54 NATURE 
[MarcH IT, 1915 

WE have received from the University Press of 
Liverpool a copy of a report of the Senate of the 
University upon research and other original work 
by members of the University published or completed 
during the session 1913-14. The titles of papers and 
other publications are arranged under faculties and 
numbered consecutively, those published during the 
session being placed first. The abbreviations adopted 
in the titles of scientific periodicals are those used in 
the * International Catalogue of Scientific Literature.”’ 
At a meeting heid in New York, on January 27, 
in connection with the inauguration of the Engineer- 
ing Foundation, it was announced, says Science, that 
the initial gift had been made by Mr. Ambrose 
Swasey, past-president of the American Society of 
Mechanical Engineers, who has given 40,oo0cl. for 
“the advancement of the engineering arts and sciences 
in all their branches to the greatest good of the 
engineering profession and for the benefit of mankind.” 
The administration of the fund will be entrusted to 
the Engineering Foundation Board, elected by the 
trustees of the United Engineering Society. From 
the same issue of our contemporary we learn that the 
sum of 8oo0ol. has been given by Mr. Andrew Carnegie 
to Allegheny College for a chemical laboratory to 
replace that recently destroyed by fire; and that Mr. 
Patten, who has already given 100,000l. to the medical 
school of Northwestern University, has now added 
54001. for scholarships. 
Tue Department of Agriculture and Technical In- 
struction for Ireland has issued particulars of the 
summer courses of instruction for teachers to be held 
this year in Ireland. The courses, with the excep- 
tion of that in rural science for national school 
teachers to be held in August, will begin on July 6 and 
close on July 30. Among the courses arranged may 
be mentioned that on chemical manufactures intended 
for teachers of chemistry in technical schools who 
hold a university degree in chemistry or equivalent 
qualification; and those on the testing and working 
of electrical machines, practical mathematics and 
mechanics, hygiene and sick nursing, experimental 
science, and rural science (including school garden- 
ing). Teachers who attend the courses from the be- 
ginning to _the end are allowed a sum of 3. tos. 
towards their expenses while living at the centre; and 
those who travel more than twenty miles to the centre 
of instruction are allowed, in addition, third-class rail- 
way fare for one return journey from the railway 
station nearest their school. 
Tue metallurgy laboratory for the mechanical testing 
of metals and alloys, presented to the Sir John Cass 
Technical Institute by the Worshipful Company of 
Goldsmiths, was formally opened by Sir Boverton 
Redwood, Senior Warden of the Goldsmiths’ Com- 
pany, on March 3, in the unavoidable absence owing 
to illness of Sir Robert Mowbray, Prime Warden of 
the company. The work of this new laboratory, 
which will form an important extension of the metall- 
urgy department of the institute, will be carried on 
from the metallurgical rather than from the engineer- 
ing point of view, and will be closely related to the 
instruction already provided in connection with the 
metallographic and pyrometric examination of metals 
and alloys, including iron and steel and the materials 
used in the motor-car industry and in the construction 
of aeroplanes, high-speed machinery, and the like. 
Previous to the opening of the laboratory, Sir Bover- 
ton Redwood distributed the prizes gained by students 
of the institute during the past session, and delivered 
an address, the chair being taken by Sir Thomas 
Elliott, who has succeeded the late Sir Owen Roberts 
NO. 2367, VOL. 95]| 
as chairman of the governing body. In speaking of 
the work of the institute, Sir Boverton Redwood said 
that such work as is being done was never more 
needed than at the present time. Among other 
things which the war has done for us, it has shown 
us that there must be a much more intimate relation 
between science and industry in this country; and it 
is to be hoped that the students will avail themselves 
to the fullest possible extent of the facilities which the 
institute affords them of becoming better qualified to 
discharge the duties with which they will be en- 
trusted. If one result of the war is to bring about a 
better recognition of what is needed in this direction 
we shall have some compensation for the sacrifices 
which we are making. In referring to the courses on 
fuel and power, arranged at the institute, Sir Bover- 
ton pointed out the all-important part that is now 
being played by liquid fuel both in the Navy and on 
the field of battle on land, especially in connection 
with the ‘‘all-oil boilers’ now in use on the battleships 
of the Queen Elizabeth class, all of which are driven 
solely by oil fuel. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
LONDON. 
Geological Society, February 19.—Annual General 
Meeting.—Dr. A. Smith Woodward, president, in the 
chair.—Dr. A. Smith Woodward; Presidential Address. 
The progress of geology depends on so many lines 
| of research, that each specialist does well at times to 
pause and consider the relation of his own small part 
to the whole. The president therefore reviewed some 
results of his study of fossil fishes in their bearing on 
stratigraphy. However necessary detailed lists of 
species of fossils might be for comparative worl: 
with sediments in restricted areas, he hoped to show 
that in dealing with broader questions names were 
really of small importance. Certain general principles 
had been arrived at, which would serve for all prac- 
tical purposes. Each successive great group of fishes 
began with free-swimming fusiform animals, of which 
some passed quickly into slow-moving or grovelling 
types, while others changed more gradually into 
elongated or eel-shaped types. There was also a con- 
stant tendency for the primitive symmetry of the parts 
of the skeleton in successive members of a group to 
become marred by various more or less irregular 
fusions, subdivisions, and suppressions. Some of the 
successive species of each group increased in size, 
until the maximum was reached just before the time 
for extinction. These and many other more special 
inevitable changes had now been traced in most 
groups, and the various geological dates at which 
they occurred had been determined by observations 
on fossil fishes from many parts of the world. Even 
fragments of fish-skeletons, too imperfect to be named, 


were often therefore of value for stratigraphical 
purposes. 
Royal Anthropological Institute, February 23.—C. 
Dawson ; Flint implement cultures of the Sussex Ouse 
Valley, with special reference to the Piltdown gravel- 
spreads and deposits. Among the exhibits were 
originals and casts of the rude iron-stained Palaeolithic 
implements discovered at Piltdown. They are really 
large flakes worked on one face, rather after the 
Chellean culture. The other face is unworked, like 
those from the Mousterian cultures. The large 
elephant-bone implement trimmed to a point like a 
stake at one end, and roughly rounded by cuts at the 
other end, was exhibited. By comparison it is found 
that this implement is made from one of the thigh- 
| bones of a large species of elephant not yet discovered 

