December i i, 1902] 



NA TURE 



141 



The council of University College, Liverpool, has appointed 

 Major Ronald Ross, C.B., F.R.S., to the Sir Alfred Jones chrir 

 of tropical medicine and parasitology, recently founded with the 

 aid of special subscriptions to the University fund. 



At a meeting of the general committee of the Principal 

 Viriamu Jones memorial fund, recently heldat University College, 

 Cardiff, it was decided to raise a fund of iooo/. to erect a statue 

 to the memory of the late principal. To carry. out this object 

 and to raise the necessary funds, an executive committee was 

 appointed. 



At a meeting of business men of Manchester and district held 

 on Monday, the Lord Mayor being in the chair, _the following 

 resolution was unanimously adopted : — " That t"he increasing 

 competition and keenness of modern business life and its 

 greater complexity call for a more thorough mental training of 

 persons aspiring to be heads and managers of commercial and 

 industrial establishments, and that this meeting heartily approves 

 of the further development of the higher education bearing on 

 commercial life now provided in the Owens College by the 

 establishment of a Faculty of Commerce on the lines of the 

 draft scheme now submitted." 



The prizes and certificates were presented to successful 

 students of the Northampton Institute, Clerkenwell, on the 

 evening of December 3, by the Lord Chancellor. The principal, 

 Dr. Walmesley, reported a marked improvement during 1901 

 over the previous year in the number of medals and exhibitions 

 gained in open competition by his students. Before the present- 

 ation of prizes, the Lord Chancellor said, in the course of a 

 short address, that suitable technical education would enable the 

 commerce of this country to achieve again the reputation which 

 in some aspects had been diminished in modern times. In this 

 matter, foreigners had been assisted by their Governments and 

 had been provided with educational establishments at the ex- 

 pense of their countries. 



The fifth annual London conference of science teachers will 

 be held on January 9 and 10, 1903, at the South-Western Poly- 

 technic, Chelsea. At the first meeting, the chair will be taken 

 by Mr. Henry Ward, chairman of the London Technical 

 Education Board, and addresses will be delivered by Mr. 

 Usherwood, on the experimental teaching of geometry, and by 

 Mr. Frank Castle, on the teaching of workshop mathematics. Sir 

 William Anson will preside at the second meeting, and addresses 

 on the teaching of geometry will be given by Messrs. S. O. 

 Andrews, W. D. Eggar and A. W. Siddons. Prof. Farmer, 

 F. R.S., will be the chairman at the third meeting, when 

 experimental plant physiology and the rational teaching of 

 botany will be the subjects taken up by Mr. H. B. Lacey and 

 Miss Lilian Clarke respectively. Prof. Callendar, F.R.S., will 

 take the chair at the last meeting, when an address will be given 

 by Mr. Newth on experimental illustration in the teaching of 

 chemistry, and one by Mr. Busbridge on making lantern slides. 

 Free admission to the conference will be granted to as many 

 teachers as the room will accommodate, and application for 

 tickets should be made to Dr. Kimmins, Dame Armstrong 

 House, Harrow-on-the-Hill, or to Mr. C. A. Buckmaster, 16 

 Heathfield Road, Mill Hill Park. 



We announced last week that the name of Sir John Williams, 

 Bart., had been mentioned in connection with the vacancy 

 caused by Sir Michael Foster's resignation of his seat in Parlia- 

 ment as member for London University. Since then we have 

 received a circular containing the invitation sent by a com- 

 mittee of graduates to Sir John Williams to become a candidate 

 for the vacant seat, and the reply in which he accepts it. After 

 referring to the new conditions of work of the reorganised Uni- 

 versity of London, Sir John remarks in his reply to the chair- 

 man of his committee, Sir J. F. Rotton : — " For the further 

 development of the teaching side of the University and the 

 realisation of our expectations with respect to its work, the 

 creation of schools of original research is necessary. The gifts 

 of generous donors do not and will not suffice to meet the 

 expenses which they will entail, and I am of opinion that such 

 schools form fitting objects of support from the State. Such 

 establishments are a necessity for the growth of that scientific 

 learning which is essential for the progress of trade and the 

 prosperity of the country, as well as for the education of the 

 community. Questions of public health — the prevention of 

 epidemics, the securing of efficient vaccination, the housing of 



NO. 1728, VOL. 67] 



the people, the supply of unpolluted water, the disposal of 

 refuse — engage the attention of Parliament from time to time ; 

 questions in the discussion of which the knowledge of those 

 who have been trained in the laws cf health and disease, and 

 their application in practice, will prove of great value. To such 

 I would give my earnest attention." Sir Philip Magnus has 

 been asked by an influential body of graduates representing 

 educational institutions to become a candidate for the seat, and 

 has accepted the invitation. Both Sir John Williams and Sir 

 Philip Magnus would give general support to the present 

 Government as Unionists. 



