June 20, 1901] 



NA TURE 



1S7 



Doctors of Laws, including several ladies. This is the 

 first instance of the bestowal by the University of hon- 

 orary degrees upon ladies. 



The new botanical department of the University was 

 opened by Sir Joseph Hooker on Thursday in the pre- 

 sence of a distinguished company. Sir Joseph Hooker 

 prefaced the ceremony with a description of the work 

 done by his father both before and after he became 

 professor of botany in the University in the first quarter 

 of last century. He had not been educated for the 

 medical, or, indeed, any other learned profession. Having 

 inherited ample means and having been from childhood 

 devoted to the study and collection of objects of natural 

 history, he determined to devote his life and his fortune 

 to travel and scientific pursuits. Early in 1S20, reduced 

 circumstances requiring him to turn his botanical attain- 

 ments to material account, he obtained, through the in- 

 fluence of his friend Sir Joseph Banks with George III., 

 the chair of Regius Professor of Botany in this University. 

 It was a bold venture for him to undertake so responsible 

 an office, for he had never lectured, or even attended a 

 course of lectures, and in Glasgow, as in all other Uni- 

 versities in the kingdom, the botanical chair was, and 

 had always been, held by a graduate in medicine. Owing 

 to these disqualifications his appointment was naturally 

 unfavourably viewed by the medical faculty of the Uni- 

 versity. But he had resources that enabled hiin to over- 

 come all obstacles — familiarity with his subject, devotion 

 to its study, energy, eloquence, a commanding presence, 

 with urbanity of manners, and, above all, the art of 

 making the student love the science he taught. Con- 

 tinuing, Sir Joseph Hooker said : — 



If I were asked what I regarded as of most importance to the 

 student in the manner of my father's teaching I would answer 

 that it taught the art of exact observation and reasoning there- 

 from, a schooling of inestimable value for the medical man, and 

 one that is given in no other profession, but which ought to 

 come, in this counlry, as it does in Germany, early in the edu- 

 cation of every child. I have met many of my father's pupils 

 abroad, in India and the Colonies, who have told me that these 

 botanical lectures gave them the first ideas they had ever enter- 

 tained of there being a natural classification of the members of 

 the vegetable kingdom. Then with regard to the results in a 

 botanical point of view, the magnetism of the lecturer and the 

 interest of the subject imbued many of his pupils with a love 

 of science that proved permanent and fruitful. They made 

 observations and collections for their quondam professor in the 

 temperate and tropical climates of both hemispheres, some of 

 them throughout their lives, which have very largely contributed 

 to a knowledge of the flora and vegetable resources of the globe. 

 After twenty years of professorship my father retired, and under- 

 took the directorship of the Royal Gardens, Kew. Since that 

 period great changes have been introduced in the method of 

 botanical teaching in all our Universities, due, on the one 

 hand, to a vastly advanced comprehension of the structure 

 of plants and of the functions of their organs, and, on the 

 other, to a recognition of the fact that the study of the animal 

 and vegetable kingdoms cannot be considered apart. T'urther- 

 more, chemistry, physics and greatly improved microscopes are 

 now necessary for the elucidation of the elementary problems of 

 plant life. The instruction in these two sciences (chemistry 

 and physics) has with all others advanced in this University 

 pari passu with that of botany, and kept it in the forefront of 

 the educational establishments of the kingdom. The addition 

 of the building in which we are assembled is evidence of the 

 resolve that it shall not relax its efforts to maintain its well- 

 earned position, and with the conviction that the botanical 

 laboratory will prove an invaluable aid to research under the 

 ^legis of its distinguished director, I now, under his authority, 

 declare it open. 



The official celebration of the jubilee was brought to a 

 close on Friday, when an oration on William Hunter, by 

 Prof. Young, was read by Prof. Bower in the Bute 

 Hall. 



NO. 1 65 I, VOL. 64] 



NOTES. 



The late Prof G. F. Fitzgerald was so highly esteemed in the 

 world of science that a movement to establish a memorial of his 

 greatness will certainly meet with ready and liberal support. It 

 is proposed to found a "Fitzgerald Research Scholarship," to 

 be awarded annually at Trinity College, Dublin ; and a large 

 and influential committee of leaders of science at home and' 

 abroad has been formed to obtain funds for this purpose. The 

 object is one which would have had the entire approval of Prof. 

 Fitzgerald, whose chief care was the encouragement of experi- 

 mental research in the laboratories entrusted to his guidance at 

 Trinity College. The scholarship would be attached to the 

 department of experimental physics in the College, and would' 

 enable promising students to pursue investigations which, for 

 want of means of immediate support, might otherwise have to 

 be relinquished. Prof Fitzgerald's marvellous faculties and 

 noble character are so well known and appreciated among 

 scientific men that it is almost unnecessary to urge the claims 

 of the object to their attention. We have confidence that the 

 response to the appeal for funds will be sufticient to provide 

 an adequate endowment for the scholarship it is desired to 

 establish. Subscriptions should be sent to one of the honorary 

 treasurers. Prof. D. J. Cunningham, F.R.S., or Dr. H. H. 

 Dixon, Trinity College, Dublin. 



A COMMITTEE has recently been appointed by the Institution, 

 of Civil Engineers, with the support of the Institutions of 

 Mechanical Engineers and Naval Architects and of the Iron and 

 Steel Institute, to consider the advisability of standardising the 

 various kinds of iron and steel sections, and, if found advisable, 

 then to consider and report as to the steps which should be- 

 taken to carry such standardisation into practice. The com- 

 mittee is composed as follows :— Mr. James Mansergh, Sir 

 Benjamin Baker, K. CM. G., Sir John Wolfe Barry, K.C.B., 

 Sir Frederick Bramwell, Bart., Sir Douglas Fox, Mr. G. Ains- 

 worth, Mr. William Dean, Mr. A. Denny, Mr. J. Allen 

 McDonald, Mr. E. Windsor Richards, Mr. James Riley, Prof. 

 W. C. Unwin, F.R.S., and Dr. J. H. T. Tudsbery (hon. secre- 

 tary). Mr. Leslie S. Robertson, of 28, Victoria Street, S.W., 

 has been appointed secretary to this committee, which has 

 already commenced its work by taking evidence tendered by 

 engineers, manufacturers and contractors bearing upon the sub- 

 ject of the inquiry. 



The Societe des Amis des Sciences physiques et mathe- 

 matiques at Poltava, Russia, is making arrangements to celebrate 

 the centenary of the birth of Michel Ostrogradsky at Poltava on 

 September 12-25 next. 



The following gentlemen have been elected to fill up vacan- 

 cies in the list of foreign members of the London Mathematical 

 Society :— Prof. Ulisse Dini, Pisa ; Prof Georg Cantor, Halle- 

 a-Saale ; and Prof. David Hilbert, Gottingen. 



The Berlin correspondent of the Times announces that an 

 office has been opened in Berlin in order to co-operate m the 

 preparation of an international catalogue of scientific literature. 

 Dr. Oscar Uhlworm, chief Royal librarian, has been appointed 

 to direct the work of the office. 



The Royal Horticultural Society will hold an exhibition of 

 lilies at their Chiswick Garden, on Tuesday and Wednesday, 

 July 16 and 17. On July 16 a conference on lilies will also take 

 place in the Garden. The chair will be taken by Mr. H. J. 

 Elwes, F.R.S., who will deliver an opening address on lilies 

 discovered or brought into cultivation since the issue of his 

 monopraDb on the subject. 



