586 

University and Educational Intelligence. 
Berrast.—At the meeting of Senate of the Queen’s 
University held on April 20, it was agreed to receive 
the resignation of the vice-chancellor, the Right Hon- 
ourable and Rev. Thomas Hamilton. Dr. Hamilton 
was appointed vice-chancellor by Queen Victoria in 
1889 as president of Queen’s College. At that time 
the annual endowment was 800o0/. and the number 
of students less than 400. The annual endowment 
is now 36,o00/. and the number of students 1250. 
During his long presidency his services were in- 
valuable. In 1901 a fund of 100,000l. for the better 
equipment of the College was received, which made 
possible the erection of laboratories for teaching and 
research. By the Universities Act of 1908 the Queen’s 
College was dissolved and became the Queen’s Uni- 
versity, and Dr. Hamilton was named in the charter 
as vice-chancellor and president. The Senate ap- 
pointed a special committee to make inquiries as to 
a person suitable for nomination to the office of 
president and vice-chancellor. 
LrEps.—The Leeds Education Committee and the 
University have co-operated in setting up a new 
course of training for students who may expect to 
occupy posts of directive responsibility in the printing 
trades. The University has no Printing Department 
of its own; but in other respects is able to offer the 
kind of training which is needed by a man who will 
afterwards take a responsible position in business life. 
The Leeds Technical School Printing Department, on 
the other hand, is to provide technical training in the 
various processes of printing and the full course will 
extend over four years. The first three years will be 
spent in reading for the University degree, one of the 
subjects for which will be printing. A fourth year, 
leading to a diploma, will be spent wholly on printing 
at the Technical School. The work for the degree 
will comprise economics, including commercial and 
financial organisation and the economics of the print- 
ing and allied industries, statistics, accountancy, 
commercial law, mathematics, physics, mechanical 
engineering, and printing. The scheme will come into 
operation next October. 
The Dewsbury County Borough Council has voted 
a grant of 400/. a year to the University and the 
Halifax County Borough Council has made a grant 
of 750/. for the current financial year. 
Dr. R. W. Whytlaw-Gray, Fellow of University 
College, London, has been appointed professor of 
chemistry as from October 1 in succession to Prof. 
Arthur Smithells. From 1900 to 1902 Dr. Whytlaw- 
Gray worked under Sir William Ramsay on a re- 
determination of the atomic weight of nitrogen. This 
work was completed in the laboratory of Prof. R. 
Anschiitz in the University of Bonn. On his return 
from Germany in 1906 Dr. Whytlaw-Gray was 
appointed on Sir William Ramsay’s staff at University 
College, London, and in 1908 he became assistant 
professor. While there, he conducted important in- 
vestigations on the physical constants of gases and 
was associated with Sir William Ramsay in the well- 
known work on radium emanation (niton). This 
work involved exceptional experimental difficulties, 
less than one-tenth of a cubic millimetre of the gas 
being available. With this almost infinitesimal 
quantity Messrs. Ramsay and Whytlaw-Gray suc- 
ceeded in determining its physical properties, thus 
proving that the emanation belonged to the helium 
family of elements. In connexion with- this very 
delicate work, Dr. Whytlaw-Gray constructed a 
specially designed balance which was sensitive to 
1/250 thousandth of a milligram. Since 1914 Dr. 
NO. 2791, VOL. 111] 
NATURE 

[ApRIL 28, 1923 

Whytlaw-Gray has been science master at Eton 
College. 
Lonpon.—A course of eight free public lectures 
on “‘ Nutrition ’’ will be given at King’s College for 
Women (Household and Social Science Department), 
61 Campden Hill Road, W.8, by Prof. V. H. Mottram, 
on Mondays and Wednesdays, beginning on April 30. 
The lecture hour is 4.30, and no tickets are required. 
OxForD.—The next award of the Rolleston 
Memorial Prize will be made in Trinity Term, 1924. 
The Prize, the value of which is about rool., is given 
for original research in animal and vegetable morpho- 
logy ; physiology and pathology; or anthropology. 
Candidates must be graduates of Oxford or Cambridge 
of not more than six years’ standing. For other con- 
ditions the Oxford University Gazette for April 11 
should be consulted. Candidates wishing to compete 
must forward their memoirs to the Registrar of the 
University of Oxford before March 31, 1924. 

Mr. GEorGE GRANT, Appointments Secretary and 
Senior Warden of the University Halls of Residence 
for Men Students, University of Liverpool, has been 
appointed Registrar of University College, Southamp- 
ton, as from September 1, 1923. 
Dr. S. P. SmirH has been appointed professor of 
electrical engineering at the Royal Technical College, 
Glasgow, in succession to Prof. Magnus Maclean, who 
is about to retire after occupying the chair for twenty- 
four years. Since 1912, Dr. Smith has been lecturer, 
and later assistant professoryin the Electrical Depart- 
ment of the City Guilds (Engineering) College, 
Imperial College of Science and Technology, London. 
AN important conference is being organised by the 
University of Leeds for the discussion of certain 
questions affecting the supply of full-time education 
for boys and girls beyond the age of eleven years and 
the choice of subjects in school examinations. The 
conference will be held in the Great Hall of the Uni- 
versity on Saturday afternoon, June 9, and will be | 
attended by representatives of schools and univer- 
sities, as well as by others engaged in educational 
work. The main subject of discussion will be the 
broadening of the basis of the secondary - school 
curriculum. Though less than three per cent. of 
pupils in State-aided secondary schools proceed to 
universities, the courses usually followed lead to 
examinations of university matriculation standard 
and scope, and are unsuitable for pupils who will not 
continue their education at universities. The follow- 
ing motions will therefore be put before the con- 
ference for consideration, and a vote will be taken 
upon them :—(r1) That representations be made to the 
Board of Education, urging the pressing need of further 
provision (by legislative change, if necessary) for the 
full-time education of boys and girls up to the age 
of sixteen, to include not only instruction of the type 
now offered by the recognised secondary schools, but 
such variations from it as will meet the needs of pupils 
who may not intend to proceed to a university. 
(2) That this conference welcomes the recent action 
of the Joint Matriculation Board of the Northern 
Universities in the direction of allowing greater free- 
dom in the choice of subjects in the First Secondary 
School examination, but is of opinion that greater 
freedom in the grouping of courses for the Higher 
Certificate is desirable in the educational interests of 
the pupils in secondary schools. Correspondence on 
the subject of this conference may be addressed to 
Sir Michael Sadler or to Mr. A. E. Wheeler, The 
University, Leeds, who will be glad to have the names 
of those intending to be present at the conference, 
ae 
po ee 
o ree eee 
