May 3, 1906] 



NA TURE 



H. W. Normanton, of Batlcy Grammar School, has 

 been elected to a natural science postmastership at Merlon 

 College. A. H. Simpson, of Rugby School, has been 

 elected to a natural science scholarship at Corpus Christi 

 College. 



Cambridge. — The striking success of the Appointments 

 Board in procuring appointments for young graduates at 

 Cambridge is shown by the following figures : — in 1902 the 

 number of appointments obtained was 67; in 1003, 93; in 

 1904, 102 ; in 1905, 134. These appointments fall mainly 

 into the following classes : — appointments under various 

 public authorities at home and abroad, industrial and 

 technical appointments, administrative appointments on 

 railways, appointments for scientific work of various kinds, 

 ;md lectureships in universitv colleges. 



Major E. H. Hills, C.M.G., R.E., late head of the 

 Topographical Department of the War Office, will deliver 

 a public lecture on the geography of international frontiers, 

 at the -Sedgwick Museum, on Saturday, May 5. 



The governing body of Gonville and Caius College, 

 Cambridge, proposes in the summer, if suitable candidates 

 apply, to make an election to the Wollaston research 

 studentship in physics. The value of the studentship will 

 be 120/. a year. It will be tenable in the first instance for 

 one year, but may be prolonged for a second year. Candi- 

 dates for the studentship must be more than twenty-one 

 and under twenty-five years of age on the first day of 

 October, icio6. The studentship is open to students of all 

 British, colonial, and .American universities. .Applications 

 should be made before Julv 21 to the Master (the Rev. 

 E. S. Roberts). 



The Gilbey lecturer on the history and economics of 

 agricultui'e gives notice that he will lecture on " The Re- 

 lations of Rent, Profits and Wa^es in -Agriculture, and the 

 bearing on Rural Depopulation," on Tuesday, May 15, and 

 the three following days. 



By the bequest of Dr. E. H- Perowne, the late Master 

 of Corpus, a fine collection of specimens of amber has 

 been acquired by the Sedgwick Museuni- 



On Commemoration Day, Wednesday, May 0. after the 

 presentation of graduates at the Univer.sity of London, 

 there will be a reception at Bedford College for Women 

 from four to seven o'clock. 



Prof. T. W. Richards, professor of chemistry at 

 Harvard University, has been designated by the German 

 Government as Harvard visiting professor at the University 

 of Berlin for the academic year 1906—7. 



The fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the Uni- 

 versity of Melbourne was celebrated last week. Congratu- 

 latory addresses were presented by representatives of British 

 and other universities. 



It is proposed to form an association of past students of 

 the Technical College, Finsbury. With this end in view a 

 meeting of old students will be held at the college on Mav S- 

 Sir Owen Roberts will preside. Any old student who has 

 not received a notice of this meeting is requested to com- 

 municate with Mr. I. W. G. Brooker, Durlstone, Brocklev 

 Park, Forest Hill, S.E. 



Prof. Walter Nernst, director of the chemical physics 

 institute, Berlin, is to deliver a course of lectures on ex- 

 perimental and theoretical applications of thermodynamics 

 in A'ale University, Connecticut. He will also give the 

 Silliman lectures, founded in memory of Benjamin Silli- 

 man, father and son, the former of whom was connected 

 with Vale so far back as 1805, and is best known to 

 European people as the founder of Silliman's American 

 Journal of Science and Arts. 



Under the doubtfully appropriate title of " Technical 

 Overtraining in Germany," attention is directed in the 

 Journal of the Society of Arts for March 30 to what is 

 undoubtedly a real danger. It is not a question of over- 

 training in the sense that the courses of the technical 

 colleges are of too high a scientific standard, but the 

 danger lies in the great increase in the number of 

 technically trained students, an increase which makes the 

 supply greatly in excess of the demand. A survey of the. 

 figures given, which are largely based on the report of the 

 American Consul at Mannheim, shows th.it in such 



branches of technical instruction as building, for example, 

 there has been an increase of, say, 200 per cent, in ten 

 years in the output of the technical colleges, whereas in 

 such subjects as medicine and theology there has been a 

 considerable falling off in the number of students. As the 

 writer of the note points out, " The consequence of this 

 over-production in technical resources is a constantly 

 diminishing rate of wages." 



