FEBRUARY 7, 1907 | 
NATURE 
357 
special classes, and will assist in arranging and making 
accessible to students and to the public the collections of 
plants and plant products possessed by the University. It 
will also be his duty to examine and report upon such 
specimens of plant diseases, of timbers, and of other 
vegetable products, as may be sent to the University and 
to the Manchester Museum for identification, and to con- 
duct special researches in economic botany. 
Tue annual distribution of prizes and certificates to the 
successful students attending the colleges and schools con- 
-ducted in London by the City and Guilds of London 
Institute, was held at the Mansion House on January 31. 
The Lord Mayor presided. Sir Edward Busk, Vice- 
Chancellor of the University of London, in the course of 
an address referred to the suggestions of the departmental 
committee of the Board of Education for the amalgamation 
of the Royal College of Science, the Royal School of 
Mines, and the Central Technical College at South 
Kensington in one great technical college. He sees no 
reason why. such a scheme cannot be carried out. The 
Royal College of Science would be the nucleus of the 
scientific side of such a technical college, and the Central 
Technical College would be the nucleus of the engineering 
side. He earnestly hopes that the governing body of the 
new institution will take measures to ascertain that candi- 
dates for admission already possess a sound 
secondary education. At present the students who come 
up have not sufficient general knowledge and culture. Sir 
J. Wolfe Barry, in proposing a vote of thanks to Sir E. 
Busk, expressed the hope that a start would soon be made 
with the development at South Kensington of a great 
college for technical education. 
Amone the most recently announced gifts to American 
seats of higher education may be mentioned the following, 
recorded in Science. As already announced by cable 
(p. 237), Mr. J. D. Rockefeller has given the University 
of Chicago 540,0001. for its permanent endowment, and 
43,4001. for current expenses and special purposes. Among 
the special provisions of this latter gift is one to provide 
permanent increases in the salaries of instructors, 80ool. 
Mr. Rockefeller’s gifts to the University of Chicago are 
said 10 amount to more than 4,000,0001. It is announced 
that 65,000/. have been subscribed toward the 100,000l. 
endowment which is being raised to mark the seventy- 
fifth anniversary of Lafayette College. Of this sum, Mr. 
Andrew Carnegie has given 10,0001. for a mechanical 
engineering course. He will give an additional 10,000l. 
provided the 100,000]. is obtained. <A further gift of 
10,0001. from Mr. Andrew Carnegie to Bates College is 
announced. Mr. Carnegie’s offer of this amount stipu- 
lates that friends of the institution shall subscribe 20,0001., 
and this amount has been secured. Mr. Carnegie has also 
given 150,000l. for the construction of a building to be 
used by the Bureau of American Republics. Provision for 
the site already has been made by the United States and 
the South American Republics. 
A LONG communication to the Times by Mr. A. Mosely 
again directs attention to American methods of education. 
Mr. Mosely recently returned from the United States and 
Canada, where he went to prepare for the arrival of 
British teachers who are now at work visiting American 
schools and studying Western systems of education. He 
tells a gratifying story of the kindness of the welcome 
accorded to the visitors. The interchange of views between 
two great English-speaking peoples must be of enormous 
benefit to those who are trying to work out practical 
systems for the education of future generations. Already 
the British teachers have been impressed with the great 
belief in the value of education shown by Americans. Mr. 
Mosely points out that this belief in education finds a 
ready echo amongst all classes of society, who are prepared 
to pour out money, both through taxation and by princely 
gifts, for education. The material advantage of the 
American system of education is manifesting itself by the 
prosperity of the country and by the flow of inquiries at 
the doors of every university and place of higher educa- 
tion for the services of the students as they graduate. In 
fact, there are many applications for every pupil available. 
NO. 1945, VOL. 75 | 
general } 
One of the most noticeable features in the United States 
is, the letter continues, the desire of the pupil, ably backed 
by the parent, to take full advantage of the magnificent 
system afforded by the country of practically free education 
from the kindergarten to the university. 
Tue final report of the Royal Commission on Trinity 
College, Dublin, and the University of Dublin has been 
published. The recommendations of the commissioners 
and the decision of the Government, as announced by Mr. 
Bryce in reply to a deputation on January 25, have given 
rise to much discussion. ‘The difficulty in connection with 
the establishment of a satisfactory system of university 
education in Ireland is a religious one. As the first con- 
clusion of the commissioners states, Trinity College has 
been, and is, a satisfactory organ for the higher education 
of the Protestant Episcopalian population of Ireland, but it 
has never been, and is not now, to an extent adequate 
to the reasonable requirements of the country, an organ 
for the higher education of the Roman Catholic popula- 
tion. The important matter is somehow to secure for all 
Irishmen who desire it the benefit of university education, 
and, in view of this paramount necessity, we welcome the 
scheme outlined by Mr. Bryce as being likely to consolidate 
educational effort and to free institutions of higher in- 
struction from impediments arising from sectarian animosi- 
ties. The Government appears to have decided that the 
University of Dublin shall be enlarged so as to become 
a national university for Ireland, which will include as 
constituent colleges :—Trinity College, a new college in 
Dublin, and the Queen’s Colleges in Cork and Belfast. In 
regard to the new college, it is to be furnished with 
adequate buildings and laboratories, and it is hoped that 
on the science side use may be made of the Royal College 
of Science, and that its laboratories and apparatus will be 
the means of effecting the change economically. The 
funds at present used by the Royal University—which is 
purely an examining body—are to be employed for the 
purposes of the new college and the proposed University 
of Ireland generally. It is intended that the new uni- 
versity shall be absolutely unsectarian, and that there shali 
be no tests for governors, fellows, teachers, students, or 
examiners. Though there are signs already that the pro- 
posals of the Government will in some quarters meet with 
great opposition, we are hopeful that it will prove possible 
to establish in Ireland a comprehensive university which 
will include eventually every Irish seat of learning reach- 
ing a proper university standard. , 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
LONDON. 
Royal Society, November 22, 1906,—‘‘ The Relation 
of the Kidneys to Metabolism.’’ By F. A. Bainbridge 
and A. P. Beddard. Communicated by Prof. E. H. 
Starling, F.R-.S. 
The effects of removing the greater part of the total 
kidney weight of cats were studied; a portion of one kidney 
was removed at one operation, and some weeks later the 
opposite kidney was removed. After the second operation 
the animals refused food and lost weight, though not more 
rapidly than normal cats kept for twenty-four hours with- 
out food. The increased output of urinary nitrogen de- 
scribed by Bradford was not invariably observed, but in 
some cats, which refused food after the second operation, 
the output of nitrogen was increased, though not to the 
amount found before the second operation. Moreover, the 
output of urinary nitrogen did not rise until the animals 
had lost about 25 per cent. of their body weight. A similar 
rise of nitrogen has been found by many observers in 
normal animals, when the body fat has been largely used 
up, and energy has to be supplied by increased proteid 
katabolism. It may be concluded, therefore, that the in- 
creased output of nitrogen observed in cats deprived of 
three-quarters or more of their kidneys is the result of 
inanition; no evidence was obtained that the kidneys 
directly influence nitrogenous metabolism. 
Bradford found that dogs, after excision of part of one 
kidney, were apparently unable to pass a concentrated 
urine. The authors find, however, that under the same 
