NATURE 



[February 9, 1899 



Theories under discussion about ihc year 1850 — some personal 

 reminiscences." 



Camhridgk. — The General Bnard of Studies has received 

 offers from Sir Walter Gilbey, the Board of Agriculture, certain 

 County Councils, and the Drapers' Company of sums amounting 

 to over 2000/. a year for the next ten years for the support of a 

 department of Agricultural Science in connection with the 

 University. The Board proposes that a I'rofessorship of Agri- 

 culture should be founded, together with a Board of Agricultural 

 Studies to whom the administration of the department will be 

 entrusted ; and recommend that the offers be gratefully ac- 

 cepted by the University. Detailed proposals for the organisa- 

 tion of the department will be hereafter submitted, provided the 

 general scheme is approved by the Senate. It is estimated that, 

 during the ten years for which in the first instance the depart- 

 ment will be established, its operations can be carried on with- 

 out entailing any financial responsibility on the University 

 Chest. 



Mr. B. L. Cohen, iM.P., has promised 3000/. to the University 

 Benefaction Kund, and a number of smaller donations have been 

 received as a result of the formation of the Cambridge University 

 Association. 



Cai'tain Partington has given 2000/. towards the cost of 

 building the new physical laboratory of Owens College, .Man- 

 chester. 



Prok. Clevki.ani) Ahbe is reported by Science to have 

 given to the Johns Hopkins University his valuable collection 

 of books, journals and pamphlets relating to meteorology. 



The views of several American naturalists on advances in 

 methods of teaching were discussed at the recent meeting of 

 American Naturalists and Affiliated Societies, and are printed in 

 Science of January 20. The subjects dealt with are : zoology, 

 by Prof. E U. Conklin ; anatomy. Prof. G S. Huntington ; 



Chysiology, I'rof. W. T. Porter; psycholog)-, Prof H. Miinster- 

 erg ; anthropology. Dr. Franz Boas; botany, I'rof W. I-". 

 Ganong. 



A COPY of the Tfikyu Imperial University Calendar for the 

 year 1897-98 has been received. .\t the end of the Calendar 

 is a long list of papers published since 1887 in the Journals of 

 the Medical and Science Colleges, the Memoirs of the Literature 

 College, and the Bulletins of the Agriculture College. Since 

 the Calendar went to press, the president of the University, 

 Prof .Masakazu Toyama, has been appointed -Minister of State 

 for Education, and has been succeeded by Prof. Dairoku 

 Kikuchi, M.A. (Cantab.). 



The patronage of the chair of Pathology now vacant in the 

 University of (Jfesgow is in the hands of a Board of Curators, 

 four of whom are appointed by the University Court, and three 

 by the Managers of the Western Infirmary. The Curators met 

 on Thursday, Kebruary 2 ; there were present :— The Principal 

 (in the chair), Dr. Hector Cameron, iDr. Mc\ail, Mr. |. H. 

 Dickson, Mr. James Boyd and .Mr. William Ker. Instructions 

 were given to adv.-rtise the vacancy— applications to be sent in 

 by March 24. The new professor will be requited to begin his 

 duties on April 25. 



A c.RADUATEs' magazine, The Technology Review, has just 

 been issued by the recently organised Association of Class 

 Secretaries of the Mass.achusetts Institute of Technology. It 

 is an octavo volume of 140 pages, attractive in appearance, 

 and well produced. The first number contains the introduction ; 

 a photograph wiih biographical sketch of President Crafts; 

 articles on "The Function of the Laboratory," by Prof. Silas 

 W. Holman ; and on the " Pierce Building," by Prof. Eleazer 

 B. Homer, the architect; reprints in facsimile of early insti- 

 tute documents and letters-all in the first and more general 

 half The latter half, seventy piges, is given to news of the 

 Institute, of the undergraduate and graduate classes. Plans 

 are shown of the several floors <pf the new Pierce Building, of 

 the first floor of the Rogers Building as now altered, and of the 

 dynamo house. A good review nf Prof llolman's recent book 

 on " Matter, Energy, Force and Work," is given by Dr. 

 Goodwin. 



