December 12, 1901] 



NA TURE 



'39 



PosHion of the Six Largest Colour Works in Germany in Year 1900. 



branches of knowledge. It has reacted with beneficial effect 

 upon the universities, and has tended to promote scientific 

 thought throughout the land. By its demonstration of the 

 practical importance of purely theoretical conceptions it has 

 had a far-reaching eftect on the intellectual life of the nation. 

 How much such a scientific revival is wanted in our country the 

 social and economic history of the past ten years abundantly 

 testifies. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge;. — An interesting ceremony took place on Saturday 

 last, when a portrait of Prof. G. D. Liveing, painted by Sir 

 John Reid, president of the Royal Scottish Academy, was pre- 

 sented to St. John's College as a mark of recognition of Prof. 

 Liveing's services to science. The portrait was provided by 

 subscription, and the funds obtained will also enable a bronze 

 bust of Prof Liveing to be placed in the Chemical Laboratory 

 at Cambridge. The \'ice-Chancellor (Dr. Ward, Master 

 of Peterhouse) presided at the meeting of subscribers, and the 

 attendance included the Lord Lieutenant, Sir John Gorst, Sir 

 Richard Jebb, the Masters of Trinity, St. John's, Clare, Jesus, 

 Christ's, and Downing, Profs Sir George Stokes, E. C. Clark, 

 J. Dewar, W. J. Lewis, A. R. Forsyth, J. Westlake, J. J. 

 "Thomson, J. A. Ewing, W. W. Skeat and J. S. Reid, besides 

 many other resident members of the Senate. 



Principal RCcker, F.R.S., will distribute the prizes and 

 certificates to students of the South-Western Polytechnic, 

 Chelsea, to-morrow evening, December 13. The chair will 

 be taken by Mr. Sidney Webb. 



Prof. Edgar Crookshank, who lately resigned the active 

 duties of the chair of comparative pathology and bacteriology in 

 King's College, London, which he occupied for fifteen years, 

 has had the title of Emeritus Professor conferred upon him 

 by the Council in consideration of his long and brilliant 

 services. 



The St. Petersburg correspondent of the Times states that 

 the Minister of Public Instruction has made a decree expelling 

 all the first-year students at the Kharkoff Veterinary Institute for 

 insulting the professor of chemistry at that college. The reason 

 for this action on the part of the Minister is the fact that on 

 November 28 the first-year students sent a signed request to the 

 professor of chemistry that he should resign his chair on the | 

 ground that his teaching was unsystematic and obscure. The 

 decree adds that the professorial staff were agreed that the 

 charge against their colleague was without foundation. 



The British Medical Journal states that the municipality 

 of Hamburg has adopted a scheme by which all the scientific 

 institutions of the city are to be grouped together into a univer- 

 sity. The directors of these institutes and the lecturers, who 

 have the title of professors, will form the professorial college, 



NO. 1676, VOL. 65] 



which every year will elect its own president. It will also be 

 the duty of the college every year to draw up a programme of 

 lectures and practical courses. The programme for the cur- 

 rent winter semester includes courses by 117 lecturers. This ■■ 

 movement is a step towards the foundation of a fully-equipped 

 university in Hamburg, a project which has long been under 

 consideration. 



After a meeting of the U.S. Cabinet on Tuesday it was 



, stated that the President had received a communication from 



Mr. Carnegie on the subject of the creation of a fund for the 



I extension of higher education. The amount said to have been 



offered is ten million dollars. It is understood (says the Times 



correspondent at Washington) that the proposal does not involve 



the establishment of university buildings at Washington, but 



that it is intended rather to place a fund in the hands of 



Government trustees, from which the expenses of deserving 



students may be paid for the encouragement of original research 



at home or abroad. It is believed that the proposal has not yet 



taken concrete form, except as regards its general terms and the 



I amount of the gift. The President will consult with members 



of Congress with regard to the proposed gift before making its 



terms public. 



Mr. Hanbury, President of the Board of Agriculture, dis- 

 tributed the prizes at the Derby Municipal Technical College last 

 week, and gave an address upon some aspects of technical edu- 

 cation. In the course of his address he remarked that he believed 

 that partly where the United States and Germany had the ad- 

 vantage of England was not in the technical education of their 

 working classes, but among the great leaders of commerce and 

 industry. Commercial education must spread from the top to 

 the bottom. They wanted to have commercial instincts and 

 business capacity instilled into Iheirleading commercial men, even 

 up to the universities themselves. England was far behind America 

 in that respect. Twenty years ago there was only one college 

 of the kind to which he referred in the States, and that was 

 in Pennsylvania ; now there were at least nine or ten univer- 

 sities in the Union which were giving that commercial education 

 to the leaders of the country's commerce and industry. It was, 

 unfortunately, the fact that they were lacking in a good system 

 of secondary education. He hoped something would be done 

 in the matter in the next session of Parliament. The foundation 

 for the work of technical schools was a good, sound education, 

 which could only be obtained in the secondary schools. This 

 was the reason why at the present moment they did not find in 

 technical schools those advanced students and day scholars 

 which he hoped, under the new system, they would find flocking 

 into them. 



The movement in favour of reformed methods of mathe- 

 matical teaching can be assisted by discussions at provincial 

 scientific societies and university centres. A discussion of this 

 kind took place at the meeting of the Royal Glasgow Philo- 

 sophical Society, held on December 6, Prof. Gray being in the 

 chair, when the subject of the teaching of mathematics to en- 

 gineers was opened by Prof. Barr. It was remarked by him that 

 the engineer uses mathematics as a tool, and it is not essential 

 for the man who uses tools to manufacture them. He did 



