140 



NA TURE 



[June 9, 1904 



Prof. \V. H. Perkin, F.R.S., of Manchester, has been 

 appointed an elector to the chair of chemistry and to the 

 Jacksonian professorship. 



Dr. L. Humphry, Dr. S. West, Dr. W. Hale White, and 

 Dr. J. Rose Bradford, F.R.S., have been appointed 

 examiners in medicine ; Dr. Handfield-Jones and Dr. 

 Herman, examiners in midwifery ; Mr. Clinton Dent, Mr. 

 Edmund Owen, Mr. Mansell Moullin, and Sir Hector 

 Cameron, examiners in surgery for medical degrees. 



Two portfolios of valuable drawings, illustrating 

 ophthalmology and otology, have been presented to the 

 university by 'Dr. Ole Bull, of Christianin. They will be 

 exhibited at'Oxford next month by Prof. Clifford .\llbutt. 



Sir William H. White, K.C.B., F.R.S., will open the 

 new workshops, laboratories, &c., at the Merchant 

 Venturers' Technical College, Bristol, on Wednesday, 

 June 20- 



.\t a meeting of the council of University College, 

 London, on Monday, June 6, Dr. Gregory Foster was 

 appointed principal of the college as from September i next, 

 in succession to Dr. Carey Foster, who had intimated his 

 intention not to seek re-election on the expiration of his 

 office at the end of August. Mr. Tansley was appointed 

 lecturer in plant anatomy for a term of three years. Mr. 

 E. C. C. Baly was re-appointed lecturer in spectroscopy 

 for a term of three years. 



It is announced in Science that the Bill appropriating 

 50,000/. for the erection of a building for the College of 

 .Agriculture at Cornell University has been signed. From 

 the same source we learn that Mr. Eugene N. Foss has given 

 10,000/. to the University of Vermont for the million dollar 

 fund which the graduates of that college are trying to 

 raise to mark the centenary of the institution ; and that the 

 will of the late Mr. Solomon Loeb, of New York City, has 

 given 2000/. for the Chemical Laboratory of the New York 

 University, 2000/. for the Hebrew Technical Institute, and 

 1000/. to the American Museum of Natural History. 



In a copy just received of the Johns Hopkins University 

 Circular, we notice a feature that might well be copied by 

 other institutions of a similar kind, viz. the publication of 

 " Notes in Biology," edited by Prof. Brookes, and " Notes 

 in Mathematics," edited by Prof. F. Morley. A very 

 useful purpose is served by the publication of such " notes " 

 in a university journal, which would hardly be a suitable 

 medium for the detailed exposition of the results of lengthy 

 researches. In the biology notes the body cavities and 

 nephridia of the .Xctinotrocha are discussed by Dr. R. P. 

 Cowles, while the mathematical notes deal with linear 

 correspondences, the orthic cubic curve, and the construc- 

 tion of quadric polarity in space. 



The North of England Education Conference, which met 

 for the first time in Manchester in January, 1903, and held 

 its second meeting in Leeds in the early part of the present 

 year, is to meet on the next occasion in Liverpool. The 

 first meeting of the executive committee appointed to make 

 arrangements for the next meeting of the conference was 

 held at Liverpool on Friday, June 3, when Alderman W. 

 Oulton, chairman of the Liverpool Education Committee, 

 was appointed chairman of the executive committee, and 

 Mr. E. M. Hance and Mr. W. Hewitt were appointed joint 

 secretaries. It was decided that the conference should be 

 held on Friday, January 6, and Saturday, January 7, of 

 next year, and a general purposes subcommittee was 

 appointed to make arrangements as to the subjects for papers 

 and discussion. 



