FEBRUARY 14, 1907 | 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
Tue Government of the French Republic has, by a decree 
of the Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts, con- 
ferred upon Prof. J. Wertheimer, the principal of the 
Merchant Venturers’ Technical College, Bristol, the order 
of Officier d’Académie. 
Dr. Donatp Macatister, fellow and director of medical 
studies of St. John’s College, Cambridge, Linacre lecturer 
of physic, and president of the General Medical Council, 
has been appointed principal of the University of Glasgow 
in succession to the late Principal Story. 
M. Lrarp, Vice-Rector of the University of Paris, has 
informed the Paris Municipal Council that it is the inten- 
tion of the University of London to return the visit made 
to it last year by the Paris University. The representatives 
of the University of London are to arrive in Paris in the 
middle of May, and a luncheon will be given at the Hétel 
de Ville to the members of both universities. 
Mr. F. Darwin has been nominated to represent the 
University of Cambridge at the celebration of the two- 
hundredth anniversary of the birth of Linnzus, to be held 
at Upsala in May. Dr. Hill, Dr. A. Caldecott, and Mr. 
D. H. S. Cranage have been nominated to represent the 
University at a federal conference on education, convened 
by the federal council of the League of the Empire, to 
be held in London on May 24 to June 1. 
It would be difficult to find a more useful book for 
parents selecting a school for their sons than the ‘‘ Public 
School Year-book ’’ (Swan Sonnenschein and Co., Ltd., 
price 3s. 6d. net), the eighteenth issue of which has just 
appeared. Full particulars of all the schools represented 
at the headmasters’ conference are given, and these are 
supplemented by much useful information about preparatory 
schools, the, entrance to the professions, public examin- 
ations, and kindred subjects. 
WE have received from Washington copies of the reports 
of the librarian of Congress and of the superintendent of 
the library building and grounds for the fiscal year ending 
June 30, 1906. ihe amount expended on the library during 
1906, exclusive of sums spent on printing and binding 
reached 117,500]. During the same year the net accessions 
to the library were nearly 35,000. The librarian’s report 
gives interesting particulars of numerous bequests and gifts 
to the library and information concerning the complete 
system of cataloguing which has been elaborated. The 
second report deals with such matters as the cost of care 
and maintenance. 
HIGHER education in the United States continues to 
benefit by the generosity of public-spirited American men 
of wealth. \e learn from Science that an announcement 
has been made that Mr. J. D.- Rockefeller will endow the 
University of Chicago with 600,000l. to maintain a pension 
fund, the institution having been excluded from the scope 
of the Carnegie foundation, owing to its denominational 
control. It is also reported that Mr. Rockefeller has 
agreed to give 400,000]. for the endowment of a university 
for Louisville, provided a similar amount is raised by those 
interested in the new institution. The chair of chemistry 
at the University of Pennsylvania has been anonymously 
endowed by a gift of 20,0001. Mr. S. W. Bowne has given 
to Syracuse University a chemical laboratory, costing 
20,0001. Finally, the packing interests of Chicago have 
offered to the University of Illinois the sum of 50,000l. 
with which to establish in that city a veterinary college. 
Mr. J. D. RockEreLter has given the General Education 
Board, which is designed to help educational institutions, 
6,400,0001. for the purpose of assisting the work of the 
Board throughout the country. Referring to this announce- 
ment, the New York correspondent of the Times remarks 
that the donation is believed to be the largest single sum 
ever given for a philanthropic purpose. So far as is 
known, Mr. Rockefeller has up to the present made don- 
ations for educational purposes amounting to a total of 
18,000,0001., and he is believed to have given anonymously 
6,000,000l. more. The General Education Board will now 
be in a position to aid educational institutions all over ‘the 
NO. 1946, VoL. 75 | 
NATURE 381 
United States. No State universities share in its gifts, and 
in every case the Board endeavours to encourage institutions 
which may eventually come to be self- -supporting rather 
than those dependent on charity for their maintenance. 
Tue report of the higher education subcommittee of the 
London County Council, which was adopted at a recent 
meeting of the Council, recommends that certain grants 
be made to the governors of fifty secondary schools. The 
total amount available out of the current estimates is 
120,000]. It is estimated that 11,945]. will be required in 
respect of the building grants voted in March, 1906. The 
proposals amount to 74,825/., of which 2355/. is for equip- 
ment. Last year the corresponding Benes were 66,745/., 
of which 3895]. was for equipment. This represents a 
gross increase of 808o0l., of which about 6000l. may be 
taken as the cost of the education of the increased number 
of the Council’s scholars. To make the comparison 
accurate, however, this sum should be increased by 178o9)., 
the amount of the grants paid last year, which for Aierent 
reasons are not included in this year’s list. The net in- 
crease in aid, apart from the cost of ne Council’s scholars, 
is therefore under 4o0ool. 
Dr. M. W. Travers, F.R:S., who is at present making 
a tour in India in connection with the Tata Research 
Institute, of which he is the first director, has, the Pioneer 
Mail reports, expressed disappointment at the standard re- 
quired for degrees in science at Indian universities. In 
chemistry the courses are defective, Dr. Travers finds; 
few of the universities introduce quantitative practical 
courses, and the theoretical courses are hardly up to the 
intermediate standard of English universities. The lack 
of suitable students among bachelors of science wil! be a 
drawback to research in the Tata Institute, and may lead 
to a difficult situation. Indian universities have hitherto 
confined their research courses to masters of arts or science 
who have received two years’ special training after gradu- 
ating. The total number of research students in all the 
Indian universities is probably considerably less than 
twenty. It is consequently feared that there may be a 
difficulty in supplying the Tata Institute with properly 
qualified students. 
Tuer report of the Departmental Committee on Educa- 
tion Rates, appointed in October, 1905, has been pub- 
lished as a Blue-book (Cd. 3313). An important section 
of the report deals with expenditure on higher education— 
in this connection an elastic term including all forms of 
instruction other than elementary. A summary, relating 
to the rates required in 1905-6 by county and county 
borough councils for the purposes of higher education, 
shows that the councils of nineteen counties raised no rates 
for higher education at all, and that seven county borough 
councils had the same unenviable notoriety. Of the forty- 
three counties levying such a rate, sixteen required some- 
thing under 1d. in the pound, nineteen under 2d., seven 
(including the London County Council) less than 3d., and 
one between 3d. and qd. Of sixty-five councils of county 
boroughs, one (West Ham) required more than 5d. in the 
pound, three more than 4d. but less than 5d., nine more 
than 3d. but less than 4d., six more than 2d. but less 
than ed., thirty-four more than 1d. but less than 2d., and 
twelve less than 1d. The sum of 2,477,327]. was devoted 
in 1904-5 to higher education of the kind explained, and 
of this amount 31-5 per cent. was raised by rates, 20-6 per 
cent. was Ceeied from the Board of Education, and 
38-1 per cent. was allocated from Exchequer contributions. 
The report states, as, indeed, is much to be hoped, that 
the expenditure of local authorities in respect of higher 
education may be expected to continue to increase in 
amount. Altogether, the Blue-book provides an abundance 
of useful information. 
Tue fourteenth annual general meeting of the Association 
of Technical Institutions was held on February 8 and 9 
in London. The meeting was preceded by a luncheon 
given to the members of the association by the Cloth- 
workers’ Company. Sir Horace Plunkett, the president 
for 1907, delivered an address, during which he said that 
among the many admitted defects of our educational 
system there is one most hopeful sign—the evening technical 
institutes, of which we may be justly proud. It is true 
