406 



NATURE 



[February 23, 1905 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — The sum of 1600/. has been recently con- 

 tributed to the University Benefaction Fund for the endow- 

 ment of a lectureship in special pathology. The collection 

 of this fund is largely due to the activity of Prof. G. Sims 

 Woodhead, and the lectureship will be known as the 

 Hudderstield lectureship, in recognition of the town which 

 has largely supplied the capital sum. The general board 

 will proceed shortly to elect the lecturer. Applications 

 should be sent in to the Vice-Chancellor, on or before Tues- 

 day, March 7. 



The general board has approved Mr. J. J. H. Teall, of 

 St. John's College, Director of the Geological Survey, for 

 the degree of Sc.D. 



The Smith's prizes have been awarded to Mr. H. Bate- 

 man for his essay on " The solution of linear differential 

 eauations by means of definite integrals." and to Mr. P. E. 

 Marrack for his essay on " Absorption by matter of 

 Rbntgen and 7 rays." Both the students belong to Trinity 

 College. 



Mr. F. J. M. Stratton, of Caius College, has been elected 

 to an Isaac Newton studentship. 



London. — .At the South-Western Polytechnic Miss Gladys 

 Martyn has been elected to the free studentship in the 

 physical training department. She will devote part of her 

 time to the scientific study of anthropoinetric measurements 

 and eugenics. Mr. L. D. Coueslant, lecturer in the 

 engineering department of the polytechnic, has been elected 

 to be head of the mechanical and civil engineering depart- 

 ment of the Technical Institute of -Sunderland. Mr. A. J. 

 Makower has been elected head of the electrical engineering 

 department in succession to Mr. C. F. Smith. 



The Fishmongers' Company has granted a sum of 

 1000/. toward the funds necessary for the incorporation of 

 University College in the University of London. By this 

 grant the amount still required to complete the funds 

 necessary for incorporation is reduced to 17,000!., a total 

 of 183,000;. having now been raised for the purpose. Dr. 

 A. R. Cushny, of the University of Michigan, U.S.A., has 

 been appointed to the chair of pharmacology and materia 

 medica in the college. Prof. L. F. N'ernon-Harcourt has 

 resigned the chair of civil engineering and surveying. 



We learn from Science that Mrs. Goldwin Smith has 

 given 40ooi. to Cornell University ; and that by the will of 

 the late Mr. E. A. Goodnough, of Worcester, gifts are 

 made as follows : — 5000/. to Mount Holyoke College, 3000/. 

 to Iowa College, 5000/. to the Huguenot Seminary in South 

 .Africa, 1000/. to Washburn College in Kansas, 2000/. to 

 Drury College in Missouri. 



The Engineering and Mining Journal of New York pub- 

 lishes the views of Prof. H. M. Howe, the eminent American 

 metallurgist, on the ve.\ed question whether technical schools 

 serve the interests of the community better if they are parts 

 of great universities or if they are isolated institutions. 

 Wisely guided association, while it need not deprive the 

 technical school of character and individuality, should, he 

 thinks, benefit the community through the broadening inter- 

 action of the teachers of pure science and the technical 

 teachers, with their closer contact with active life. The 

 grand scale should effect great economy, not so much in 

 saving salaries and in widening the use of the more expen- 

 sive instruments, as in fitting work to worker, and in sup- 

 plying more fully the eminent with work on their own plane. 



In a paper on " Architectural Education " read before a 

 . meeting of the Royal Institute of British Architects on 

 Monday, Mr. R. Blomfield described the report and sylla- 

 bus prepared by the Board of Architectural Education 

 appointed by the institute. The following is the syllabus 

 proposed by the board: — (i) Building materials; (2) con- 

 struction, including (a) applied mechanics, strictly in prac- 

 tical relation to construction, and (b) the practical methods 

 of the building trades ; (3) architectural drawing, including 

 working and freehand drawings, solid geometry, and 

 measured drawings of historical examples of architecture ; 

 (4) geometrical projection and rudimentary perspective, this 

 latter to be studied as an aid to the shaping and modelling 

 of buildings, not as a means of elaborating architectural 



'il'o. i84;5, VOL. 71] 



drawings ; (5) design .'uid the history of architecture as 

 supplemental to and elucidatory of the study of construction. 