A PUBLIC meeting of residents of the central part of 

 Calcutta was held on May 4, the Pioneer Mail states, with 

 the object of promoting the advancement of scientific and 

 industrial education among Indians. In opening the meet- 

 ing, Mr. Norendro Nath .Sen remarked that a lakh of 

 rupees was required annually, to be devoted to scholarships 

 for deserving students to enable them to proceed to England, 

 America and Japan for the study of the industries and arts 



NO. 1806, VOL. 70] 



of those countries. The marvellous progress of Japan, the 

 speaker continued, is due entirely to education in this direc- 

 tion. The people of India cannot be too grateful to the 

 Government of India for providing scholarships, but the- 

 Government should not be allowed to carry the burden 

 alone. It is left to the residents to develop and complete 

 the work begun by the Government, and it is for this- 

 purpose that the movement has been started. The form- 

 ation of local associations such as this one in Calcutta 

 should have an excellent effect on scientific and technical 

 education in India. 



It has for some time past been a inatter of comment 

 that while American universities, and in several cases 

 foreign ones — such as the University of Leyden — have fre- 

 quently devoted considerable sums of money to the endow- 

 ment, and in some instances to the separate publication, of 

 scientific transactions, our English universities have not 

 only been unable to subsidise the publication of researches, 

 but have in most cases even failed to give their staffs- 

 sufficient leisure for the efficient prosecution of original 

 work. The appearance of a paper by Prof. Karl Pearson, 

 on mathematical contributions to the theory of evolution, 

 bearing on the title-page " Department of Applied Mathe- 

 matics, University College, University of London — Drapers' 

 Company Research Memoirs," is significant in more ways 

 than one. It represents the fact that, probably for the first 

 time, a City company has given an endowment of 1000/. to- 

 a university for the furtherance of research pure and simple, 

 and further it indicates that mathematical research is at 

 last beginning to receive public recognition. The present 

 paper deals with the theory of contingency and its relation, 

 to association and normal correlation. 



The attention of the reader who is interested in the 

 teaching and development of mechanics and mathematics 

 is directed to an important address by Prof. A. Somnierfeld, 

 of Aachen, on " The Scientific Results and Aims of Modern 

 Applied Mechanics," of which an abridged translation, by 

 Mr. R. M. Milne, has appeared in the Mathematical' 

 Gazette. The address is a powerful statement of the now- 

 prevalent view that in teaching mechanics the foundations 

 must be securely laid by systematic experimental work on the 

 part of the students themselves, for whom suitable facilities 

 must be generously provided ; it is also a plea for a closer 

 attention on the part of matheinaticians to the problems, 

 of practical mechanics. In this country these doctrines have 

 long been associated with the name of Prof. Perry, F.R.S.,. 

 and one of the latest phases in the movement is the reform 

 of the teaching of elementary mathematics. Prof. Somnier- 

 feld states that most of the German high schools now 

 possess richly equipped laboratories for research and in- 

 struction in mechanics, and that the value of such work is 

 generally recognised and greatly appreciated. He also- 

 describes the nature of some of the experiments and in- 

 vestigations that are carried out in these laboratories. 



It is satisfactory that there seems to have been a general* 

 agreement among the speakers at a recent meeting of the 

 National Association of Manual Training Teachers — held 

 to discuss the references to manual training in schools in- 

 the reports of the Mosely Educational Commission — as to- 

 the need in all schools for practical work conducted oa 

 scientific lines. Mr. Mosely said that the broad-minded wav 

 in which American engineers tackled the problems brought 

 before them was what first excited his interest in the 

 system of education in the United States. .Mr. Mosely 

 agrees with Prof. Armstrong that it is the fourth " R "' 

 which makes all the difference between the educational 

 results in the United States and in this country, .'\merican 

 teachers are right in giving more attention to the teach- 

 ing of how to reason in a scientific manner than is common 

 in English schools. Prof. Armstrong, who also spoke at 

 the meeting, deprecated the erection of what he called " a 

 magnificent metal workshop here and a magnificent wood- 

 i workshop there," and said a large supply of costiv 

 machinery of one kind is unnecessary. A variety of occupa- 

 tions rendered possible to the boys is what is w.mted, and 

 the manual training thus provided should be related to local 

 requirements. 



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