January 30, 1902] 



NATURE 



301 



of 30,000/. free (in the latter case) of legacy duty, on 

 condition that the college becomes incorporated in the 

 University on terms similar to those on which the gift of 

 the Drapers' Company has been made, and satisfactory 

 to Sir Michael Foster and two other persons to be named 

 hereafter. 



The Senate of the University has decided to devote 

 the grant of 10,000/. by the London Technical Education 

 Board to the following objects, subject to the approval of 

 the Board and to the result of negotiations with the 

 various institutions interested : — 



(i) To found two professorships and two assistantships 

 in chemistry ; (2) to organise the teaching of German in 

 London by appointing two professors and three readers. 

 The classes will be held at the colleges and polytechnics, 

 but the fees will be paid into a central fund, and the 

 whole staff will be under the direction of the University ; 

 (3) to make grants of 1425/. and 1000/. a year respec- 

 tively to two institutions in aid of the faculty of en- 

 gineering ; (4) to appoint and pay the regular staff of 

 teachers in the London School of Economics ; (5) to 

 reserve 800/. a year pending negotiations with the 

 London County Council as to the establishment of a day 

 training college. 



A scheme lor establishing advanced courses of study 

 on physiology in the Univq^sity buildings has been ap- 

 proved by the Senate, and 400/. has been voted to meet 

 the donation of 2000/ by Mr. Walter Palmer. 



From the British Medical Journal we learn that each 

 course will consist of not less than eight lectures, or will 

 extend over at least eight weeks, and attendance will be 

 open without fee to students of the University and to 

 other persons approved by the principal. It is recog- 

 nised to be essential to the success of such lectures that 

 they should immediately proceed from laboratory work, 

 and be in a large measure demonstrative of current 

 research. It is, therefore, necessary that the University 

 lecture-room should be supplied by preparations and 

 work-rooms in which current research will be actually 

 prosecuted. It is hoped that from the outset the Uni- 

 versity lecturers and other physiologists may be able to 

 prosecute research in these accessory rooms, and it is 

 strongly felt that official recognition and provision for 

 research is in several ways essential to success, first, as a 

 corrective of a purely verbal and didactic type of lecture, 

 and secondly, as being calculated to stimulate the intel- 

 lectual interest of University lecturers and other students. 

 Further, the working of the scheme will afford at a re- 

 latively small cost evidence on the point whether a larger 

 scheme for the establishment of a central institute of 

 physiology and e.xperimental psychology will be prac- 

 ticable in the future. 



It is proposed that the list of annual courses of lectures 

 shall be prepared and advertised during the preceding 

 year, and candidates for the honours school in physiology 

 will be permitted to nominate any two subjects on the 

 published list for the special practical examination. The 

 provisional arrangements are as follows : — 



The first course, to begin in May, will be given by Dr. 

 Leonard Hill, F.R.S., on the circulation. Dr. A. D. 

 Waller, F. R.S., will give a double course, on (<() signs of life, 

 {b) animal electricity. Prof. E. H. Starling, F.R.S., will 

 begin a course, on the sources of animal energies, in 

 October, and Dr. M. S. Pembrey a double course on («) 

 heat, {b) respiration. 



The arrangements for 1903 are provisionally as 

 follows :— January, Prof W. D. Halliburton, F.R.S., on 

 proteids, and Prof. W. M. MacDougall, on sense organs ; 

 May, Dr. G. A. Buckmaster, on the blood ; and Prof J. 

 Bretland Farmer, F.R.S., on vegetable cytology ; in 

 October, Dr. F. W. Mott, F.R.S., on the central nervous 

 system, and Prof W. R. Dunstan, F.R.S., on a subject 

 not yet announced. 



NO. 1683, VOL. 65] 



NO TES. 



The determination of the fundamental unit of electrical 

 resistance by the late Principal Viriamu Jones ranks among the 

 most important of such determinations, and justly acquired for 

 him a foremost position among physicists. This determination 

 was carried out by means of a modification of the Lorenz method • 

 and a machine for the purpose, on which he spent 400/., was 

 erected by Principal Jones at the University College at Cardiff. 

 He was, however, of opinion that improvement was possible, 

 and accordingly the Drapers' Company, in 1898, in recognition 

 of his signal services both to science and to education, voted to 

 him the sum of 700/. for the construction of more perfect ap- 

 paratus. This apparatus he proposed ultimately to set up at 

 the National Physical Laboratory, where preparation had been 

 made to receive it. His illness and death prevented the realisa- 

 tion of these hopes, but the Drapers' Company have, with great 

 generosity, and with a view of showing their appreciation of 

 his merits, confirmed their vote and announced their intention 

 of putting the sum of 700/. at the disposal of the committee of 

 the Laboratory for the complete equipment of a Lorenz ap- 

 paratus as a memorial to Principal Jones. The apparatus is 

 to be erected under the supervision of Prof. Ayrton, F. R.S., 

 and the director. This valuable gift has been accepted by 

 the committee of the Laboratory; a tablet will be affixed to 

 the apparatus stating that it was presented by the Drapers' 

 Company in memory of Principal Viriamu Jones and in recog- 

 nition of his great scientific attainments. 



The annual meeting of the Institution of Naval Architects 

 will be held on Wednesday, March 19, and the two following days- 

 The Earl of Glasgow, president, will occupy the chair. On 

 behalf of the members of the Institution, the council has 

 accepted an invitation to take part in the summer meeting of 

 the Schilf bau Technische Gesellschaft, which is to be held in 

 Diisseldorf on June 2. There will be no regular summer 

 meeting of the Institution this year. 



We much regret to see the announcement of the death of 

 Mr. A. W. Bennett, lecturer on botany at St. Thomas's Hos- 

 pital, and the author of a number of books and papers on 

 botanical subjects. Mr. Bennett was for several years the sub- 

 editor of Nature, and was an occasional contributor to these 

 columns up to the time of his death, on January 23. He was 

 sixty-eight years of age. 



A memorial tablet is about to be placed in Harpenden 

 Parish Church bearing the folio wing inscription : — "In affectionate 

 memory of Sir John Bennet Lawes, Bart., F.R.S., born at 

 Rothamsted, December 28, 1S14, died at Rothamsted, 

 August 31, 1900. He used his long life and his great know- 

 ledge and experience as an agricultural chemist, and as a 

 practical and scientific farmer, in the pursuit of truth, and 

 for the benefit of his fellow men in his own country and in 

 all parts of the world. This tablet is erected by the parish- 

 ioners of Harpenden and others who deeply feel his loss as an 

 example and friend." 



The Wellington correspondent of the Times states that at a 

 public dinner given to the officers and men of the Discovery 

 by the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury and the citizens of 

 Christchurch, a number of interesting speeches were made. 

 Captain Scott, who was loudly cheered, replying to the toast of 

 " The Discovery Antarctic Expedition," said it was their inten- 

 tion to pass down the 175th meridian a little to the eastward of 

 New Zealand. Then they hoped to pass down the east coast 

 of Victoria Land, leaving records of what they had done. 

 These records could be picked up by any relief expedition that 

 might follow them. Next they would go to the south of 



