346 



NA TURE 



[February 8, 1906 



For the purposes of the new institution the governing 

 body should have the entire disposal of the accommodation 

 provided by the Royal College of Science, including the 

 buildings in course of construction at South Kensington, 

 the Central Technical College, and all buildings which 

 may be erected on the additional site at South Kensington. 



The site and buildings of the Royal College of Science, 

 including the buildings in course of construction, should 

 either remain the property of His Majesty's Government 

 or be transferred to the governing body of the new institu- 

 tion, as His Majesty's Government may determine. 



The site and buildings of the Central Technical College 

 should, if and so long as they desire it, remain the 

 property of the City and Guilds of London Institute, who 

 should provide for their maintenance and repair. 



The governing body should be incorporated, and subject 

 to such special provisions as may be made by their instru- 

 ment of incorporation they should receive and expend fees 

 and other funds which may be assigned to the purposes 

 of the new institution, they should appoint the professors 

 and the other members of the staff, they should determine 

 the departments and subjects of instruction, they should 

 control the arrangement of the courses of instruction, and 

 the award of diplomas, and they should make provision 

 for the protection of students now in the constituent in- 

 stitutions and of the existing diplomas. Further, in each 

 of the departments of the new institution the governing 

 body should appoint a board, not necessarily consisting 

 of members of their own body, and including members of 

 the teaching staff and persons with practical experience of 

 industrial requirements, to give expert advice with regard 

 to such particulars connected with that department as the 

 governing body may refer to them. 



We recommend that it be an instruction to the govern- 

 ing body to enter into negotiations with the University of 

 London, with King's College, and pending its actual' in- 

 corporation, with University College, with regard to the 

 coordination of the engineering work of these colleges with 

 that of the new institution. We recommend that instruc- 

 tion in the higher branches of technology should, as far 

 as possible, be concentrated at South Kensington. In the 

 establishment of new departments we do not think it will 

 be possible at present to go much beyond the various 

 branches of engineering, with mining ' and metallurgy, 

 though we hope provision may be made later for other 

 subjects. We think the principal technical and engineering 

 societies should be consulted as to the departments most 

 requiring development and expansion, and as to the number 

 of students for whom it is desirable to make provision in 

 each department. In view of the character of the subjects 

 which will, it may be expected, predominate on the South 

 Kensington site, it must, we think, before long become a 

 question whether the biological department of the Royal 

 College of Science shall be retained there. As soon as this 

 question becomes ripe for settlement, the provision to be 

 made for that department will be a matter for negotiation. 



We think that it may be found possible, even in the 

 immediate future, to make arrangements for the establish- 

 ment of departments dealing adequately with the grcater 

 number of special sections of applied science named. Thus 

 it would seem that certain of these departments might be 

 accommodated in the buildings of existing London institu- 

 tions, while, for others, special accommodation would fall 

 to be provided at once in the first additions to the buildings 

 already available on the South Kensington site. For 

 example, in view of the character and standard of the work 

 now carried out by the Central Technical College, we think 

 prominence should" be given in the new institution to certain 

 specialised developments of mechanical and electrical 

 engineering. 



We have already reported that we think a fully equipped 

 central school of mines should be maintained, providing a 

 full course of instruction in mining and metallurgy, 

 especially in the mining and metallurgy of metals pro- 

 duced in India and the Colonies, but not found in work- 

 able quantities in the United Kingdom. 



It should be borne in mind that the traditions and 

 prestige of the Royal School of Mines and the associate- 

 ship of that school are valuable assets, and we think care 

 should be taken to preserve those traditions and that 

 diploma. 



NO. 1893, VOL - 73] 



In our opinion, accommodation should be provided in 

 this department for too to 120 fully qualified students, 

 i.e. fifty or sixty entries in each of the two years con- 

 templated, so that forty to fifty students might be expected 

 to pass out each year after successfully completing the 

 course. 



Vacation work under the guidance of school authorities, 

 in districts where practical work is conducted, is a great 

 and valuable feature of American and Canadian schools 

 of mines. We think it would be advantageous for students 

 of the Royal School of Mines to have one short period of 

 practical mine surveying and of mining work generally, in 



I metalliferous mine, and another similar period of ex- 

 perience of the work of a coal mine. 



No student should be admitted to any specialised 

 technical department who has not received, either in the 

 new institution itself or elsewhere, an adequate training 

 of a technical and scientific character such as should be 

 common to every branch of engineering. He should have 

 spent two years on a course of instruction in science, such 

 as he could obtain in a well organised college or technical 

 institution, after having reached the standard of general 

 education usually marked by university matriculation. An 

 examination test should be imposed on all candidates for 

 admission to the higher departments, except in the case 

 of students who show, by some recognised qualification, 

 that they have received the necessary preliminary training, 

 and when there are more candidates for admission to a 

 particular department than can be received, the best should 

 be selected on a competitive basis. 



The preliminary training to be given in the new institu- 

 tion should be of the kind which has just been referred to. 



I I should consist of a course of two years' instruction in 

 science, technology, and engineering, of such a character 

 as the governing body consider the most suitable prepar- 

 ation for the specialised courses, and it should be, in the 

 main, common to all students proceeding to advanced in- 

 struction in any department. We have already indicated 

 our opinion that students who have not attained a certain 

 standard of general education are not fitted to obtain the 

 fullest advantage from the specialised instruction of the 

 higher departments. We therefore think that evidence of 

 this should be required before admission to the preliminary 

 department. 



NOTES. 



Sir Alexander B. W. Kennedy, F.R.S., has been elected 

 a member of the Athemeum Club under the provisions of 

 the rule which empowers the annual election by the com- 

 mittee of three persons " of distinguished eminence in 

 science, literature, the arts, or for public services." 



Prof. Albrecht Penck, of Vienna, has accepted the pro- 

 fessorship of geography in the University of Berlin, vacant 

 \>\ the death of Prof, von Richthofen. 



The Nichols medal of the American Chemical Society 

 for the year 1905 has been awarded to Prof. Marston Taylor 

 Bogert, of Columbia University, for his researches on the 

 quinazolines. 



Science announces that Dr. C. D. Walcott has resigned 

 the secretaryship of the board of the Carnegie Institution 

 it Washington, and is succeeded by Mr. Cleveland H. 

 Dodge. 



A MEMORIAL tablet has been unveiled on the house, in 

 Eisenach, in which the late director of Zeiss 's works, Prof. 

 Abbe, was born. 



Arrangements have been made to hold a hygiene ex- 

 hibition in Dresden in the year 1909 under the directorship 

 of Dr. Lingner. 



From Tubingen the death is announced, on January 25, 

 of Prof. W. Mayer, the director of the university pharma- 

 cological museum, and a member of the pharmaceutical 

 examinations commission. 



