494 
[DECEMBER 25, 1913 
A FUND of 100,000l., which the Knights of Colum- | ten subjects the examiners have to direct attention to 
bus of the United States have been collecting for | the difficulty that simple arithmetical calculations 
more than two years for the Catholic University at 
Washington, has been completed. The gift, says 
Science, will be presented to the institution some time 
during the Christmas holidays. From the same 
source we learn that the board of regents of the 
University of California has announced the completion 
of the additional fund of 120,000l. for the erection of 
the hospital building which is to be a part of the 
college of medicine of the University. 
Tue late Right Hon. G. W. Palmer bequeathed 
10,0001, to University College, Reading. We learn 
from the Reading University College Review for 
December that Mr. Alfred Palmer has suggested that 
this legacy should be devoted to building a university 
library, and on behalf of Mrs. G. W. Palmer, his 
sisters, and himself, has offered to supplement it to 
such extent as will be necessary to enable a suitable 
library to be built on the site reserved for the pur- 
pose, and also to provide an endowment fund for 
maintenance. The library would thus become a 
memorial to Mr. G. W. Palmer. The council of the 
college has approved the proposal gratefully. 
Tue Eugenics Education Society is organising a 
course of instruction on the groundwork of eugenics 
which will be given during the spring and summer 
of 1914. Dr. L. Doncaster will deliver eight lectures 
on evolution and heredity at the Imperial College of 
Science, South Kensington, on Fridays, at 5.30 p.m., 
beginning January 23, and Dr. M. Greenwood, Jun., 
will give instruction in statistical methods as applied 
to problems in eugenics, at the Lister Institute, Chelsea 
Bridge Road, S.W., on Fridays at 5.30 p.m., begin- 
ning May 1. Dr. Doncaster will discuss the general 
evidence for evolution and the more important theories 
of evolution, variation, and mutation, theories of 
heredity, old and new, the relation between heredity 
and sex, and the facts of heredity in man, together 
with the bearing of all these things on human im- 
provement. Dr. Greenwood will give an outline of 
statistical work and theories bearing on heredity, and 
will explain the principal statistical constants, such 
as means, standard deviations, and coefficients of 
correlation. heir calculation will be illustrated on 
suitable data. The fee for the combined courses will 
be one guinea, to be paid im advance to the hon. 
secretary, Eugenics Education Society, Kingsway 
House, Kingsway, :V.C., to whom all inquiries should 
be addressed. 
THE report of the work of the department of tech- 
nology of the City and Guilds of London Institute 
for the session 1912-13 has now been published by 
Mr. John Murray. At the recent examinations 21,878 
candidates were presented in technology from 448 
centres in the United Kingdom, and of these 13,618 
passed. By including 812 candidates from India, 
from the overseas Dominions, and from other parts 
of the British Empire, and all candidates for special 
examinations, the total number examined was 
25,339 During the session ninety-one centres 
were visited by the institute’s inspectors, several 
centres receiving two or three visits in order to com- 
plete the inspection. It is satisfactory to find the 
report stating that there can be no doubt that the 
teaching of technology has greatly improved during 
the past few years; but it is noted that the examiners 
have still to direct attention to the insufficient know- 
ledge that some candidates possess of the principles of 
their subjects, and to the lack of practical knowledge 
shown by others. The inability of candidates to ex- 
press themselves clearly is, the report says, perhaps 
not so noticeable as in past years, but in no fewer than 
NO. 2304, VOL. 92] 
present to many candidates—a defect which can only 
be attributed to insufficient preliminary training. 
Tue December number of The Popular « Science ~ 
Monthly contains an article on the place of study in 
the college curriculum, by Dr. P. H. Churchman, of 
Clark University. In it he points out that a renais- 
sance of the old belief in the value of strenuous intel- 
lectual work for the young man of eighteen to twenty- 
two seems to be coming, and that the older universi- 
ties of the United States are beginning to weed out 
the incompetents who for several generations have — 
used them as social clubs. For a time this step will 
mean a decrease in numbers, and to those who only 
look at the surface of things numbers mean success. 
| The idea that it is not necessary to insist that all 
those in residence at a college should be real students 
is called ‘‘Oxonian” by the author, and he admits 
that it has the advantage over the Continental idea of 
much learning and nothing else. He values highly 
all those college institutions of a non-intellectual type 
which contribute to the production of the “college- 
bred man,” but he points out that the college loafer 
who is up for social reasons avoids strenuous effort 
even of the non-intellectual kind. He has no con- 
fidence in the annual or semi-annual college examina- 
tions as a means of discrimination between the idler 
and the earnest student, and reminds his readers of 
well-known candidates at Princeton who, after idling 
away the session, obtained respectively a first class 
in psychology after two hours’ grind at some printed 
notes and a second class in zoology after five hours” 
coaching. No examination of the usual type has ever 
been invented which cannot be circumyented by the 
aid of an intelligent crammer. He advocates the less 
formal monthly examination or the better plan of 
imposing examination tests at any moment without 
warning and frequently. Such examinations afford 
the best test of that gradual growth of intel- 
lectual power which comes from steady and sustained 
effort over a long period, and from intercourse and 
discussion with superiors and colleagues developing. 
along the same or similar lines. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
Lonpon. 
Royal Society, December 11.—Sir William Crookes, 
O.M., president, in the chair.—A. Mallock: Inter- 
mittent vision. When a wheel turns so rapidly that 
the separate spokes cannot be seen or easily followed 
by the eye, and if at the same time the observer 
receives a small mechanical shock of almost any kind, 
the spokes appear almost stationary for a fraction of 
a second. The appearances depend on the speed of 
rotation, on the brightness of the illumination, and, 
to a lesser degree, on the nature of the shock. Suit- 
able shocks are given by the contact of the feet with 
the ground, as in walking, by tapping the head or 
body, and in many other ways. Experiments are 
described bearing on the relation between the appear- 
ances and the speed of rotation, and an explanation is 
suggested depending on an assumed variation of sensi- 
bility produced by a slight shock. This variation, 
which it appears is rapidly extinguished, has a periodic 
time of about 1/18 second, but this differs slightly 
for different individuals.—Prof. R. J. Strutt : Attempts 
to observe the production of neon or helium by electric 
discharge. The present experiments were begun in 
the hope of confirming the work of Collie and Patter- 
son (Trans. Chem. Soc., 1913, vol. ciii-, p. 419, and 
Proc. Chem. Soc., 1913, vol.- XXix., p. 217). The 
results have been negative, whether from a failure to 
