442 



NA TURE 



[March 13, 1902 



notably in 1S95 by the addition of the Schorlemmer labor- 

 atory ; theenRineerinj* laboratory was opened in 1887 and 

 has been greatly enlarged since ; the large Beyer biological 

 laboratories and the museum buildings were completed 

 in the same year ; the medical school was extended in 

 1883 and doubled in size in 1894 ; the Christie library 

 was opened in 1S9S, the new physical laboratories (on a 

 separate site) in igoo. 



The Prince of Wales inaugurated the jubilee cere- 

 monies of the College yesterday by opening the noble 

 Whitworth Hall, which completes the large quadrangle of 

 the College It will be remembered that the late Sir 

 Joseph Whitworth left the bulk of his fortune to Lady 

 Whitworth, Mr. R. C. Christie and Mr. R. D. Darbishire, 

 with absolute discretion as to the disposal of the money ; 

 of this more than 120,000/. has been given to Owens 

 College by the legatees, jointly or severally. The late Mr. 

 Christie, himself for many years a professor at Owens, 

 after presenting the College with a beautiful library 

 building from his private purse, gave in 1897 the residue 

 of his share of the Whitworth bequest, amounting to 

 about 50,000/., for the building of a college hall, to be 

 named after Whitworth. This hall, designed like the 

 rest of the main buildings of the College by Messrs. 

 Waterhouse and -Son, is in the Gothic style, and is 

 120 feet long and 50 feet wide. It has a beautiful and 

 elaborate high-pitched oak roof, of which the apex is 

 56 feet from the tioor. The principals are supported on 

 columns of granite. The sides of the hall arc of polished 

 stone with a panelling of polished oak. At the north end 

 is an organ (the gift of Mrs. Rylands), encased in a fine 

 screen of carved oak, and on a level with the organ loft, 

 and adjoining it, are galleries for a choir. Immediately 

 in front of the organ is a dais, a few feet above the level 

 of the floor. The hall is lighted by a series of stained 

 glass windows on either side, and by a great window, in 

 the perpendicular style, at the south end, in which the 

 arms of the founder of the College and its chief bene- 

 factors have been inserted. The floor slopes slightly up- 

 wards from north to south, and at the extreme end of 

 the hall there is a raised platform so that all can see 

 the north dais. Two small galleries are placed across 

 the south corners of the hall, each adjoined by a short 

 lateral gallery. The hall itself seats between nine 

 hundred and a thousand persons. It forms the first story 

 of the Whitworth building, of which the basement con- 

 tains smaller rooms, destined for university offices, &c. 

 There are exits into the museum and library, and 

 also three exits on to Oxford Street and Burlington 

 Street. 



The order for the proceedings for the jubilee was as 

 follows : — 



Wednesday, March 12, 11.30, commemoration of the 

 foundation of the College and opening of the Whitworth 

 Hall, by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales (accompanied by 

 H.R.H. the Princess of Wales); 2.15, luncheon at the 

 Town Hall by invitation of the Lord Mayor of Man- 

 chester, and at the College by invitation of the College 

 authorities ; 8.30, reception at the College, by the 

 president, the Duke of Devonshire, K.G., and 

 council. 



Thursday, March 13, ii.o, presentation of addresses 

 of congratulation from universities and learned societies 

 in the Whitworth Hall and conferring of honorary 

 degrees by the chancellor of the Victoria University, 

 Earl Spencer, K.G.; 7.30, dinner given by the College 

 to delegates and to the governor and staff of the 

 College. 



Representatives from a number of foreign and colonial 

 universities and learned societies arranged to be present, 

 among them being the following : — Foreign universities 

 and societies : Paris, Prof .'X. Espinas ; Lille, Prof. A. 

 Angellier ; Academie des Sciences (Institut de France), 

 Prof. H. Hccquerel ; Munich, Prof. Hermann Breymann 



NO. 1689, VOL. 65] 



and Prof. K. lloebel ; Gottingen, Prof. Walther Nernst ; 

 Gottingen (Royal .\cademy of Sciences), Prof. Voigt ; 

 Lund, Mr. Vice-Consul H. Ehrenborg ; Geneva, Prof. 

 Chodat ; California, Prof. F. Slate ; Western Reserve 

 (Ohio), Prof. H. E. Bourne ; Zurich Polytechnic, Dr. E. 

 Knecht. Indian, Colonial universities and learned 

 societies : McClill (Montreal), Lord Strathcona, (}.C.M.G. 

 (High Commissioner for Canada); Calcutta, Dr. William 

 liooth ; Bombay, Sir J. Jardine, K.C.I.E. ; Madras, 

 Mr. J. B. Bilderbeck ; Cape of Good Hope, Mr. T. E. 

 Fuller (Agent-General for Cape Colony) ; Adelaide, Prof 

 Hudson Beare. In addition delegates were sent by the 

 universities of the United Kingdom, university colleges, 

 and most of the learned societies. 



It may be mentioned that at the opening of the 

 College among the members of the staff, which cpnsisted 

 of a principal, four other professors and two teachers, were 

 .Archibald Sandenian, professor of mathematics ; Dr. 

 Edward Frankland, professor of chemistry ; and W. C. 

 Williamson, professor of natural history, botany and 

 geology. There were sixty-two students in the first 

 session. The statf now consists of the principal. Dr. 

 Alfred Hopkinson, and thirty-one other professors and 

 eighty lecturers and assistant lecturers ; and the College 

 has between a thousand and eleven hundred students 

 in its various departments of arts, science, law and 

 medicine. 



NOTES. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death of Prof. 

 Maxwell Simpson, F.R.S., formerly professor of chemistry in 

 Queen's College, Cork, at the age of eighty-seven ; and also of 

 Mr. Bryan Donkin, a vice-president of the Institution of 

 Mechanical Engineers, at the age of sixty-seven. 



Prof. J. Kuehn, professor of agriculture in the University 

 of Halle, has been elected a correspondant of the Paris Academy 

 of Sciences, in the section of rural economy. 



The Racult memorial lecture of the Chemical Society will be 

 delivered by Prof van 't Hoff on Wednesday, March 26, in the 

 lecture theatre of the Royal Institution. The annual general 

 meeting of the Society will be held on the afternoon of the 

 same day. 



An interesting Easter excursion to the Gower Peninsula, 

 South Wales, has been arranged by the Geologists' Association. 

 The party will leave London on Thursday, March 27, and will 

 return on Wednesday, April 2. The district is rich in fine rock 

 scenery, instructive exposures and cliff sections, and splendid 

 views, so that those who are able to take part in the excursion 

 may be assured of a pleasant holiday. 



The Paris Natural History Museum celebrated on Sunday last 

 the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the first scientific 

 memoirs of one of the most distinguished members of its staff, 

 M. Albert Gaudry. He was honoured, says the Paris correspond- 

 ent of the Times, as one of the most eminent evolutionists in 

 France, in many respects a precursor of Darwin. It is he, in 

 the words of M. Edmond Perrier, the director of the museum, 

 who has virtually emancipated palceontology from the swaddling 

 clothes in which its mother science, comparative anatomy, had 

 endeavoured so long lo keep it. 



Prof. Mei.doi.a's address on the coming of age of the Essex 

 Field Club, which will be given at the twenty-second annual 

 meeting, to be held in the Essex Museum, Stratford, on Saturday, 

 March 22, should be worth the attention of those interested in 

 naturalists' societiesordesiring to encourage their eflorts. A care- 

 fully digested record of the /oca/ scientific work carried on by the 



