24 



NATURE 



[March 2, 1915 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Birmingham. — At the annual meeting of the Court 

 of Governors, held on February 24, the Vice-Chancellor 

 referred to the services rendered by the University to 

 the country in the prosecution of the war. Not only 

 was the staff able to rendi^r valuable help in under- 

 taking scientific work and serving on public bodies, 

 but in addition something like 500 present and past 

 students had joined the Services, and of these nearly 

 10 per cent, had already lost their lives. 



The principal. Sir Oliver Lodge, referring to the 

 unwisdom of false economy in education and scientific 

 training and investigation, said : — " It has certainly 

 been one of our dangers that the country as a whole 

 has not been wide awake in this direction, and has 

 been contented with a singular kind of ignorance on the 

 part of otherwise educated people — even of people in 

 high position. The services which the universities of 

 the country have been able to render during the war 

 have been already very marked, and might have been 

 i^reater had they had facilities from the first. It seems 

 unlikely that the country will allow these institutions 

 to drop back into a position continuously handicapped 

 bv inadequate resources. They are not only educational ; 

 thev are repositories of learning and of a special 

 kind of ability not elsewhere cultivated. Knowledge 

 is not a thing to be merely passed on to a coming 

 generation, it is a thing to be utilised and increased 

 and applied by every generation ; and if the occupants 

 of university posts — especially the younger members — 

 are prevented from doing their duty and realising their 

 privilej2:e in this respect, the country cannot keep its 

 place in the van of civilisation." 



In view of the increased intercourse between this 

 country and Russia which may be anticipated after 

 the war, it is hoped that the teaching of Russian may 

 be undertaken by the University, but shortage of funds 

 will not allow this step at present. 



The treasurer reported that the income was reduced 

 bv 9200Z. owing to the war, and of this amount 

 7700Z. was due to loss of fees. 



The following were elected members of the coun- 

 cil : — The Bishop of Birmingham, Mr. Richard Threl- 

 fall. Miss S. M. Fry, and Dr. F. D. Chattaway. 



Cambridge. — ^The Raymond Horton-Smith prize has 

 been awarded to Dr. E. Mellanby for a thesis entitled 

 "An Experimental Investigation into the Cause and 

 Treatment of Diarrhoea and Vomiting in Children." 



The Degree Committee of the Special Board for 

 Mathematics is of opinion that the work submitted 

 bv Mr. S. Ramanujan, of Trinity College, entitled 

 "Highly Composite Numbers," together with six other 

 papers, is of merit as a record of original research; 

 this gentleman was sent to the University by the 

 Indian Government on account of his remarkable 

 mathematical powers. 



The Vice-Chancellor has given notice that the sub- 

 ject for the Sedgwick prize essay for the year 19 iq is 

 "The Lower Palaeozoic Rocks of Some British Dis- 

 trict." 



OxFOKD. — The subject of Prof. Mark Baldwin's 

 Romanes lecture is "The Super-State and the ' Eternal 

 Values. ' " The lecture will be delivered in the Univer- 

 sity Museum on Wednesday, March 15, at 2.30. 



Like other departments of the Universitv, the school 

 of forestrv has been seriously affected by the war. 

 Eight students, however, have received the diploma in 

 the course of 1915, and the professor has conducted 

 visits to the Forest of Dean, the Tintern Crown 

 Forests, and other areas, in addition to the usual 

 excursions for instruction to Barley Wood. Planting^ 

 and thinning has continued in the experimental plots, 



NO. 2418, VOL. 97] 



and Mr. W. E. Hiley has continued his research on 

 fungal diseases of trees. The publication of his work 

 on the diseases of the larch may suffer some delay 

 from the fact that Mr. Hiley has accepted a commis- 

 sion as scientific worker at Woolwich Arsenal. 



It has often been thought by many of those who are 

 interested in the progress of science at Oxford that 

 the examinations for honours in natural science 

 were framed too much on the model of those belong- 

 ing to the older academic subjects. A statute which 

 will come before Congregation on March 7 marks a 

 new departure in this respect, so far as concerns the 

 honour school of chemistry. The object of the statute 

 is to ensure that every candidate for honours in chem- 

 istry shall not only be examined in paper and prac- 

 tical work as at present, but must also produce records 

 of experimental investigations carried out under the 

 supervision of the Waynflete or Lee's professor, or of 

 other approved persons. This provision is in accord- 

 ance with a memorandum lately drawn up by the 

 Board of Natural Science, in which it Is pointed out 

 that some practical acquaintance with the methods 

 of research is an essential part of the training of every 

 chemist. The statute is regarded by many as a long 

 step in the right direction, and it is to be hoped that 

 no obstacles will be thrown in the way of its passing. 



A FLAX for the development of the University of 

 California Medical School has been adopted by the 

 regents of the University of California. We learn 

 from the issue of Science for February 4 that the 

 University of Californ?a has now increased to a total 

 of 32,400/. per annum its expenditure on medical in- 

 struction, over and above the hospital receipts, and 

 within the next few months it will complete the erec- 

 tion, at a cost of 123,000/., of a new 216-bed teaching 

 hospital. The regents have now outlined as the 

 immediate future needs of the medical school a new- 

 laboratory building for anatomy and pathology, to 

 cost 30,000/. ; an "out-patient" building in conjunction 

 with the new teaching hospital, to cost 20,000/. ; and 

 a nurses' home for 100 nurses, to cost 20,000/. 



The second annual report, for the year ending 

 December 31, 19 15, of the executive committee to the 

 trustees of the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust has 

 now been circulated. The trust deed expressly pro- 

 hibits "any part of the trust funds from being used 

 in any way which could lend countenance to war br 

 to warlike' preparations." This fact prevents the 

 trustees, in their corporate capacity, taking any part 

 in the activities in which the country is chietiy in- 

 volved at present. Prior to the date of the last annual 

 report a total sum of 550,000/. had been e.xpended or 

 promised for the provision of church organs; when 

 to this sum is added the grant promises made during 

 the year, a total sum of about 600,000/. will have been 

 expended in this way and about 3800 organs will have 

 been procured. No further applications for organs are 

 to be entertained. The executive committee has 

 decided that the library movement which is being car- 

 ried out can best be dealt with under the heads : rural 

 library grants, grants for special libraries of a national 

 character, loan charge grants to public libraries, and 

 grants for public library buildings. In the case of 

 rural libraries, a number of experimental schemes 

 have been set on foot of which particulars are given 

 in the report. During the year the committee has 

 assisted in the establishment of a central lending 

 librarv for students, has rendered assistance to 

 the agricultural library attached to the Rothamsted 

 Experimental Station, and has promised assistance 

 towards the more commodious housing of the British 

 Librarv of Political Science attached to the London 



