JUNE 11, 1914] 
of essays; it will be of the annual value of nearly gol., 
and will be tenable for two years. 
Prof. Nuttall has received the following benefactions 
with which to further the research work that is being 
conducted in the Quick Laboratory :—Sir Dorabji J. 
Tata, 2501.; Mr. P. A. Molteno and Mrs. Molteno, 
4ool., of which the sum of tool. is to help toward the 
expenses of publishing the scientific work from the 
laboratory; the advisory committee of the Tropical 
Diseases Research Fund (Colonial Office), tool., to 
serve as a stipend for a helminthologist, and 3ool. 
to enable the Quick professor to send his assistant, 
Mr. E. Hindle, on an expedition to East Africa. 
At the Congregation on May 30 new regulations 
for the diploma in anthropology received the approval 
of the Senate. Up to the present time, a candidate 
has had to keep certain terms and to prepare a thesis, 
and upon the latter if approved the diploma was 
awarded. The new regulations provide an examina- 
tion as an alternative method of acquiring the diploma, 
and the examination is divided into parts, which may 
be taken separately or collectively. Moreover, the con- 
ditions of residence have been modified specially with 
reference to officers of various services, whether 
Colonial or other. 
The new physiological laboratory was opened on 
June 9 by Prince Arthur of Connaught. The follow- 
ing honorary degrees were conferred in connection 
with the proceedings:—LL.D.: Prince Arthur of 
Connaught, Lord Esher, Lord Moulton of Bank, and 
Colonel Benson, master of the Drapers’ Company. 
Sc.D.: Sir William Osler, Sir David Ferrier, Sir 
Edward Schafer, and Prof. E. H. Starling. 
Lonpon.—Prof. J. Millar Thomson, F.R.S., is 
retiring at the end ot this session from his position as 
vice-principal of King’s College, London, and head of 
the chemical department of the college. Prof. Thom- 
son’s retirement marks not only the close of a personal 
connection with King’s College as a member of its 
teaching staff for forty-three years, but also the end 
of an unbroken association with education in Great 
Britain where members of his family have held univer- 
sity professorships for a period of 130 years. 
A lecture entitled ‘‘Some Problems in’ Cardiac 
Physiology’’ (being contributions to a study 
of the relations which exist between the various 
chambers of the Mammalian heart) will be given in 
the Physiological Laboratory of the University, South 
Kensington, S.W., by Prof. A. F. Stanley Kent, on 
Thursday, June 18. The lecture is addressed to ad- 
vanced students of the University and others inter- 
ested in the subject. Admission is free, without ticket. 
WE learn from Science that Prof. Rudolf Tombo, 
jun., of Columbia University, died on May 22. He 
was known for his articles on university registration 
statistics, to which attention has been directed in 
NATURE On many occasions. 
Pror. D. K. Picken, of Victoria College, Welling- 
ton, University of New Zealand, has been appointed 
master of Ormond College, Melbourne University. 
He has held the chair of mathematics at Wellington 
since 1907, and has taken a prominent part in the 
university reform movement in connection with which 
a New Zealand Parliamentary Committee held an 
inquiry last autumn. Arrangements are to be made 
through the High Commissioner for New Zealand for 
receiving applications in London for the professorship 
of mathematics (pure and applied) vacated by Prof. 
Picken. 
A cuTTinG from the Wellington Evening Post, New 
Zealand, of April 21, announces the award of a 
Martin Kellogg fellowship in the Lick Astronomical 
Department of the University of California to the 
NO. 2328, VOL. 93] 
NATURE 
393 
Government Astronomer, Mr. C. E. Adams. The pur- 
pose of the fellowship is to provide opportunities for 
advanced instruction and for research to students who 
have already received the degree of Doctor of Philo- 
sophy or the equivalent, or to members of staffs of 
observatories. The fine instrumental equipment of the 
Lick Observatory offers opportunities to research 
students which can scarcely be equalled at other 
observatories, and the valuable experience derived from 
a stay there will be sure to imbue Mr. Adams with new 
energies and ideas for work on his return to New 
Zealand. 
Tue thirteenth annual congress of the Irish Tech- 
nical Instruction Association was held at Killarney 
on May 26, 27, and 28, under the presidency of Prin- 
cipal Forth, of the Municipal Technical Institute, Bel- 
fast. The congress was very largely attended, dele- 
gates being present from practically every technical 
instruction committee in Ireland. ‘The president, in 
his opening address, reviewed the developments which 
had taken place in technical instruction in Ireland 
during the past twelve months. He stated that on 
all hands there was a fixed determination to place 
the work of technical instruction in the most intimate 
and most helpful relationship to the industrial require- 
ments of the country. He also dealt with some of the 
problems which await solution if technical instruction 
is to realise its fullest aims and ambitions; and he 
dwelt upon the decline which takes place in attend- 
ances at evening classes as the session progresses, 
giving some reasons why this wastage in numbers 
occurs, and indicating methods by which it could be 
checked. During the course of the congress an 
important address was given by Mr. T. P. Gill, and 
a number of valuable papers were presented, amongst 
which the following may be cited :—‘‘ The Technical 
Training of Skilled and Unskilled Workers in France 
and Germany,” Dr. Garrett; ‘‘ Technical Instruction 
for Small Holders,’ Mr. U. U. Humphrey; ‘‘ Technical 
Instruction in the Woollen Industry,’’ Mr. J. F. Crow- 
ley; ‘‘ The Relation between Employers and Technical 
Instruction Committees,” Mr. A. Williamson; ‘* Co- 
operation between Counties, County Boroughs, and 
Urban Technical Instruction Committees,’ Mr. John 
Pyper. A paper on the problem of small industries, 
read by Mr. G. Fletcher, was illustrated by lantern 
slides, and also by kinematograph films which had 
been specially prepared to illustrate the working of 
machines for making embroidery. A highly instruc- 
tive illustrated lecture was given by Mr. T. Macartney- 
Filgate, upon ‘‘ An Industrial Survey of Ireland.” The 
town of Larne, in the county Antrim, was fixed as 
the place of meeting for the congress in 1915. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
LONDON. 
Royal Society, May 28.—Sir William Crookes, presi- 
dent, in the chair.—Prof. W. Watson: Anomalous 
trichromatic colour vision. It is shown from the 
results of measurements made on some forty subjects 
that anomalous trichromates are sharply divided into 
two distinct classes, and two experimental methods 
of distinguishing these classes are described.—Dr. 
H. J. H. Fenton: Diformdiol-peroxide. The condi- 
tions of coexistence, and the mode of interaction, of 
hydrogen dioxide and formaldehyde are of some in- 
terest in connection with certain theories which have 
been advanced in order to account for the photo- 
synthesis of carbohydrates in the living plant. During 
the course of some experiments in this direction, it 
has been found that, under appropriate conditions, 
these two substances combine to form a compound, 
2H.CHO.H,.O., which crystallises in large transparent 
