524 



NAIURE 



[March 30, 1899 



years ago al the Inslittite that ihc " lime " modulus was about 

 one halt that for the sudden application. The old tests were all 

 on sticks of moderate size. The new apparatus is capable of 

 taking eight 6 x 12 hard pine beams atone lime, and giving a 

 fibre stress of 2500 pounds on each beam. The machine has 

 just been set up with eight beams subjected to a load producing 

 a fibre stress of 2000 pounds. The defiections of each beam 

 are measured with a micrometer. The deflections are measured 

 daily during the early part of the experiment. Record will be 

 kept of the.se deflections, and of any other change that lakes 

 place through the suinmer and into the next year. Tests will 

 soon be undertaken on the strength of timber as affected by 

 moisture. 



It has been known for .some time that increased attention was 

 to be given to the study of geography at Oxford. The an- 

 nouncement is now made that a fully equipped school of 

 geography, or a geographical institute, will shortly be estab- 

 lished under the superintendence of the University Reader in 

 Geography, Mr. H. J. Mackinder. The Royal Geographical 

 Society has ottered 400/. a year for five years towards the 

 maintenance of this school, on condition that the University 

 contribute aii equal suin. The delegates of tne Common 

 University Fund have agreed to contribute 300/. towards the 

 University's share, and early in the Easter term the Curators 

 of the University chest will be asked to add another too/., 

 and there is every reason to believe that Congregation will 

 approve the decree. The scheme will be under the super- 

 vision of a Committee of eight ; four, with the addition of the 

 Vice-Chancellor i-.r officio, to represent the University, and three 

 the Royal Geographical Society. The Reader will act as 

 director of the school, and will have an assistant, besides two 

 lecturers who will deal with special aspects of the subject. 



The address delivered by Mr. James Stuart, M.P., on the 

 occasion of his installation as Lord Rector of the University of 

 St. Andrews in January last, has been published by Messrs. 

 Macmillan and Co. , Ltd. The argument pursued is of special 

 interest to those who urge that increased attention should be 

 given to science in our Universities ; it is summed up as 

 follows : " We are in a period of great change. The Uni- 

 versities should form the connecting link between the past and 

 the future. To do this they must respond to new demands and 

 take up a more extended view of the professions for which they 

 prepare, and of the subjects which they teach. If they do, it 

 will be greatly to the advantage both of them and of the nation." 

 Mr. Stuart acknowledges that engineering has almost won its 

 way into our University system, but even yet the subject is 

 inadequately represented. Engineering and the profession of 

 teaching are two of many callings of mankind which ask for 

 and require University recognition, because their subject- 

 matter has become at last capable of organised and scientific 

 treatment. For the same reasons, trade and commerce should 

 be brought within the pale of the Univer.sity systi m. Mr. 

 Stuart not only advocates the inclusion of a larger number of 

 professions within the purview of the Universities, but also a 

 wider extension of the range of subjects for general education. 



A COI'V of the report of the Technical Education Committee 

 of the Derbyshire County Council, dealing with the work 

 accomplished during the session 1896-7, and with the financial 

 statements for two year.s, 1896-S, has been received. Though the 

 annual income of the Committee amounts to 10,000/., it is found 

 quite inadequate for the educational work required in the county. 

 The endeavour of the Committee has consequently been rather 

 to supplement than to supersede local effort. The work of the 

 Agricultural Department is mainly carried on in connection 

 with the University College at Nottingham, and the Midland 

 Dairy Institute at Kingston, Notts. The teaching of mining is 

 similarly closely connected with that of the Firth College, 

 Sheffield. In this way, while having due regard to the require- 

 ments of the students in their own county, the Committee are 

 helping to extend the usefulness of institutions concerned with 

 higher education. As already mentioned, the Derliyshire 

 Education Committee has been recognised liy the Department 

 of Science and .Vrt as being responsible for the science and art 

 instruction in its area, and the steps which the Committee have 

 since taken are duly recorded in the report. There seems to 

 have been a falling off in the number of scholars attending 

 evening continuation, science, art, and technology classes during 

 the .session 1S97-8. We are glad to notice that the work of 

 developing public .secondary schools throughout Derbyshire has 



NO. 1535, VOL. 59] 



Hi 



received con.siderable attention, and that proper assistance 

 towards the provision of practical instruction in science in sucl. 

 schools is being given. 



