February i8, 1909] 



NA TURE 



477 



undergoing change. The time-element in the earth's 

 magnetism, even for a period of a few years, is of such 

 moment as completely to mask the fine, hair-splitting 

 points which would necessarily and rightly have to be 

 raised on some international mode of action, to say 

 nothing of the painful and cumbersome method which 

 would have to be employed to conform with the rules 

 of official correspondence between nations. Many a well 

 and carefully executed magnetic survey in the past has 

 had its full importance for world-wide investigation 

 destroyed because of the possitlity of error in the secular 

 variation corrections which must be applied to bring its 

 results up to the date of the later data. 



The course pursued by the Carnegie Institution of 

 Washington in conducting the general magnetic survey of 

 the globe is the only way in which this particular project, 

 and similar ones to it, could not only be expeditiously 

 conducted, but also realise the chief objects of the work. 

 This policy, briefly stated, is to make, with the aid of the 

 friendly and harmonious cooperation of all concerned, a 

 rapidly executed magnetic survey of the greater part of 

 the globe, so that a general survey, all-sufficient for the 

 solution of some of the great and world-wide problems of 

 the earth's magnetism, will be completed within a period 

 of ten to fifteen years. At a smaller number of points, 

 selected in consideration of the prime questions at issue, 

 the observations are to be repeated at intervals of five 

 years or less, in order to supplement the rather sparsely 

 distributed magnetic observatory data. Thus the deter- 

 mination of the corrections for reduction of the general 

 work to any specific date is continuously provided for. 



The most evident result of all magnetic work in the past 

 is that, for the purposes of a general survey, it is far 

 better to make some sacrifice in accuracy if thereby it is 

 made possible to secure observations at another point. 

 In other words, the errors due to local disturbing conditions 

 are far greater than the purely observational ones. Hence 

 multiplicity of stations rather than extreme accuracy and 

 laborious methods of observation and reduction is the prime 

 requisite. 



vsivERsiry and educational 



INTELLIGENCE. 



Campridge. — The general board of studies has approved 

 Prof. E. C. Stirling, F.R.S., and Prof. W. Ridgeway, 

 Disnev professor of archaeology, for the degree of Doctor 

 in Science. 



The council of the Senate has appointed Prof. Biffen 

 as a representative member of the John Innes Horticultural 

 Institution for four years from February 8. 



O.XFORD. — The vacancy in the VVaynflete professorship of 

 mineralogy at Oxford has been filled by the appointment 

 of Mr. H. L. Bowman, of New College, who for many 

 years acted as demonstrator under Prof. H. A. Miers. 



On Friday, February 12, the hundredth anniversary of 

 the birth of Charles Darwin was celebrated at Oxford by 

 a reception given in the examination schools by Profs. 

 Vines, Poulton, and Bourne. The proceedings were opened 

 by the Dean of Christ Church, acting for the Vice- 

 Chancellor, who was unavoidably absent. In the course of 

 an interesting address on fifty years of Darwinism, Prof. 

 Poulton spoke of the various influences which had mouUled 

 Darwin's career, dwelling especially on his early friend- 

 ship with Henslow, to whom was due what proved to be 

 the turning point in Darwin's life — his appointment as 

 naturalist to the Beagle. The support and encouragement 

 given to Darwin by Lyell, Hooker, and Asa Gray, and 

 the vigorous championship of Huxley, were passed in 

 review, special mention being also made of the chivalrous 

 conduct of Wallace in seeking to minimise his own claims 

 as joint discoverer of the principle of natural selection. 

 The famous contest at the meeting of the British .'\ssocia- 

 tion at Oxford in i860 was touched upon, and the lecturer 

 took occasion to contrast the matured views which, after 

 being tested during twenty years of reflection and investiga- 

 tion, at last found expression in the publication of the 

 " Origin of Species," with the hasty and ill-informed 



XO. 2051, VOL. 79] 



impressions of Darwin's early <,ritics. Much of the rapid 

 success of Darwin's theory in gaining acceptance at the 

 hands of the scientific world was due to the personality 

 of its author, whose noble qualities of mind and charactei 

 were shown alike in his dealings with opponents, with 

 friends, and with younger workers in his own subjects. 

