212 



NATURE 



[July 



90- 



logia; primo Prselector mox Professor factus, quern 

 honorem, nulli antea apud nos concessum, novem et 

 triginta annos nullo intervallo retinuit, nee nisi octo 

 abhinc annos deposuit. Primus etiam eodem fere tempore 

 minerarum in Musaeo Britannico custos creatus trium et 

 viginti annorum labore effecit ut maxima vis minerarum 

 omnium, nusquam alias jn omni orbe terrse invenienda, 

 intra parietes Mussei Britannici congereretur. Quod ad 

 scientiam exquisitiorem pertinet, natura lapidum de caelo 

 iactorum investiganda summam laudem adeptus est : idem 

 minerarum et crystallorum formas et species accuratissime 

 descripsit. Sed magistri boni praecipua laus in discipulis 

 constat, neque silendum arbitror multos ex iis, qui hodie 

 in hac scientia principes et signiferi sunt, hoc auctore et 

 Professore doctissimo usos esse. Idem rude iam donatus 

 a Musaeo Britannico ita recessit ut rei publicae se daret et 

 Crickladensium suffragiis ornatus in publico totius civitatis 

 consilio indivisi imperii vindex et defensor acerrimus 

 sederet. Addo quod Regalis Societatis Sodalis et Collegii 

 AVadhamensis socius honoris causa creatus cum multis 

 virorum doctorum societatibus et in Europa et in America 

 litterarum commercio coniunctus est. 



Prof. J. Larmor, F.R.S., has had the honorary degree 

 of doctor of science conferred upon him by the University 

 of Dublin. 



A COMMITTEE has been formed with the object of raising 

 a memorial in honour of the late Mr. T. G. Rooper, who 

 died on May 20. Mr. Rooper held the office of H.M. 

 Inspector of Schools in the Isle of Wight, Southampton 

 and the neighbourhood during the last seven years, and 

 both in his district and elsewhere he promoted the develop- 

 ment of rational teaching of geography, natural history 

 and other science studies. Information concerning the pro- 

 posed memorial will be gladly supplied by Profs. F. J. C. 

 Hearnshaw and J. F. Hudson, Hartley University College, 

 Southampton. 



The appeal for funds for extending and modernising the 

 scientific departments of the University of Dublin, to which 

 reference was made last week (p. 188), should receive 

 liberal support not only from graduates of the university, 

 but also from all who sympathise with the cause of higher 

 education in Ireland. Each science department of the 

 university is in need of funds for laboratories, instruments, 

 and other means of study and research. The university 

 has already made considerable outlay in order to increase 

 the efficiency of the scientific departments, but the new 

 demands created by modern developments are too many 

 and extensive to be met by existing resources, and it is 

 necessary to ask for additional endowments if the university 

 is to maintain its high position among the educational 

 forces of the British Isles. In making the appeal for funds, 

 it is pointed out that the important position assumed by 

 modern science as a subject of collegiate education, and the 

 great expansion of the scientific professions, render it in- 

 curnbent on the older universities to make a costly pro- 

 vision for the adequate teaching of the experimental sciences. 

 Not only must the universities of to-day be able to extend 

 to their students— whether professional or in arts— sound 

 theoretical and practical instruction in the established prin- 

 ciples of science, but if these corporations are to continue 

 to fulfil their duties efficiently, they must, in addition, 

 provide facilities for research available both to student and 

 teacher. In short, the demands on the resources of universi- 

 ties are not only for the endowment of chairs of science and 

 the salaries of assistants and demonstrators, but also for 

 the provision, equipment, and maintenance of lecture-rooms 

 for teaching, and laboratories for both class-work and re- 

 search. Moreover, the provision for laboratory equipment 

 must be adequate to meet the ever-fresh demands of scientific 

 advance. In the past the University of Dublin has dis- 

 charged her duties towards the newer studies in a manner 

 which has, in many particulars, set example to wealthier 

 bodies. But a time has arrived when expenses must be 

 incurred beyond her existing resources, and the University 

 of Dublin must either obtain external aid to build and equip 

 laboratories and lecture-rooms for physical science, electrical 

 and mechanical engineering, botany and zoology, or con- 

 duct under grave disadvantages the instruction of those 

 students who require to include these subjects in their pro- 

 fessional training, or in their courses in arts. 



