iMakch i6, 1905] 



NATURE 



475 



editions of : — " Electricity in its Application to Telegraphy," 

 by r. E. Herbert; " Central Station Electricity Supply," by 

 A. Gay and C. II. Veanian : "The Alternating-Current 

 Circuit and Motor," by \V. P. Maycock ; and " Radium," 

 bv S. R. Bottone. 



USIVhl^SirV AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — An .Arnold Gerstenberg studentship will be 

 offered for competition in the Michaelmas term of 1906. 

 The studentship will be awarded by means of essays. 

 Every candidate tiujsI send on or before October i, 1906, an 

 essay on one of the subjects printed below addressed to 

 Dr. James Ward, Trinity College. The studentship, which 

 will be of the annual value of nearly go/., will be tenable 

 for two years, upon the condition that at the end of the 

 first year the student's progress in philosophical study is 

 deemed satisfactory by the board of managers. The subjects 

 for essays are: — (i) a philosophical discussion of the doctrine 

 of energy and particularly of the new theory of energetics ; 

 (2) a critical e.xaminalion of Descartes' philosophy of 

 nature; (3) the relation of mathematics and the theory of 

 probability to physics ; (4) the theory of psychophysical 

 parallelism ; (5) the scope and methods of comparative 

 psychology ; (6) the philosophical import of post-Darwinian 

 theories of natural selection. 



The principal and the professors at McGill University, 

 Montreal have nominated Mr. L. V. King, a student in the 

 faculty of arts, to the Canadian scholarship lately estab- 

 lished at Christ's College. 



An exhibition of 50/. a year tenable for two vears is 

 offered by the governing body of Emmanuel Cclltgp to an 

 advanced student conmiencing residence at the college in 

 October, 1905. .Appjicalions should be sent to the master 

 of Emmanuel (from whom further particulars may be ob- 

 t.iined) not later than October i. 



The local examinations and lectures syndicate is about 

 to elect an assistant secretary for the department of the 

 local lectures. The appointment will be in the first instance 

 for one year. The stipend will be 150/. in an ordinary year, 

 and 200!. in those years in which summer jiicetings are 

 held. Graduates of the university who desire to otTer them- 

 selves as candidates are requested to send their names 

 before May 8 to the Rev. D. H. S. Cranage. 



Thk London .School of Tropical Medicine has been ad- 

 mitted as a school of the University of London in the 

 faculty of medicine in tropical medicine only. 



The committee of the Liverpool .School of Tropical 

 Medicine has appointed Mr. R. T. Newslead lecturer in 

 economic entomology and parasitology. 



The fourth annual students' soirfSe of the .Sir John Cass 

 Technical Institute will be held in the institute, Jewry Street, 

 Aldgate, ICC, on Saturday, March 18. Exhibits and 

 demonstrations referring to the work of the various depart- 

 ments form part of the programme. 



It is reported, .says Science, that Mr. Andrew Carnegie 

 h.Ms offered to give 100,000/. to the University of Virginia 

 on the condition that the authorities of the institution raise 

 a similar amount from other sources, and that the late 

 James C. Carter, the eminent New York lawyer, has be- 

 queathed 40,000/. to Harvard University. Science also 

 states that at the first of the winter convocations of the 

 George Washington University a gift of properly, estim iled 

 to be worth 20,000/., was announced for the establish tient 

 of a chair and course of graduate study on the history of 

 civilisation. Various sums of money raised by the trustees 

 and alumni association, aggregating 55,000/., were also 

 announced. 



