626 



NATURE 



[April 26, 1900 



to represent the University at the approaching Centennial of the 

 University of New Brunswick. 



The honorary degree of D.Sc. is to be conferred on Mr. 

 Charles Hose, of Sarawak, to-day (April 26). 



At the spring graduation ceremony of Edinburgh University, 

 the honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred upon Miss E. O. 

 Ormerod, Dr. C. D. F. Phillips, and [in absentia) Dr. A. 

 Stuart, professor of physiology in the University of Sydney. 



It is hoped (says the Alhenaum) that the Prince of Wales 

 will preside at the next Presentation ceremony of London 

 University, which will be held in the new horne of the 

 University at South Kensington on May 9. 



The governors of the Goldsmiths' Co;Tipiny' Technical and 

 Recreative Institute, New Cross, again report a decline in the 

 number of students, owing to the establishment of free evening 

 continuation classes close to the Institute by the London School 

 Board. It will be remembered that the extension of the work 

 of the School Board to technical education has been called into 

 question, and that the official auditor has disallowed items in the 

 Board's accounts referring to such expenditure. The School 

 Board has appealed against his decision, and the whole matter 

 will shortly be argued in the Queen's Bench Division. The 

 engineering department of the Goldsmiths' Institute shows an in- 

 crease of members, in spite of the competition of free continuation 

 classes It is satisfactory to notice that the governors are taking 

 steps to encourage students to undertake systematic courses 

 of study, extending over three or more years, and propose to 

 periodically test the efficiency of such courses by appointing in- 

 dependent examiners in grouped subjects, and to award special 

 certificates for such examinations. Mr. J. Carrington having 

 given 100 guineas towards the encouragement of systematic study, 

 a portion of that sum will, during the current year, be devoted 

 to prizes in connection with these special courses. The governors 

 report that the quality of the work done in the advanced classes 

 in chemistry is excellent, and some useful research work is being 

 carried on by the students. 



The annual income of the Technical Education Committee 

 of the Derbyshire County Council is at present about 11,000/., 

 exclusive of Science and Art Department's grants. This income 

 is used to supplement local effort, and not to supersede it. 

 Promising students of elementary schools in the county are as- 

 sisted to proceed to secondary schools, and really able students 

 of secondary schools are enabled to proceed to University or 

 Technical Colleges, or Universities. In addition to awarding 

 these scholarships the Council assists the development of the 

 work of secondary schools, by means of building and equipment 

 grants, supply of apparatus, &c. Agricultural experiments are 

 carried on in connection with the Agricultural Department of the 

 Nottingham University College, and the Midland Dairy Insti- 

 tute, Kingston, Notts. All the work of these institutions is 

 placed under the inspection of the Board of Agriculture, which 

 aids the work by a grant of 700/. a year. An experiment com- 

 menced in 1897 at Egginton for the purpose of demonstrating 

 the influence on the quantity and quality of the herbage of per- 

 manent grass land by the use of different kinds of natural and 

 artificial fertilisers has been continued. Each year the grass 

 upon the different plots is cut and weighed, and the proportions 

 of the various grasses and plants constituting the herbage is 

 estimated. A member of the University College staff ex- 

 perienced in such work superintends the laying out of the plots, 

 the sowing of the manures, and the cutting and weighing of the 

 grass. The area under experiment is two and three-quarter acres, 

 and the size of the plots one-eighth of an acre. The results of 

 the experiment have been published for use by the agriculturists 

 of the counties which promoted it. 



The report of the Advisory Committee appointed to inquire 

 into the best manner of providing for scientific and commercial 

 training respectively in connection with the new University of 

 Birmingham has just been issued. It will be remembered 

 that Mr. Andrew Carnegie and an anonymous donor each 

 promised a gift of 50,000/. towards the establishment of these 

 two departments. The committee have made inquiries as to 

 facilities for the teaching of science in its application to indus- 

 tries, and they report that, in their opinion, no such teaching, 

 complete as they contemplate it, and as it must be if it is to be 



NO. I59I, VOL. 61J 



successful, exists in any college in Great Britain. In making 

 their recommendations, the committee have had in view the 

 object of the teaching of science in its application to industry, 

 coupled with such technical instruction in handicrafts as will 

 enable the students to complete their course in the University 

 itself. It is proposed that the facilities already provided in 

 Mason University College should be supplemented by chairs 

 of mining, metallurgy, engineering, and applied chemistry. 

