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NATURE 



[December 26, 1918 



notable features of the year's activities. Important 

 pioneer work was done, both in England and over- 

 seas, through the Y.M.C.A. Universities' Committee, 

 and in conjunction with the Victoria League lectures 

 were also organised at military hospitals. Amongst 

 the fresh developments during tin- session were the 

 institution of a diploma for civic- workers under the 

 scheme for diplomas in the humanities, and the in- 

 auguration of lectures in offices of the Ministr) of 

 Munitions, this in in< probabl) the first occasion on 

 which the University has been Invited to carry on 

 educational work in a Government office. 



The Senate is taking steps to provide that students 

 from overseas universities of the Empire who have 

 served in his Majesty's Forces may be admitted to 

 certain Intermediate and Final Examinations, and 

 that reports ma) be furnished with the view of en- 

 abling the universities at which the students have 

 begun their respective courses to recognise these 

 examinations of the University of London in lieu of 

 their own. By this arrangement it is hoped thai a 

 number of students may continue a university career 

 while they are waiting until they can return to their 

 own countries. 



The Senate has conferred on Or. II. Stanley Allen, 

 of King's College, the title of reader in physics in the 

 I diversity. 



Dr. Otto Tunmann, of Berne, has been appointed 

 professor of pharmacognosy in the- University of 

 Vienna in succession to Prof. Moeller. 



Mr. W. W. Myddleton has been appointed lec- 

 turer and demonstrator in chemistry at the Municipal 

 Technical Institute, Belfast, in succession to Mr. 

 ('. W. Addy, who has left to take up work in chemis- 

 try in connection with the British Cellulose and 

 Chemical Manufacturing Co., Ltd. 



The movement for adopting Latin as the universal 

 language of the future- or, rather, of restoring it to 

 the position which it once occupied as the language 

 of the learned world forms the subject of a note By 

 Prof. Carlo Pascal in the Rendiconti del R. Istituto 

 Lombardo (2) I., 14-15. It is suggested that action 

 should be initiated by the institution in question. In 

 support of this argument it is pointed out that the 

 growth of scientific literature published in a multi- 

 plicity of small languages is of recent origin, and that 

 the attempts t6 invent artificial languages have in- 

 creased, rather than removed, the confusion. Prof. 

 Pascal refutes the idea that Latin is a dead language, 

 seeing that it is taught in all schools and Colleges, 

 and further points out that modern scientific termino- 

 logy is largely Latinised in form. The main objection 

 v hich can be raised against the proposal in its un- 

 modified form is the grammatical difficulty. It might 

 !>'■ quite easy for a classical scholar to write to a busi- 

 ness manager in ancient Latin, but it would be unfor- 

 tunate if the latter in his 1 1 pl\ was so puzzled as to 

 whether to use the dative or the accusative case of a 

 noun that he forgot what he was writing about. A 

 ago there was formed an Academia pro 

 [nterlingua, which proposed to retain the Latin 

 vocabulary with a simplifies grammar, ami Prof. G. 

 Peano, of Turin, took a leading part in this move- 

 ment. 



Is the pi-eseni of a brilliant company assembled 



.11 tin- Sorbonne, legree ol doctor, honoris causa, 



was conferred upon President Wilson 1>\ the Univer- 

 sity of Paris on Decembei >i. In the course "I his 

 acknowledgment ol thi honour, the Times reports 

 President Wilson to have said: "I have alwavs 

 thought that the chief objeel of education was to 

 awaki n the spirit, and that, inasmuch as literature. 

 whenever it touched its great and higher notes, was 

 NO. 2^65. VOL. I02] 



an expression of the spirit id mankind, the best in- 

 duction into education was to feel the pulses of 

 humanity which had beaten from age to age through 



the utterances of men who had penetrated to the 



seen is of the human spirit. And I agree with the 

 intimation which has been conveyed to-day, that the 

 terrible' war through which we have just passed has 



ne it been only a war between nations, but that it has 

 been also a war between systems of culture-; the- one 

 system the aggressive system, using science without 

 conscience, stripping learning of its moral restraints, 

 and using every faculty of the- human mind to do 

 Wrong tee the whole- race-; the either system reminise.nl 

 of the- high tradition's of men-, reminiscent of all 

 those struggles, senile eef them obscure, but others 

 dearly revealed to the historian, of men of indomit- 

 able- spirit everywhere struggling towards the right, 

 arid seeking, above all things else, to be free-. . . . 

 I feel that this war is intimately related with the- uni- 

 versity spirit. The university spirit is intolerant of all 

 the- things that put the- human mind under restraint. 

 It is intolerant of everything that se-e-ks tei retard tin 

 advancement of ideals, the acceptance of the truth, 

 the purification of life; and every university man can 

 ally himself with the forces of the present time- with 

 the feeling that now at last the spirit of truth, the 

 spirit to which universities have devoted themselves, 

 has prevailed and is triumphant.'' 



We have received from the Asiatic Society of Bengal 

 a Catalogue of the Scientific Serial Publications in the 

 Principal Libraries of Calcutta. In this catalogue 

 there- are several interesting features to be noted. Full 

 information is given, in regard to the twenty-four 

 libraries indexed, as to where- they are- to be found 

 arid the- heiurs when the\ are open. In the case < > I 

 libraries that are not open to the public the readei 

 is told how to get permission to consult the books. 

 fhe- arrangement of the- catalogue is geographical, 

 the- world being divided into twenty-four countries sub- 

 divided into towns placed in alphabetical sequence. 

 Publications issued by an institution are indexed under 

 the- name of the town in which the institution is estab- 

 lished. Independent serials are indexed under the 

 town in which they are published. In each case- there- 

 is indication of the library or libraries in which the 

 publication may be found. It may happen that, 

 although the- title of a journal is well known, a reader 

 mav be- unable to recollect the name of the town in 

 which it is published. To meet this difficulty an 

 alphabetical index of names of journals with referenci S 

 to their position in the catalogue is provided. We- are 

 glad to see that volumes or parts missing from the 

 sets are recorded. The catalogue has been compiled 

 by Mr. Stanley Kemp with the assistance of tin- 

 librarians of the institutions concerned. Or. W. A. K. 

 Christie-, e>f the- Geological Survey of India, honorary 

 secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, has given 

 Mr. Kemp continuous advice and help. The rcsul- 

 den s great credit to all who have taken part in a 

 catalogue remarkable both for its completeness and 

 leu the care with which the material has been 

 arranged. 





SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



LONDON. 



Royal Society, December 12. Sir J. J. Thomson, 

 president, in Hie 'hair. — L. Hill and II. Ash : The 

 cooling Hid evaporative powers of tin- atmosphere, as 

 determined by the kata-lb 1 niemn ter. A further in- 

 vestigation lies been made of the cooling power of air 

 at known temperature and velocity id movement in 

 the- large wind-tunnels at the- East London College, 

 with the aiel of Mr. N. A. V. Piercev. the lecturer on 