A C0M.MISS10N was appointed a few vears ago to inquire 

 into the condition of manual and practical instruction in 

 Irish primary schools, and, as the result of the recom- 

 mendations made by this Commission, instruction in ele- 

 mentary experimental science was introduced into the 

 primary schools of Ireland. The results of this teaching 

 have, in the opinion of competent authorities, been in every 

 way satisfactory. Not only has the educational value of 



NO. 1846, VOL. 71] 



experimental science again been demonstrated, but its bene- 

 ficial effects on the progress of Ireland's industries and 

 agriculture have been made clear. Notwithstanding the 

 success which naturally has followed the introduction of 

 practical instruction in scientific principles into Irish ele- 

 mentary schools, the Treasury has refused to renew the 

 small grant required to meet the necessary expenditure, and 

 the work of organising science instruction in the schools — 

 after four years — is being stopped. It is ditVicult indeed to 

 understand .so retrograde a policy. The incompli-lcnt ss of 

 all schemes of education which ignore the claims of prac- 

 tical instruction in the fundamental facts of science has been 

 demonstrated rep:aledly; the connection between American 

 and German industrial success and the scientific systems of 

 education established in these countries has become familiar 

 to all interested in their country's welfare, so that no 

 excuse — not even the urgent need of economy in national 

 expenditure — can justify this action of the Treasury. It is 

 to be hoped earnestly that steps may yet be taken to avert 

 what would be nothing short of a calamity to Ireland, and 

 that the work, which has begun so auspiciously under Ihe 

 prrsent organisers of science instruction, instead of being 

 stopped may be broadened and extended. 



It is stated in the Times that the conmiittee, presided 

 over by Mr. Ilaldane, M.I'., appointed to consider the allo- 

 cation of the increased grant-in-aid of education of a 

 university standard in arts and science has now finished 

 its inquiry. E.xcluding 9000/. to be allclled later in the 

 financial year, Ihe commillee proposes that the sum of 

 45,000/. (making a total grant of 54,000/.) be allotted as 

 follows : — .Manchester, 6000/. ; University College, London, 

 5000/. ; Liverpool, . 5000/. ; Birmingham, 4500/. ; Leeds, 

 4000/. ; King's College, London, .1900/. ; Newcastle-on-Tyne, 

 3000/. ; Nottingham, 2900/. ; Sheffield, 2300/. ; Bedford 

 College, London, 2000/. ; Bristol, 2000/. ; Reading, lyool. ; 

 .Southampton, 1700/. ; Dundee, 1000/, The committee ex- 

 presses the view that the lime has come for making a new 

 departure in the principle on which .State assistance is to 

 be given to the highest education. It is recommended that 

 a moderate sum should be set aside for distribution by way 

 of payment to posl-graduale students from the university 

 colleges who devote themselves for one, two, or three years 

 to special problems ; and that to ensure the money being 

 applied most efficiently to the stimulation of individual 

 study, as distinguished from the general purpo.ses of the 

 college to the development of which other sums out of the 

 grant are directed, the distribution should assume the form 

 of a grant made directly to Ihe student on Ihe advice of 

 some impartial authority. It is also suggested that the 

 grant-in-aid should in future be made to a committee, 

 instead of to the colleges direct, and that this conuiiitlee 

 should make an annual report to the Treasury, to be laid 

 before Parliament. In conclusion the committee urges the 

 necessity of leaving to the advisory committee discrelion 

 to deal with particular circumstances as they arise. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, I-cbiuary g. — "On the Slellnr Line near 

 \ 4686." By Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.H., I'.K.S., and 

 F. E. Baxandall. A.R.C.Sc. 



In this paper the aulhcrs direit attention to a well- 

 marked line of unknown origin which appears in (;ne of 

 the Kensington photographs of the helium spectrum near 

 \ 4686. 



It is shown that a conspicuous line near the same wave- 

 length occurs in the spectra of the chromosphere, nebula;, 

 bright-line stars, certain Orion stars, and in ( Puppis, the 

 star the spectrum of which was found by Prof. Pickering to 

 contain a new series of lines which he considered to belong 

 to hydrogen. 



Ttie mean wave-length of the stellar line, as derived 

 from the available published records, is shown to agree very 

 closely with the wave-length of Ihe line in the laboratory 

 spectrum, and the authors conclude that the identity of the 

 two lines is probably a real one. 



Rydberg has shown that the line near \ 4686 is the first 

 line in the principal series of hydrogen, and the authors 

 of Ihe present paper consider Ih.il Ihe " sirange " line in 



