NATURE 



[July 7, 1910 



last signal of a series of reversals could be obtained with 

 sufficient strength efficiently to work the relay. 



The relay, once started, is arranged to bring in fresh 

 energy from its local battery, through a special retarding 

 circuit, to add to the strength of the quick-changing 

 currents, on its own coil, and thus the reversals are made 

 strong enough to give a record, which without this aid 

 they would have been unable to do. 



By these means weak signals are built up at the receiv- 

 ing end of the cable, and the speed of working can thus 

 be materially increased. 



It is fortunate that the class of signal that has the 

 greatest difficulty in getting through the cable is the 



F)G g.-Hisli-!pee.! Rd.iy(-ide yieiv; 

 Rtructed of quartz fibres kept in te 



wire, the whole weight of the poirjter being not more ihan 

 one or two grains. 



easiest to be added to when received. The " high-speed " 

 relay works, therefore, not from the signals received from 

 the cable only, but also from those that it transmits through 

 its own local circuit, the record that it makes being the 

 combined action of the two.' 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Dublin. — Mr. M. W. J. Fry has been appointed pro- 

 fessor of natural philosophy at Trinity College. 



Liverpool. — Mr. E. C. C. Baly, F.R.S., assistant pro- 

 fessor of cheinistry and lecturer on spectroscopy at Uni- 

 versity College, London, has been appointed Grant pro- 

 fessor of chemistry at the University of Liverpool in 

 succession to the late Prof. Campbell Brown. 



London. — Miss H. L. M. Pixell, demonstrator in zoo- 

 logy at the Bedford College for Women, has been 

 elected by the Reid trustees to a Reid fellowship, tenable 

 for two years. Miss Pixell proposes to spend some months 

 next year in Vancouver, investigating the marine fauna of 

 the Georgian Straits. 



Oxford. — Mr. R. R. Marett, secretary to the committee 

 for anthropology, has been appointed reader in social 

 anthropology. 



Mr. C. H. Manley has been elected to a Bracegirdle 

 exhibition, following on an examination in cheinistry. The 

 exhibition is tenable for three years. 



The honorary degree of Doctor of Science has been con- 

 ferred upon Sir John Murray, K.C.B., F.R.S., bv Harvard 

 University. 



A PROFESSORSHIP of Commercial geography has recently 

 been established at the E.xport-Aka'demie of the Imperia'l 

 Austrian Handelsmuseum at Vienna, and Dr. F. Hiederich 

 has been appointed the first holder of the chair. 



: of my acqnaintance lells me lh.lt 1 ought tn put thing? 

 nt arrives loo we.ik to make .t signal, but all 

 ishes to make a signal, the hint is recognised, 



1 this way. .\ fluti 

 can do is/iM/ A, hint th<t 

 nd the local battery makes 



NO. 2123, VOL. 84] 



Dr. a. C. Crawford has been appointed professor of 

 pharmacology at Stanford University, and Prof. G. H. Cox 

 has been placed in charge of the department of geology 

 and mineralogy at the Missouri School of Mines, Prof. 

 L. S. Griswold having vacated the chair of geology at 

 that institution. 



The United Services' College at Windsor possesses an 

 aviation workshop, built and furnished by Mr. P. 

 .Alexander, in wliich instruction is given in the making of 

 model aeroplanes. Hitherto the use of the workshop made 

 by the students has been voluntary, but in the next term 

 aviation is to be made a special subject of instruction. 



.An annual prize (to be known as the " Howard T. 

 Ricketts prize ") has been established at Rush Medical 

 College, of the University of Chicago, in memory of Dr. 

 H. T. Ricketts, who recently died in Mexico of typhus 

 fever while investigating that disease. The prize will be 

 awarded to the student presenting the best thesis embody- 

 ing the results of original investigation on some topic 

 relating to dermatology. 



In continuation of the successful evening courses in 

 aeronautics at the Northampton Polytechnic Institute, 

 Clerkenwell, during the session 1909-10, extended courses 

 of a more complete and practical nature are being arranged 

 for next session, and Mr. F. Handley Page has been 

 appointed to take charge of them. The institute has under 

 consideration the establishment of full-time day courses in 

 aeronautical engineering extending over four years, further 

 particulars of which will be published later. 



The model for the memorial in the Medical School of 

 Trinity College, Dublin, to the late Prof. D. J. Cunning- 

 ham, F.R.S., is now completed, and the bronze portrait 

 panel will, it is hoped, be placed in position by the time 

 of the opening of the school for the coming winter session. 

 .As it is proposed shortly to close the subscription list, i,t 

 is hoped that friends and pupils of Prof. Cunningham who 

 desire to contribute will communicate with the honorary 

 treasurer or honorary secretaries of the Cunningham 

 Memorial Fund, Trinity College, at an early date. 



The Essex Education Committee has arranged for a 

 twelve days' visit (ranging from July 14 to 26) of agri- 

 culturists and horticulturists to Ireland. The programme 

 is a comprehensive one, and will afford the party oppor- 

 tunities of seeing the organisation and practice of agri- 

 culture and horticulture on farms and holdings varying in 

 size from four or five up to three hundred and fifty acres ; 

 also of studying the schemes of instruction and agricultural 

 institutions of the Department of Agriculture, the work of 

 the Congested Districts Board, and the Irish .Agricultural 

 Organisation Society. This is the first time the Essex 

 Education Committee has organised a visit to Ireland, but 

 successful tours in Deninark, Holland, Hungary, and Scot- 

 land have been undertaken under its auspices in recent 

 years. 



The Secretary of State for the Colonies has selected 

 Dr. Joseph Pearson as director of the museum at Colombo, 

 Ceylon, in succession to Dr. Arthur Willey, now appointed 

 professor of zoology at McGill University, Montreal. Dr. 

 Pearson has for some years held the post of chief demon- 

 strator and assistant lecturer in the zoological department 

 of the University of Liverpool, and previous to that he 

 had held appointments on the zoological staffs at Cardiff 

 and at Belfast. His original work has been chiefly in 

 marine biology, including several reports upon Holo- 

 thuroidea of tropical seas, and an exhaustive memoir upon 

 Cancer, the edible crab. Dr. Pearson's removal has 

 created a vacancy in the zoological staff at the University 

 of Liverpool which will be filled by the appointment of 

 Mr. R. Douglas Laurie as senior demonstrator and assistant 

 lecturer, while Dr. W. J. Dakin will join the staff as 

 second demonstrator. 



E.\RLY in the present .year University College, Reading, 

 appointed a deputation to visit certain universities of 

 Canada and of the United States with the object of in- 

 vestigating methods of agricultural education and research, 

 and also other aspects of university development. The 

 deputation left England on May 6, and was absent six 

 weeks. The tour included the McGill University at 

 Montreal, the Macdonald College, St. .Anne de Belle Vue, 



