June 28, 1906] 



NA TURE 



atorium constituit vir strenuus, eorum antesignanus qui 

 hanc sectam secuti id agunt ut omnibus in terris eandem 

 ipsi ciiligentiam praestent. Tantis tot strcnuorum virorum 

 laboribus nonne id aliquando fieri potest ut de caecis horum 

 motuum causis paullo certiores fiamus? 



Cambridge.— The Quicli professorship of biology is 

 vacant. The professor is to devote himself to the study of 

 the Protozoa, especially such as cause disease. The stipend 

 is 1000;. a year. The election will take place on July 26. 

 Candidates are to send their names and references to the 

 Vici-C'hancellor by July 19. 



Mr, R. .\. Herman and Mr. H. W. Richmond have been 

 appointed university lecturers in mathematics. 



The Raymond Horton-Smith prize, for an M.D. thesis 

 " On Changes in Sensation Associated with Gross Lesions 

 of Ihe Spinal Cord," has been awarded to Mr. H. Theodore 

 Thompson, of Christ's. 



The Gordon-Wigan prize of 50!. for a research in 

 chemistry has been awarded to F. E. E. Lamplough, 

 Trinity. 



Earl Carrington, President of the Board of Agriculture, 

 will open the new buildings at the South-Eastern Agri- 

 cultural College, Wye, and distribute the diplomas and 

 prizes, on Wednesday, July 18, at 3.15. 



The Court of the University of Manchester has decided 

 to confer the following honorary degrees : — D.Sc. on Prof. 

 Emil Fischer, professor of organic chemistry in the Uni- 

 versity of Berlin, and on Prof. Adolf von Baeyer, pro- 

 fessor of organic chemistry in the University of Munich ; 

 M.Sc.Tech. on Mr. Ivan Levinstein, and M.Sc. on Mr. 

 James Grier, lecturer in pharmacognosis. 



Prof. A. Melville Scott, late 185 1 E.xhibition scholar 

 from the University of Toronto, has resigned his position 

 as professor of physics and electrical engineering at the 

 University of New Brunswick to accept the office of super- 

 intendent of schools for the city of Calgary, Alberta. His 

 successor will be Prof. W. H. Salmon, a graduate of Cam- 

 bridge, now of King's College, Windsor, N.S. 



New science buildings, built and equipped at a cost of 

 70ooi., were opened at Repton School on the occasion of 

 the speech day, June 21, by Sir Oliver Lodge. F.R.S. 

 The buildings are largely the result of the munificence of 

 Lord Burton, until recently the chairman of the governing 

 body. In the course of his address. Sir Oliver Lodge 

 spoke of the importance of the study of science, and par- 

 ticularly of astronomy, in order that a better conception 

 of the universe, of its magnitude, and man's place in it 

 might be obtained. 



It is announced in Science that the Woman's College 

 of Baltimore has now received gifts amounting to 116,000/. 

 Of this amount 100,000/. was needed to clear the college 

 of debt, and 16,000/. will be added to the endowment fund. 

 Mr. .Andrew Carnegie gave 10,000/., the Massey estate 

 10,000/. ; other gifts range from small amounts to 6000/. 

 We learn from the same source that Governor Higgins has 

 approved a Bill appropriating 16,000/. for a school of 

 agriculture at St. Lawrence University, with an additional 

 2400/. for maintenance. This school, it is understood, will 

 be managed in cooperation with the authorities of the 

 State College of .Agriculture at Cornell Universitv. Bv 

 the will of Catherine L. R. Catlin, of New York, '2000/. 

 is left to New York LTniversity. 



In the House of Lords on Monday Lord Barnard asked 

 the President of the Board of .Agriculture whether he has 

 been able to consider the representations made to the 

 secretary of the Board, on December 5, 1905, by a deputa- 

 tion from universities, colleges, and agricultural institu- 

 tions, and whether there is any prospect of an increased 

 grant to such institutions. In the course of his reply. Earl 

 Carrington said no money could be better spent than that 

 which Is applied to helping farmers to meet the fierce 

 and growing competition which they have to encounter 

 from all sides. Some time ago 4500/. was voted towards 

 this object, and in 1906 the vote has risen to 11,500/. 

