524 
NALTORE 
[MaRcH 31, 1904 
Mr. Woodworth, ‘‘ and at corresponding seasons is known 
for other islands of the Pacific, though the worms have not 
everywhere been identified. Powell speaks of them in the 
Gilbert Islands, where they are known to the natives as 
te nmatamata, and Codrington gives a detailed account for 
Mota in the Banks Islands, where they are known as un. 
Brown mentions the annual occurrence of a palolo on the 
east coast of New Zealand, and the wawo of Rumphius, 
which occurs at Amboyna, in the Moluccas, is doubtless the 
same. Seeman mentions the occurrence of the worm in the 
New Hebrides, and it is known in Fiji and Tonga. It is 
reasonable to suppose that a systematic search would show 
the palolo, or some allied form, to have a wider distribu- 
tion in the coral-reefs of the Pacific than has been as yet 
recorded. That the annelid is best known from Samoa and 
Fiji is accounted for by these groups of islands having been 
most visited and longest inhabited by whites.” 
We reproduce Mr. Woodworth’s figure of the complete 
worm. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
Tue Glasgow University Court has appointed Mr. 
Frederick Soddy to be lecturer on physical chemistry for 
five years from October 1 next. 
Dr. K. ZinpLER and Dr. J. A. Gmeiner have been 
appointed ordinary professors of mathematics in the Uni- 
versities of Innsbruck and Prague respectively. 
Tue authorities of Yale University announce that, in 
succeeding Prof. J. J. Thomson as Silliman lecturer, Prof. 
C. S. Sherrington, F.R.S., will treat of *‘ The Cardinal 
Features of the Integrative Action of the Nervous System ”’ 
in a course of ten lectures commencing friday, April 22. 
Tue preamble of the Victoria University of Manchester 
Bill has been found proved by Lord Balfour, acting chair- 
man of committees of the House of Lords, and the Bill 
will be reported to the House for third reading. The Bill 
is promoted to give effect, so far as Manchester is con- 
cerned, to the decision of the Privy Council dissolving the 
Victoria University as originally constituted of the Owens 
College, Manchester, University College, Liverpool, and 
the Yorixshire College, Leeds, and to the grant of charters 
for the creation of separate universities in each of the three 
centres. Under the provisions of the present Bill Owens 
College is incorporated with the Victoria University of 
Manchester, and the property and liabilities of the college 
are transferred to the university. 
Tue Johannesburg correspondent of the Times reports 
that the Transvaal Technical Institute was formally opened 
on Tuesday in the presence of the Governor and the Lieut.- 
Governor of the colony. The institute is intended to be 
the nucleus of the future university which, in the opinion 
of the commission appointed by the Government to gauge 
the needs of the community in the matter of technical educa- 
tion, will ultimately be found necessary for the Transvaal. 
The institute as now inaugurated, has absorbed the 
Kimberley School of Mines, which for eight years has 
covered the third and fourth years’ courses prescribed by 
the Cape University for obtaining a degree in this subject. 
In view of the exceptional opportunities afforded at 
Johannesburg for mining engineering, arrangements are on 
foot to enable students of the Royal College of Science and 
other home institutions to proceed to the Transvaal for a 
year’s post-graduate study. 
In the House of Commons on Monday Sir J. Gorst in- 
vited a statement from the secretary to the Board of Educa- 
tion with regard to the physical condition of the children 
in the elementary schools. In the course of his reply, Sir 
W. Anson said that the committee of inquiry on physical 
deterioration began to sit last winter, and they found that 
the British Association had appointed a committee, of which 
Prof. Cunningham was chairman, to inquire into the same 
subject. The committee put itself in communication with 
the committee of the British Association, which met them 
in a most cordial spirit. Prof. Cunningham gave evidence, 
and the scheme already outlined by the British Association 
NO. 1796, VOL. 69] 
committee was sent to the College of Physicians and the 
College of Surgeons. The College of Surgeons sent 
back word that they cordially approved of the proposed 
scheme, that there should be a regular survey of the popula- 
tion of the United Kingdom—of the agricultural and work- 
ing population and of the children in the schools, and that 
means should be taken to ascertain their physical condition 
at the school age. It was hoped that by proper manage- 
ment it might be possible to cover the whole of the United 
Kingdom in ten years, so that there might be a complete 
survey of the United Kingdom in the course of every ten 
years. 
Last week we directed attention to the fact that the 
Goldsmiths’ Company had decided to give up the Gold- 
smiths’ Institute at New Cross at Michaelmas next. The 
company has now offered to hand over the whole site of 
the institute (about seven acres), together with its build- 
ings, equipment, and apparatus complete, to the University 
of London for the purpose of promoting university work 
in South London. The Senate of the University has re- 
solved, subject to the satisfactory settlement of adminis- 
trative details, to accept the company’s offer. It is esti- 
niated that after making due allowance for depreciation, the 
value of the site, buildings, and equipment cannot be less 
than 100,000l. Some three acres of the site are covered by 
buildings, leaving four acres uncovered which have been 
available for recreative purposes. The annual endowment 
provided by the Goldsmiths’ Company, originally fixed at 
5oool. a year, has grown to about twice that sum. Follow- 
ing so soon upon Sir Donald Currie’s splendid gift, of 
which particulars were given in the last issue of Nature, 
there would really seem to be a new era opening for the 
University of London. It must not, however, be lost sight 
of that handsome as these two bequests are, they are alone 
quite inadequate to the great needs of a university equipped 
and staffed in a manner becoming to the University of 
London, the metropolis of the empire. It is greatly to be 
desired that the large minded generosity of Sir Donald 
Currie and of the Goldsmiths’ Company will be immediately 
emulated by other wealthy individuals and corporations. 
A Bitt to amend the laws relating to education in Scot- 
land, and for other purposes connected therewith, was 
introduced in the House of Commons on Monday by Mr. 
Graham Murray, and passed the first reading. The exist- 
ing system in Scotland encourages the tendency of educa- 
tional institutions to overlap, and leads to some waste of 
resources. In the field of primary education the School 
Boards have done excellent work, but for secondary and 
technical education the School Board area is too small. 
The area which has now been selected for educational pur- 
poses is the district area; but the great burghs, Edinburgh, 
Glasgow, Dundee, and Aberdeen, are to be dealt with 
exceptionally. There is to be a School Board elected for 
every district in a county. The number of members which 
each Board is to have will be fixed by the Scottish Educa- 
tion Department. The boards are to be public authorities 
for all branches of education, and they are to be elected on 
the county council franchise and the burgh franchise. In 
order to foster local interest in education every school is to 
have local managers, who, however, are not to be allowed 
to appoint or dismiss teachers or to borrow money. To 
private venture schools the boards are to be at liberty to 
give aid out of the rates, if they desire to do so; they are 
to be absolutely free agents in the matter. With regard to 
the financial proposals of the Bill, the various Imperial con- 
tributions are to be pooled; all the grants will go into one 
education fund. In order to remove some of the objections 
to the retention of the Scottish Department in London it is 
proposed that there shall be constituted by Order in Council 
four provincial councils which will meet in Edinburgh, 
Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Inverness. It will be the duty of 
these councils to deal with any matters referred to them by 
the department. 
Tue Military Education Division of the War Office has 
issued rules which will for the future regulate the appoint- 
ment to commissions in the army. The rules will not 
apply to candidates for admission to the Royal Military 
Academy and Royal Military College until after the com- 
petitive examination of June, 1905. In order to show that 
they have attained a fair standard of general education, all 