 It is pointed out that these subjects should be taught by 

 class work in the schools and by demonstration in the 

 laboratory or lecture theatre of practical work. The 

 laboratory or workshop for training in practical work is an 

 essential feature of the scheme. The demonstrations given 

 in the laboratory should be in intimate relations with the 

 lectures given in the class-rooms of the schools, and the 

 course must be arranged so that the training in the class- 

 rooms and in the workshops proceed together. In 

 moving a vote of thanks to Mr Blomfield, .Sir Arthur 

 Riicker said that, if the great movement which is taking 

 place in technical education is to have a sound foundation, 

 it is absolutely necessary that it should be carried out by 

 those who are themselves the professional members of the 

 great professions and trades which they wish to carry to a 

 point of higher education. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, January 26. — "On the Drift produced in 

 Ions by Electromagnetic Disturbances, and a Theory of 

 Radio-activity." By George W. Walker. Communicated 

 by Prof. A. Gray, F.R.S. 



Electromagnetic waves produce certain mechanical 

 forces on an electrically charged particle, and the 

 equations of motion of such a particle can be formed. 

 When the particle is regarded as exceedingly small and 

 endowed with a charge e and inertia m, which includes 

 electrical inertia, the equations take a comparatively simple 

 form. When the small viscous term due to radiation from 

 the particle is neglected the equations can be integrated in 

 certain cases, and it is found that the continued propagation 

 of waves involves an alteration of the position of the particle 

 in space. 



The case which suggested the general result was that in 

 which the waves form an infinite simple harmonic train, 

 and the solution showed that while the passage of a com- 

 plete wave restored the initial velocities of the particle, its 

 position in space was altered. 



This alteration of position is not completely accounted for 

 by the change due to the initial velocities had there been no 

 waves. In particular, if the particle is initially at rest, the 

 passage of a complete wave restores the state of rest, but the 

 particle now occupies a new position in space. This curious 

 result has an analogue in the case of a simple pendulum 

 making complete revolutions, where the elapse of a com- 

 plete period restores the velocity while the angle described 

 has increased by 2ir. 



The continued propagation of the waves thus involves the 

 result that the particle appears to drift through space in a 

 manner which can be completely determined when the initial 

 circumstances are given and the constants of the train of 

 waves are known. 



Similar results are found to hold for any kind of plane 

 disturbances propagated in a straight line. Several cases 

 are worked out where the disturbance is of a simple char- 

 acter. Tne disturbance is that in which the electric force is 

 X„, with the appropriate magnetic force X„/V at right 

 angles to X„, for a time d/V succeeded by zero force for a 

 time d/V, and this again succeeded by electric force — X„ 

 for a time d/V, and zero force for a time d/V, after which 

 the disturbance recurs. In one case where the particle is 

 initially at rest it appears to drift with the waves, while in 

 another case where the particle has a certain initial velocity 

 at right angles to the direction of propagation it drifts 

 against the waves. If radiation from the particle is neg- 

 lected, the passage of a complete pulse in which the in- 

 tegrated effect of electric force is zero involves a restoration 

 of the original energy of the particle, and thus the trans- 

 ference of the particle is accomplished without abstraction 

 of energy from the pulse. The expressions for the apparent 

 velocity of drifting in the direction of propagation of the 

 waves are found to depend on the squares of the charge, so 

 that it is probable that an electrically neutral system will also 

 j be made to drift. 



j It is pointed out that if the equations held up to velocities 

 of the charged particle equal to that of radiation, a particle 