During the past two years (says the British Medical yournai) 

 the University of New Mexico has been carrying on a scientific 

 investigation of the climatology of the .Mexican plateau, 

 especially with respect to its beneficial effects in cases of tuber- 

 culosis and analogous diseases. Statistical information has 

 been collected, and special studies in the variation in vital 

 capacity among students in the University and the public schools 

 of the territory have been carried on. The biological and 

 bacteriological departments, under the special direction of 

 President llerrick and Prof. Weinzirl, have taken up the study 

 of air and water and the conditions of sepsis, i;c. It has been 

 hoped to extend this investigation to include the physical and 

 chemical characteristics of the climate, and also a study of the 

 blood changes due to altitude, with special reference to the 

 virulence and curtailment of the diseases in question. Not 

 long ago Mrs. Walter C. Hadley made to the University a pro- 

 posal to give the sum of 10,000 dollars to be used towards the 

 erection of a building to contain the laboratories for these and 

 allied researches. The gift is made conditional upon the 

 authorities raising a further sum of 5000 dollars for the com- 

 pletion of the building and a similar sum for equipment. The 

 Regents have agreed to establish the chair neces.sary to con- 

 tinue and prosecute the research, and have undertaken to do 

 their best to obtain the supplemental moneys required by the 

 terms of Mrs. Hadley's donation. 



Appreciative reference has frequently been made in these 

 columns to the munificent gifts made by Sir W. C. McDonald 

 to the McGill University, Montreal. A Toronto correspondent' 

 of the Times gives, in yesterday's issue, an account of these am 

 other benefactions, and expresses the hope that they will inspire 

 the friends of science in England to do for Cambridge what 

 generous benefactors have done for the McGill Univer.sity. The 

 new chemistry and mining department of the University, opened 

 in December, is the Last of a series of three magnificent struc- 

 tures built, equipped from lop to bottom, and endowed by Sir 

 W. C. Mcl)onald. The first is devoted to physics ; the second to 

 engineering ; the third to chemistry and mining. All these 

 buildings have been constructed within the Last five years. The 

 engineering building cost 400,000 dollars, to which an endow- 

 ment of 85,000 dollars for maintenance has been added. On 

 the physics building 250,000 dollars have been expended, and the 

 maintenance (and is 150,000 dollars. For the chemistry and 

 mining buildings 425,000 dollars were at first given for construc- 

 tion and maintenance, but a further sum of 180.000 dollars has, 

 since the beginning of the new year, been added to place the 

 endowment on a thoroughly secure b.asis, thus making in all 

 more than half a million dollars which have been spent upon this 

 department alone. In the construction and equipment of the 

 building, the donor gave absolute carte Haiiche to the architects 

 and the men of science to whom was entrusted the work of 

 carrying out the designs, and they were therefore free to 

 ransack like institutions throughout the world to find everything 

 that was best in the way of outfit and equipment. From top to 

 bottom everything seems complete, and the best that money can 

 buy, the result being that, so far as the departments referred to 

 arc concerned, McGill University is now as perfectly equipped 

 as any institution in the world. 



SCIEA'TIFIC SERIALS. 

 Symons's Monthly Meteorological Magazine, March. — Ex- 

 tremes of temperature in London and its neighbourhood for 

 104 years. This is a very useful little table for reference, 

 showing the monthly absolute maxima an<l minima temper- 

 atures observed at the apartments of the Royal Societ) 

 (Somerset House) from 1 794- 1 843 ; at the Royal Observatory, 

 Cireenwich, from 1S41-1890 ; and at Camden Square, from 

 1858- 1S97. Daring this long series, the absolute maximum 

 is g?"'!, at Greenwich, in July 1881, and the absolute 

 minimum 4 o. .it Somerset Mouse, in December 1796, and 

 at Greenwich, in January 1S41. This table also shows that 

 the reading ol 04 8, recorded at Camden Square on February 

 10 last (to which we recently referred), was more than 2° 

 higher than any temperature in F'ebruary in the neighbour- 

 hood of London since 1794. 



