[av 26, 19^-1-] 



NA TURE 



93 



the professors of pathology, physiology, zoology, and 

 botany, veterinary students will be taught in their respective 

 laboratories, and will enjoy, without increase of fees, all 

 the facilities possessed by medical and science students. 

 They will, in addition, have the advantage of the Tropical 

 Medicine, Cancer Research, and Comparative Pathology 

 Schools. This arrangement will provide for the scientific 

 training of the veterinary student upon a scale ecjual to that 

 of the medical student. 



At the concluding meeting of the session 1903-4 of the 

 .Architectural Association, Mr. A. E. Munby read a paper 

 on the value of science in an architectural curriculum, in 

 which he urged that science should receive more attention 

 fiom architectural students. He mentioned some interest- 

 ing particulars as to the number of hours per week devoted 

 to science by students studying in architectural courses in 

 the great technical schools of the world. To give a few 

 examples, Mr. Munby stated that the architectural student 

 at .McGill University 

 devotes 7-9 hours a 

 week to science 

 classes; at Uni- 

 versity College, 

 London, 6-8 ; at 

 Glasgow Technical 

 College, 5-3 ; at the 

 L' n i v e r s i t y of 

 Illinois, 4.9 ; and at 

 t h e Technischen 

 Hochschule, 2-5. To 

 conclude his paper, 

 Mr. Munby made 

 suggestions as to 

 the subjects of 

 science an archi- 

 tectural student 

 should study at the 

 outset of his career. 

 These should in- 

 clude, he thought, 

 a general experi- 

 mental course on 

 physics, including 

 laboratory work ; a 

 similar course deal- 

 ing with the ele- 

 ments of inorganic 

 chemistry ; and a 

 short course out- 

 lining the principles 

 of geology and deal- 

 ing with the strati- 

 graphical arrange- 

 ment of rocks and 

 with petrology. The 

 whole of this work might be undertaken by a person of 

 average intelligence at the age of, say, si.xteen, and com- 

 pleted in one year with some twelve hours' teaching per 

 \veek. 



In connection with the recent opening of the new build- 

 ings, extending the South-Western Polytechnic at Chelsea, 

 the heads of the electrical and mechanical engineering de- 

 partments have prepared a pamphlet describing the aims 

 and equipments of their respective laboratories. In these 

 laboratories two classes of students receive instruction, viz. 

 those who attend the engineering day courses and those 

 who form the evening classes. The standard of the courses 

 extends far enough to include preparation for the engineer- 

 ing degree of the University of London, and attention is 

 given to the requirements of candidates for the associate 

 membership of the Institution of Civil Engineers. But no 

 particular syllabus is followed, and students are able easily, 

 If necessary, to take other public examinations in engineer- 

 ^. So far as funds have permitted, an attempt has been 

 nie to provide in the mechanical engineering laboratory 

 • ae than one type of some pieces of apparatus, in the 

 belief that the range of experience thus gained by a student 

 is of value, while such a variety enables a number of 

 students to be less thickly distributed over the apparatus. 



NO. 1804. \CI . 70J 



Many of the larger pieces of apparatus have not been 

 specially designed for experimental purposes, but are 

 ordinary standard commercial machines which have been 

 fitted with the necessary measuring appliances by students 

 and the workshop instructor. The electrical engineering 

 laboratories are divided into three principal rooms — the 

 large laboratory where the testing of electrical instruments 

 and the measurement of electrical quantities are carried 

 out ; the dynamo room where the experiments and investi- 

 gations on dynamos and motors are conducted, and the 

 " advanced " laboratory where the standard instruments 

 are kept and used for calibrating the instruments used in 

 experimental work, and where the more advanced alter- 

 nating and polyphase current experiments are made. In 

 addition to these rooms, there are two rooms fitted up for 

 photometric tests on incandescent and arc lamps re- 

 spectively. There is also a large wiring shop for instruc- 

 tion in practical wiring and jointing, and two workshops 

 for repairing and making apparatus for the electrical labor- 



Main Lighting Plant of the South-Western Polyt^chnk 



atories. There are in all six steam engines specially fitted 

 up for experimental work. Recently, when the electric 

 lighting plant had to be duplicated, advantage was taken 

 of the opportunity for fitting the new engines with measur- 

 ing appliances, so that experiments could be carried out 

 on them whenever desired. The plant available permits of 

 the setting aside of either of the new engines for experi- 

 ment, or the unit experimented upon can be made to provide 

 electrical energy for lighting the building (Fig. i). The 

 pamphlet contains a full description, with illustrations, of 

 all the more important pieces of apparatus in both depart- 

 ments of engineering. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, April 28. — " The EfTecIs of Changes of 

 Temperature on the Modulus of Torsional Rigidity of Metal 

 Wires." By Dr. Frank Morton. 



An. account of some experiments performed at the Caven- 

 dish Laboratory with the view of ascertaining as accurately 

 as possible the manner in which the modulus of torsional 

 rigidity varies with the temperature. The metals experi- 

 mented on were copper, iron, platinum, gold, silver. 



