19S 



NA TURE 



[June 20, 1901 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Oxford. — At a convocation on June l8, the honorary degree 

 of D. C.L. was conferred upon Mr. Cornelius N. Dalton, C. B. , 

 master of the Drapers' Company. 



On the same day, the new Radcliffe Library building, which 

 has been erected by the Drapers' Company at a cost of about 

 21,000/., was formally handed over to the University in the 

 presence of a large number of members of the Company and of 

 the University. 



Cambridge. — Prof. Newton, F. R. S., has been appointed a 

 manager of the Balfour fund for the ensuing five years. 



The J-Jarkness scholarship in geology has been awarded to 

 \V. G. Fearnsides, Sidney, and the Wiltshire prize in paleon- 

 tology to E. R. Watson, Jesus. 



Thirty-seven names appear in the first class of the natural 

 sciences tripos, part i., and ten in the first class of part ii. 

 Four are the names of Newnham students. 



The work of Mr. Hugh Ramage, advanced student of St. 

 John's, on spectrum analysis, has been pronounced "of dis- 

 tinction " as a record of original research and as a qualification 

 for the B.A. degree. 



Mr. Chamberlain has addressed a letter to the Lord Mayor 

 of Birmingham, on behalf of the council of the Birmingham 

 University, suggesting that a rate should be made in aid of the 

 University. The amount subscribed for the establishment of 

 the University is 400,000/., but a large proportion of this will 

 be absorbed in the erection and equipment of buildings neces- 

 sary for instruction and research. The increased cost of main- 

 tenance involved in the scheme cannot be wholly provided from 

 the fees of students, and it is on this account that an appeal is 

 made for assistance. In support of the appeal the council refer 

 to the precedents already established in .similar cases, notably in 

 connection with University colleges founded in other provincial 

 towns. Thus the corporation of Nottingham contributes 

 73S0/. a year to Nottingham College, Sheffield gives nearly 

 6000.'. a year to the Firth College, the corporation of Leeds 

 1500/. a year, the corporation of Manchester iioo/., and the 

 corporation of Liverpool, besides a grant of land of the value of 

 50,000/., an annual contribution of iSoo/. Other contribu- 

 tions of a substantial character have been made in many cases 

 by the county authorities : and it is hoped that if Birmingham 

 will set the example the counties which will derive benefit from 

 the extension now proposed of University work in the Midlands 

 will not be unwilling to take their share of responsibility. A rate 

 of M. in the pound would in Birmingham provide an annual 

 contribution of about 5000/., which would justify the council of 

 the University in proceeding immediately wiih the new depart- 

 ments, the necessity for which, in view of the increasing pressure 

 of foreign competition, is daily becoming more urgent. 



Ar the meeting of the General Medical Council last week a 

 prolonged discussion occurred upon the regulations for the first 

 year of medical study, and the educational institutions which 

 should be accepted as fit and proper places for passing one year 

 of the obligatory five years of professional study. The main 

 question was whether a year at a grammar school, or similar 

 educational establishment where general subjects as well as 

 science is taught, should count as one )ear of medical training 

 in the five years' curriculum. For one side it was stated that 

 the laboratories at some of the instiiutions recognised by the 

 Council were as well equipped as those of some medical schools. 

 It was also urged that chemistry, physics and biology might be 

 considered as an extension of the preliminary education required 

 before medical study, properly so called, can be commenced, 

 and that the medical curriculum required should be four years 

 taken subsequently to passing an examination in them. If this 

 view is accepted at the next meeting of the Council, it would 

 seem, s-ays the British Medical Journal., that the whole question 

 of the places at which instruction may beobtained may disappear, 

 for it will be argued that, provided the necessary knowledge is 

 obtained and tested by adequate examination, it will no longer 

 be the business of the Council to concern itself how or where it 

 iS obtained, any more than in the case of Latin or any other 

 .--ubjcct of preliminary education. The subject has been referred 

 to the Education Committee of the Council, and judging from 

 the \ii.ws expressed during the debate it seems that there are 



NO 1651. VOL. 64] 



not a few members who think that scientific education is now 

 provided for so well at schools not strictly medical that one year 

 of professional study may properly be carried out in such 

 institutions. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIAL. 



Bulletin oj the American Mathematical Society, May. — The 

 three papers in the present number were all read at the February 

 meeting of the Society. Non-oscillatory linear dilTerential 

 equations of the second order, by Prof. Bocher, has for its 

 object the deduction of certain conditions that the equation 



Py pdy ^ 



-rh. + 



■^ qy = 



should be non-oscillatory. This equation is said to be oscilla- 

 tory or non-oscillatory in the interval «2.v = i, according as it 

 does or does not have at least one solution (not identically zero) 

 which vanishes more than once in this interval. Conditions 

 have been obtained by Picard, Ijut the method used in the 

 present paper is not only entirely different, but yields, in 

 addition, other results not given by Picard's method. In the 

 author's opinion it is also less artificial. — Concerning real and 

 complex continuous groups, by Prof. L. E. Dickson, is an 

 attempt to illustrate certain differences and analogies between 

 related real and complex continuous groups. Lie's theory has 

 been developed chiefly for the latter groups, the modifications 

 necessary for real groups being treated quite briefly. — On holo- 

 morphisms and primitive roots, by Dr. G. A. Miller, is devoted 

 to some additional developments along the earlier line adopted 

 by the author in a previous paper {Bulletin, vol. vi. p. 337, 

 1900). — The following works are reviewed, viz. : " Einleitung 

 in die Theorie der Besselschen Funktionen" (Prof. J. H. Graf 

 and Dr. E. Gubler), by Dr. V. Snyder ; and " Lejons sur la 

 theorie des Formes et la Geometrie analytique superieure" 

 (H. Andoyer), by H. S. White. — The usual points of interest, 

 collegiate and other announcements, and list of recent public- 

 ations are well to the front. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



LoNnox. 



Royal Society, May 23. — " On the Presence of a Glyco- 

 lytic Enzyme in Muscle." By Sir Lauder Brunton, F.R.S.,and 

 Herbert Rhodes. 



For some time physiologists have suspected the presence 

 of some enzyme in muscle which has the power of break- 

 ing up the sugar with which the muscle is supplied through 

 the blood, and converting this food into energy with the forma- 

 tion of simpler oxidised bodies. The presence of such an 

 enzyme in fresh muscle juice was apparently proved by 

 Brunton in 1873, t''^' '^e method of experiment used was open 

 to criticism. 



Previous to the present paper the materials used had not been 

 rendered free from possible fermentative organisms, so that it 

 could not be definitely said that the marked glycolytic action 

 exhibited by the juice was not due to some fermenting fungus or 

 bacterial contamination. 



The muscle juice was obtained from the yet living flesh of a 

 sheep by comminution with sand and hydraulic expression. 



In these later experiments the muscle juice was rendered 

 sterile by filtration through a Pasteur Chamberland candle, the 

 other fluids boiled for considerable periods, and the apparatus 

 disinfected by steam. 



Two flasks were prepared, each containing fresh sterile muscle 

 juice and sugar solution ; in one the juice was boiled previously 

 to adding the sugar solution. 



After incubation at body temperature the sugar in each flask 

 was estimated quantitatively, the result showing a very marked 

 diminution in the percentage of sugar in the flask containing 

 unboiled juice. 



Thus it was shown that a substance exists in fresh muscle 

 which has the power of breaking up the sugar molecule, and 

 this substance partakes of the nature of a glycolytic enzyme. 



Although an attempt had been made to isolate the enzyme, 

 it is of such a delicate nature that the isolating procedure 

 adopted destroyed its fermenting power. 