NO. 1 7 57 VOL. 68] 



A REPORT drawn up by a committee appointed by the 

 Board of Trinity College, to consider the present scientific 

 requirements of the college, shows that a sum of 

 at least ioo,oooL is needed by the scientific schools 

 of the university. The appeal from which this state- 

 ment of position and needs of the university has been taken 

 is signed by Lord Rosse (Chancellor of the university), Mr. 

 D. H. Madden (Vice-Chancellor of the university). Prof. 

 Geo. Salmon (Provost of Trinity College), Lord Ashbourne, 

 Lord Lansdowne, Lord Pembroke, Lord Ardilaun, Lord 

 Iveagh, Lord Rathmore, Mr. E. H. Carson, Mr. W. E. H. 

 Lecky, and Mr. J. H. M. Campbell. To carry the recom- 

 mendations of the committee into effect, a considerable ex- 

 penditure (for which no provision can be made out of 

 college funds) must be incurred, including a capital out- 

 lay (for building and fitting laboratories and the like pur- 

 poses) of 34,000/., in addition to an annual charge for in- 

 creased salaries and other expenses, estimated at 2730Z. per 

 annum. Lord Iveagh has generously offered to provide the 

 capital sum of 34,000/. so soon as a sufficient amount has 

 been collected and invested to produce the annual outlay 

 contemplated by the committee (viz. 2730/. per annum), and 

 this offer will hold good for three years from May i next \ 

 or if a sufficient annual income is assured by investments 

 for carrying out the recommendations of the committee 

 for any one department, he is prepared to contribute the 

 capital expenditure necessary for the equipment of that 

 particular department. A very large sum has to be collected 

 during the next three years, but Lord Iveagh 's offer ought 

 to inspire others to contribute as generously as they are 

 able to the subscription list. The Chancellor of the uni- 

 versity, Mr. Benjamin Williamson, and Prof. W. E. Thrift 

 are acting as honorary treasurers of the science fund. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Royal Society, May 14. — " On the Radiation of Helium and 

 Mercury in a Magnetic Field." By Prof. Andrew Gray. 

 F.R.S., and Walter Stewart, D.Sc, with Robert A. 

 Koustoun, M.A., and D. B. McQuistan, M.A., Research 

 Students in the University of Glasgow. 



The experiments had for their object primarily to test 

 for lines of different substances, the proportionality of the 

 change d\ of wave-length, for each of the components into 

 which a single spectral line is resolved by the application 

 of a magnetic field, to the field intensity H, and to deduce 

 the corresponding values of the ratio e/tn of charge to mass 

 of the electron. The apparatus consisted of a set composed 

 of a large electromagnet (built to Prof. Gray's specifica- 

 tion), and an echelon spectroscope of twenty-six plates with 

 auxiliary (by Hilger, London). The readings were obtained 

 by means of a micrometer eye-piece fitted to the observing 

 telescope. The first observations were made at right angles 

 to the magnetic field on several of the helium lines, and on 

 the green line of mercury. The results were used to 

 calculate the values of d\/H\^, and of e/m by the formula 

 e/m = 2irv.d\/H\', where v is the velocity of light, 

 3X10'" cm. per second. In every case the normal triplet 

 was obtained, and the separation between the extreme com- 

 ponents found to be proportional to H up to fields of 

 10,000 C.G.S. ; at fields above this the light becomes so 

 faint, in all the tubes with which the authors worked, 

 that it is impossible to obtain readings. The following 

 table shows the results : — 



At a field incensity of 13,000 C.G.S. the centre compo- 

 nent of the normal triplet was doubled, while each of the 

 outer components was itself tripled. The polarisation of 

 the two triplets and of the central doublet was the same 



