NA TURE 



[December 21, 1905 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



( imbridge. — The list of the scholarships awarded at the 

 twelve larger colleges was issued last Saturday. Excluding 

 exhibitions, sizarships, and subsizarships, the amounts of 

 which are uncertain and the number in many u-^- un- 

 determined, the amount given away in the twelve colleges 

 amounts to 5430/. lln- seven colleges, Pembroke, Caius, 

 King's, Jesus, Christ's, St. John's, and Emmanuel, gave 

 away sixty scholarships oi a total value of 3380Z. ; whilst 

 the Trinity group, consisting of Trinity, Clare, Trinity 

 Hall, Peterhouse, and Sidney, gave away 2500/. for thirty- 

 seven scholarships. 



The total amount in the former grpup given for classics 

 is 1560/., for mathematics 1000/., and for natural sciences 

 620I., the number ol scholarships being: — in classics 

 twenty-six, in mathematics seventeen, and in science 

 twelve. The proportion of science to the other subjects is 

 better in the group ol five colleges, for their science 

 scholarships numbered ten of a value of 560/., as opposed 

 to sixteen scholarships in classics the total value of which 

 amounted to 880/. We have left out of account the com- 

 paratively small sum of 340Z. which was given for history, 

 Hebrew, and modern languages. 



Dr. H. A. Wilson, senior lecturer in physics at King's 

 College, London, has been appointed professor of physics 

 at the college in succession to Prof. W. G. Adams, who 

 resigned last July. 



Reuter's correspondent at Tokio reports that the 

 resignation of the Japanese Minister of Education has been 

 accepted, and the differences between the university and 

 the Government have thus apparently been settled. Count 

 Katsura, the Premier, has taken the portfolio of education, 

 while retaining the Premiership. The resignations tendered 

 by the professors have not been accepted. 



In a paper read at the American Mining Congress at 

 El Paso, Texas, on November 14, Mr. V. C. Alderson, 

 president of the Colorado School of Mines, urged mining 

 schools to go beyond mere instruction and to enter the 

 field of research. There was not at present, to his know- 

 ledge, a mining school in the United States which had a 

 department of research in good working order. There 

 should, he considered, be such a department at a State 

 mining school to work in conjunction with the State 

 Bureau of Mines. 



Mr. E. Robinson, of Boncath, opened a discussion on 

 the question of the establishment of a school of forestry 

 for Wales at the annual meeting of the agricultural society 

 of the university college at Aberystwyth. He said that, if 

 the seven Welsh counties affiliated to the college would 

 vote on an average 300/. each and give an annual subsidy 

 of 100/. each for eight years, the proposed school of 

 forestry after that period could easily be made self-support- 

 ing. The Government, he urged, must come forward to 

 second the efforts of the county councils by advancing 

 money to landowners at a reasonable rate of interest. Mr. 

 J. Herbert Lewis, M.P., said that the question of afforest- 

 ation is rapidly becoming one of national concern. A 

 departmental committee has made it clear that a shortage 

 in the world's supply of timber may be looked for in the 

 near future, and that millions of acres of waste land in 

 the United Kingdom are suitable for afforesting. Our large 

 municipalities could do much, following the example of the 

 Liverpool Corporation at Vyrnwy, bj afl sting the catch- 

 ment areas of their waterworks. 



ELY a week passes without the announcement of 

 substantial gilts to one or other of the universities of the 

 United Stales | n addition to those mentioned in Nature 

 of last week. Science announces the following donations : — 

 Mrs. Phoebe Hearst lias presented to the California State 

 University her archaeological and anthropological collection 

 from all parts of the world. It has cost more" than 80,000/., 

 and with it she presents to the university i2,ooo(. for the 

 maintenance of a department of anthropology. Hope 

 College, Holland, Mich., recently received 20,000/. from 

 Mr. Ralph Vorhees, ol Clinton,' N.J. A new chemistry 

 hall has been erected foi the university of North Carolina 



NO. 1886, VOI . 7,; J 



by a legislative appropriation of 10,000/. Mrs. Clara ('. 

