March 26, 1896] 



NATURE 



497 



The following are among recent appointments : — Dr. C. A. 

 Strong to lie lecturer on psychology in Columbia University ; 

 Mr. H. C. Warren to be assistant professor of experimental 

 psychology in Princeton University ; Herr H. Hinterberger to 

 be professor of photography in the University of Vienna ; Prof 

 James Holm, of University College, Nottingham, has arrived at 

 Cape Town, to succeed Prof Smith as professor of applied 

 mathematics and physics in the South African College ; Prof 

 Ci. F. Atkinson to be full professor and head of the department 

 of botany in Cornell University ; Mr. Arnold Philip to 

 be professor of electrical engineering and applied physics in 

 the Merchant Venturers' Technical College, Bristol, in place of 

 Prof. W. Wilson, who will shortly vacate the chair in consequence 

 of his appointment to the post of principal of the Salford 

 Municipal Technical School. 



The plans and drawings of the Women's Medical Institute, 

 the new Russian college for granting medical diplomas to 

 women, are, says the Lancet, completed. The building opera- 

 tions will begin next month, and it is hoped that they may be 

 finished in time to open the new institution in August of next 

 year. It has been liberally subsidised by Government and by 

 the municipality of St. Petersburg, and private subscriptions 

 and donations have been neither few nor small. At present 

 the whole capital amounts to about 600,000 roubles (nearly 

 ^^64,000). But of this at least 450,000 or 475,000 roubles will 

 be required for building and furnishing the institute. The late 

 Prof Tchudnofski, whose recent death has created a vacancy in 

 tlie chair of General Therapeutics in the Army Medical 

 Academy, has left to the Women's Medical Institute his entire 

 medical library, containing over 4000 volumes. The number of 

 students who will be admitted to the courses at first has been 

 fixed at 125. Already over 100 applications have been 

 received. 



Vale University is having a run of good fortune. The 

 widow of Thomas G. Sloane will remarry soon after Easter, 

 thereby forfeiting to Yale the sum of 200,000 dols. left by her 

 first husband on condition of her remaining unmarried. She 

 will let the money go without a contest. The will of the late 

 George Bliss, of the great banking house of Morton, Bliss, and 

 Co., was admitted to probate in New York on March 11. 

 Among the bequests is one of 50,000 dols. to Yale, to be disposed 

 of as the President of the University shall direct. A new 

 dormitory is to be erected on the college campus this season, at 

 a cost of nearly 100,000 dols. Ground was broken on March 9. 

 at Washington, for the new American University, the Hall of 

 History being the first building to be erected. This is a 

 university of the Methodist Church, and Bishop Hurst of that 

 Church presided. About 1,000.000 dols. has been secured 

 towards the University fund. This should not be confounded 

 with the proposed University of the United States. Nothing 

 has yet been done regarding the latter, except the introduction 

 of a Bill in Congress ; and the fate of the measure is still 

 problematical. 



When shall we be able to chronicle so many gifts from private 

 persons to science and education in England as the following, 

 which Science announces in a single number? — The will of the 

 late Mr. Hart A. Massey, of Toronto, leaves about 650,000 dols. 

 to educational and charitable institutions, including the following 

 bequests : Victoria College, Toronto, 200,000 dols. ; Wesley 

 College, Winnipeg, Man. , 100,000 dols. ; Mount Allison College, 

 Slackville, N.B., 100,000 dols. ; Wesleyan Theological College, 

 Montreal, 50,000 dols. ; American University, Washington, 

 D.C, 50,000 dols. — The Finance Committee of the Senate of the 

 State of Virginia has presented a Bill appropriating 50,000 dols. 

 annually, instead of 40,000 dols. as heretofore, to the University 

 of Virginia.— The will of the late Mr. Charles L. Colby, of New 

 \'ork, bequeaths 20,000 dols. to Brown University. — Morris M. 

 White and Francis T. White have given to Earlham College, a 

 (Quaker institution in Richmond, Ind., 25,000 dols., to be added 

 to the endowment fund and to be known as the John T. White 

 memorial fund, in honour of their father. — Mrs. Josiah Fiske, of 

 New York City, has given 5000 dols. to Radcliffe College, in 

 memorj' of her late husband. The College has also received 

 6568 dols , the balance of a bequest by the late Caroline B. 

 Perkins. — Mr. T. E. Bondurant, of De Land, 111., has offered 

 to give 20,000 dols. to the endowment fund of Eureka College, 

 Illinois, provided the Board of Trustees will secure 100,000 

 dols. additional by March I, 1897. Mr. T. J. Underwood, of 

 Sangamon County, 111. , has donated 10,000 dols. towards the fund. 



