November 28, 1907] 



NA TURE 



93 



some- of the greatest industrial movements of the time, and 

 all indications are that that will continue to be so more 

 and more. It is sometimes said that the only source of 

 weallh is labour. This was true in old days, when science 

 was little applied to industry, and there were capitalists 

 and labourers and little else, but conditions have since then 

 been changed. There is an abundance of labour, but also 

 a greater abundance of capital. It is becoming apparent 

 that labour undirected, labour without knowledge and 

 without scientific ability to direct it, is incapable of serving 

 the purpose of those who wish to develop the resources of 

 nature. The real source of wealth is the direction of 

 labour and capital to the right points of application. 

 Knowledge is the source of wealth — scientific knowledge, 

 business knowledge — the capacity of the trained man ; and 

 the men with that capacity, the men of brain and of 

 science, are emerging more and more as those who have 

 the power of controlling the resources of the earth, and 

 labour and capital are becoming more and more instru- 

 nv.'nts in their hands. 



GiKTs and legacies to the funds of Yale University 

 amounted to more than 100,000/. during the fiscal year 

 recently completed. Gifts amounting to 70,000/. were re- 

 ceived bA" the New York University during the past fiscal 

 year. The value of this University's property is more 

 than 1,000,000/. 



Prof. Bedson last June completed his twenty-fifth year 

 as professor of chemistry at the Armstrong College, New- 

 castle-upon-Tyne. The event was the occasion of many 

 congratulations and suitable presentations. In addition to 

 the celebration arranged last summer, we notice from the 

 report of the principal of the college that the council has 

 " deemed it only fitting to mark the occasion, and its 

 profotmd appreciation of Prof. Bedson 's exceptional 

 services to the college, by unanimously voting him a 

 ' jubilee ' vacation of six months, to take effect in the 

 course of the coming year, together with a sum of 200/." 

 We congratulate Prof. Bedson, and commend the course 

 of action adopted by the Newcastle authorities to the notice 

 of other college councils. 



The fifth annual report of the Manchester Education 

 Committee deals with the year 1906-7, and provides much 

 information concerning the successful attempts made in 

 the city to coordinate educational effort and to prevent 

 overlapping and waste. Full particulars are given as to 

 the work during the session of the Municipal School of 

 Technology. There was for some reason a decrease of 

 164 in the total number of individual day and evening 

 students enrolled, which, however, reached 5149. The 

 total volume of work of the evening departments, com- 

 puted in student hours, that is, by multiplying the number 

 of students enrolled by the total number of hours of in- 

 struction, was 444,827 student hours, whilst the actual 

 volume of work, namely, the total number of hours of 

 instruction multiplied by the actual attendances, was 

 200,046, or 65 per cent, of the total volume of work. 



The inaugural address delivered by Prof. Willis G. 

 Tucker at the opening of the present session of the Albany 

 Medical College has been reprinted from the Albany 

 Medical .Annals of the present month. The address dealt 

 with educational democracy, and in it Prof. Tucker in- 

 dicated several directions in which, unless care is 

 taken, danger may result to American higher education 

 from the large private benefactions of recent years. 

 Quoting from a speech of Chancellor MacCracken at 

 New York University, Prof. Tucker urged that, as a 

 result of the gifts of millions of dollars from great 

 .American financiers, the universities are in danger of 

 being reckoned the purchased servants of a narrow caste. 

 He went on to insist that in a country like the United 

 States " higher education should be in no w\ay dependent 

 upon the variable and perhaps ill-directed impulses of 

 individuals, however generous and philanthropic they may 

 be." He maintained that it is the duty of the State to 

 provide technical and higher education for the people, 

 enumerated the reasons for his belief, and indicated some 

 of the directions in which he thought the necessary funds 

 might be raised. 



The report of the council of University College, Bristol, 

 presented to the governors at their annual meeting on 

 November 20, is a record of steady progress as regards 

 number of students and results of original investigations. 

 For a college with limited means and indifferent local sup- 

 port, the amoimt of research carried on is particularly 

 noteworthy, h department in economic biology has been 

 formed with the object of rendering assistance to those 

 engaged in agriculture and kindred pursuits. By carry- 

 ing out investigations and experiments, and by suggesting 

 preventive or remedial measures where crops and fruit 

 trees have been threatened or attacked by insect or other 

 pests, it is hoped that the department will meet a real 

 need. The committee of the Bristol Museum has con- 

 sented to form collections illustrative of economic biology. 

 Though the college is a centre of intellectual life and 

 interest in the city of Bristol and neighbourhood, it 

 derives only a meagre income of about 500/. a year from 

 the sustentation fund. If this may be taken as an index 

 of public support to higher education in the west of 

 England, the prospects of a university do not seem very 

 promising. It is hoped, however, that the King will visit 

 the city to open the Avonmouth Docks ne.xt year, and that 

 the promoters of the scheme for a university will be 

 justified by that time in asking for a charter. 



The report for the session 1906-7 of the department ol 

 technology of the City and Guilds of London Institute 

 has now been published. During the session, 33 11 classes 

 in technological subjects were registered at 376 centres, in 

 286 towns. These classes were attended by 46,048 

 students, being 1580 more than in 1905-6; 21,728 candi- 

 dates were presented in technology from 439 centres in 

 the United Kingdom, and of these 13,054 passed. By 

 including the candidates from India and the colonies, and 

 those for teachers' certificates in manual training and 

 domestic economy, the total number of examinees was 

 23.572. These figures show an increase on those of any 

 previous year. Members of the institute's staff for the 

 examination, inspection, or organisation of classes visited 

 ninety-two centres during the year. The report points out 

 two main causes which impede progress in the technical 

 instruction of artisans and prevent the results of the teach- 

 ing from being as satisfactory as might be desired. They 

 are, first, the difficulty of finding competent teachers, and, 

 secondly, the unduly large proportion of artisan students 

 who enter technical classes without the preliminary know- 

 ledge necessary to take full advantage of the instruction 

 they receive. It is fully recognised in the report that the 

 teaching of technology has improved greatly during the 

 past decade, but it is noted that the examiners have still 

 to direct attention repeatedly to the insufficient know-ledge 

 that candidates possess of the principles of the subjects, 

 and to point out that the fluctuating quality of answers 

 in different groups of papers indicates faulty teaching as 

 the source. .-\s regards the preliminary training of the 

 students, it is desirable, the report says, that more 

 encouragement should be given to the further attendance 

 of pupils at a school in which provision is made for 

 manual training, English, and practical science teaching, 

 before commencing the distinctly technical part of their 

 course of training. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 

 Chemical Society, November 7. — Sir William Rinisay, 

 K.C.B., F.R.S., president, in the chair.— Gaseous nitrogen 

 trioxide : H. B, Baker and Mrs. Baker. Liquid nitrogen 

 trioxide can be converted into the gaseous state if it is 

 dried completely. The liquid is green at the ordinary 

 temperature, but becomes blue below —2°. In liquid air 

 it solidifies to a mass of dark blue crystals. — The atomic 

 weight of tellurium : H. B. Baker and A. H. Bennett. 

 During the last thirteen years the authors have investi- 

 gated tellurium, and the possibility of its containing a 

 second element, but so far all the evidence obtained points 

 to the homogeneity of the element. — The isomerism of the 

 double sulphites of sodium and potassium : M. H. Godby. 

 No evidence of the existence of the two isomeric salts 

 KO.SO,Na and NaO.SO.K could be obtained. — Studies 



NO. 1987, VOL. 77] 