 Jacobus has given 5000/. to found a fellowship at Princeton 

 University, to be conferred on the graduate student who 

 has reached the highest excellence in his work during the 

 previous year. An anonymous donor has given 2000/. to 

 establish .1 fellowship in chemistry. Mr. Henry B. Loomis 

 has given 2000/. to the scientific school of Yale University 

 to establish a fellowship in chemistry. 



I in council of the Association of Technical Institutions 

 has issued a report of an inquiry as to the cooperation of 

 employers and technical institutions. A form of inquiry 

 was sent to each of the sixty-five institutions affiliated to 



the associ: n, 10 technical institutions and university 



colleges not thus affiliated, and to some of the large 

 employers of labour whose educational work with their 

 employees was not likely to be connected with the various 

 technical institutions already approached. The answers 

 rece ved to the questions asked on the form of inquiry are 

 analysed under several headings, among which may be 

 mentioned the trades to which the scheme of cooperation 

 applies, tlie number of students affected by the scheme, 



the payment of class fees, the provision ol I ks, and 



leave ol absence to attend classes. The report, in its 

 summary of the results of the inquiry, states that if re- 

 garded from the point of view of how lew ol the army of 

 masters appear to interest themselves at all in I lie technical 

 education of their workers, the record cannot be other 

 than disappointing, especially in view of the different 

 attitude, of employers on the Continent and in the L'nited 

 States. < in the other hand, if looked at in comparison 

 with the attitude of employers ten years ago, the result is 

 most hopeful. It is interesting in this connection to note 

 that in distributing prizes to the students of the Gateshead 

 higher evening classes, Sir fsambard Owen suggested that 

 il would pay employers to enable their apprentices to work 

 shorter hours by day on condition that they availed them- 

 selves of the opportunities for evening instruction. Con- 

 tinuing, he said the great desire of the Plumbers' Company 

 is now to adopt measures for advancing the apprenticeship 

 system, in view of the indisposition of employers, who are 

 keenly competing with each other to obtain plumbing work 

 at a profit, to burden themselves with apprentices, thus 

 ignoring the importance of training the coming generation 

 of plumbers. This pressure of commercial interests over 

 the craftsman spirit constitutes a serious menace to 

 efficiency, not only in the plumbing trade, but in other 

 skilled industries. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 

 Royal Society, November 16. — "The Physical and Chemical 

 Properties of Iron Carbonyl." By Sir James Dewar and 

 II. (). Jones. 



The paper contains an account of a study of the proper- 

 ties of iron pentacarbonyl, which has been carried out on 

 the same lines as the previously published investigation on 

 nickel carbonyl. Attention has been directed more par- 

 ticularly to the differences between the iron and nickel 

 carbonyls, such as the difference in formulae Fe(CO), and 

 Ni(CO)j, colour (the iron compound is yellow and the 

 nickel compound is colourless, whereas the salts of the 

 latter metal usually show a much more marked colour 

 than those of the former), and stability, and to the action 

 of light on iron carbonyl. 



Pure iron carbonyl is a yellow liquid, which boils at 

 lie 1 5 C. and freezes at —20° C. to a yellow solid, which 

 becomes colourless at — 180 C. Analysis, vapour density 

 determinations, and molecular weight determinations by 

 lie cryoscopic method in benzene show that its formula 



- I Ml I >, , 



I he specific gravity of the compound is 1-4037 at o° C. 

 and 13825 at 6o° C. ; its critical temperature is 2SS C. 



I he formula t> = 1074 — 0-5307 (log 288 — t) expresses the 

 relation between the volume of the liquid o and the 

 temperature t° C. 



'f'he relation between the vapour pressure p in milli- 

 metres of mercury and the absolute temperature T is 

 expressed by the Rankine formula log/*: 7 ;.pj - n>Ni 'T. 