NO. 1378, VOL. 53] 



A RETURN made to the Department of Science and Art, 

 showing the extent to which, and the manner in which local 

 authorities are applying funds to the purposes of technical 

 education (including science, art, technical and manual 

 instruction), has been published as a Parliamentary Paper. The 

 return shows that the total expended on technical education 

 during the year 1893-94 in England, Wales, Scotland, and 

 Ireland was ^"647, 632 ; and that the estimated total expenditure 

 on technical education for the year 1894-95 was ;^737,42i. These 

 amounts are exclusive of the sums devoted to intermediate and 

 technical education under the Welsh Intermediate Education 

 Act. In England, 41 out of the 49 County Councils (excepting 

 the County of Monmouth) are applying the whole of the residue 

 received under the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act to 

 technical education, and 8 County Councils a part of it to the 

 same purpose. Of the Councils of the 61 County Boroughs, 55 

 are devoting the whole of the residue to technical education, and 

 8 a part of it ; while in one case only, the County Borough of 

 Preston, the residue is not being applied to educational purposes, 

 but to relief of rates. Further, the Councils of 11 County 

 Boroughs, 51 Boroughs, and 86 urban districts are making 

 grants out of the rates under the Technical Instruction Acts ; and 

 8 local authorities are devoting funds to technical education 

 out of the rate levied under the Public Librarie.s' Act. In Wales 

 and Monmouth, the 13 County Councils and the Councils of the 

 3 County Boroughs are devoting practically the whole of the 

 residue grant to intermediate and technical education, and 

 several Councils are making grants out of the rates. As regards 

 Scotland, 21 out of the 33 County Councils are applying the 

 whole of the residue to technical education, and 9 a part of it, 

 while 3 use it for the relief of rates. Of the 195 Burghs and 

 Police Burghs, more than half (loi) apply the whole of the grant 

 to the relief of rates. 



Despite Prussia's open secret of a Treasury exhausted for the 

 Army vote, and the consequent amenities between the Ministers 

 of Education and Finance, the necessity of maintaining the trade 

 schools in some degree of efficiency is present to the German 

 official mind. The want of funds applicable to educational pur- 

 poses in Prussia, is among the causes making for the spread of 

 social democracy, and this is particularly the case in the 

 straitened salaries of the teachers of the Volksschulen. A 

 review of the Technical Education item in the Prussian Budget 

 for the last five years shows, however, a healthy growth. For 

 altogether, apart from the continuation schools in West Prussia 

 and Posen, for which special provision is made, the grant for 

 1895-96 was 1,947,257 marks (^^97,362 17^'.), which was an in- 

 crease in the total State subvention of ;^22,304 14^., or nearly 

 30 per cent, of the entire grant. To take the trade schools 

 {Fachschulen) alone, these were especially well treated. The 

 State's expenditure on them rose from 896,993 marks (about 

 ;i^44,85o) in 1891-92,10 1,263,157 marks (about ;^63,i58) in 

 1895-96, or by more than 40 per cent., while their internal history 

 shows an equally satisfactory development. In 1891-92 there 

 were forty-four trade schools subsidised by the Treasury. Of 

 these, four of the least significant have since been closed, while, 

 on the other hand, no less than eight new ones have been started, 

 involving a vote for the current year of more than ;^io,500. 

 Three of these new schools are for building, two for weaving, 

 one for pottery, one for engineering, and one for art industries. 

 Similarly, the contribution to the continuation schools {Fort- 

 vildttngsschukn) reveals an increase by more than 20 per cent., 

 from ^ 22, 000 in 1891-92 to ;i^26, 500 in 1895-96. These figures 

 are at least reassuring, and give hope that during the present 

 year the Treasury will not look askance on the Education Office 

 when it begs for money for the growth of its good work. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



American Meteorological Journal, February. — The rainfall of 

 the Malay Archipelago, by Dr. A. Woeikof. This article is 

 chiefly based upon the observations which have been for fifteen 

 years published in considerable detail by the Observatory of 

 Batavia. It is generally considered that near the equator the 

 rains are everywhere heavy and of nearly daily occurrence. Dr. 

 Woeikof shows that in many localities, e.g. on the open .sea, 

 this is not the case. In the region in question, some of the 

 wettest and some of the dryest stations lie within ij" N. and i" 

 S. of the equator. The most rain falls on the west coast of 

 Sumatra ; the more level Eastern Sumatra and Western Bornet> 



