January 2, 19 13] 



NATURE 



505 



cheer reverberated through his whole being, and left 

 such deep impression as doubtless would be with him 

 to the end. 



• In the evening of his long life, when he stood apart 

 from the honours which had been showered upon him, 

 there remained to him the greatest of all rewards, a 

 clear conscience and the knowledge that he had 

 devoted his life to and had achieved a great work 

 for the good of humanity. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Dr. .'V. D. Ross, lecturer on natural philosophy in the 

 University of Glasgow, has been appointed to the 

 chair of rinathematics and physics in the University of 

 Western Australia. 



At a special meeting of the council of Hartley 

 University College, Southampton, held on December 

 30, Dr. Alexander Hill, late master of Downing Col- 

 lege, Cambridge, was unanimously elected principal 

 at a salary of looo/. a year. 



Mr. Frank Roscoe, who for the past twelve years 

 has been master of method in the Day Training Col- 

 lege of the University of Birmingham, has been 

 appointed secretary of the Teachers' Registration 

 Council. 



The general meeting of the Association of Public 

 School Science Masters will be held at the London 

 Day Training College, Southampton Row, W.C., on 

 January 8 and 9 ; in connection with the meeting Dr. 

 T. P. Nunn will deliver a series of addresses on the 

 afternoons of January 6 and 7, upon "The Theory of 

 Science Teaching, with Special Reference to the Con- 

 ditions in Boys' Schools." On Wednesday, January 

 8, the president of the association, Sir Archibald 

 Geikie, K.C.B., P.R.S., will deliver an address, and 

 there will be a discussion upon the aims and uses of 

 school science societies. On January 9 the subjects to 

 be discussed are : — Practical examinations in science, 

 the teaching of mechanics, and the value of presenting 

 the historical aspect in teaching science. A paper 

 urging that the teaching of density should be placed 

 in the background and be superseded by the idea of 

 "Roomage," or specific volume, will be read by Mr. 

 G. F. Daniell. 



We learn from Science that by the will of the late 

 Prof. Morris Loeb, formerly professor of chemistry 

 in the New York University, large bequests are made 

 to scientific and educational institutions. Subject to 

 the life interest of Mrs. Loeb, ioo,oooL is bequeathed 

 to Harvard University for the advancement of physics 

 and chemistry, 5000!. is left to the American Chem- 

 ical Society for the establishment of a type museum of 

 chemicals, to be established in the Chemists' Club of 

 New York Cit\% the L'.S. National Museum, or the 

 American Museum of Natural Hi'^^ory, and 500Z. is 

 bequeathed to the National .'Vcaden'iof Sciences. The 

 Hebrew Technical Institute re'^^^'es 10,000!. The 

 residuary estate, subject to Mr^. Loeb's life interest, 

 is to be divided equally among the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution at Washington and certain New York insti- 

 tutions, includins^ the American Museum of Natural 

 History, the Hebrew Technical Institute, and 

 the Educational .\lliance. The Smithsonian In- 

 stitution receives its bequest to further the 

 exact sciences. The American Museum of Natural 

 Historv is to secure a collection for the illustration 

 of the industrial use of natural products in ancient 

 and modern times. The Hebrew Technical Institute 

 is to establish technical courses for mechanics. 



NO. 2253, VOL. 90] 



The report of the hundred and sixteenth session of 

 the Royal Technical College, Glasgow, which used 

 to be known as the Glasgow and West of Scotland 

 Technical College, is a record of satisfactory progress. 

 The number of day students for the session 1911-12 

 was 572; of evening students, 4691 ; and of students in 

 affiliated continuation classes, S682. The college is 

 therefore the centre of an organisation responsible 

 for the education of 13,945 individuals. The corre- 

 sponding number for the preceding session was 

 13,473. The increase in the number of day students 

 was twelve. The roll of students contained the names 

 of 157 graduates of the four Scottish universities, and 

 of the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London, 

 Manchester, Durham, Leeds, Sydney, Adelaide, Cal- 

 cutta, Allahabad, and Heidelberg. Although seven 

 large laboratories were provided for pure and applied 

 chemistry in the new buildings recently opened, they 

 have already proved insufficient, and, in consequence, 

 an additional chemical laboratory, to accommodate 

 seventy-two students, has been provided by trans- 

 ferring to the corridors on the same floor the contents 

 of the museum of technical chemistry. Such rapid 

 development of an industrial department is good 

 evidence that the college maintains its position as 

 possessing one of the leading schools of applied chem- 

 istry. The new lectureship in sugar manufacture, 

 founded with the aid of subscriptions from firms and 

 individuals interested in this industry, has been estab- 

 lished. Proposals have been made for the establish- 

 ment of a lectureship dealing with leather-tanning, 

 but the governors are obliged to postpone taking 

 steps in this direction until subscriptions are forth- 

 coming to meet at least one-half of the probable 

 expense, as was done in the case of the lectureship in 

 sugar manufacture. In other departments of the 

 college there are similar developments, and the report 

 makes it clear that under its new name this Scottish 

 technical college is entering on a career of increased 

 usefulness. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Linnean Society, Derember 19, 1912. — Prof. E. B. 

 Poulton, F.R.S., president, in the chair.— Cecil H. 

 Hooper : Experiments on the pollination of hardy 

 fruits, with observations on the insect visitors to the 

 blossoms. Strawberries, provided there is wind, set 

 fruit well without insects. Raspberries and logan- 

 berries set fruit imperfect in shape if insects are 

 excluded. Currants and gooseberries, owing to the 

 construction of their flowers and pollen, cannot be 

 pollinated and set their fruit without the visits of 

 insects. All these plants set fruit perfectly with pollen 

 of the same varietv or even of the same flower; but 

 in the case of the apple, pear, plum, and cherry, this 

 is not always the case, many varieties being self- 

 sterile, and 'almost all produce more abundant and 

 finer fruit with pollen of another variety. In these 

 trees there is little transference of pollen by the wind, 

 and even if a self-fertile tree is enclosed in muslin 

 whilst in blossom (there being ample movement of 

 the wind, insects onJv being excluded), it is the excep- 

 tion for any fruit to' set ; it is the same with goose- 

 berries and' currants. In trials with apples, only 

 nineteen varieties out of sixty-five proved self-fertile ; 

 in pears, four out of thirty; in plums, twenty-one out 

 of forty-one ; in cherries, five out of twelve ; whilst, 

 when cross-pollinated, in three-quarters of the trials 

 one or more fruits set on a truss. There seems to be 

 a preference as to pollen, some varieties setting better 

 with pollen of one variety than with that of another; 