The Government of India has decided, says the Pioneer 

 Mail, to make to the Punjab University for the next four 

 years an annual grant of 20,000 rupees. The main purpose 

 of the grant is to assist in the improvement and efficiency 

 of the constituent colleges in those respects in which an 

 inspection by the University showed them to be defective. 

 The Government of India has decided that no part of the 

 grant shall be devoted to the improvement of the Govern- 

 ment colleges. In addition to this grant, another of 10,000 

 rupees a year for four years has been assigned to the 

 Punjab Universitv by the Government of India. This sum 

 is to be regarded as a consolidated grant to be applied 

 primarily to the inspection of colleges and to strengthening 

 the administration of the University. The Government of 

 India has made a further grant of 30,000 rupees a year 

 for four years for building purposes and for the equipment 

 of the new Senate hall and the University library. 



Speaking on Saturday last at the opening of a new 

 grammar school at Farnham, the .Archbishop of Canterbury 

 remarked that secondary education in England has not 

 made progress during the last fifty years commensurate 

 with that made by those forms of education that are both 

 above and below "it. He believes that the explanation lies 

 in a certain unwillingness to bring this kind of education 

 under central government and organisation. He does not 

 believe that either the German or French people are more 

 anxious as a whole for higher education than we are in 

 England, but they will consent 10 what English peopl- 

 will not consent to, viz. a kind of drilling on the subject 

 which w-ill bring about a uniformity that can better pro- 

 mote progress than the more lax, scattered, and inde- 

 pendent efforts which the people of this country in their 

 national nature prefer to the more hide-bound and red- 

 tape systems. The Education Bill recently introduced in 

 Parliament, if it passes into law, will give English people 

 an opportunity which they have never had before of taxing 

 themselves ten times as much for secondary education. No 

 one will be forced to do it, but everyone will be able to do 

 it, and those who have been pining to be able to give more 

 largely to the cause of secondary education will, if the Bill 

 becomes law, have an opportunity of doing so. 



The paramount importance of secondary education in 

 any national system designed to educate the children of all 

 social grades becomes more recognised every year by those 

 in authority. The presence of the President of the Board 

 of Education at the opening of the new county school at 

 .\ctoi) on April 28, and of Sir William .Anson, late Parlia- 

 mentary Secretary to the Board of Education, at Sutton 

 Coldfield on -April 27, on a similar occasion, are indications 

 of this recognition. Speaking at Acton, Mr. Birrell said 

 the only difference of a philosophical character between 

 elementary and secondary education turns unon the lengths 

 of time available for each. There is naturally a distinction 

 between children who remain at school only to the age 

 of fourteen and those who stay until sixteen or seventeen 

 years of age. The great thing for the nation to accomplish 

 is the wise selection of those children who are fitted to 

 benefit from a prolonged educational course, and to see that 

 they get it, irrespective of their rank or position in life. 

 Sir' William Anson, dealing with the question of the curri- 

 culum in secondary schools, said he does not think it is 

 possible ever to revert to the old type of classical school. 

 He went on to say that the claims of science are nowadays 

 never likely to be' disregarded, but the study of languages 

 should not be neglected. He remarked, in conclusion, that 

 the overloading of the curriculum of secondary schools with 

 subjects which might be postponed to a later stage is a 

 mistake. 



It appears from an article by the special correspondent 

 of the Times at Palo .Alto, published in Tuesday's issue, 

 that the Leland Stanford Junior University at Palo .Alio 



NO. 1905, VOL. 74] 



