Marcu 25, 1915 | 
NATURE 
109 

geological chronology its. value is at present only 
potential. The radium method of evaluating geo- 
logical time seems to offer more immediate promise. 
In conclusion, it is pleasant to note how these appli- 
cations of chemistry, astronomy, and meteorology, not 
merely to general principles of geology but to a 
definite geological problem, emphasise the fundamental 
unity of the sciences, and illustrate the powerful aid 
that may be rendered by one to another. 

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
Dr. H. Roy Dean, professor of pathology in the 
University of Sheffield since 1912, has been appointed 
to the chair of pathology and pathological anatomy 
in the University of Manchester. 
Dr. Apa E. MILLER has been appointed lecturer on 
school hygiene by the Edinburgh Provincial Committee 
for the Training of Teachers, in succession to Dr. I. 
Douglas Cameron, who has resigned. 
Ir is stated in Science that the committee on educa- 
tion of the United States House of Representatives 
has reported favourably a Bill establishing a National 
University in Washington. According to the Bill an 
initial grant of 100,000l. would be made. The univer- 
sity would be devoted to research and graduate work 
and no degrees would be conferred. 
A RevutER message from Delhi reports that on 
March 22 Sir Harcourt Butler introduced in the Im- 
perial Legislative Council a Bill for constituting a 
teaching and residential university at Benares, with 
special facilities for instruction in the Hindu religion. 
He referred to the scheme as the commencement of 
a new era in university organisation in India. 
Dr. ALEX. HILL, principal of the Hartley University 
College, Southampton, is reported by the Times to 
have said in an address on Monday that he had re- 
cently been preparing a war-roll of the Empire univer- 
sities, and had found that the average contribution 
in men from universities and university colleges was 
just above 50 per cent. He added :—‘‘It is a sur- 
prising fact that the contribution of German universi- 
ties to the forces of the German Empire in the field 
is less than 20 per cent.’”’ This statement as to 
German university students is not, however, correct, 
judging from the statistics we gave last week (p. 81). 
Seventy-five per cent. of the students of German 
universities are in the field, and about 80 per cent. of 
the students of the Technical High Schools are also 
on active service. 
Str Putitip MacGnus retires, we understand, to-day 
from his official connection with the City and Guilds 
of London Institute. It is now no fewer than thirty- 
five years ago since he was appcinted organising 
director and secretary of the institute, a post which 
he held for eight years, during which he was respon- 
sible for the initiation of the institute’s work and for 
the schemes of the Finsbury College and Central Tech- 
nical College, which have since developed so success- 
fully. In 1888 his activities were transferred to the 
examinations department, or, as it is now known, the 
department of technology of the institute, where they 
found a wider field in assisting and guiding the de- 
velopment of technical instruction all over the country. 
The ability of his organising powers is sufficiently 
evidenced by the manner in which the department, 
without any assistance from Government and without 
NO. 2369, VOL. 95] 

the power of the purse possessed by a department of 
State, has made the name of the City and Guilds of 
London Institute known to technical schools all over 
the British Isles, and, indeed, in the Dominions beyond 
the Seas. To the work of Sir Philip Magnus in the 
office which he is vacating, his careful insistence on 
the necessity of making technical instruction a true 
education -in principles, his continual study of the 
best means of adapting courses to the needs of students 
and manufacturers alike, and his unceasing endeavours 
to raise the standard of teaching, the progress of tech- 
nical education in this country is greatly indebted. 
THE first annual report, for the period ended Decem- 
ber 31, 1914, submitted by the executive committee 
tothe trustees of the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust 
has now been published. Mr. Carnegie during many 
years prior to 1912 gave large sums to local authori- 
ties in this country for the erection of public libraries, 
and to churches for the acquisition of organs. As the 
applications for these grants increased and their ad- 
ministration became more difficult, Mr. Carnegie 
decided to place the future administration of grants 
under the control of a permanent body of trustees. 
In 1913 he placed 2,000,000l. in trust so that the 
income of about 100,000l. a year should be available 
“for the improvement of the well-being of the masses 
of the people of Great Britain and Ireland.’’ The 
report is full of interesting particulars, but attention 
can be directed only to a few typical facts. Organ 
grants are to be discontinued for the present. Mr. 
Carnegie has already expended 550,000l. in this direc- 
tion in the acquisition of some 3500 instruments. A 
total expenditure of nearly 2,000,000l. has been in- 
curred already on the erection of public libraries in 
the United Kingdom. The executive committee has, 
we notice, intimated to the authorities of the House- 
hold and Social Science Department of King’s College 
for Women, London, that it is prepared to meet half 
the cost of the erection of a library building, on certain 
conditions. The committee has also made an offer 
in the direction of endowment to the Central 
Bureau for the Employment of Women. The report 
throughout gives the impression of wise and sym- 
pathetic administration of a princely endowment. 

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
LONDON. 
Royal Society, March 18.—Sir William Crookes, 
president, in the chair.—Prof. W. H. Bragg: Balkerian 
Lecture : X-rays and crystalline structure. The atoms 
of crystal may be conceived—in various ways—as 
arranged in a series of parallel planes, each capable of 
reflecting a small fraction of an incident pencil of 
X-rays. If the spacing of the planes is d, the wave- 
length X, and the angle between the rays and the 
planes is 6, and if the relation nX=2d sin @ is satisfied, 
where n is any integer, then the various reflected 
pencils are in the same phase and combine to give an 
obvious reflection of the X-rays. If this relation is not 
satisfied there is no reflection. The X-ray spectro- 
meter is designed to measure the various values of @ at 
which reflection occurs in a given case. The angle 
can easily be determined to a minute of arc. Given 
d we can compare the wave-lengths of different X-rays. 
Given A we can compare the spacings of various sets 
of planes of the same or of different crystals. By 
certain considerations the experiments can be made 
absolute and not merely comparative. In this way 
the structures of several simple crystals have already 
been found, such as rock-salt, diamond, iron pyrites, 
and soon. The reflections for various values of n, the 