 The scheme submitted contemplates the introduction of a 

 complete equipment for the treatment of metals by heat and 

 a small plant for treatment by electricity, as well as the 

 necessary outfit for testing metals. Shops would be provided 

 for manual training, and it is recommended that the machines 

 used should be of the best and most modern type of English, 

 American, and foreign manufacture. The committee further 

 recommend the acquisition of 25 acres of land in the out- 

 skirts of Birmingham on which to build the University, their 

 estimate of the total cost being 155,000/. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Amencan Journal of Science, April. — Skull, pelvis, and 

 probable relationship of the huge turtles of the genus Archelon 

 from the Fort Pierre Cretaceous of South Dakota, by G. R. 

 Wieland. The marine turtles of the Fort Pierre Cretaceous of 

 South Dakota not only represent the most gigantic species 

 known, but also are of much importance as including undoubted 

 descendants of Protostega from the underlying Niobrara Creta- 

 ceous, in common with which they may be regarded as ancient 

 relatives of Dermochelys. — Application of the radio-micrometer 

 to the measurement of short electric waves, by G. W. Pierce. 

 A long loop of fine copper wire is suspended by a quartz fibre in 

 a strong magnetic field. The lower ends are twisted together 

 for some distance down, and carry at the bottom a mica vane on 

 which is mounted a small resonator consisting of two vertical 

 copper cylinders, joined by a constantan and a manganine wire 

 which cross in the centre between the cylinders, and are attached 

 to the ends of the copper wire. The impact of electric waves 

 produces surgings between the two cylinders, which heat the 

 junction and produce a thermo-electric current in the copper 

 loop. The latter turns in the magnetic field, and thus indicates 

 the waves. The author confirms Righi's observations of the 

 different transparency of wood along and across the grain. — A 

 large slab of Uintacrinus from Kansas, by C. E. Beecher. This 

 paper contains photographs of a slab of limestone preserving on 

 its surface a number of fine specimens of Uintacrinus socialis, 

 Grinnell. It has 27 square feet of surface, and contains 220 

 crinoids. — Grahodiorite and other intermediate rocks, by W. 

 Lindgren. Granodiorite, a member of the great family of rocks 

 with predominating soda-lime felspars, is distinguished by a 

 granular texture, greyish colour, and a mineral composition of 

 quartz, oligoclase or andesine, orthoclase or microcline, horn- 

 blende or biotite. The family represents an important and wide- 

 spread type of rocks, especially common along the Pacific slopes 

 of the Cordilleran ranges. — Two new American meteorites, by 

 H L. Preston. ■ Describes the Luis Lopez siderite, charac- 

 terised by the length of its bands of kamacite, and the Central 

 Missouri meteorite, which is distinguished by the absence of 

 etching figures, its beautiful pitting and prominent ridges of a 

 lustrous dark steel-grey colour resembling graphite, and con- 

 taining small quantities of carbon. 



Annalen der Pkysik, No. 3.— Wave current generators, by 

 C. Heinke. The author discusses variable currents from two 

 different aspects. Some are generated as such, whereas others 

 are generated by continuous currents broken up into variable 

 currents by mechanical, liquid, or gaseous gaps in the circuit. 

 The latter require a certain " saturation current " which is inde- 

 pendent of the E.M.F.— Absorption of light in electrically- 

 glowing gases, by M. Cantor. Kirchhoff's law does not hold 

 lor electrically glowing gases, though it may hold for flames. 

 The author sent a strong beam of light through a vacuum tube 

 from end to end and back, and compared its intensity with a 

 beam passing through the open air. The beam of light suffered 

 no absorption by the glowing gas. This result could only be 

 made to agree with Kirchhoff's law of radiation by supposing 

 the gas to possess an extremely high temperature. This, as we 

 know, it does not possess. Hence we have a case of emission 



