NA TURE 



I July i i, 1901 



descriLe to a person in another the exact shade or tint meant by 

 a given name. The production of a work which would obviate 

 these difficulties and make available what might be called the 

 "constants of nature " in colour, is directly in line with previous 

 publications of the Institution in endeavouring to establish 

 standards whereby a definite nomenclature in scientific and 

 popular writing might be introduced. 



Prof. Langley, after consulting with others expert in the 

 matter, decided that it would be desirable, not only to secure 

 more permanent tints, but to connect every tint published in the 

 book with some definite svave-length in the spectrum, whether 

 the solar spectrum or a composite one. The investigations of 

 Prof. Rood and others show that it is difficult to do this directly, 

 but that it can be eflTected by the use of intermediate means of 

 comparison. 



Again, experiments must be made to determine how far this 

 large object (of connecting every tint employed with some 

 definite wave-length or combination of wave-lengths of light) is 

 practicable. If it be fully so, the work maybe said to be in one 

 sense something absolutely permanent, relating as it will to 

 standards which can never alter with time, so that, as has been 

 said, those who expect that their writings will be more per- ■ 

 manent than the planet itself should take this method of * 

 illustrating them. The work promised such magnitude that a 

 committee was appointed, and is now considering the subject, 



Collc<tcJ Papers. — The General Appendix to the -Annual 

 Report of the Smithsonian Institution may be termed a ' ' source- 

 book " of scientific history. In consists of reprints and transla- 

 tions of authoritative but popular scientific articles which appeared 

 during the year of the Report. Some are addresses delivered in 

 institutions concerned with the diffusion of knowledge, and 

 others are papers contributed to scientific and other periodicals, 

 and collectively they form an epitome of advance and opinion in 

 all departments of science. There are in the volume before us 

 (1S99) no less than thirty papers of this kind, among them being 

 translations of the following : influence of the wave-theory 

 of light on modern physics, by Prof. Cornu ; on the sense of 

 smell in birds, by M. X. Raspail ; have fishes memory ? by 

 Herr L. Edinger ; the garden and its development, by Dr. P. 

 Falkenberg ; sea-charts formerly used in the Marshall Islands, 

 with notices on the navigation of these islanders in general, by 

 Captain Winkler ; the peopling of the Philippines, by Dr. R. 

 Virchow ; list of the native tribes of the Philippines and of the 

 languages spoken by them, by Prof. F. Blumentritt ; and the 

 sculptures of Santa Lucia Cozumahualpa, Guatemala, in the 

 Hamburg Ethnological Museum, by Herr Herman Strebel. 



National Museum. — Details in regard to the work of the 

 U. S. National Museum are given in an appendix to Prof. 

 Langley's report. To the geological collections were added 

 some interesting fossil animals secured from the fields of Wyo- 

 ming, and a large amount of zoological material was collected 

 in Cuba and Porto Rico. There has also been transferred to 

 (he Museum the extensive and very valuable series of vertebrate 

 fossils collected by the late Prof. Marsh during his connection 

 with the United States Geological Survey. This collection 

 aggregated five car-loads, and is particularly rich in specimens 

 of the gigantic Dinosaurs, besides fifty skulls of Titanotherium, 

 probably the best specimens in existence. 



The Annual Report of the Museum for 1899 is largely devoted 

 to a description of the collection of non-metallic minerals in 

 the department of applied geology, by Mr. G. P. Merrill. The 

 term non-metallic is used to designate minerals which, as ex- 

 hibited in the Museum, are utilised in other than metallic forms. 

 The subjects of remaining papers in the Report are :— .\ Primi- 

 tive frame for weaving narrow fabrics, and pointed bark canoes 

 of the Kutenai and Amur, by Dr. O. T. .Mason ; an early West 

 Virginia pottery, by Mr. W. Hough ; and a descriptive catalogue 

 of a collection of objects of Jewish ceremonial in U. S. National 

 Museum, by Drs. C. Adler and I. M. Casanowicz. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 Dr. G. S. Turpin, headmaster of the Swansea Intermediate 

 and Technical School, has been appointed to succeed Dr. Gow 

 as headmaster of the Nottingham High School. Particulars as 

 to the vacancy thus caused at Swansea will be found in our 

 advertisement columns. 



