JULY 5. 1894] 



NA TURE 



227 



has been done has been animated by earnest desire to 

 preserve tiie finest features of the forest, and through 

 intimate knowledge of its necessities and peculiar 

 conditions." R- Meldola. 



NOTES. 

 The meeting held on Saturday last at the Royal College of 

 Physicians, and reported in the Times, was a very satisfactory 

 one. It was attended by delegates from nearly all the in- 

 stitutions which it was proposed, in the report of the late Royal 

 Commission on the Gresham University, should form con- 

 stituent colleges of the reorganised University of London. Dr. 

 Russell Reynolds, F.R.S., occupied the chair. Since Sir Albert 

 Rollit gave notice in the House of Commons of a motion asking 

 that some action be taken to carry into effect the report of the 

 Royal Commission, there has been ample lime for the various 

 institutions involved in the scheme for a Teaching University 

 to deliberate and deliver their opinions on the recommendations. 

 Practically all the constituent schools and colleges have availed 

 themselves of the opportunity, and have, in the main, expressed 

 approval of the proposals. The time has arrived, therefore, 

 at which to set the machineiy in action which would lead the 

 Government to appoint a Statutory Commission to frame a 

 scheme on the lines of the report of the late Commission. The 

 necessary motive power is contained in the following resolutions 

 put before Saturday's meeting. It was moved by Prof. 

 Erichsen, the president of University College, and seconded by 

 the Rev. Mr. Whitehouse — "That this meeting of delegates 

 from institutions mentioned in the report of the Royal Com- 

 mission on the Gresham University desires to express generally 

 its approval of the proposals contained in the report of the 

 Royal Commission, and would urge on the Government that a 

 Statutory Commission be appointed at an early date with power 

 to frame statutes and ordinances in general conformity with the 

 report of the Royal Commission." This resolution was put to 

 the meeting and was carried, the only dissentients being the 

 representatives of King's College. It was alsa agreed, on the 

 motion of Dr. Norman Moore, "That a copy of this resolution 

 be forwarded to the Lord Chancellor, the Lord President of the 

 Privy Council, the Home Secretary, and the Vice-President of 

 the Council, to be accompanied by a request that they will 

 receive a deputation on the subject, the same to consist of the 

 delegates to this meeting." 



Past and present students of the Mason College, Birming- 

 ham, presented Dr. Tilden with a silver bowl and a congratula- 

 tory address last week, on his removal to the chair of Che- 

 mistry at the Royal College of Science, and as a mark of 

 appreciation of his long and honourable career in connection 

 with the college. The proceedings were of a very enthusiastic 

 character, and Dr. Tilden's students and colleagues vied with 

 each other in exiiressing their esteem for him as a teacher and 

 an investigator. In the course of his reply, Dr. Tilden re- 

 marked that fourteen years ago he went to Birmingham quite a 

 stranger, at a time when there was no science college actually 

 opened. His three colleagues^Prols. Hill, Poynting, and 

 Bridge — were appointed with him as the first four professors of 

 the college, when the building was quite empty. In the first 

 session they had some eighty students between them, and those 

 days were exceedingly happy. Those first professors had un- 

 usual privileges and responsdjilities. They were naturally given 

 a free hand. They had no traditions to live up to, no standard 

 to go by except that which they themselves set up. They were 

 entrusted with ilie great duty, the heavy responsibility, of 

 creating their several departments and building up the life of 

 the college, and setting up standards of teaching and conduct 

 which would serve for their successors. Referring to his 



NO. 1288, VOL. 50J 



successor. Dr. Tilden said that, under Prof. Percy Frankland's 

 care, he had no doubt that the work of the college would 

 advance in the right direction. 



OtJR continental neighbours must often be amused at the 

 forms in which we raise monuments. It will be remembered 

 that a year ago a subscription list was opened for the purpose 

 of erecting a memorial of some kind to Gilbert White. The 

 appeal resulted in. ;^250 being obtained. With this money a 

 hydraulic ram has been fixed at the spring head near the village 

 of Selborne, to force water into a reservoir erected eighty feet 

 above the village. The water runs from the reservoir through 

 pipes laid along the main streets, and tapped at convenient 

 intervals. Selborniles are thus enabled to obtain a supply of 

 water without journeying to the fountain at the spring head, as 

 had previously to be done. This useful and unpretentious 

 memorial is in keeping with Gilbert White's character; never- 

 theless, it seems to us that the committee having the funds at 

 their disposal should also have taken into consideration the fact 

 that he does not belong to Selborne alone, but to all lovers 

 of nature. 



We learn from the British Medical Journal that three 

 further remarkable instances of the success of Prof. HalTkine's 

 system of anticholera inoculation are reported from Calcutta. 

 In the first case, four out of the six members of a family were 

 inoculated last March. The cholera appeared in the neigh- 

 bourhood lately, and the disease attacked one of the two who- 

 had not been inoculated, while the inoculated remained free. 

 In the second case, five members of a family CDnsisting of eleven 

 persons were inoculated in March. The cholera lately attacked 

 one of the six who had not been inoculated. In the third case, 

 six out of a family of nine were inoculated. When the cholera 

 prevailed in the neighbourhood a few days later the disease 

 attacked one of the three not inoculated. It is stated that the 

 Corporation of Madras have passed a resolution inviting Prof. 

 Haftkine to visit that city and introduce his system. 



The Council of the Royal Statistical Society announce that 

 the subject of the essays for the Howard Medal, which will be 

 awarded in 1S95 with 20/. as heretofore, is as follows : — "Re- 

 formatories, and industrial schools of that class, in their relation 

 to the antecedents, crimes, punishments, education after con- 

 viction, and training of juvenile offenders : together with the 

 nature and extent of their influence on the diminution or in- 

 crease of crime generally. These particulars have to be collected 

 and analysed on a statistical basis, both as respects the institu- 

 tions and agencies, public and private, at home and abroad, 

 for the reclamation of juvenile offenders, and the best means of 

 dealing with them on release. This does not include the 

 industrial and training institutions certified by the Local 

 Government Board under the 25 and 26 Vict. cap. 43." The 

 essays should be sent in on or before June 30, 1895. 



The death is announced of Prof. F. Q. Rodriguez, Professor 

 of Crystallography in the University of .Madrid. 



Dr. Joseph Coats has been appointed Professor of Pathology 

 in the University of Glasgow. 



Mr. L. O. Howard has been appointed entomologist to 

 the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in succession to Prof. C. V. 

 Riley. 



Mr. J. Wolfe Barry, the engineer of the Tower Bridge, 

 has had the honour of the Companionship of the Bath con- 

 ferred upon him by the Queen. 



Prof. W. Erb, of Heidelberg University, and F. Jolly, of 

 Berlin, representing an influential committee, invite subscrip- 

 tions for the erection of a monument to the late Dr. Charcot in 

 the Salpetriere. 