 The sum is small, it is true, when compared with the 

 amounts voted in other countries, but the countrv has 



received the full value of the grant owing to the cordial 

 cooperation and good work of the different county councils. 

 He suggested that some inquiry should be held into the 

 system of agricultural education. There has been no 

 inquiry since 1888 — nearly twenty years ago. If it should 

 appear that there is good ground for an increase of grant, 

 those who advocated such an increase would find their 

 hands strengthened very considerably. 



A MEETi.NG of university c.\tcnsion students and others 

 is to be held at Cambridge on August 2-28. The principal 

 subject of study will be the eighteenth century, especially 

 the period 1714-1789. .Among the lectures arranged, the 

 following, dealing with subjects of science, may be 

 mentioned : — Cloud problems in astronomy, by Mr. -A. W. 

 Clayden ; a total eclipse of the sun, by the Rev. T. E. R. 

 Phillips ; great astronomers of the eighteenth century, by 

 Mr. Arthur Berry ; the Milky W"ay and the clouds of 

 Magellan, by Mr. .A. R. Hinks; the dawn and progress 

 of modern geology, by Dr. R. D. Roberts ; great botanists 

 of the eighteenth century, by Prof. W. B. Bottomley ; 

 great zoologists of the eighteenth century, by Mr. L. A. 

 Borradaile ; and the beginnings of the steam engine, by 

 Mr. E. K. Hanson. Besides these purely scientific lectures, 

 others of interest to students of the methods of science 

 occur in the programme, such as those by Mr. H. Yule 

 Oldham on the teaching of geography, and by Mr. E. .A. 

 Parkin on hygiene in schools. Practical courses in chem- 

 istry and botany, primarily for teachers, will also be held. 

 Forms of entry and further information will be supplied 

 bv the Rev. D. H. S. Cranage, Syndicate Buildings, 

 Cambridge. 



In the May issue of the Transactions of the Oxford 

 University Junior Scientific Club is a thoughtful paper by 

 Mr. M. H. Godby on the place of natural science in 

 education. The spirit of the paper provides an encouraging 

 sign of appreciation of the value of scientific studies, and 

 serves to show that a generous recognition of the import- 

 ance of a training in the methods of science is producing 

 a beneficial effect upon the present generation of Oxford 

 students. Mr. Godby first indicates the influence on British 

 education exerted by Bacon in directing the attention of 

 speculative thinkers to the importance of founding theories 

 on knowledge gained from the senses, and subsequently 

 refers approvingly to Herbert Spencer's insistence upon the 

 necessity of training the body and the value of a scientific 

 education. As indicative of modern tendencies at Oxford 

 one or two of the writer's remarks may be cited : — " The 

 man of science perhaps alone of all men understands and 

 appreciates the value of working hypotheses, even when 

 they are wrong." " A great charm, too, of science is that 

 one can always appeal against the decisions of tutors and 

 authorities to Nature herself, and so there is produced a 

 freedom from the awe of authority which must tend to 

 develop self-respect and to encourage independence and 

 originality." " Science is more capable of arousing the 

 interest of its students than other subjects. There is a 

 sort of spirit of antagonism, a feeling that you are pitting 

 yourself against Nature and trying to unravel her secrets, 

 and this feeling is just what will always appeal to the 

 sporting instincts of English boys." It is satisfactory to 

 find that young Oxford is alive to the responsibility of the 

 University for the growth of scientific knowledge. 



Replying to a question in the House of Commons on 

 Tuesday as to the action which the President of the 

 Board of Education proposes to take on the report of the 

 Departmental Committee on the Royal College of Science, 

 &c. ; and as to whether any reorganisation of the University 

 of London is contemplated, with a view to the association 

 with it of the proposed Technological College, Mr. Lough 

 said : — The Board is at present engaged in the preparation 

 of a scheme for the establishment of a new institution on 

 lines corresponding as closely as possible to those recom- 

 mended by the departmental committee. The Board agrees 

 with that committee in regarding it as of first importance 

 that there should be no delay in the organisation of the 

 institution, and with the recommendation of the committee 

 that its relation to the University of London should, in 

 the first instance, be that of a " school of the University " 

 — a recommendation in which the senate of the University 



NO. 191 3, VOL. 74.1 



