622 



NA TURE 



[April 30, 190S 



has done much for the advancement of chemical science 

 and of its applications to industry. He was president of 

 the Society of Chemical Industry in 1899, and of the 

 chemical section of the British Association at its meeting 

 in South Africa in 1905. He was also vice-president of 

 the Institute of Chemistry from 1903 to 1906. He is the 

 inventor of novel processes which have created or trans- 

 formed important departments of scientific production ; he 

 has devoted himself to the improvement of technological 

 training in relation to our native industries, and he has 

 contributed many researches of value to the memoirs of 

 learned societies at home and abroad. The Senate, in 

 presenting Mr. Beilby for the degree of Doctor of Laws, 

 recognise the value alike of his scientific work and of his 

 services to an educational institution so closely connected 

 with the L'niversity and with the City of Glasgow. 



Colonel David Bruce, C.B., F.R.S., Royal Army 

 Medical Corps. — K graduate of Edinburgh University, 

 Colonel Bruce has had a distinguished career in the Royal 

 Army Medical Corps, and rendered eminent services to the 

 nation in the Egyptian and South African campaigns. But 

 his services have been not only to his country, but to 

 humanity. To his discovery, at great personal risk, and 

 by untiring labour, of the microbe which forms the in- 

 ducing cause of Malta fever, and to the researches to 

 which that discovery led, the naval and military popula- 

 tion of Malta owe their present immunity. from a disease 

 which has been the bane of the island for centuries. 

 Similar work in Africa has resulted in extending our 

 knowledge of the causes which produce the dreaded tsetse- 

 fly disease of South .Africa, and the epidemic sleeping sick- 

 ness of Uganda. Work of this kind, requiring all the 

 courage of the soldier, all the patience and acumen of the 

 man of science, renders him amply entitled to any honour 

 which a university can bestow. 



Dr. J. J. DoBBiE, F.R.S., director of the Royal Scottish 

 Museum. — In Dr. Dobbie the Senate proposes to honour 

 a distinguished son of this University. Dr. Dobbie com- 

 pleted a successful career as a student by graduating with 

 first-class honours in natural science, and obtaining the 

 George A. Clark scholarship. After further studies in 

 Germany and in the University of Edinburgh, he obtained 

 the degree of Doctor of Science in that University. He 

 acted as lecturer in mineralogy, and as assistant to the 

 professor of chemistry in Glasgow, until his appointment 

 as professor of chemistry in the University College of North 

 Wales at Bangor. After holding that office for nineteen 

 years, he was appointed to the important post he now 

 holds — the directorship of the Royal Scottish Museum. 

 During a life thus filled with important educational work, 

 he^ has found time to make contributions of great value to 

 scientific literature, in recognition of which the Roval 

 Society of London has admitted him to the honour of its 

 fellowship. 



Mr. Robert Kidston, F.R.S. — Mr. Kidston has devoted 

 much time and study to an important department of the 

 science of geology, and is recognised as one of the leading 

 authorities on palajophytologv. .•\ series of more than 

 eighty papers, published under the auspices of the Royal 

 Societies of London and Edinburgh, attest his knowledge 

 of the Carboniferous flora. He has arranged and cata- 

 logued the collection of PaK-EOzoic plants in the British 

 Museum. His mastery of the subject, and his generous 

 readiness' to e,\pend his labour for the advancement of 

 science,^ have been taken advantage of by other countries 

 than his own. He has been engaged in a catalogue of 

 the fossil plants in the Royal Museum at Brussels, and has 

 received an invitation to undertake similar work at Stock- 

 holm. The fossil remains, now being discovered in the 

 recently opened coalfields of Holland, are being submitted 

 for his determination. In presenting Mr. Kidston for this 

 degree, the Senate of the University of his native city 

 wish to express their appreciation of his manifold services 

 to geological and botanical science. 



