FEBRUARY 21, 1907 | 
NATURE 
405 
fessorship of medicine; Dr. Gaskell, to that of the pro- 
fessorship of zoology and comparative anatomy; Dr. 
Keynes, to that of the professorship of political economy ; 
Dr. W. N. Shaw, to that of the Cavendish professorship 
of physics; Prof. J. J. Thomson, to that of the professor- 
ship of mechanism and applied mechanics; Prof. C. 5. 
Sherrington, to, that of the professorship of physiology ; 
Prof. Nuttall, to that of the professorship of pathology ; 
the Hon. B. A. W. Russell, to that of the professorship 
of mental philosophy and logic; and Mr. A. E. Shipley, 
of Christ’s College, to that of the professorship of agri- 
culture. 
The teachers’ training syndicate has appointed Dr. 
Rouse, of Christ’s College, O. Browning, of King’s 
College, and J. Wallis, of Christ’s College, as delegates 
to attend the International Congress on School Hygiene 
to be held in London next May. 
Pror. H. McLeop, F.R.S., is to receive the honorary 
degree of LL.D. from the University of St. Andrews at 
the graduation ceremonial on April 2. 
Pror. Tuomas Lovepay, professor of philosophy at the 
South African College, Cape Town, has been appointed 
librarian to the University of Sheffield. 
ARRANGEMENTS have been made for establishing a dis- 
tinct department of the Board of Education to deal with 
all grades of education in Wales and Monmouthshire. Mr. 
A. T. Davies has been appointed permanent secretary of 
this Welsh Education Department, and Mr. O. M. Edwards 
chief inspector for Welsh education, and both will be 
directly responsible to the president. 
A Reuter message from Pittsburg announces that the 
Western University of Pennsylvania will confer the 
honorary degree of LL.D. upon the following gentlemen, 
among others, who will be present at the Founders’ Day 
celebrations of the Carnegie Institute on April 13 next :-— 
Sir Robert Ball, Sir William Turner, K.C.B., Sir William 
Preece, K.C.B., Signor Marconi, Mr. Chalmers Mitchell, 
Dr. John Rhys, and the Rev. E. S. Roberts, master of 
Caius College, Cambridge. 
A RECENT issue of Science contains further striking 
instances of the importance attached to higher education 
by wealthy American citizens. Rensselaer Polytechnic 
Institute has received a gift of 200,o001. from Mrs. Russell 
Sage. The money will be used for the school of 
mechanical and electrical engineering. Mrs. Sage has 
also given 200,0001. to the Emma Willard School of Troy. 
The establishment and permanent endowment of Peabody 
College for Teachers, at Nashville, Tennessee, has also 
been assured. The Tennessee legislature has just passed 
a Bill providing the college with 50,000]. The city of 
Nashville has given 4o,oool., and the county of Davidson 
20,0001. These gifts have been made in response to a 
proposition from the Peabody Education Board to endow 
the college with 200,0001, All the conditions imposed by 
the Peabody Board have now been complied with, and it 
only remains for that board to organise the institution. 
The college will have 310,000l. in money. In addition to 
this, the University of Nashville has given the grounds 
and buildings now occupied by the college, valued at 
50,0001. It is understood also that gifts will be received 
at once from other sources amounting to about 200,000l. 
We also notice that by the will of Arthur Mills, of Brook- 
line, Harvard University will ultimately receive 30,000l. 
Ir is satisfactory to learn from the annual report that 
the Geographical Association, which is doing very useful 
work in promoting the study of geography in schools by 
scientific methods, is making substantial progress. In 
many schools geography is still regarded as a collection 
of names and phrases which convey no real meaning to 
the pupils, but, thanks largely to the efforts of the associ- 
ation, both teachers and examiners are beginning to realise 
that geography must be approached in the spirit of prac- 
tical inquiry if it is to be of any value as a school subject. 
Ordnance Survey maps can now be obtained by schools at 
greatly reduced prices upon application to the Director- 
General of the Ordnance Survey, Southampton, and _ suit- 
able maps to supplement these will no doubt be suggested 
by the committee appointed by the association to consider 
NO. 1947, VOL. 75 | 
the substance and scope of atlases for elementary schools. 
A special committee on lantern-slides has also been 
appointed. This committee hopes to prepare series of 
slides illustrative of certain aspects of geography, as well 
as of various countries. It is specially anxious to obtain 
sets of views of different districts in the United Kingdom 
illustrative of their scenery and social conditions, as well 
as from British and other lands beyond the seas. Such 
illustrations, combined with exercises on the construction 
and use of maps, practical measurements with tape and 
plane-table, meteorological observations recorded day by 
day, and the spirit of ‘‘Seek and ye shall find’’ per- 
meating the whole of the work, will transform geography 
from a dismal study into a living science by which both 
the imaginative and the critical faculties may be culti- 
vated. We have no sympathy with the old order of things, 
but the change which the Geographical Association is 
bringing about gives decided satisfaction. 
Tue provisional programme of the Federal. Conference 
on Education, organised by the League of the Empire, 
and to be held in London from May 24 to June 1, in- 
cludes the following educational subjects :—Teachers : 
(1) comparison of (a) the provisions for the supply and the 
training of elementary teachers, and of (b) the conditions 
of their work in the United Kingdom and other countries 
of the Empire and Crown colonies; (2) similar comparison 
in the case of secondary teachers; (3) practicability of 
temporary interchange of teachers and of inspectors 
between the United Kingdom and other countries of the 
Empire and Crown colonies. The relations between 
secondary and primary schools in the various countries of 
the Empire. Means of establishing a system of mutual 
recognition of equivalent standards of attainment in the 
several countries of the Empire in connection with primary, 
secondary, and university education. Cooperation in 
educational publications: (1) scheme of the League of the 
Empire for Imperial text-books in history; (2) means for 
ensuring correctness in text-books dealing with geography, 
or in which local knowledge is required. Cooperation in 
school work: (1) the formation of a central exhibition of 
industrial 01 Sther school work ; (2) the organisation of the 
exchange of school work and specimens between depart- 
ments, museums, and between individual schools on a 
permanent basis. School subjects: (1) the English 
language: (a) reading (literature), (b) composition, (c) pro- 
nunciation; (2) geography in its relations to: (a) history, 
(b) discovery and commerce; (c) the growth of the 
Empire, illustrated by lantern slides and other means; 
(3) encouragement of nature-study. Education of non- 
British races: comparison of ideals, methods, and 
standards in various parts of the Empire. Other subjects 
which may be discussed if time allows: (a) cadet corps 
and military training; (b) educational facilities in sparsely 
populated districts; (c) educational treatment of poor law 
and reformatory children; (d) civic and moral education ; 
(e) metric system of weights and measures; (f) school 
gardens. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
LONDON. 
Mineralogical Society, January 29.—Prof. H. A. Miers, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Experiments bearing on 
the order of crystallisation of rock-constituents: Prof. 
H. A. Miers. The general results of experiments made 
by Miss F. Isaac and Prof. Miers with mixtures of salol 
and betol in all proportions were described; the experi- 
ments have established the supersolubility curves even 
beyond the points where they cross below the eutectic 
temperature. Owing to the fact that the main separation 
of crystals in the cooling mixtures takes place only when 
the liquids have been supercooled to temperatures given 
by the supersolubility curves, it has been found (1) that 
in general the mixtures do not solidify as a eutectic mix- 
ture; (2) that, according to the conditions of supercooling, 
either substance could be made to crystallise before the 
other in mixtures approaching the eutectic in composition. 
It was suggested that these results are applicable to the 
solidification of many rocks and alloys.—Serpentine rocls 
