140 



NA TURE 



[December 7, 1905 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — This week twelve of the larger colleges are 

 holding their entrance scholarship examinations. They are 

 divided into two groups of five and seven colleges re- 

 spectively. Judging from the number of candidates, which 

 is larger than ever before, there is an unprecedented desire 

 amongst schoolboys to share in the endowments of 

 Cambridge. 



The annual dinner of the Cambridge Philosophical 

 Societv will take place on Saturday, December 9. It will 

 be held in the hall of Christ's College, and Prof. Marshall 

 Ward will be in the chair. 



The regulations for the diploma in mining engineering 



have 1 11 published in the Reporter by the special board 



for physics and chemistry, together with the schedules of 

 the proposed examinations. 



The general board of studies has approved Dr. W. L. H. 

 Duckworth, of Jesus College, for the degree of Sc.D. 



The special board for biology and geology has adjudged 

 the Walsingham medal for 1905 to Mr. W. S. Perrin, of 

 Gonville and Caius College. 



The new buildings of the Glasgow and West of Scotland 

 Technical College, which when completed will be the 

 largest of the kind in Great Britain, are to be opened by 

 the Marquess of Linlithgow, Secretary for Scotland, on 

 December 21. 



We learn from Sciencs that by the will of the late Mr. 

 Joseph E. Gillingham, numerous bequests are made to 

 educational institutions, including 10,000!. each to the 

 University of Pennsylvania for the veterinary department, 

 to Haverford College, to Swarthmore College, and to Bryn 

 Mawr College. 



The British Medical Journal announces that Prof. 

 Czerny has resigned the chair of surgery in the University 

 of Heidelberg, which he has held since 1877, in order to 

 devote himself entirely to the duties of director of the 

 Institute of Cancer Research. He will be succeeded in the 

 chair of surgery by Prof. Garre, who accepted a call to 

 Breslau after the death of Prof, von Mikulicz. 



A few months ago Sir Donald Currie offered a sum of 

 20,000/. to Queen's College, Belfast, provided a like sum 

 was contributed by the friends of the college before the 

 end of the present month. The sum of 3000/. was required 

 to complete this contribution, and this has now been 

 subscribed by Sir Otto Jaffe, chairman of the executive 

 committee of the better equipment fund of Queen's College. 

 The college will therefore now receive 40,000?. toward its 

 better equipment. 



At the annual meeting of the court of Liverpool Uni- 

 versity on November 30, the Pro-Chancellor announced that 

 the university would shortly receive from the executors of 

 the late Mr. J. L. Bowes, of Liverpool, a sum of about 

 8000/., to be divided between the departments of modern 

 languages and chemistry. A resolution was adopted to the 

 effect that the decision of the court as to the formation of 

 a school of military instruction be deferred until the court 

 is in possession of fuller information as to the need of 

 such .1 proposed school, and that meanwhile the council 

 be requested to take no further steps towards its cstablish- 

 ment. 



The new techno-chemical institute of the Charlotten- 

 burg Technical High School was opened on November 25 

 in the presence of a distinguished scientific audience, whii h 

 included the Imperial Minister of Education, Dr. Studt, 

 accompanied by Geh. Rat. Naumann and Freiherr von 

 Thielmann, Profs. Emil Fischer, van 't Hoff, Landolt, 

 Nernst, Beckmann, Will, von Knorre, Liebermann, and 

 the following representatives of chemical industries : — Prof. 

 Duisberg, Prof. Lepsius, Dr. Oppenheim, Dr. Knietsch, 

 Dr. von Martius, Dr. Kunheim Kommerzienrat Brunck, 

 Messrs. Birkeland, Eyde, Pettersson, and others. The 

 new institute is a fine five-storeyed building, excellently 

 equipped with the best of modern chemical laboratory 

 arrangements and apparatus. The director, Prof. Dr. 

