February 27, 190S] 



NA TURE 



405 



Magnus whether the Government intended to appoint a 

 Royal Commission in reference to the relation of the 

 Imperial College to the University of London, no informa- 

 tion appears to have been forthcoming;. 



Oxford. — The annual report of the delegates for instruc- 

 tion in forestry shows that the average number of forestry 

 students in igoy was fifty-seven. The forest garden and 

 experimental plantations in Bagley Wood have been much 

 increased during the year, and the lack of accommodation 

 is about to be met by the generosity of St. John's College. 

 .\ block of buildings for the accommodation of the professor 

 of rural economy was erected in Parks Road during the 

 years 1906-7. It is now proposed to add further accommo- 

 dation for the forest branch, consisting of a lecture theatre, 

 a class-room, a museum, a library, and a professor's 

 room. The new buildings will be ready by the end of 

 1908. 



The degree of Doctor of Science has been conferred on 

 Afr. E. H. J. Schuster. New College, for his contributions 

 to biometrical science. 



W'k learn from the Rcviio scieiitijiqiie that by a decree 

 of February 10, inspectors of technical instruction are to 

 be appointed in France. Ordinary inspectors will be 

 chosen from among the directors and teachers of technical 

 sclaols, and district inspectors will be selected from com- 

 petent leaders of industrial or commercial enterprises. 



The Secretary of State for India has appointed a com- 

 mittee to inquire into and report upon the present system 

 of selecting, and of training after selection, candidates for 

 the Indian Forest Service, and to make recommendations. 

 The committee is constituted as follows : — Mr. R. C. 

 Munro Ferguson, M.P., chairman; Sir John Edge, K.C., 

 member of the Council of India ; Sir W. T. Thiselton- 

 Dyer, K.C.M.G., F.R.S. ; Mr. E. Stafford Howard, C.B. ; 

 and Mr. St. Hill Eardley Wilmot, Inspector-General of 

 Forests in India. 



The London Inter-Collegiate Scholarships Board will 

 hold in May a combined examination for twenty scholar- 

 ships and exhibitions ten.ible at University College, King's 

 College, and the East London College. Candidates must 

 have matriculated at the University of London or have 

 passed an equivalent examination, and be under the age 

 of nineteen years on October i next. The total value of 

 the scholarships offered exceeds 1700!. Full particulars 

 may be obtained from the secretary to the Board. Mr. 

 A. E. G. Attoe, Universitv College, Gower Street, London. 

 W.C. 



We learn from the Times that at the meeting of the 

 council of the University of Paris on February 24, the 

 Vice-Rector presented to that body a loving cup, a gift 

 made by the University of London to the University of 

 Paris as a souvenir of the hospitality it received last 

 summer. The cup is silver-gilt, repouss^ and chiselled, 

 and is nearly 3 feet high. The lid is surmounted by an 

 allegorical figure, while the body of the cup bears on its 

 outside the arms of the Universities of Paris and London, 

 two escutcheons emblematic of the French Republic and 

 Great Britain, and three figures symbolic of science, letters, 

 and art. 



The Calcutta University will celebrate its jubilee this 

 year by conferring the following honorary degrees at the 

 Convocation to be held on March 14: — D.Litt., the Hon. 

 Sir A. H. L. Fraser, K.C.S.L, Lieut.-Governor of 

 Bengal and Rector of the University. D.L., the Hon. 

 Sir Subramaniya Aiyar, K.C.I.E., Vice-Chancellor of tlie 

 Madras University ; the Hon. Mr. Justice Chatterjee, 

 CLE., Vice-Chancellor of the Punjab University. D.Sc. 

 the Hon. Dr. Justice Mukerjee, Vice-Chancellor of the 

 Calcutta University ; Prof. A. Schuster, F.R.S. : the Rev. 

 Father E. Lafont, S.J., CLE., late Rector of St. Xavier's 

 College, Calcutta; Mr. T. H. Holland, F.R.S., director 

 of the Geological Survey of India: Dr. G. Thibaut, CLE. 

 Ph.D., Dr. R. G. Bhandarkar, CLE., late Vice-Chancellor 

 of the Bombav Universitv ; Sir Gooroo Das Banerjee, 

 D.L., late judge in the Calcutta High Court ; Sir H. H. 