The council of University College, London, have appointed 

 Mr. J. D. Cormack, of the University of Glasgow, to the chair 



NO. 1654, VOL. 64] 



of mechanical engineering in this College, vacant by the 

 resignation of Prof. Hudson Beare on his appointment as regius 

 professor at Edinburgh. 



The Education Bill (No. 2), was read a second time in the 

 House of Commons on Tuesday, after a long and animated 

 debate. .\s a consequence of the Cockerton judgment, the 

 question had to be determined whether School Boards were the 

 proper authorities to deal with secondary education or not ; and 

 the Government decided against them. The Bill is the first 

 step towards the establishment of single local authorities con- 

 nected with County Councils for the control of the whole of the 

 work of secondary education in their districts. 



The Liverpool City Council unanimously adopted the following 

 resolution at a meeting held on July 3 ; — "That the Council has 

 observed with much satisfaction the growth and progress of the 

 University College, and in view of the fact that the college autho- 

 rities are taking steps to procure the establishment of a separate 

 University lor Liverpool records its opinion that it is desirable in 

 the interests of higher education in the city that such a Univer- 

 sity should be established." It is understood that, though there 

 has not yet been any appeal to the public, about 100,000/. has • 

 already been promised for Liverpool University, which will 

 bring up the capital value of University College to about 

 600,000/., and the promoters are sanguine that there will be 

 little difficulty in raising this to 750,000/. The council of 

 University College have elected Dr. E. W. Marchant to the 

 lectureship in electrotechnics vacated by Mr. Alfred Hay's 

 appointment to a professorship at Coopers Hill. 



The University of Birmingham is fortunate in having a strong 

 man like Mr. Chamberlain to plead its cause and advance its 

 interests. At the first congregation of the University, held on 

 Saturday last, he again directed attention to the national 

 importance of higher education and research, and referred to 

 the liberal provision made for work of this kind in other 

 countries. "I am convinced," he said, "that unless we over- 

 come the innate conservatism of our people in regard to the 

 application of the highest science to the commonest industries 

 and manufactures in our land, we shall certainly fall very far 

 behind in the race." Though the fact involved in this state- 

 ment has been persistently brought forward in Nature for 

 many years, it cannot be too frequently reiterated in public to 

 rouse wealthy citizens to a sense of their responsibilities as 

 regards provision for national progress, and create a higher 

 regard for scientific work than is at present possessed by English- 

 men in general. It is not necessary to enlarge here upon the 

 facilities for scientific work abroad, for scarcely a week 

 passes without our having to record munificent donations 

 by States and individuals for the erection of buildings 

 in which such work can be carried on under favourable con- 

 ditions. Mr. Chamberlain mentioned in his address that the 

 Charlottenburg Technical High School cost half a million of 

 money, and this is but one instance of many. A modern Univer- 

 sity ought at least to secure an equal sum of money to build 

 and equip its scientific side, especially when the ideals are those 

 sketched by Mr. Chamberlain in the following words : — " I 

 venture to lay down four qualifications as necessary to a perfect 

 University. In the first place, it should be an institution 

 where all existing knowledge is taught. Such a University 

 may, perhaps, never yet have been attained ; want of means 

 may always prevent it, but at least that was the object at which 

 we should aim, and we should never rest satisfied until we can 

 say that no student desirous of instruction in any branch 

 of learning shall be turned hungry away from the doors of 

 this University. No doubt the enormous development of 

 knowledge, and especially of its scientific side, during 

 the present century requires a certain specialisation in the 

 teaching of that knowledge, and I think it may be desirable, I 

 think it may be necessary, that Universities also should be special- 

 ised, and that one University should pay more attention than 

 another to particular studies ; but I believe at the same time that 

 it would be fatal if in our desire as a modern University to give a 

 special development to the practical and thorough teaching of 

 our scientific work, it would be a great mistake, I say, if we 

 were to exclude or to neglect the older branches of learning. 

 Well, then, in the second place a University is a place where 

 the knowledge that has been acquired has to be tested. And as 

 to that I will only say that in the multiplication of examining 

 bodies I hope that nothing will be done, either by us or by our 

 successors, to lower the standards of proficiency, whether in 



