688 

CAMBRIDGE.—The University proposes to confer 
honorary degrees on Viscount Grey of Fallodon, Lord 
Plumer, the Rt. Hon. Stanley Baldwin, Chancellor 
of the Exchequer, Sir Aston Webb, president of the 
Royal Academy, Mr. M. C. Norman, governor of the 
Bank of England, Sir Arthur Evans, Prof. H. A. 
Lorentz, Dr. W. H. Welch, and Prof. Niels Bohr. 
The vacancy in the newly founded professorship of 
animal pathology is announced. 
Lonpon.—Notice is given -that applications for 
grants from the Thomas Smythe Hughes Fund for 
assisting medical research must be sent not later than 
June 15 to the Academic Registrar, University of 
London, South Kensington, S.W.7, accompanied by 
the names and addresses of two references. 
MANCHESTER.—The council has appointed Mr. L. 
J. Mordell as Fielden professor of pure mathematics 
as from September next. Mr. Mordell, who was 
awarded the Smith’s prize in 1912, has won a high 
reputation as an investigator in the theory of num- 
bers, and has been invited by the University of 
Chicago to deliver a course of lectures in that subject 
during the present summer. 
Lord Crawford has been nominated as Chancellor 
in succession to Lord Morley of Blackburn. 

WE learn from the Times that the University of 
Cracow has conferred on the Earl of Balfour the degree 
of Doctor of Philosophy, and the Polish Minister, who 
was accompanied by Prof. R. Dyboski (representing 
the Senate of the University), recently called upon 
Lord Balfour to present the diploma. 
THE Society of Merchant Venturers, Bristol, offers 
for competition fifteen scholarships tenable in the day 
classes of the faculty of engineering of the University 
of Bristol, which is provided and maintained in the 
College. Candidates must be not less than seventeen 
years of age and must have matriculated. The 
scholarships provide free tuition: one is open to 
pupils in secondary schools ; three are restricted to 
pupils of secondary schools in Gloucestershire, 
Somerset, and Wiltshire; ten are restricted to the 
sons of officers in His Majesty’s service who were 
killed in the War; and one is restricted to a son of a 
citizen of Béthune who has passed either the B. és L. 
or the B. és Sc. examination. A War memorial 
scholarship is also offered, with a preference to a 
candidate who needs pecuniary help and is the son of 
a former student who lost his life during the War. 
Further particulars can be obtained from the Regis- 
trar of the Merchant Venturers’ Technical College, 
University of Bristol. 
THE programme of the summer meeting arranged 
by the University of Oxford Delegacy for the Exten- 
sion of Teaching, to be held on July 27—August 16, 
contains a noteworthy list of lectures. The main 
subject of study will be ‘‘ Universities, Medieval and 
Modern, and their place in National Life,’ and in 
this connexion there will be lectures on various 
universities, on the relation of the university to the 
State and to the community, and on the place of 
science in university study, the last by Prof. H. H. 
Turner. The special economic subject of the meeting 
will be “The Social and Economic Problems of 
English Country Life,” and Sir Daniel Hall is giving 
an introductory lecture on “‘ Agriculture and the 
Community.’’ Among the lectures in this course is 
one by Prof. W. Sommerville on “‘ Grasslands.’ Pro- 
vision has also been made for a special course on the 
methods of research inorganic chemistry. The course 
has been arranged to meet the wishes and needs of 
the science teachers in secondary schools, and will 
be under the supervision of Dr. F. D, Chattaway. 
NO. 2794, VOL. 111] 
NATURE 

[May 19, 1923. 
Inquiries should be addressed to the Secretary of the 
Delegacy, Rev. F, E. Hutchinson, University Exten- 
sion Delegacy, Examination Schools, Oxford, and 
marked “‘ Summer Meeting.” 
In NatuRE of August 26, p. 298, reference was 
made to the department established by the University . 
of Calcutta for the study of poverty, and particularly 
unemployment, from a purely scientific point of view 
apart from class or political bias of any kind. We 
have now received from the department the first two 
of a series of lectures by Capt. J. W. Petavel, principal 
of the Kasimbazar Polytechnic Institute, on “ The 
New ‘Social Question ’’—the question, namely, how — 
to apply “‘ quite practically and as a matter of — 
business ”’ those principles of co-operation in industry — 
which socialists have proposed to apply by establishin 
State socialism. The lecturer restates the ‘“‘ Dese 
Village’ problem, which is of special interest at the _ 
present time in India. There are as yet compara- — 
tively few town-dwellers, but there is a steady and 
increasing drift from the country districts to centres 
of manufacturing industry, and the problem of unem- 
ployment of middle-class townspeople is acute. The 
lecturer suggests that a solution can be found in a 
system of combined field and factory labour colonies, 
the homesteads being located along radial lines of 
communication converging on the factories. The 
first step is to be the establishment of schools com- 
bined with farms and workshops within easy reach 
of towns. A substantial amount of the pupil's time 
at school would be devoted to productive work. The 
Vice-Chancellor of the University and many other 
prominent citizens of Calcutta were so impressed by 
Capt. Petavel’s arguments that they issued an appeal 
last year for support for such a scheme. 
THE report of the University of Leeds for 1921-22, 
issued recently, deals with a number of topics of 
more than local interest. It includes a record of 
resolutions passed in January 1922 at a conference 
at Leeds of the six universities of the midlands and 
north of England defining the factors of university 
evolution which ought, in the opinion of the confer- — 
ence, to be considered before any institution is _ 
raised to the status of a university, and formulating 
opinions regarding several other questions of uni-— 
versity policy. The resolutions were submitted to 
and discussed with the University Grants Committee. 
There is also a copy of an important letter addressed 
by the same universities jointly to the Prime Minister 
in December 1921 stating the case against the reduction 
of the Treasury grants to universities and university 
colleges in Great Britain. Appended to this is a 
comparative table of grants by local education 
authorities to each of the six universities in 1913-14 
and 1921-22. It shows increases amounting in the 
aggregate to nearly 100 per cent.—from 74,000/. to 
136,000/.—the most striking being in the grants 
to Durham (5501/. to 16,346/.) and Sheffield (17,226/, 
to 39,691/.). The number of full-time students at 
Leeds in 1921-22 was 1646—the highest on record 
and 150 per cent. higher than in 1913-14. Reviewing 
the University’s finances, it is stated that raising 
the fees payable by students has for the time being 
saved the situation, but that a considerable falling 
off in the number of students must be looked for 
partly owing to the departure of the ex-service — 
students and partly on account of the limit placed 
by the Board of Education on the number admitted 
to the Training Department. Among developments 
at the School of Medicine the report mentions the 
institution of a Diploma in Nursing, and claims that 
Leeds is the first university in this country to intro- 
duce such a diploma. 
