May 26, 1923] 

NATURE 
723 

The Department of Geology, University 
of Liverpool. 
New Girt FROM SiR WILLIAM HERDMAN. 
Cr Tuesday, May 15, the Council of the University 
of Liverpool accepted a gift of 20,000/. from Sir 
William A. Herdman for the provision of a new 
building for the Department of Geology. Sir William 
Herdman desired his gift to be associated with the 
memory of the late Lady Herdman, and that the 
new laboratories should bear her name. It will be 
Tecollected that, after urging for many years the 
desirability of the foundation of a chair of geology 
in the University, Sir William Herdman, in company 
with Lady Herdman, eventually offered the Univer- 
sity the sum of 10,000/. for the purpose of endowing 
the George Herdman chair in memory of their only 
son, who was killed in action in 1916. 
Largely through the foresight of Sir William 
Herdman and Sir Alfred Dale, the late Vice-Chancellor | 
of the University, accommodation had been reserved 
in an extension of the Zoology Department. The 
Geological Department thus consisted of two floors 
and a library, but the new professor had the great 
advantage of dividing up the shell of the building 
into suitable laboratories and of equipping them for 
special needs. Sir William Herdman had _ been 
securing for many years valuable collections and 
books in preparation for the future department. The 
equipment of the laboratories was assisted very 
materially by a gift of 2000/. from Mrs. and Miss Holt, 
relatives of Lady Herdman, long well known for 
their great and numerous benefactions to the Univer- 
sity. Many other donations towards equipment and 
the cost of purchasing collections, etc., were made 
by Sir William and Lady Herdman in the succeeding 
years, and several students in the Department had 
reason to be grateful for their kind and practical help. 
The School of Geology, founded in 1917, has grown 
rapidly—not unexpected, when it is remembered 
that Liverpool has long been known for such dis- 
Sa Pepe amateur geologists as G. H. Morton, 
C. Mellard Reade, H. C. Beasley, and J. Lomas, and 
its active Geological Society with a sixty years’ record 
of published work. The accommodation of the 
oS ortene has for the past three years been in- 
su 
cient for its needs, and Sir William and Lady 
Herdman frequently expressed their desire to see 
the school housed more fitly. Lady Herdman’s 
sudden and lamented death last autumn prevented 
the new gift being a joint one, but it was a happy 
thought of Sir William Herdman to associate the 
names of wife and son with the laboratories and chair 
respectively. 
Apart from this valuable assistance towards the 
furtherance of geological work, it may be recalled 
that in 1919 Sir William and Lady Herdman also 
endowed the chair of oceanography in the University. 

University and Educational Intelligence. 
ABERDEEN.—Dr. H. R. Kruyt, professor of physical 
chemistry in the University of Utrecht, delivered a 
University lecture on May 14, his subject being 
“The Electric Charge of the Colloids.”’ 
The Students’ Gala Week in aid of the Aberdeen 
Hospitals has realised a nett sum of 4753/. 
Prof. J. Arthur Thomson has been appointed a 
member of the committee of inquiry on trawling. 
St. ANDREws.—Among the names of those on 
whom the Senatus Academicus has resolved to confer 
the honorary degree of LL.D. at the graduation 
ceremonial on July 6 are the following :—Sir William 
NO. 2795, VOL. 111] 


Henry Hadow, vice-chancellor of the University of 
Sheffield ; Mr. Herbert William Richmond, Univer- 
sity lecturer in mathematics in the University of 
Cambridge, and retiring president of the London 
Mathematical Society ; and Sir Robert Robertson, 
chief Government chemist, London. 
BirMINGHAM.—The Huxley Lecture is to be 
delivered on Thursday, June 7, 5.30 P.M., at Mason 
College, by Sir Arthur Keith, who has chosen as his 
subject ‘ The Origin of the British People.”’ 
Dr. H. H. Sampson has been appointed honorary 
assistant curator of the surgical section of the Patho- 
logical Museum, and Mr. J.S. M. Connell, honorary 
assistant curator of the gynecological section. 
Prof. John Robertson is to represent the University 
at the meeting of the National Association for the 
Prevention of Tuberculosis, to be held in Birmingham 
in July next. 
The Ingleby Lectures will be delivered at 4 o’clock 
on May 30 and June 6 by Dr. H. Black, who will take 
as his subject ‘“ The Investigation of the Alimentary 
Tract by X-rays.’’ The lectures are open to all 
medical men. 
CaMBRIDGE.—Dr. W. L. H. Duckworth, Jesus 
| College, has been elected as representative of the 
University on the General Medical Council. 
Dr. E. Lloyd Jones, Downing College, has been re- 
elected demonstrator of medicine. An honorary 
degree of Master of Arts is to be conferred on Dr. 
J. T. MacCurdy, Corpus Christi College, University 
lecturer in psychopathology. ; 
DurHAM.—An anonymous donor has presented the 
capital sum of 12,000/. to Armstrong College, New- 
castle-upon-Tyne, the interest of which is to be 
devoted to the establishment of research fellowships 
and possibly prizes of similar character to the Adams 
prize at Cambridge, or in such other manner as the 
Council of the College may decide is best calculated 
to promote original work in pure and applied science 
and the humanities. 
The Council of the College has decided to proceed 
immediately with the erection of a permanent library 
at an estimated cost of some 40,000/. It has long 
been felt that there is great need of a scholars’ library 
on the north-east coast, and it is hoped that when the 
new library is built it will form a worthy centre for 
all students of the district, whether members of the 
University or not. It is understood that the Un- 
employment Grants Committee are favourably dis- 
posed to consider such a scheme as a work of public 
utility deserving assistance from public funds. 
EpINBURGH.—On Wednesday, May 16, Prof. H. R. 
Kruyt, of the University of Utrecht, delivered a 
lecture on “‘ The Electric Charge of Colloids’’; and 
on Friday, May 18, Prof. W. de Sitter, of the Uni- 
versity of Leyden, lectured on “‘ Problems of Funda- 
mental Astronomy.” 
Lonpon.—Prof. Leonard Bairstow has been ap- 
pointed as from September 1 next to the Zaharoff 
chair of aviation tenable at the Imperial College 
of Science and Technology. He has been head of 
the Aeronautical Department of the National Physical 
Laboratory, and since 1920 has been professor of 
aerodynamics at the Imperial College. 
Dr. C. L. Boulenger has been appointed as from 
September 1 next to the University chair of zoology 
tenable at Bedford College. Since 1922 he has 
| been lecturer in, and temporary head of, the depart- 
ment of zoology at the college. He is the author 
of a number of papers on Ccelenterata, helminthology, 
and other subjects. 
Miss B. E. M. Hosgood has been appointed as 