Dr. J. C. M'Vail, medical officer of health for the 

 counties of Stirling and Dumbarton. — \ graduate of the 

 University of .St. .Andrews, and a former e.xaminer in 

 medical jurisprudence and public health in this University, 

 Dr. M'Vail holds the highest position in that important 

 department of modern civil administration — the care of 

 public health. For eighteen years county medical officer 



XO. 2009, VOL. 77] 



of health for Stirling and Dumbarton, he has been presi- 

 dent of the Incorporated Society of Medical Officers of 

 Health of Great Britain, of the Incorporated Sanitary 

 Association of Great Britain, and of the Glasgow and 

 West of Scotland Branch of the British Medical .Xssocia- 

 tion. In igob he delivered with acceptance the Lane 

 lectures in Cooper Medical College, San Francisco, and 

 the following year acted as medical investigator to the 

 Royal Commission on the Poor Law. His published work>, 

 dealing with broad questions of State medicine and sanitar\ 

 science, are recognised as authoritative in these important 

 subjects. 



There will be a reception at Bedford College for Woni'H 

 (University of London) on "Commemoration Day," 

 Wednesday, May 6, after the presentation of graduates ;il 

 the University of London. 



An article by Mr. J. A. Venn in the issue for the Lent 

 term of the Oxford arid Cambridge Review deals with 

 the number of matriculations at Oxford and Cambridge, 

 respectively, from 1544 to 1906. The article is accom- 

 panied by a graph, in which the number of matriculations 

 — calculated on an average of five years about any given 

 year from 1540 to 1907 — and the years are plotted. Thr 

 essay shows how the history of England has been reflected 

 with clearness on university life, as evidenced by the vary- 

 ing numbers of students who came to pursue their studies 

 at Oxford and Cambridge. The graph reveals two striking 

 features : — first, both universities were in the first quarter 

 of the seventeenth century as large as they were destined 

 to be until 1850 ; secondly, the way in which the curves 

 for the two universities keep repeating each other's move- 

 ments at exactly the same dates, in most instances, and 

 very frequently to exactly the same extent, showing thai 

 similar influences were affecting both universities through- 

 out different centuries. Readers must be referred to Mr. 

 Venn's article for detailed comparisons, but an example 

 of the kind of interesting information which may br 

 gleaned from the article may be given :— in 1630 one oui 

 of every 3C00 of the male population of England and 

 Wales proceeded to either Oxford or Cambridge, but in 

 1700 the figures were one in 5600. These figures con- 

 tinued to get steadily worse until iSoi, when they read 

 one in 11,400, but at the present day they stand at one 

 in 9000. 



The Board of Education has issued (Cd. 4038) regula- 

 tions for the preliminary education of elementary-school 

 teachers in England, which will come into force from 

 .■\ugust I next. The new regulations contain various 

 alterations, and among these, as being of special import- 

 ance, may be mentioned that by which it will no longer 

 be required that candidates for pupil teachership shall pas-; 

 an examination test qualifying them for recognition by 

 the Board as pupil teachers. A prefatory memorandum to 

 the regulations points out that, since all pupil teachers 

 must pass a leaving examination, which usually falls 

 between the ages of seventeen and eighteen, it does not 

 appear to the Board desirable, upon educational grounds, 

 that they should also be called upon to pass an examina- 

 tion between the ages of fifteen and sixteen, except in so 

 far as such examination may form part of the ordinary 

 arrangements of the school at which they are being 

 educated, or may be necessary in order to facilitate the 

 proper selection of candidates. It is also satisfactory to 

 find a recognition of the principle that the teacher should 

 take a prominent part in any process of selection of suit- 

 able candidates. The Board hopes that, in view of thr 

 annually increasing proportion of candidates for pupil 

 teachership who have received their preliminary education 

 in secondary schools, it may be found possible, hencf- 

 lorward, for education authorities to base the selection 

 and approval of candidates upon the advice of the teacher-- 

 of the candidates rather than upon the results of an 

 examination. 



Bv the will of the late Dr. H. C. Sorby, F.R.S. , several 

 substantial gifts are made for scientific purposes. The 

 Sheffield Art Gallery and Museum will receive Dr. Sorby'* 

 large series of animals and marine alga, mounted as 

 lantern-slides, and forming a continuous series illustrating 

 the natural history of Kent, Essex, and Suffolk, .\mong 



