May 15, 1902] 
NATURE 
69 
chemists have held and have at different times put into their 
treatises. Time and reflection, to an extent that can hardly be 
spared by most people, would be required to come to a definite 
judgment as to how far the notions put forward are allowable or 
should be at once put aside, whether the ‘‘ resemblance to the 
ways of nature” on which the writer insists involves any germ 
of general ideas beyond those already recognised. But in any 
case there can be no question as to the acuteness of the writer ; 
and the Royal Society of Edinburgh has been well advised in 
making his ideas accessible to others who are attracted by the 
same range of theoretical speculation, in subjects which are only 
now coming to the threshold of the dynamical stage. e 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
CAMBRIDGE.—The subject of the Rede lecture, to be given 
by Prof. Osborne Reynolds, F.R.S., on June 10, at I1.30 a.m., 
is ‘On an Inversion of Ideas as to the Structure of the 
Universe.” 
Prof. Forsyth, F.R.S., will represent the University at 
the celebration of Abel’s centenary, to be held at Christiania 
in September, 1902. 
The museums syndicate propose to assign the greater portion 
of the buildings about to be vacated by the botanical depart- 
ment to the engineering laboratory. The number of the students 
engaged in the latter is now more than 200, and extension 
of the accommodation now provided is urgently necessary. The 
syndicate regret that they are unable to make arrangements for 
additional accommodation for the departments of human 
anatomy and physiology, or for the museum of zoology, which 
are also in need of considerable expansion. 
The Graces authorising the recently proposed changes in the 
natural sciences tripos will be voted on in the senate on May 
22. It is understood that some of them will be opposed. 
Mr. W. Bateson, F.R.S., is again to be deputed to lecture in 
zoology for Prof. Newton during the ensuing academical year. 
‘The Frank Smart studentship in botany will be vacant at 
midsummer. The studentship is of the annual value of 100/. 
and is intended to further the scientific study of botany by 
supplying students with some means of pursuing original in- 
vestigations in this subject after they have taken the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts. It is open to all students of the University 
who have taken honours in the first part of the natural sciences 
tripos, provided that not more than fourteen terms have elapsed 
since their first term of residence. The studentship is not 
awarded by a competitive examination. Candidates should 
send in their names to the master of Gonville and Caius College 
on or before June 10, with a statement of their University 
standing. 
THE second reading of the Education Bill was passed by the 
House of Commons on Thursday, May 8, after a debate which 
extended over three days. The majority in favour of the second 
reading was 237, the numbers being 402 votes for the Bill and 
165 against. 
To assist the scholarship scheme founded by the late Mr. 
Rhodes, Sir Alfred Jones, head of the shipping firm of Elder, 
Dempster and Co., announces that he will agree to give a free 
passage backwards and forwards from any colonial port served 
by his firm’s steamers to both Jamaican and Canadian scholars 
once a year during the tenure of their scholarships. He adds :— 
I trust that my example will be followed by shipowners 
trading to other colonies, and I hope that it may thereby be 
made universal, so as to put all the Rhodes scholarships from 
the colonies on an equal footing.” 
THE announcement is made that Prof. Karl B. Lehmann, of 
Wiirzburg, has been appointed to the chair of hygiene at the 
University of Munich, which recently became vacant by the 
death of Prof. Hans Buchner on March 30. He was formerly 
connected with the University, having been trained there,as a 
medical student, and subsequently acted as assistant to Prof. 
Pettenkofer and as privat-docent for many years. Prof. Leh- 
mann, who is a Swiss by birth, is still in the prime of life, but 
has already made a high reputation as a hygienist. His first 
special scientific work was the study of the physiology of the 
NO. 1698, VOL. 66] 
sense-organs, his contributions to this department of science 
being of great and practical value. He has also studied and 
written upon the action and influence of various gases upon the 
animal organism, and more recently has given much attention to 
the study of physiological chemistry in connection with general 
metabolic processes. 
