, however, that he is making satisfactory 

 rogress towards recovery. The Provost of King's College, late 

 \ ice-Chancellor, is acting for him. 



Dr. a. Weismann has been granted the degree of Doctor 

 wiioris causA by the University of Utrecht. 



Science states that at the annual meeting of the Chicago 

 Alumni of Mount Holyoke College, on October 24, Dr. D. K. 

 Pearson offered to give ^30,000 to the College, provided the 

 alumni would raise an additional ;^io,ooo. 



A MEMORIAL from the London School of Medicine for Women 

 was considered at a meeting of the Council of the Royal College 

 of Surgeons of England, last week, and it was resolved that — 

 "The Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 

 although in favour of granting the petition of the officers and 

 teachers of the London School of Medicine for Women, do not 

 see their way to admit women to the Conjoint Examination in 

 f\ice of the adverse vote of the meeting of the Fellows and 

 Members of this College and the expressed opinion of the Royal 

 College of Physicians." 



At a meeting of the Council of University College, Dundee, 

 on Monday, the question of the relations of the college to St. 

 Andrews University was considered. It was decided to address 

 a letter to her Majesty's Commissioners expressing the willing- 

 ness of the Council to consider carefully any suggestion from the 

 Commissioners with a view to removing the difficulties in 

 which, by recent events, the University and the college had 

 been placed, and in particular to meet the Commissioners and 

 the University Court to discuss anew any proposals which 

 might form the basis of a new agreement between the two 

 institutions and secure to each the advantages provided for in 

 the Universities Bill of 1889. 



The following are among recent appointments : — Prof. 

 S. L. Barton to be professor of mathematics in the 

 University of the South, Seewanee, Tennessee ; Dr. A. 

 Macfarland to be lecturer in physics in Lehigh University ; 

 Dr. G. B. van VIeck to be associate professor of mathe- 

 matics in Wesleyan University ; Prof. C. A. Waldo to be 

 professor of mathematics at Purdue University ; Prof. K. 

 Zickler to be professor of technical electricity in the Technische 

 1 lochschule at Briinn ; Dr. R. Dzieslewski to be professor of 

 the same subject at Lemberg Technische Hochschule ; Dr. F. 

 Mehres, extraordinary professor of physiology in the Bohemian 

 University at Prague, to be professor ; Dr. F. R. von Hohnel 

 to be professor of botany and technical microscopy in the 

 Technische Hochschule at Vienna ; Dr. H. Klinger to be 

 professor of chemistry at Kcinigsberg ; Dr. E. Waelsch to be 

 extraordinary professor of mathematics in the German Technische 

 Hochschule at Briinn. 



A CONFERENCE of the leading teaching and examining bodies 

 of the kingdom and of representative County Councils which 

 are in a position, under the County Councils Act, to contribute 

 funds for the purpose of technical instruction, was held last 

 week, under the auspices of the London Chamber of Commerce, 

 at Drapers' Hall, Sir Albert K. Rollit (President of the 

 Chamber) presiding. The conference agreed to a resolution 

 approving the principle of the co-ordination and simplification of 

 the present system of examinations in commercial subjects, and 

 the matter was referred to the Commercial Education Committee 

 of the London Chamber of Commerce to consider details and 

 formulate a scheme to carry this resolution with effect, it being 

 understood that the Chamber would enlarge its Committee for 

 this purpose by the addition of some members of the conference. 

 I'erhaps now that the Chamber of Commerce has taken steps to 

 organise commercial education, it may go on, and, in the course 

 of time, do something for instruction in science. 



From statistics in the Detitscher Universitdts Kalender it 

 appears that the number of persons attending lectures in German 

 universities during the winter semester of 1894-95 ^'^s 13,021, 

 of whom 8755 were in attendance at Berlin, 1587 at Bonn, 1350 

 at Breslau, 1168 at Erlangen, 1216 at Freiburg, 556 at Giessen, 

 843 at Gottingen, 775 at (Jreifswald, 1643 ^^ Halle, 1230 at 

 Heidelberg, 667 at Jena, 532 at Kiel, 737 at Konigsberg, 31 12 at 

 Leipzig, 852 at Marburg, 3561 at Munich, 421 at Miinster, 420 

 at Rostock, 980 at Strassburg, 1 184 at Tubingen, and 1492 at 

 Wlirzburg. At Berlin, however, the matriculated students num- 

 bered only 5631, the remaining 3724 being persons who had re- 

 ceived permission to attend lectures without being enrolled as 



NO. 1360, VOL. 53] 



