29S 



NATURE 



[January 24, 1895 



Annual Committee of Convocation, and the Committee 

 of Graduates of the University of London ; the Royal 

 Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons ; University Col- 

 lege ; King's College; Bedford College; the Medical 

 Schools ; the Theological Colleges ; and the Association 

 for Promoting a Professorial University for London took 

 part, and a second in the afternoon, composed solely of 

 members of Convocation opposed to the scheme. 



Lord Rosebery's replies show that personally he is 

 anxious to give effect to the Commissioners' recommen- 

 dations. To the first deputation he said that the Govern- 

 ment attach great importance to the Report of the 

 Commission, and are fully sensible of the fact that the 

 present time seems to offer a favourable opportunity, and 

 one that ought not to be postponed, for the appointment 

 of a Statutory Commission in the sense desired by those 

 who had addressed him ; while to the second, he made it 

 clear that the opinions of the Government point in the 

 direction of the appointment of a Statutory Commission, 

 which would be able to receive full representations from 

 any interests involved, and thereby be enabled to arrive 

 at a scheme not unsatisfactory both to the present 

 University and to the Empire at large. 



Lastly, on Tuesday evening. Convocation of the 

 University of London met, and for the first time came 

 face to face with the question of approval or disapproval 

 of the Commissioners' recommendations. As pointed 

 out in a previous article (vol. I. p. 269), the power of veto 

 possessed by Convocation under the Ch.irter lent con- 

 siderable importance to the decision arrived at, since an 

 adverse vote might seriously retard the reorganisation 

 of the existing University. In view of this contingency, 

 it is highly satisfactory to record that Convocation, the 

 last of the bodies to which the scheme has been sub- 

 mitted, by 1 57 votes to 133 resolved — " That Convocation, 

 while desiring to express generally its approval of the 

 proposals contained in the Report of the Royal Commis- 

 sion, is of opinion that power ought to be given to the 

 Statutory Commission to vary the details of the scheme, 

 and that it ought to be made an instruction to the Com- 

 missioners, before framing the statutes and regulations, 

 to confer with duly accredited representatives of the 

 Senate and of Convocation as to the modifications which 

 may be desirable ; " a previous resolution affirming that 

 there should be one University in London, and not two, 

 being carried by a slightly larger majority, namely, 206 

 votes to 175. These majorities may not be large, but 

 they may be fairly taken to proportionately represent the 

 opinion of the 3600 members of Convocation, since so 

 far as any expression of opinion has been elicited by the 

 various parties, 1165 members have expressed general 

 approval of the Commissioners' recommendations, while 

 900 have indicated that in their view any teaching Univer- 

 sity for London ought to be constituted apart from the 

 existing University. It may be earnestly hoped that with 

 this vote the long controversy within the University has 

 come to an end, and that all parties will now unite in the 

 endeavour to make the new University worihyof the 

 capital of the Empire. \V. Pai.mek Wynne. 



NOTES. 



We are informed that Mr. G. F. Scott Elliot has arrived at 

 Illanlyrc, in the Shin' Highland*, on his way home. His route 

 from Ruwenzori has Ixen by Karagwe and Urundl, to the 

 extieme north of Tanganyika, which was travcr.'ied in Arab 

 dhowi to Abcrcorn. Thence he followed the usual route by 

 the Stevenson Roid to Lake Nyoua and the Upper Shird-. 



Prop. E. WARnuKO, Profesior of Physics in Freiburg 

 Univer-ily, has been appointed Prof. Kundt's successor in 

 Berlin University. 



NO. 1317. VOL. 51] 



M. Hautefeuille, Professor of Mineralogy at the Sor- 

 bonne, has been elected a member of the Section de Minera- 

 logie of the Paris Academy of Sciences. 



Dr. S. Nawaschin has been appointed Professor of Botany 

 and Director of the Botanic Garden at Kiew, Russia. 



The death is recorded, at Berne, on December 13, of Dr. F. 

 A, Fliickiger, well known for liis researches in pharmacologica 

 botany, at the age of sixty-six. 



Dr. Murray Thomson died on the 13th inst., in his sixty- 

 first ye.ir. He was a Fellow of the R0y.1l Society of Edinburgh 

 and a Fellow of the University of CilcuUa. For some years 

 he was Professor of Experimental Science in the Government 

 Engineering College, Roorkee, and chemical examiner for the 

 Government in the North-Western Provinces of India. He 

 was also the author of several medical and chemical treatises. 



The 7»«« correspondent at Teheran reports that the town 

 of Kuchan, which was destroyed by an earthquake fourteen 

 months ago, and immediately rebuilt, was again destroyed on 

 January 17. The extent of the damage and the loss of life 

 are not yet known. Earthquake .-.hocks were also felt at 

 Meshed, but no damage was done. 



We learn that a general survey of the tiles and currents on 

 the Canadian coasts is now being commenced by the Canadian 

 Department of Marine and Fisheries. It cannot fail to be of 

 great use to navigation, and of especial interest lo science, as the 

 districts will include the phenomenal one of the Bay of Fundy 

 with its 70 feet rise of tide, with which we have nothing to 

 compare in magnitude iii the British Isles. 



The Konigllche Gesellschaft der Wissenschafien of Gii'.tingen 

 are organising a conference of delegates of scientific societies 

 and academies, for the consideration of the relations between 

 the variations in the intensity of gravity and the geological 

 constitution of the earth's crust. It is intended that the con- 

 gress shall take place at Innsbriick on September 5, where 

 and when the International Geodetic .Association will hold a 

 meeting. 



The first number of the new series of Stieiice has now 

 reached us. To the editorial committee announced in our 

 issue of December 20, should be added President T. C. Menden- 

 hall of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Physics), Prof. 

 R. H. Thurston of Cornell University (Engineering), Prof 

 Le Conle of the University of California (Geol )gy), and Prof. 

 H. F. Giborn of Columbia College (Gener.-il Biology). The 

 editorial committee, composed of the American men of science 

 best known in England, and the contents of the first number, 

 promise a journal that will adequately represent the progress 

 of science in America. If in a multitude of counsellors there 

 is wisdom, the j mrnal .should greatly .idvance scientific know- 

 ledge ; not, however, by publishing memoirs and papers for 

 specialists, but by promoting intercourse between students of 

 all branches of nature. 



On Friday, the nth inst., the Physical Society of London, 

 in response to an invitation from Prof Carey FoUer, visited 

 the new physical laboratories of University College. Before 

 the commencement of the regular meeting in the lecture theatre 

 (a repoit of which will be found in another column), the large 

 number of members present went over the laboratories and 

 practical class-rooms. There are three large rooms solidly built 

 on the ground, and devoted to the use of the more advanced 

 students, and of those cngiiged in original research. They arc 

 in a separate building apart from the main structure, and were 

 specially built for physical work. Above one of them is the 

 optical ro5m, while within the main ^building there are two 



