October 8, 1903] 



NATURE 



555 



charge occurs, but it is not due to the high temperature 

 of the gas considered as a whole. 



In regard to the fourth point, viz. the action of water 

 vapour in producing the line spectrum, the e.xperiments 

 showed that the presence of moisture is an important factor 

 in the production of this type of spectrum, but they do not 

 lead to Prof. Trowbridge's conclusion that it is the spectrum 

 of water vapour. Mr. Parsons is inclined to believe that 

 fh;> ionisation of the atoms, as they enter or leave the water 

 molecule, may set up a distinct local oscillatory discharge, 

 which he previously shows to be necessary for the produc- 

 tion of the line spectrum. 



The Orbit of { Bootis. — In a previous computation of 

 the orbit of f Bootis, by Prof. W. Doberck, the elements 

 obtained represented the observed angles up to the year 

 1888, but did not faithfully represent the observed distances 

 for some rime prior to that {Xstronomische Nachrichten, No. 

 2129). It now appears that the angles might be represented 

 by orbits having widely differing periods, so the same 

 observer has recomputed the elements, mainly using the 

 measured distances as is done in the case of it Cassiopeia. 

 I' sing Thiele's method, which he recommends especially in 

 the case of very eccentric orbits, he obtained the following 

 elements, referred to the equinox of iqooo, from normal 

 places for 1836-5, 1876.5, and 1896-5 {Astr. Nach., No. 

 3000) : — 



a =183 8 

 A =314 6 

 >= 46 8 

 e — o"6i63 



P= 14084 )-eais. 

 T=i907-io 

 a=5"-ii5 

 Retrograde. 



In the Memoric of the Italian Spectroscopists' Society 

 Mr. G. Boccardi gives a list of errata in various star cata- 

 logues and trigonometric tables which he discovered in 

 the course of compiling the catalogue of stars of reference 

 :n the zone 40° to 55°, published by the Observatory of 

 atania. In addition, the same writer gives corrections 

 r the ephemerides of the asteroid 292 Ludovica. An 

 Italian translation, by Mr. A. Mascari, of Dr. W. J. S. 

 Lockyers paper on a probable relation between the solar 

 protuberances and the corona is also published in the 

 VtmorJe of the Societv. 



\ 



OPENING OF THE MEDICAL SCHOOLS. 

 A .S usual at this time of the year, introductory addresses 

 •^"^ have been delivered during the past week at the open- 

 ing of the various medical schools in different parts of the 

 country. Some of these addresses are summarised below. 



\\. the opening of the medical session at University 

 College, London, on Monday, Prof. E. H. Starling, F.R.S., 

 pleaded for the establishment of a post-graduate school of 

 medicine. He remarked that the crying need at the pre- 

 sent time was clinical research, which must be carried out 

 in hospitals by men trained in scientific methods and willing 

 to spend laborious days in their application to the problems 

 of disease. The absence of workers who might utilise to 

 the full the great mass of material presented by our 

 hospitals was due to two factors, namely, the absence of 

 academic ideals in London, and the lack of any adequate 

 provision which might enable our best men to devote their 

 f cirly years to the advance of their profession by conscien- 

 lii us study and research. Prof. Starling advocated the 

 t( undation, in the University of London, of a school specially 

 devoted to the advancement of medicine. Such post- 

 graduate school must be in connection with a hospital, and 

 might be founded by a modification of one of the existing 

 medical schools, or be created de novo in connection with 

 some general hospital. Forming part of the school should 

 be laboratories for experimental physiology and pathology, 

 for bacteriology, for medical chemistry, and for normal and 

 morbid histology. In addition to the experimental depart- 

 ment, there should be, preferably in the hospital building 

 itself, a series of observational laboratories, where the con- 

 ditions of the patients could be investigated with a scientific 

 precision. Such a school could detract in no way from the 

 present advantages of our medical schools, but would rather 

 add to their efficiency. 