 Rislev, K.Ci.E.. CLE., secretary to the Government of 

 India'; Prof. P. C RSy. M.D., Surgeon-General 



NO 2000, VOL. 77] 



G. Bomford, CLE., Director-General of the Indian 

 Medical Service. 



Among the gifts to colleges and other institutions of 

 higher education announced in Science during the past 

 few months, the following, of io,oooZ. or more, may be 

 mentioned. By the will of the late Mr. D. Willis James 

 2o,oooi. was bequeathed to five separate institutions, in- 

 cluding Columbia and Yale Universities. Prof. J. H. 

 Hammond, by an additional lOooL, has brought his gift 

 to the Hammond Metallurgical Laboratory of Yale Uni- 

 versity to 25,400!. By the will of Mrs. Sarah E. Potter, 

 of Boston, Harvard University received a bequest of 

 10,000!., to be used in connection with the Gray herbarium. 

 Columbia University has received an anonymous gift of 

 20,000!. Yale University has benefited to the extent of 

 10,000/. by the will of the late Mr. SiUiman Bladgen. 

 Mr. John D. Rockefeller has added 438,200!. to his previous 

 gifts to the University of Chicago, making the total 

 amount of these nearly 5,000,000!. Colorado College has 

 completed an addition of 100,000!. to its productive funds, 

 towards which Mr. Andrew Carnegie contributed 10,000!. 

 According to the daily papers, Bradley Polytechnic, of 

 Peoria, 111., benefits to the extent of nearly 6oo,oooZ. by 

 the will of the late Mrs. Lydia Bradley. Mr. Andrew 

 Carnegie has also given 40,000!. to Berea College and 

 15,000!. to Illinois College, at Jacksonville. 



.'\nother attempt at a settlement of the controversy 

 relating to religious instruction in public elementary 

 schools was introduced in the House of Commons on 

 Monday in the form of a Bill brought in by Mr. McKenna, 

 President of the Board of Education, " to regulate the 

 conditions on which public money may be applied in aid 

 of elementary education in England and Wales, and for 

 other purposes incidental thereto." The Bill proposes that 

 in future there should be but one type of public elementary 

 school, provided, controlled, and managed by public 

 authority, and the teachers to be appointed without 

 religious tests. Every public elementary school receiving 

 rate aid would thus be of the type of Board or County 

 Council schools, and no child would be compelled to attend 

 any other kind of school. The religious instruction given 

 in these schools would be the same as that given in 

 Bo.-ird and county schools for the past thirty-eight years. 

 Voluntary or Church schools would not have the support 

 of public money in single-school parishes, for there the 

 State would not recognise any other school than a public 

 elementarv school. In other cases, voluntary schools, when 

 recognised as providing efificient instruction in secular 

 subjects, would receive State aid in the form of grants, but 

 no rate aid, the amount of the Government grant in both 

 county and recognised voluntary schools being 47^. per 

 annum for each child in attendance. The Bill was read 

 a first time, after it had been vigorously condemned by 

 Mr. Balfour and other members of the Opposition. 



At the prize distribution to students at the Battersea 

 Polytechnic on Wednesday, February 19, Lord Stanley of 

 Alderley remarked that when the polytechnic movement 

 was first started it was a general idea that the work in 

 the institutions was to be largely recreative. But though 

 the importance of the social side and of its influenre for 

 the good of the students was recognised, in course of time 

 the educational work asserted itself and became pre- 

 dominant. In the more modern institutions, the value of 

 the day work with its regular courses is being more fully 

 recognised. While the evening work is kept up to as 

 high a standard as possible, the work done in the day 

 classes is more thorough ; the students obtain a greater 

 mastery of their subjects, and therefore it is of greater 

 importance than that of the evening side. _ Remarkable 

 advances have been made in this direction in the great 

 technical institutions, such as those at Sheffield, Bristol, 

 .and Manchester. In the management of institutions like 

 the Battersea Polytechnic, there should be a strong local 

 element which knows what are the requirements of the 

 particular districts. It is necessary to separate what may 

 be called the common work of education from that of the 

 particular work of technical instruction as applied to arts 

 ,Tnd crafts. A comparison between the requirements for 

 domestic economy training a few years ago and those 