 .'Ml this work was accomplished in spite of constant bodily 

 exhaustion from ill-health, to which cause the lecturer was 

 inclined to attribute the lack of appreciation of literature 

 and music in later life, which Darwin himself recognised 

 and deplored. No upheaval in the realms of human 

 thought had carried with it more of immediate pathos and 

 of ultimate triumph than the doctrine of organic evolution, 

 now and always to be associated, first and foremost, with 

 the name of' Charles Darwin. Among the assembly on 

 Friday were four of Darwin's sons, Mr. William Darwin, 

 Sir George Darwin, Mr. Francis Darwin, and Major 

 Leonard Darwin. Sir George and Mr. F. Darwin briefly 

 addressed the meeting, confirming the account given by 

 Prof. Poulton of their father's genius and character. In 

 the course of the evening a telegram was received convey- 

 ing " the greetings of Cambridge zoologists, assembled in 

 Darwin's old rooms, to their Oxford colleagues." 



Dr. O. V. Dakbishire has resigned his lectureship in 

 botany at the University of Manchester. 



Prof. Henry A. Miers, F.R.S., principal of the Uni- 

 versity of London, will present prizes and certificates to 

 students at the South-\^'estern Polytechnic Institute, 

 Chelsea, S.W., on March 12. 



The eleventh annual dinner of the Central Technical 

 College Old Students' .Association will be held on Satur- 

 day, February 20, at the Trocadero. Dr. H. T. Bovey, 

 F.R.S., Rector of the Imperial College of Science and 

 Technology, will be one of the chief guests. 



BowDOiN College, at Brunswick, Maine, U.S., has 

 recently received funds amounting to something more than 

 100,000/., given by a former student at the college, Mr. 

 Joseph Edward Merrill, a business man of Boston. A few 

 weeks before his death in January Mr. Merrill transferred 

 a large part of his property to the college, and bequeathed 

 practicallv all the rest of liis estate to the same institution 

 by his will. Bowdoin College, it may be remembered, was 

 the alma mater of Nathaniel Hawthorne, of Henry W. 

 Longfellow, of President Franklin Pierce, of the late 

 Speaker Thomas B. Reed, and of the present Chief Justice 

 of the United States, Melville W. Fuller. 



A Bill has been introduced in the Wisconsin Legislature, 

 says Science, which proposes to increase the building fund 

 of' the University of Wisconsin from 40,000!. to 60,000/. 

 annually, and to' lengthen the period of this appropriation 

 from five to seven years. From the same source we learn 

 that a new industrial fellowship has been presented to the 

 University of Kansas by the Holophane Glass Co. It 

 Yields 300/. a vear for two years, together with 10 per cent, 

 of the profits that may arise from any discoveries made by 

 the student who pursues special study. The fellowship is 

 open to students of any university, but the work will be 

 done in the laboratories of the University of Kansas. 



.•\ represent.wivs selection from the exhibits in the 

 British Education Section of the Franco-British Exhibition 

 held last vear at Shepherd's Bush, London, has been on 

 view at the Belfast Municipal Technical Institute during 

 the past three weeks, .'\dmission was free, and to explain 

 the purport of the exhibition a series of explanatory 

 addresses bv educational experts was arranged. The 

 Belfast Library and Technical Instruction Committee is to 

 be congratulated upon securing the loan of these instructive 

 exhibits from the various education authorities concerned, 

 and it is satisfactory to know that the illustrative speci- 

 mens, collected at the expenditure of much time and trouble 

 by the authorities of the Franco-British Exhibition, arc 

 being placed at the disposal of the great educational 

 institutions in our chief centres of population. 