The seventh aiinual report of the Technical Instruction 

 Committee of the Cily of I,iver|K)ol shows that the work of the 

 Committee during the past year has been for the most part 

 Concerned with the consolidation and improvement of work 



NO. 1528, VOL. 59] 



previously in existence. There is reason to hope that, even 

 before legislation takes place, means will be devised for the 

 establishment of a satisfactory working scheme of co-ordination 

 of all the public educational agencies of the City. The establish- 

 ment of a School of Commerce — at present on a comparatively 

 small scale it is true— by co-operation with the Liverpool 

 Chamber of Commerce and the authorities of University 

 College, constitutes an important development of higher com- 

 mercial instruction, which, in another form, was comprised in 

 the original scheme of the Committee. The school was started 

 at the beginning of the winter session with very good promise 

 of success. 



The proportion of children who should be receiving a 

 secondary education has been variously estimated by different 

 authorities. The Schools Inquiry Commissioners in 1 868 

 estimated the proportion at 1 2 '8 per thousand for boys, but 

 made no estimate for girls. Committees working under the 

 Welsh Intermediate .Act have taken 20 per thousand (viz. 

 12 boys and 8 girls) as their estimate of the proportion of the 

 population for whom provision should be made. The recent 

 annual report of the Liverpool Technical Instruction Committee 

 mentions that the number of Liverpool pupils attending 

 secondary schools is approximately 75 per thousand of the 

 population. The Committee point to this figure as an eloquent 

 testimony to the deficiency which exists in Liverpool in the 

 present provision for secondary education, and the urgent 

 necessity for the matter to be dealt with, in the interests both of 

 the City and of the nation, by some responsible public 

 authority. 



The Record of Technical and Secondary Education refers to 

 the constitution of the new University of London as "an event 

 which will greatly afTect the higher technical teaching of the 

 metropolis. The Technical Education Board are giving con- 

 siderable attention to the subject, and have formed a special 

 sub-committee to report upon the matter and to frame a 

 memorial to the Commissioners. It seems probable that the 

 new University will give a stimulus to the development of 

 economic and commercial teaching, and measures are likely to 

 be taken for strengthening those subjects in the various schools 

 and institutions of London. Commercial education hus, during 

 the past year, been under the consideratiim of a special 

 committee of the London Chamber of Commerce, and also a 

 special sub-committee of the Technical Education Board. The 

 last named committee have collected a considerable amount of 

 evidence, hiid are likely to issue their report in the course of a 

 few weeks." 



Mr. S. Prout Newcombe has offered the London County 

 Council his educational collection of natural history specimens 

 and literature. This collection, which consists of about 21,000 

 objects, with a considerable number of works on natural history 

 subjects, all classified to correspond with the examples, is at 

 present accommodated in the Free Library of .St. George's, 

 Hanover Square. The Library Commissioners accepted the 

 collection in May 1894, subject to the provision that they might 

 return it at the end of lour years if they were nu longer able to 

 afford it accommodation. The requirements of the library now 

 demand .additional space, and it has been found that to make 

 the collection as useful as possible a leclureclass-room should be 

 associated with it. The Commissioners have, therefore, availed 

 themselves of the provision in the deed of gift, and have asked 

 Mr. Prout Newcombe to remove the collection. The tieneral 

 Purposes Committee of the London County Council, who have 

 had the offer under consideration, now recommend the Council 

 to accept the gift. 



The will of the late Mr. Edward .\ustin, of Boston, 

 Massachusetts, provides for public bequests of more than one 

 million dollars, four hundred thousand dnilais going to the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 7 he Y'cchno/oxy A'ei'inv 

 gives the following extracts from the will referring to gifts to 

 educational institutions. I give to ll.irvaid College, Cam- 

 bridge, 500,000 dollars, the interest upon which they will pay to 

 needy meritorious students and teachers, to assist them in pay- 

 ment of their studies. To the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology, I give four hundred thousand dollars, the interest 

 to be applied as that of my bequest to Harvard College. To 

 Radclifle College (women's college) I give thirty thousand 

 dollars, the interest to be in the same as that to Harvard 

 College. To Koanoke College (Julius D. Drelier, president) 

 I give thirty thousand dollars, on same terms as that to Harvard 



