20 
INA I (QUIRLE. 
| NovEMBER 1, 1906 
of the actions that determine the displacement of the more 
or less permanent anticyclones, it is doubtful whether an 
occasional coincidence could be accepted as_ sufficient 
evidence to establish a relation. Some meteorologists, we 
believe, consider anticyclones to be comparatively inert 
masses, and others, on the contrary, as sources of action. 
They are remarkably persistent in position and character, 
and their variation of position from one period to another 
in south-western Europe is closely related to the abnormali- 
ties of weather. Where theoretical opinions differ so largely 
it is almost certain that it will require twenty-five to 
fifty years’ data at the least to test the relation between 
the Abyssinian rainfall and the position of the anticyclone 
in south-western Europe or the adjacent Atlantic. 
NEW PHYSICAL AND ENGINEERING DE- 
PARTMENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 
EDINBURGH. 
THE new buildings for the natural philosophy (Prof. 
MacGregor) and éngineering (Prof. Hudson Beare) 
departments of the University .of Edinburgh were opened 
century—a movement which he believed would be con- 
ducted with ever-increasing acceleration through the earlier: 
years of the present century. He was glad also to have 
an opportunity of saying to Lord Elgin that tne work he 
had done as chairman of the Carnegie Trust was a work 
for which he had earned the gratitude of every man 
interested in the fate of the Scottish universities, and in 
the maintenance of the position which Scotland had held 
for more than 150 years in the world of le:rning. Pro- 
ceeding, the Chancellor referred to Dr. Carnegie. whose 
munificent beneficence to many great causes, and, so far 
as they were concerned, especially to the Scottish universi- 
ties, was known, and was destined to leave a permanent 
mark and do permanent good in Scotland. 
Sir William Turner, in seconding the motion, referred 
to the great kindness of Sir Donald Currie, who, he said, 
had taken a great weight off his mind when he told him 
he need not be under any difficulty in finding the money 
to hand over to the municipality for the site on 
November 11 two years ago. He also desired to thank 
Sir John Jackson for his generous gifts, and stated that 
before long he hoped they would be in a position to receive 
from him a very handsome addition 
to the Tait memoria! fund. 
Fic. 1.—South front of new Natural Philosophy Buildings, University of Edinburgh. 
on October 16 by Dr. Andrew Carnegie in the presence of 
a large and influential gathering. The proceedings took 
place in the large lecture theatre of the natural philosophy 
department, and were presided over by the Chancellor, the 
Right Hon. A. J. Balfour. Part of an address entitled 
““A Plea for Science Teaching,’’ delivered by Dr. Carnegie | 
_ along it. 
before declaring the buildings open, was printed in last 
week’s NATURE (vol. Ixxiv., p. 648). 
The Chancellor then moved 
benefactors. He was glad to have the opportunity of 
mentioning the work of the friends and admirers of the 
late Prof. Tait, who had instituted a fund to encourage 
research, which he hoped would make these walls illus- 
trious to all time. No more fitting tribute to Prof. Tait’s 
memory could possibly have been contrived. Though Prof. 
Tait worked in what he could hardly call a laboratory, ill- 
equipped and wholly inadequate to the work of modern 
research, yet he left a name which for all, time would be 
associated with the great development of physical know- 
ledge which marked the last fifty years of the recent 
NO. 1931, VOL. 75] 
a vote of thanks to the | 
Natural Philosophy Buildings. 
The accompanying illustration 
(Fig. 1) shows the south front of 
this block of buildings. The build- 
ing which has been transformed into 
a physical institute—the old surgical 
hospital of the infirmary—consisted of 
a main block 107 feet by 43 feet 
running nearly east and west, with 
wings at both ends 62 feet by 38 feet, 
and a block 71 feet by 51 feet running 
north towards the new engineering 
buildings, this north block including 
at its junction with the main build: 
ing a tower 89 feet in height. The 
outer walls have been almost entirely 
utilised as they stood, with one 
important exception—on the southern 
side of the main building, by terracing 
the ground and piercing the lower 
part of the wall with large windows, 
the old dark basement rooms have 
been converted into lofty, well-lighted 
laboratories. The interior has been 
largely reconstructed, and all the 
floors are now concrete, supported on 
east and west steel girders. 
The principal floor, entered directly 
from Drummond Street, contains the 
lecture theatre, apparatus rooms, 
library, professor’s research rooms, 
&c. The lecture theatre, 45 feet long, 
46 feet wide, and 32 feet in height, 
with seating accommodation for 250 
students, is lit entirely from an open- 
ing in the roof, and is ventilated by an 
electric fan. The lecture table is 30 feet long, standing 
in an experimental area 15 feet wide; it is supplied with 
hot and cold water, high-pressure water, steam, gas, 
vacuum, air-blast, oxygen, and a number of electric 
circuits, and a heliostat has been placed in a window of 
the apparatus room so as to send a beam of sunlight 
Opening off the lecture theatre is a preparation 
room with the necessary work benches; this room contains 
also the main switchboard, from which current will be 
distributed throughout the building from the town mains 
and from the accumulators. The apparatus room has a 
| corridor entrance immediately opposite that of the prepar- 
ation room; it is intended only for lecture apparatus. On 
the west side of the apparatus room provision has been 
made for a smaller lecture room, capable of accommodating 
about eighty students, and on the ground floor there is 
another small lecture room for the department of applied 
mathematics. The library and reading room is 37 feet by 
29 feet, with a southern exposure, and opens off the 
entrance hall. 
