298 



NATURE 



[December 12, 1918 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Birmingham. -The Miss,. Bunce have made a 

 further yer) handsome donation of books to the Uni- 

 yersit) library, a gift which is of special interesl from 

 its association with tin* late J. Thackray Bunce, who 

 gave valuable services to the I niversity in its earlier 

 stages. 



Prof. Percy F. Frankland is resigning the Mason 

 chair of chemistry at the end of the current term. In 

 accepting the resignation with great regret, the 

 Council has expressed to Prof. Frankland its thanks 

 for valuable services rendered to the University 

 during liic past twenty-four years, and its Imp. thai 

 the leisure which will follow his resignation will resuit 

 in his complete restoration to health. 



Or. Parker has resigned his appointment as 

 assistant lecturer and demonstrator in chemistry on 

 being elected research chemist to the Joint Committee 

 of Leeds University ami the Institution of Gas 

 Engineei s. 



In a letter In Sir John Williams, president of the 

 University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, Major 

 David Davies oilers, with his sisters, to contribute the 

 sum of 20,000/. to found a chair of international 

 politics at Aberystwyth, in memory of the fallen 

 students of the University of Wales, "for the study 

 of those related problems of law and politics, of 

 ethics and economics, which are raised by the pro- 

 ject of a League of Nations, and for the encourage- 

 ment of a truer understanding of civilisations other 

 than our own." If the proposal is accepted, the 

 donors hope that the chair will be associated with the 

 name of President Wilson. 



Ix connection with the recent deputation to Mr. 

 Fisher and Mr. Bonar Law to ask for augmented 

 Stale grants for university purposes, the question of 

 increased remuneration for the non-professorial staff 

 is attracting considerable attention. It is urged that 

 immediate steps should be taken to remedy the 

 present conditions, which should be made widely 

 known. The average annual salary of 530 lec- 

 turers in fifteen universities and university colleges 

 of England, Wales, and Ireland is 206I. Only ;; per 

 cent, of the lecturers receive a salary above" 200Z. .1 

 year, andit is only in the case of these lecturers that 

 1 he contributory scheme, known as the Federated 

 Superannuation Scheme, is applicable. Universitv 

 teachers are excluded from the operation of the Super- 

 annuation Rill for Teachers in Secondary Schools and 

 inical Colleges, recently passed into law. <',,n- 

 ferences of lecturers in universities and university col- 

 li ges have formulated a scheme for a new salary 

 s> lie, which has been submitted to the governing 

 bodies and to H.M. Government. At the last con- 

 ference, which was held at King's College, London, 

 ? n N !l . 'I was decided to press for the 



inclusion of universitv teachers in a non-contributory 

 pens,,,,, scheme. Tt may be pointed out that in the 

 case ,,f il„. scientific staff, already depleted through 

 the ravages of the war, these matters are of urgent 

 importance in view of the further diminution that max 

 ..cur through the increased demand for scientific 

 experts in the Government services and in industry. 



A kkport on the work done in London educational 

 institutions during the pasl three and a half years in 

 the manufacture of munitions and training of muni- 

 tion workers was before the Education Comn 

 of the London County Council on December 1.'. It 

 appears from a statement by the Education Committee 

 that in June, 1915, the Council agreed to place its 

 urces at the disposal of the Ministn of Munitions 

 No. 2563, VOL. I02] 



and the Metropolitan Munitions Committee. Two 



line- of action were adopted: 1,1 The manufacture 

 of such essential munitions a- could be made with 

 the staff and machines available in technical institu- 

 tions, and l.'l the training of workers 1"i munition 



factories. In connection with the manufacture of 



munitions the main efforts of the organisation have 

 been directed to the manufacture of precision gauges. 



About 83,000 gauges have been delivered and passed 



b] the National Physical Laboratory; in a 

 sixty-five orders for miscellaneous types of accessories 

 have been completed. With regard to the second 

 item, more than 12,000 students have been in training, 

 of whom about 9000 have completed their coins, - 



satisfactorily and been placed in employment. The 

 staff engaged on this work at December 1 last num- 

 bered in all 482 persons, 44 of whom belonged to 

 technical institutions, 193 had been transferred from 

 their normal posts in various kinds of schools, and' 

 245 were temporary employees. Machinery and equip- 

 ment to the amount of about 17,000/. have been pur- 

 chased for manufacture and remain the property of 

 the Council. Certain funds will be available for the 

 reconstitution and equipment of workshops in technical 

 institutions from the manufacturing side. The total 

 value of the work carried out for the manufacture of 

 munitions and the training of munition workers has 

 been of the order of 300,000/. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, November 21. Sir J. J. Thomson, 

 president, in the chair.— W. Stiles and Dr. F. Kidd : 



The influence of external concentration on the position 

 of the equilibrium attained in the intake of sail- 1, 

 plant-cells. The course of intake of salts by carrot 

 and potato tissue has been followed by measuring the 

 changes in electrical conductivity of the solution of salt 

 presented to the tissue. Concentrations of each sail 

 were employed, ranging from o-i to 0-0002 normal. In 

 the case of copper sulphate exosmosis from the tissue 

 exceeds absorption, and this is so with all concentra- 

 tions of the salt. This is characteristic of toxic sub- 

 stances. Carrot tissue absorbs the chlorides "I 

 potassium, sodium, and calcium in all concentrations 

 employed. Absorption lakes place at first at a rate 

 approximately proportional to the 1 sternal concentra- 

 tion, but this relation 1 is not continued with time, as 

 the absorption progress,- towards an equilibrium con- 

 dition in which the ratio of internal to external con- 

 centration is not constant, but varies with the concen- 

 tration. This ratio of internal 10 external concentra- 

 tion we call the- absorption ratio. It decreases with 

 increasing concentration. With low external concen- 

 trations, e.g. o ,2 V and i.V, ; is many times 



unity; with higher concentrations, e.g. o-i.V. it is less 



than unity. The data presented arc regarded as 



inadequate in themselves to justify the conclusion that 

 absorption of salts bj the cell is an adsorption proo --. 

 W. Stiles and Dr. F. Kidd: lb, comparative rale 

 of absorption of various sal;- b\ plant tissue. The 

 absorption of various chlorides, sulphates, nitrates, 

 and potassium -alts from solutions of 002.Y concen- 

 tration was measured by the electrical conductivity 

 method employee! in the investigation recorded in the 

 previous paper. Rations appear to be absorbed ini- 

 tial!) in the following order: K[Ca,Na]LifMg,Zn]Al. 

 The position of ions enclosed within brackets ma\ 

 have to be reversed. This initial order does not 



indicate, however, the extent to which the ions are 

 absorbed when equilibrium is reached; the order is 

 then K,N'a.Li|Ca.Mc:l. The chief difference between 

 this ordi r and the initial order i- in the position of Ca, 