 O. N. Witt, in his opening address, after dwelling upon 

 the history and the aim of this, the newest addition 



NO. 1884, VOL. -/Ti] 



to the Charlottenburg High School, detailed Birke- 

 land and Eyde's method for the fixation of atmospheric 

 nitrogen, and illustrated his account by an experiment 

 carried out on a large scale. After the address the 

 Educational Minister, Dr. Studt, decorated Prof. Witt with 

 the Order of the Red Eagle, third class, and the architect, 

 Dr. Kbrber, with the Order of the Red Eagle, fourth 

 class. 



A deputation from colleges connected with the teaching 

 of agriculture who desired additional grants for research 

 and higher education in agricultural science from the 

 Imperial Exchequer was received by Sir Thomas Elliott 

 at the Board of Agriculture on Tuesday. Sir Isambard 

 Owen, the principal of the Armstrong College, Newcastle- 

 upon-Tyne, stated the case on behalf of the deputation. 

 It was urged that higher agricultural education was a 

 public necessity, the cost of which could not be reasonably 

 expected to be met in a very large proportion from local 

 sources, and that they were amply justified in asking for 

 State assistance. Sir Thomas Elliott, in reply, said that 

 the Treasury had not hitherto met the demands of agri- 

 culturists illiberally altogether. Fifteen years ago the grant 

 was 4500/., and now it was 10,550!. Of course, it was 

 difficult to get increased local contributions owing to the 

 increase of educational burdens upon local authorities. 

 He quite agreed with the deputation that there was great 

 room for the development of scientific research. There were 

 great problems to be solved of an economic character which 

 would produce results far beyond the cost of investigation 

 or experiments. He thought the time had come for the 

 coordination of the various agencies for agricultural re- 

 search in this country. The Board had the fullest sympathy 

 with the work which the colleges had done, and he hoped 

 it would be able in some measure to meet their aspirations. 



At the winter session last week the General Medical 

 Council considered the report of the education committee 

 on the question whether the adoption of the following 

 resolutions would not help to secure the attainment of the 

 object which the council had in view in instituting the 

 five years' curriculum : — " (1) That the preliminary scientific 

 examination in physics, biology, and chemistry should be 

 passed before the student begins the qualifying study of 

 anatomy and physiology ; (2) that before being admitted 

 to the final examination the student should produce evidence 

 that he has devoted the last year of his curriculum ex- 

 clusively to practical and clinical work and study." The 

 committee reported that the main effect of the proposed 

 change would be seriously to lengthen the curriculum and 

 thus to render entrance to the profession more difficult and 

 expensive. At present the curriculum is far more often one 

 of six or even more years — and this even in the case of 

 industrious students — than one of five. With regard to the 

 second resolution, the committee held that distinct evidence 

 of clinical and practical study in the fifth year should be 

 produced by the student, showing that his time in that 

 period of his curriculum had been mainly occupied in such 

 work, but they would not suggest any regulation which 

 should absolutely limit the work of each session of the 

 period of professional study. Dissatisfaction was, how- 

 ever, expressed with the committee's report, and the sub- 

 ject is to be re-considered. The two following questions 

 were referred to the education committee to be investigated 

 and reported upon : — (1) As to the desirability of trans- 

 ferring the preliminary science subjects of physics, biologv, 

 and chemistry from the curriculum of medical studies to 

 .1 stage preliminary to the commencement of the curri- 

 culum ; and (2) as to the advisability of requiring a five 

 years' period of study, even after removing from the curri- 

 culum these preliminary science subjects. 



The report of the Board of Education for the vear 1904-5 

 has now been published. After a general review of the 

 work of the Board, detailed particulars of the following 

 classes of schools are given in order : — public elementary 

 schools, secondary schools and technical institutions, even- 

 ing schools and schools of art. In the section dealing with 

 secondary schools, the report lays it down that, " although 

 it would be inexpedient and unjust to withdraw approval, 

 and the support hitherto given, from those schools which 

 have already been organised with a curriculum which is 

 specialised from the first on the side of applied science, if 