In connection with the subject of State aid for secondary educa- 
tion, it is of interest to read in Sczence that the General Assembly 
of the State of Iowa has passed a mill tax for the building support 
of the three educational institutions of Iowa, as follows :—State 
University at Iowa City, one-fifth of a mill to run for five years. 
This will realise 550,000 dollars. The Iowa State College of 
Agriculture and Mechanic Arts at Ames, one-fifth of a mill for 
a similar period, which will realise 550,000 dollars. The State 
Normal School at Cedar Falls, one-tenth of a mill for five years, 
which will realise 225,000 dollars. The State educational 
institutions receive in addition 434,269 dollars for the biennial 
period, distributed as follows :—State University, 215,000 
dollars ; Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, 
135,000 dollars—of this 35,000 dollars are for additional general 
support annually, and 10,000 dollars annually for the experiment 
station, 5,000 dollars for live stock, 5,000 dollars to begin the 
building of a barn, and 35,000 dollars to start a main central 
building ; the Iowa State Normal School, 84,269 dollars. 
THE general scope of the new matriculation examination for 
all students of the University of London are published in the 
official gazette. The full text of the regulations will be pub- 
lished at the beginning of June, and the first examination under 
them will commence on September 15 next. An examination 
under the old regulations will be held in January, 1903, and 
under both sets of regulations in June, 1903. Matriculation 
candidates will be expected to show a competent knowledge in 
each of the following subjects, according to the details specified, 
under the several heads :—(1) English, one paper of three 
hours. (2) Elementary mathematics, two papers of three hours. 
each. (3) Latin, or elementary mechanics, or elementary 
physics (heat, light and sound), or elementary chemistry, or 
elementary botany, one paper of three hours in each subject. 
(4) Two of the following subjects, neither of which has already 
been taken under (3). One paper of three hours in each subject. 
If Latin be not taken, one of the other subjects selected must 
be another language from the list, either ancient or modern :— 
Latin, Greek, French, German, Arabic, Sanskrit, Spanish, 
Portuguese, Italian, Hebrew, history (ancient or modern), logic, 
physical and general geography, geometrical and mechanical 
drawing, mathematics (more advanced), elementary mechanics, 
elementary chemistry, elementary physics—(qa) heat, light and 
sound, or (4) electricity and magnetism ; elementary biology— 
(a) botany, or (4) zoology. 
Dr. D. C. Gitman contributes to the May number of 
Scribner's Magazine some further reminiscences of note- 
worthy scholars with whom he has been brought in contact 
as president of the Johns Hopkins University. An English 
mathematician remarked to him one day that he had heard of 
Baltimore as a place which exported corn and imported mathe- 
matics, and this epigram was founded upon fact. Cayley and 
Sylvester both went to the new University from England. 
Cayley spent a winter at Baltimore, and profoundly impressed 
his hearers ; Sylvester spent the seven years there which pre- 
ceded his seventieth birthday, and left to become Savilian pro- 
fessor at Oxford. Many stories are told of Sylvester’s eccen- 
tricities, but most of them are apocryphal. He became possessed 
of a sort of monomania for rhyme, and one of his most extra- 
ordinary compositions was a long series of lines, every one of 
which ended with a syllable that he pronounced as zvd. . This. 
tour de force reached four or five hundred verses. Sometimes. 
he was very absent-minded. For example, he arrived from 
Philadelphia in a late train one night and walked bareheaded 
to his hotel. The next morning he demanded his hat, and 
insisted that it wasin the house, and he would not be persuaded 
that it had not been stolen until a telegram revealed the fact 
that the hat had been found in the train at Washington. In 
1884, Lord Kelvin gave a course of lectures at the University. 
“« The lectures,” says Dr. Gilman, ‘‘ went on from day to day 
upon the topics that occurred to the lecturer, or that were sug- 
gested by the questions of his hearers. Everyone who was 
capable of following him was enchanted. ‘ How long will 
these lectures continue?’ asked one of the audience. ‘I do 
not know,’ replied Lord Rayleigh, who was one of the 