Sir Victor Horsley delivered an address on the subject 

 «f university education at the University of Birmingham on 



NO. 1 77 I, VOL. 68] 



Monday. In the course of his remarks he urged the 

 necessity for a multiplication of universities, and' deprecated 

 Sir W. Anson's dictum that what was wanted before uni- 

 versities was "an intelligent population." Under the 

 present Government the whole direction of the Education 

 Department had been placed in the hands of those whose 

 ideas were regulated by the sterile training in dead 

 languages and somewhat moribund systems of philosophy, 

 unfortunately characteristic of an old university like Oxford. 

 It did not seem to have occurred to the Parliamentary 

 .Secretary to the Board of Education that to the ordinary 

 person the more obvious way of obtaining an intelligent 

 population was to provide them with the highest and best 

 means of educating themselves, and to increase and multiply 

 those means in the midst of each populous district. It 

 seemed to him shocking that the leading expert of the 

 Education Department should hostilely attack not merely 

 the present evolution of universities, but also the very 

 earnest and carefully thought out propositions which the 

 president of the British Association recently put forward 

 with fresh force and interest. It had been reserved for Sir 

 William Anson to raise the barren and worn-out strife 

 between classical and scientific education. How could the 

 physical science laboratories of our universities be considered 

 to be too favoured by public opinion, as Sir William 

 asserted, when their equipment and buildings left so much 

 to be desired, and their endowments were so meagre that 

 some 24 millions, it was estimated, must be expended to 

 bring them into line with the universities of America? It 

 was most unfortunate for the nation that the educational 

 policy of the present Government was directed by officials 

 holdine: such reactionary views. Let them, hope that when 

 the greatest statesman of our generation was placed by the 

 country in his proper, position as Prime Minister and leader 

 of the' nation a change would come over the spirit of the 

 Education Department. The nation was under the delusion 

 that universities flourished, first, on private endowments 

 and benevolence ; and, secondly, on the fees of students. 

 Legislation to provide State aid for the universities was a 

 duty which pressed heavily on a Government which did 

 nothing to protect the people from the injury of drink and 

 the wa-ste of money which the drinking habit entailed. He 

 suggested that the universities should cooperate in pressing 

 a definite programme of State aid. 



The first autumn term of the faculty of medicine at 

 the University of Liverpool was inaugurated by Sir Dyce 

 Duckworth, who, during an address on reverence and hope- 

 fulness in medicine, told the students that to equip them- 

 selves fittingly for the profession of medicine would demand 

 some knowledge of the several sciences on which the science 

 and art of medicine are based. Those who have had ex- 

 perience as examiners know well the difference, said Sir 

 Dyce Duckworth, between candidates who have had the 

 benefit of a liberal education before they entered upon 

 medical study, and those who, although showing aptitude, 

 have not had that advantage. It is the difference between 

 efficiencv and expertness, between width and narrowness. 



Dr. J.' W. Swan, F.R.S., gave the introductory address to 

 the school of pharmacy of the Pharmaceutical Society. 

 The events of the last sixty years, he said, showed con- 

 clusively that our want of thoroughness in education and 

 the consequent want of imagination and capacity to 

 appreciate the value of scientific research had caused us 

 immense national loss. Dr. Elizabeth M. Pace, in address- 

 ing the students of the London School of .Medicine for 

 Women in connection with the Royal Free Hospital, gave 

 an interesting historical sketch of the growth of facilities 

 for the medical education of women during the last sixty 

 years. At the Middlesex Hospital Mr. Justice Wills pre- 

 sided at the opening of the session, and Mr. William Hern, 

 in welcoming the new students, pointed out that one of 

 the great differences between the medical methods of past 

 and present tirnes was the substitution for the old 

 empiricism, of treatment based upon an inquiry into the 

 causes of disease. Mr. J. A. Bloxam, in the inaugural 

 address at the Royal Veterinary College, told the students 

 that if veterinary education was to march with the times, 

 and if this country was to bear its part in the advancement 

 of veterinary knowledge in the future, the State must follow 

 the example set by other countries and contribute hand- 

 somely to the equipment and upkeep of the veterinary 

 schools. 



