FEBRUARY 4, 1904] 
chemistry done in the various college laboratories and in 
the museum, a scheme is being tried this term in which 
each laboratory specialises in a particular subject, and men 
migrate to the courses they wish to attend instead of re- 
maining in the laboratory to which they are normally 
attached. Preliminary work is taken at the museum by 
Mr. Fisher, Mr. Walden, and Mr. Lambert; quantitative 
analysis by Dr. Watts at the museum and Mr. Manley at 
Magdalen; organic chemistry by Mr. Marsh and Mr. 
Sidgwick at the museum ; physical chemistry by Mr. Nagel 
and Mr. Hartley at Balliol; inorganic chemistry by Mr. 
Baker at Christchurch. 
On February 9 resolutions will be submitted to congrega- 
tion for the purpose of making Greek an optional subject in 
Responsions for candidates intending to read for the honour 
school of mathematics or natural science. It is proposed 
that candidates should offer as a substitute for Greek (a) a 
mathematical subject or a scientific subject, both of which 
are to be determined by the board of natural science; and 
(b) a modern language, viz. either French or German. 
CampBripGE.—His Majesty the King has _ graciously 
announced his intention of visiting the university on 
Tuesday, March 1, on the occasion of the opening of the 
new buildings for the law school and Squire Law Library, 
the medical school, the Sedgwick Memorial Museum, and 
the botanical laboratory. 
Dr. H. Kk. Anderson has been appointed university lecturer 
in physiology in the place of Prof. Langley. 
The regulations for an examination and diploma in 
tropical medicine and hygiene were approved by the senate 
on January 28. 
At Bedford College for Women on Thursday, March 17, 
Dr. J. Lawrence will give a lecture on ‘* Pioneers in 
Philology.’’ 
Tue Finance Committee of the Liverpool Corporation has 
decided to recommend the council to make the municipal 
grant of 10,0001. to the university only on certain con- 
ditions, which include inspection and report on the educa- 
tional methods of the university, an annual report by the 
university to the council, and the devotion of at least 1oool. 
of the grant to Liverpool scholarships, including the 
assistance of undergraduates and post-graduates. 
Tue first conference in connection with the School Nature 
Study Union was held on January 30 at the Passmore | 
Edwards Settlement, Tavistock Place, London, under the 
presidency of Dr. Heath, director of special inquiries and 
reports at the Board of Education. Papers were read by 
Mr. C. B. Gutteridge, of Alleyn’s School, Dulwich, on 
nature-study in secondary schools and how its claims may 
be advanced, and by Miss Johnson, on nature-study in a 
village elementary school. 
A LARGE part of the National Library at Turin was de- 
stroyed by fire on January 26. The library was housed in 
the buildings of the University of Turin, and was under 
the control of the university authorities. It contained 
350,000 printed books, of which 100,000 have been lost, 
amounting in value to half a million francs. The globe 
constructed by the monk Basso in 1570 has been destroyed. 
The very choice collections of fifteenth century manuscripts 
from the Abbey of Bobbio were rescued, and altogether 
about 1000 manuscripts out of 4ooo have been saved in a 
more or less damaged condition. The university has been 
closed, as some of the halls give signs of collapsing. 
We learn from Science that Syracuse University has re- 
ceived 30,0001. from the estate of the late James J. Belden; 
10,0001. goes to the Medical College and 20,0001. to the 
College of Liberal Arts. Syracuse University also receives 
the residue of the estate of the late John Lyman. The 
value of the estate is mot stated, but special bequests to 
charitable institutions were made by Mr. Lyman amount- 
ing to more than 30,0001. The Catholic University of 
America has received 10,0001. from the Knights of 
Columbus, and Princeton University has received a bequest 
of soool. from the late Louis C. Vanuxem, of Philadelphia. 
The Clark University has received from Mr. Carnegie 
20,0001. for a library. 
NO. 1788, VOL. 69] 
NATURE 
333 
IN connection with the generous gift recently made to 
the University of London by Mr. Martin White for the 
encouragement of the study of sociology, a course of eight 
lectures on ‘* Cities and their Culture-Resources ’’ will be 
delivered this term by Prof. Patrick Geddes, commencing 
to-day, February 4. Dr. E. A. Westermarck, 
on sociology at the University of Helsingfors, 
mence a course of seven lectures on ‘‘ Early Custom and 
Morals ’’ on Tuesday, February 9. Both courses will be 
delivered at the London School of Economics and Political 
Science. At Prof. Geddes’s lecture to-day Sir Arthur 
Ricker will preside, and will make a general statement with 
regard to the scope of the Martin White benefaction for the 
study of sociology. 
lecturer 
will com- 
THERE is a steady and growing demand in the State of 
Illinois for high school teachers who have had a liberal 
college training together with a thorough preparation in 
the special branches which they are to teach. The demand 
upon the University of Illinois for high school teachers of 
science has for several years so far outrun the actual supply 
that places might commonly be found for two or three times 
the number of competent graduates available. The uni- 
versity has published a circular of information~ concerning 
the courses and facilities offered by it to science teachers, 
so that students and instructors may be generally advised 
of the facts, and a larger number of capable students may 
be led to prepare themselves for high school science work. 
The circular points out that the preparation of a teacher 
for high school science teaching must consist in part of 
study of the sciences he intends to teach, in part of the more 
general study necessary to his liberal education, and in part 
of the pedagogical studies and experience essential to his 
immediate success as a teacher. 
Own Friday last, Prof. Howard Marsh gave an inaugural 
address as professor of surgery in the University of Cam- 
bridge. In the course of his remarks he said that the 
| changes which had taken place in surgery in recent years 
were as great as those which had revolutionised so many 
other departments of human energy. The new starting 
point consisted in the discovery by Pasteur that many dis- 
| eases in the vegetable and animal kingdoms were due to 
the action of minute organisms or bacteria. The next step 
was the application of Pasteur’s discovery to surgery by 
Lister, who commenced the investigations into the use of 
substances by which these harmful bacteria might be ex- 
cluded or destroyed. The thirty years that had since 
elapsed had been years of revelation and advance in every 
direction. While the fundamental principle was the same, 
methods of procedure had undergone rapid development. 
It had been gradually disclosed to us that there was no 
organ anywhere in the body which was not amenable to 
operation, no part which was so constituted or endowed that 
it could not, under the aseptic method, be treated by surgical 
interference. 
THe annual general meeting of the Association of 
Technical Institutions was held on January 29. Sir John 
Gorst was elected president for the ensuing year; and in 
the course of his presidential address he remarked that the 
great object of most schools seems to be to make the 
children still and quiet and orderly instead of having them 
thirsting for knowledge and eager in its pursuit. The 
questioning which is natural to children is abolished in 
favour of a system of answering questions put to them, and 
in these questions anything like originality or eagerness is 
at once repressed in the interests of discipline. After a 
certain time the individuality of a restless, eager, curious 
child is entirely crushed out, and a stolid, quiet, orderly, 
stupid class is obtained. The object of all teaching ought 
to be the development of the general powers of the body 
and mind of the scholar and not its specific and definite 
preparation for some particular profession. That comes 
when it is time to specialise. The spirit of technical in- 
struction—the teaching of the student to do something and 
to acquire knowledge for the purpose of being able to do 
something—ought to pervade the whole of our education 
from childhood to manhood. At the annual dinner of the 
institution, the chairman, Sir J. Wolfe Barry, referred with 
satisfaction to the fact that the Royal Society had recently 
addressed a communication to the universities directing 