cives acadernici ; at Leipzig there were 127 of such students, and 

 at Munich only 86. In the law department (including camera- 

 listics and forestry) there were at Berlin 1667, at Leipzig 985, 

 and at Munich 1230 students; in the medical department (in- 

 cluding surgery and pharmacy) at Berlin 1220, at Leipzig 752, 

 and at Munich 1 168 ; in the philosophical department (including 

 philology, mathematics, &c.) at Berlin 1660, at Leipzig 856, and 

 at Munich 700. 



Several noteworthy points are referred to in the Report of 

 the City and (Guilds Technical College, Finsbury, for the session 

 1894-95, i" addition to the usual statistics and statements as to 

 the number and quality of the students and the work of the 

 different departments. During the session a number of students 

 entered the College with scholarships from various County 

 Councils and other bodies. A few of these were able to obtain 

 the full, benefit from the instruction given, but some of them had 

 gained their scholarships when too childish to benefit properly 

 by the College system. Others suffered from imperfect pre- 

 liminary training, having lieen crammed to pass examinations 

 rather than trained how to learn. And the result of it all is that 

 the Principal points out that care must be exercised in future, 

 and influence brought to bear upon the educational advisers of 

 the various County Councils as to their selection of scholarship 

 holders. As a step towards the better selection of qualified 

 candidates, it is proposed to introduce a slight modification into 

 the entrance examination of the College. As with other Colleges 

 on the same status, it appears that amongst the newly-admitted 

 students every year there are a number who have never been 

 taught to take notes, to write original descriptions, or even to 

 use indices or books of reference. The presence of these students 

 has been found greatly to retard the general course of teaching, 

 and causes much waste of time. The time of lecturers and 

 demonstrators is taken away from their proper work to teach the 

 new students things which they ought to have learned at school. 

 As a step toward remedying this matter, it is proposed in future 

 to lay more stress upon the English subjects in the entrance 

 examination, by giving them greater prominence, and by assign- 

 ing higher marks for such as fir^cis writing and composition. 

 In concluding his report, Prof. Thompson has something to say 

 about the future of the College. The large Technical Institutes 

 which have sprung up during the past few years, m various parts 

 of London, have affected the trade-classes at the College to a 

 certain extent, and have also diminished the numbers of students 

 attending the elementary classes. But these Institutes have only 

 affected the elementary part of the work, and the indications 

 are that the more advanced students from the elementary work 

 of the Institutes should pass to the Technical College to carry 

 it on. No institution in London is attempting to give in its 

 evening classes instruction of so thoroughly scientific a character 

 as is given at that College ; the instruction is, indeed, admirably 

 suited to supplement the work of the various Polytechnics. It 

 is therefore proposed to develop the courses of special lectures 

 given at Finsbury, and to raise the scientific standard of the 

 evening class work, so as to make the College a focus for the 

 higher branches of study, and for more specialised classes than 

 those of the Technical Institutes. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, vol. ii. No. 

 I, October 1895. — The number opens with accounts of the pro- 

 ceedings at the second summer meeting of the American Mathe- 

 matical Society, held at Springfield, Mass., on August 27 and 

 28, and of the proceedings at the meeting of Section A of the 

 American Association, held at the same place, from August 29 

 to September 4. The papers at each meeting are given in 

 abstract, and two of them are printed in full, viz. on the 

 differential equations of certain systems of conies, by R. A. 

 Roberts, and asymptotic lines on a circular ring, by Prof. 

 Maschke. The results in the former paper are principally 

 deduced by means of elliptic integrals and the first class of 

 hyper-elliptic integrals, and from these are derived theorems 

 concerning doubly infinite porisms of curvilinear polygons. The 

 latter paper contains an application of elliptic functions to curves 

 drawn on the surface of a circular ring. — Prof. F. Morley com- 

 municates a short note on a generalisation of Weierstrass's 

 equation with three terms. — The notes contain various items of 

 interest, and the list of publications is unusually full. 



