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NA TURE 



[November 2 i, 1907 



creatin. The W'alsingham medal for 1908 will be awarded 

 for a monograph or essay giving evidence of original re- 

 search on any botanical, geological, or zoological subject, 

 zoology being understood to include animal morphology 

 and physiology. 



Glasgow.— Dr. Charles E. Fawsitt has been appointed 

 to the newly instituted Graham Young lectureship in 

 metallurgical chemistry, and Dr. T. S. Patterson to the 

 Waltonian lectureship in organic chemistry. The endow- 

 ments for the new leciureships have been provided in part 

 by Mr. Graham Young's trustees, in part by the Carnegie 

 trust, and in part by the old Waltonian foundation. 



Mr. F. H. Downie and Mr. F. R. Stewart have been 

 appointed demonstrators in engineering, and Dr. G. H. 

 Clark Muirhead demonstrator in physiology. 



The University Court has instituted a new lectureship 

 in psychology, general and experimental. The lecturer 

 will be charged with the equipment and conduct of the 

 laboratory of experimental psychology, for which provision 

 is made in the new buildings of Vhe physiology depart- 

 ment, and will also give instruction In educational psycho- 

 logy to teachers in training. The first appointment' will 

 be made on December 12. Applicants are referred to the 

 secretary of the University Court for further information. 



The following regulations for the final examination for 

 the degree of B.Sc. (pure science), proposed by the faculty 

 of science, were adopted by the Senate on November 7 :'— 

 (a) one of the subjects taken by each candidate shall be 

 chosen by him to be the principal subject in his examin- 

 ation, and the remaining two or more shall be considered 

 to be subsidiary subjects ; (6) the subsidiary subjects must 

 be, in part at least, cognate to the principal subiect, and 

 the examination in them shall also be upon an' honours 

 standard, but shall have special regard to those parts of 

 the subjects which are cognate to the principal subject • 

 (c) candidates shall be required to state at the time they 

 enter for the final examination in each subject whether 

 they desire it to be regarded as their principal subject or 

 as_ a subsidiary subject, and in the event of the latter 

 being the case they shall be required to state which subject 

 they propose to take as their principal subject; (A) in 

 estuTiating the attainments of the various candidates in 

 any subject, the examiners may take into account the duly 

 attested records of their practical work. 



London.— The question of the establishment at South 

 Kensmgton of an institute for preliminary and intermediate 

 medical studies is being vigorously discussed. For the 

 vacancy on the Senate caused by the resignation of Dr. 

 Lauriston Shaw, three candidates have been nominated 

 the constituency being the faculty of medicine, composed 

 of teachers of medical subjects who are recognised bv the 

 University, to the number of nearly 400. Those candi- 

 dates are Prof. Starling, of University College; Dr. 

 Norman Moore, of St. Bartholomew's; and Mr. F. C. 

 \Vallis, of Charing Cross. The concentration of the teach- 

 ing of preliminary medical subiects is the principal ques- 

 tion now before the electors. It will be remembered that 

 Ur. J. K. Fowler and Prof. Rose Bradford, who formerly 

 represented the faculty of medicine on the Senate lost 

 Iheir seats on the Senate in a recent election owing to 

 their advocacy of concentration, their places being taken 

 by Dr. Caley and Mr. Leonard Hill. 



Manchkster.— During the last two years the University 

 has collaborated In the work of the International Com'- 

 mittee for the investigation of the meteorological con- 

 ditions of the upper atmosphere. A kite station has been 

 erected on the Derbyshire moors near Glossop and the 

 results, which have been supplemented bv records obtained 

 with free balloons, have proved most encouragino-. Prof. 

 Schuster has now intimated his intention of presenting 

 500;. to the University In order to make it possible to 

 pursue this work actively. An observer will be per- 

 manently stationed on the moor, and, commencing on 

 January i, 1908, it is intended to send up meteorological 

 instruments dally by means of kites and balloons. The 

 work IS to be continued. In the first instance, durin" one 

 year. " 



Dr. R. T. Gi.AZF.BRooK, F.R.S. 



prizes and cmirn al-^ and dnllver a 



NO. 1986, VOL. ']■]'] 



will distribute the 

 address at the Sir 



John Cass Technical Institute on Tuesday, December 3. 

