OcTOBER Q, 1902] 
NATURE 
579 
Crosshill is a mile to the north of Crumlin, a small 
village on the line of railway between Lisburn and 
Antrim; it is twelve miles west of Belfast and 34 miles 
east of Lough Neagh, a sheet of water thirteen miles long 
and seven miles wide; it is thus possible that the 
remaining fragments of the mass which entered the 
earth’s atmosphere may have fallen into the water. The 
distance of separation of stones belonging to a single | 
meteoritic fall has not yet been observed to exceed 
sixteen miles; it has on several occasions been found to 
reach ten miles. 
The Crumlin meteorite is the largest stone which has 
been seen to fall from the sky to the British Isles for 
eighty-nine years, and is larger than any which has | 
fallen in England itself since the year 1795. 
L. FLETCHER. 
OPENING ADDRESSES AT THE MEDICAL 
SCHOOLS. 
ate first week of October has again brought round 
the opening of the medical schools, and with 
it a series of addresses by distinguished members of 
the profession, in which the first year’s man is told some- 
thing of the calling in which he has elected to earn his 
livelihood. These addresses are this year perhaps more 
varied and interesting than usual ; at any rate, even the 
cursory reader cannot help but be struck with the 
quantity and the quality of the advice of which the 
future practitioner has been during the last few days 
the recipient. 
At Owens College, Manchester, the introductory 
address was delivered by Sir Dyce Duckworth. In it 
some points of great importance both to teachers, 
students and the profession at large were considered. In 
the present state of medical education in London, 
especially with regard to the development of the medical | 
faculty of the University of London, the remarks of the 
lecturer under the heading of the standard of general | 
education for medical students cannot escape 
observation of those interested in this subject. It is 
well known that a supposed grievance of the London 
medical student, which has certainly been well aired, is 
that although he spends as much money, time and 
intellect on his medical curriculum as his fellow student 
at the Scottish universities, he obtains merely a license 
to practise, whereas the Scottish student receives what is 
certainly of more value in the eyes of the public, viz. a 
degree in medicine. Into this question Sir Dyce Duck- 
worth did not enter, but his view seems to be that 
licenses should not be made more difficult or university 
degrees easier; in other words, that the distinction 
between the two should remain, and that the degree 
should be regarded as an indication of distinctly higher 
attainments conferred upon 
diplomas. Those interested in the obtaining of an 
the | 
those already holding | 
efficient medical staff for the public services are strongly | 
recommended to take to heart the somewhat ominous 
words of this experienced teacher. 
At University College, Sheffield, the opening address 
was given by Sir Henry Howse, the president of the 
College of Surgeons. After some remarks pregnant with | 
interest and suggestion upon the scientific training, viz. | 
the biological, chemical and physical training, of the 
medical student, the lecturer passed on to the part of 
the curriculum devoted to practical training. Under 
this latter head, Sir Henry Howse emphasised the most 
important fact that no disease must be regarded as a text- 
book entity, but that each as it occurred in each in- 
dividual patient possessed individual characteristics, and 
that successful treatment could only be attained by 
observing and allowing for these characteristics. The 
great effect of apparently small causes was aptly illus- 
NO. 1719, VOL. 66] 
trated by the lecturer by showing the difference between 
a little excess of alkali or acid in the preparation of the 
liquor ammonie acetatis of the pharmacopceia. 
At the Yorkshire College, Leeds, the opening address 
was delivered by Mr. Mayo Robson, who took for his 
subject the advance of surgery during the last thirty 
years. At the end of the lecture, the author referred to 
the advances made in medicine and predicted that the 
progress in the next century would be chiefly medical. 
At Guy’s Hospital, the opening of the winter session 
| was celebrated on October 1 by a distribution of prizes 
and medals to the students who were successful last 
session by the Lord Mayor of London. The Dean read 
the report of the medical and dental schools and referred 
to the position of Guy’s as a medical school in the recon- 
stituted University of London, expressing a hope that the 
altered regulations for the matriculation examination 
would enable a larger number of London students to 
obtain the doctor of medicine degree. 
The London Hospital Medical College opened its 118th 
session with an old students’ dinner on October 1. In a 
long speech, the chairman of the hospital referred to the 
great size and enormous work the’ hospital was doing 
both in relieving the sufferings of humanity and in the 
cause of medical education. 
A most interesting address was delivered at the open- 
ing of the sixty-first session of the London School of 
Pharmacy, on October 1, by Prof. W. Palmer Wynne, 
F.R.S. The subject was the changes which have taken 
place on what may be called the scientific side of pharmacy 
during recent years, and especially those in which progress 
in chemistry has played a part. Prof. Wynne discussed the 
connection between chemical composition and physio- 
logical action, and emphasised the extreme difficulty of 
reducing the results obtained in this connection to any- 
thing approaching law, at the same time admitting the 
great progress which had been made in this direction. 
i. W.. TL. 
NOTES. 
We much regret to see the announcement of the sudden 
death of Dr. J. H. Gladstone, F.R.S., in his seventy-sixth 
year. ; 
Mr. J. ALLEN Hower has been appointed curator and 
librarian of the Museum of Practical Geology in succession to 
Mr. F. W. Rudler, who, as mentioned in our last number, has 
retired. 
THE zoological, botanical and geological collections of Dr. 
Sven Hedin have, it is stated, been presented by the explorer 
to the University of Stockholm. 
THE death is announced, at the age of sixty-one, of Dr. 
Julius Ziegler, who for nearly thirty years was at the head of 
the meteorological department of the Frankfort Physikalische 
Verein. 
THE next annual congress of the Royal Institute of Public 
| Health is to take place in Liverpool in, probably, the third week 
of July next. 
Ar the Royal Microscopical Society on October 15, a demon- 
stration on ‘f Rock Changes in Nature’s Laboratory” will be 
given by Prof. T. G. Bonney, F.R.S. 
Reports of the following earthquakes have appeared in the 
Times during the past few days :—Advices from Guam state 
that 180 shocks of earthquake were felt in that island on Sep- 
tember 25. The marine barracks and other buildings at Agana 
were destroyed.—Three violent earthquake shocks were felt at 
Tiflis at 2.30 a.m. on Saturday last, October 4.—A severe 
earthquake, lasting two minutes, was felt at New Marghilan, 
Ferghana, on Monday afternoon, October 6. 