The following announcements of gifts to higher education 

 in the United States have been made in Science since the 

 beginning of September :— Mrs. Phoebe Hearst's gifts for 

 archeology and anthropology at the University of California 

 amounted to 111,000 dollars during the last academic year. 

 The University of Pennsylvania has received 100,000 dollars 

 from Dr. E. W. and Clarence H. Clark for a chair in Assyri- 

 ology, to which Dr. Hilprecht has been appointed. Dr. and 

 Mrs. C. A. Herter, of New York City, have given 25,000 

 dollars to Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Howard A. Kelly 

 has given 10,000 dollars for an extension of the gyncecoiogical 

 ward of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Mr. John D. 

 Rockefeller has offered to give 500,000 dollars to Teachers' 

 College, Columbia University, on condition that the sum of 

 440,000 dollars be collected from other sources — 190,000 dollars 

 to pay the outstanding debts and 250,000 dollars for further 

 endowment. The college has received from Mr. and Mrs. B. 

 Everett Macy 175,800 dollars for the increase of the endowment 

 funds and 98,709 dollars for the completion of the Horace Mann 

 School. Princeton University receives 140,000 dollars under 

 the will of the late Mrs. Susan Dod Brown. The bequest to 

 the Princeton Theological Seminary made by Miss Mary 

 Winthrop, of New York, amounted to 1,400,000 dollars. Yale 

 University receives about 171,000 dollars as the residuary 

 legatee of the estate of Mr. E. W. Southworth. The Ohio 

 Wesleyan University receives 150,000 dollars under the will of 

 the late Mr. Francis B. Loomis, of Cincinnati ; and Vassar 

 College receives 10,000 dollars by the will of the late Mr. 

 Adolph Sutro, of San Francisco. Clark University will receive 

 thesumof 1,577,000 dollars from the estate of the late Jonas G. 

 Clark. This is in addition to the 500,000 dollars already paid 

 on account of the collegiate department. These gifts and 

 promises cover a period of three months and only include those 

 known to have been made, yet they amount to nearly five 

 million dollars, that is, about one million pounds. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Physical Society, November 28. — Prof. S. P. Thompson, 

 president, in the chair. — Prof. Perry read a paper on a slide-rule 

 for powers of numbers. Soon after the reading of Mr. Lan- 

 chester's paper in 1895— the radial cursor: anew addition to 

 the slide-rule — Prof. Perry made slides to assist in computing 

 111", where m and n are any numbers. He then came to the 

 conclusion that no great accuracy was obtainable ; but on trying 

 the method again, he has recently found that it is very con- 

 venient and sufficiently accurate for gas- and steam-engine work. 

 These computations can be made with a table of values of log 

 (log m) used in conjunction with an ordinary table of logarithms. 

 In the rule exhibited, the D line is replaced by a scale such 

 that the distance from the mark 10 to the mark m represents 1 ig 

 (log m) to the same scale of measurement as that to which 

 the distance from 1 to n on the C scale represents log «. The 

 values of m range from 2 to iooo.and those of « from 1 to 10 

 or from I to 'I used backwards. The author showed how, with 



a 



one operation, the rule could be used to find the value of m", 



m", and the logarithm of any number to any base. If the 

 answer on scale D is less than 2 or greater than 2000, or if 

 the exponent « is negative, indirect methods involving two 

 operations are necessary. Prof. Perry has replaced the ordinary 

 D line by the log log scale, because in his opinion this line is 

 the one least used by workers with the slide-rule. The use of 

 the log log scale was described by Roget in 1814, and the 

 author's object in bringing the matter forward lies in the fact that 