 The chair will be taken by Sir Owen Roberts, chairman 

 of the governing body. There will be an exhibition of 

 students' work and apparatus in the laboratories, work- 

 shops, and other rooms of the institute. 



The aggregate number of students at German technical 

 colleges amounted last winter term to 12,000, of whom 

 2700 were foreigners — that is, about 22 per cent. At the 

 colleges at Dresden, Darmstadt, and Karlsruhe more than 

 one-third of the students were foreigners, and of these 

 80 per cent, were Russians. 



We have received from Prof. V. Karapetoff, of Cornell 

 University, a copy of an interesting paper read by him 

 before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers on 

 the concentric method of teaching electrical engineering. 

 The method he advocates is based on the principle of pass- 

 ing from practice to theory instead of from theory to 

 practice, as is now usual. The study of engineering 

 should, he considers, begin in the freshman year, and be 

 carried throughout four years. Engineering education 

 should be taken up first with a bird's-eye view of actual 

 practice, and not with theory. Auxiliary sciences (mathe- 

 matics, mechanics, physics, and chemistry) should not be 

 required further than is necessary for the understanding 

 of engineering, and should be given later in the course. 

 Each year of study should be, so far as possible, self- 

 contained, the mental horizon of the student being gradu- 

 ally and concentrically widened. The same author also 

 delivered an address before the New York Electrical 

 Society on the human side of the engineering profession. 

 He argues that the true purpose and value of engineering 

 activity lie in providing better and easier ways for satis- 

 fying ordinary human needs. This provides more leisure 

 and opens new possibilities for a higher intellectual 

 development of humanity. The engineer's personal satis- 

 faction consists in knowing this high purpose of his 

 vocation, and in giving his service at maximum efficiency. 

 The other compensation is a result, and not the purpose. 



The final report of the National Association for the 

 Promotion of Technical and Secondary Education has now 

 been published. In accordance with a resolution of its 

 executive committee, adopted at a meeting on March 20 

 last, the association was wound up on June 30 of this year. 

 The final report takes the form of a brief historical review 

 of the work of the association, and incidentally serves to 

 show the substantial progress which has been made in 

 our national education during the last twenty years. The 

 Inaugural meeting was held on July i, 1887, when the 

 president, the Duke of Devonshire, who served in that 

 capacity throughout the society's existence, took the chair. 

 The association certainly had an excellent record of service. 

 Largely as the results of its activities were passed the 

 Technical Instruction .Act and the Welsh Intermediate 

 Education .Act in 18S9, the Local Taxation (Custom and 

 Excise) Act in iSgo, the Technical Instru.tion (.Amend- 

 ment) Act in i8gi, and the Spools for Science and 

 Art Act in 1891, and many administrative Improvements 

 were also secured. Several of the association's publi- 

 cations, too, did much to educate public opinion, and 

 among these may be mentioned " Studies in Secondary 

 Education," "A Manual to the Intermediate Education 

 (Wales) Act, 1889, and the Technical Instruction .Act, 

 1889," and the quarterly issues of the Record of Technical 

 find Secondary Education. As was only natural, many 

 prominent men of science were from its inauguration 

 closely identified with the association. It will suffice to 

 refer, among many others, to the late Prof. Huxley, to 

 Lord Avebury, Sir William Abney, Sir William Mather, 

 and Sir Henry Roscoe. It is greatly to be hoped that the 

 work so successfully accomplished by the association will 

 be carried on by existing societies of a kindred nature, 

 for, as the Duke of Devonshire remarked at the last 

 annual meeting, a great deal more still remains to be done. 

 The library of the association has been purchased by Sir 

 William Mather, and presented to the Manchester Free 

 Library, and the balance of its funds, amounting to 

 nearly 2:50;.. has been voted to the late secretary, Mr. 

 Frederick Oldman. as an acknowledgment of his services. 



