NA TURE 



^October 25, 1906 



The fifth meeting was held on October 6 under the 

 prcsidencj- of M. Koppen. and Mr. Dines. Prof. Hergesell 

 explained his method of making balloon ascents at sea. 

 Two balloons are used, one being held by a fastening that 

 tan be opened electrically ; a small battery is sent up with 

 ihe instruments, and the electromagnetic release can be 

 worked by a contact actuated by the barometer, or by a 

 contact on the recording drum of the instruments ; the 

 laller has been found the better method in practice. One 

 li.illoon being released, the system slowly falls, until a 

 Hoat hanging below the instruments touches the water ; 

 the balloon is inflated so as to hold the instruments above 

 ihe sea, the float alone touching the water. Both M. 

 Tcisserenc de Bort and Prof. Hergesell stated that they 

 are designing a method by which instruments may be 

 (hopped from bailons-sondes by wireless telegraphy ; the 

 former also hopes to be able to detach kites by the same 

 meihod. M. leisserenc de Bort thought that for work on 

 land, when for any reason the height of the ascent had 

 to be limited, his method of using paper balloons was to 

 be preferred. 



Baron von Bassus exhibited an instrument for reading 

 ihc records of kite and balloon ascents. He claimed that 

 his instrument would give readings with great accuracy, 

 and that simultaneous points on the different curves could 

 hi' obtained easily. He thought that by its use small 

 inversions of temperature could be detected that were often 

 overlooked. 



M. Teissercnc de Bort then gave an account of the ex- 

 pedition to the equatorial regions of the Atlantic organised 

 by JVIr. Rolch and himself. Extremely good results had 

 been obtained, and, contrary to expectation, it was found 

 that in the upper air far lower temperatures were recorded 

 o\er the equator than at corresponding heights in temperate 

 latitudes. Over the equator the isothermal zone did not 

 seem to exist, but the temperature went on decreasing up 

 lo the highest points reached. At heights of 13 to 14 kilo- 

 metres temperatures had been found as low as —80° C. 



.\t the concluding meeting, held on the afternoon of 

 October 6, various resolutions were passed relating to 

 future conferences. It was resolved that in future the 

 meetings should be held every three years, and that, so 

 far as possible, they should be restricted to three 

 days. Papers relating to instruments and to methods of 

 observation should have precedence over those dealing 

 with the results of observations. It was also agreed that, 

 instead of the present arrangement of having one inter- 

 national day each month, there should be three days 

 together four times a year for the purpose of the inter- 

 national ascents. This arrangement should come into 

 force in March, 1907. 



The president then read telegrams that it was proposed 

 lo send to the King and Queen of Italy, to the Spanish 

 Minister of War and others, who had taken an interest 

 in the work of the commission, .\fter several speeches the 

 conference then closed. 



On .Sunday, October 7. an aeronautic fete was held in 

 the grounds of the exhibition, and eight balloons made 

 ascents, several members of the conference being 

 passengers. The majority of the balloons descended in the 

 neighbourhood of Pavia. 



MODERN NEEDS IN UNIVERSITIES} 

 r JNIVER.SITIES in America and Canada are paying 

 ^^ more and more attention to our own language and 

 classics, and less and less to Latin and Greek. Not that the 

 latter are excluded, but they no longer outrank other 

 branches of study. Their doors are open to the new forces 

 of the day, and they have at their heads a body of remark- 

 ably able and zealous men who not only keep the universi- 

 ties foremost as progressive educative agencies, but whose 

 potent voices are heard upon public questions, as leaders, 

 of the higher ideals in politics and national affairs. Much 

 can also be said of those occupying similar positions in 

 Scotland. St. Andrews has just erected a new chemical 

 laboratory for research, Dundee is about to erect such 



1 From an address delivered by Dr. Andri 

 new buildings for the natural philoscphy a 

 the University of Edinburgh on October 16. 



NO. 1930, VOL. 74] 



Carnegie at the opening of 

 engineering departments of 



schools as we are to-day to open for Edinburgh. We all 

 know where Glasgow stands in modern branches of educa- 

 tion. Aberdeen has just been supplied with new buildings 

 efficiently equipped for the study of science and medicine. 

 No less than eleven new chambers have been assigned to 

 modern studies, to meet pressing demands. The Utviversity 

 of London recently separated economics and engineer- 

 ing from arts, and established separate faculties. It is- 

 also announced that owing to the unrivalled facilities found 

 in the metropolis, it has to be prepared for the advent of 

 new schools of practical study or research. In the new 

 Universities of Liverpool, .Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds> 

 and Sheffield, modern studies are to be paramount. They 

 are to resemble the American type. Harvard University 

 has just been left 8oo,ooo(. sterling for an institute of 

 technology, but as one of the foremost of such schools is 

 in Boston, she has proposed union with that, and offered 

 if needed new buildings, as part of the University. 

 McGill University, Montreal, has just had handed over 

 to her the agricultural college built by .Sir Wm. Macdonald 

 at a cost of 600,000!. Thus the millions are now being 

 devoted to science and practical studies, theology and 

 classics being in the opinion of donors already amply pro- 

 vided for. This betokens a steady march forward from 

 the policy of the past, not that it is desirable to exclude 

 any of the former university courses, but there should 

 be added others needed to guide and advance the new 

 knowledge which is creating new conditions. 



I judge Scotland to be as far and as happily advanced 

 beyond England in imiversity as she is in elementary 

 public-school education. Her universities are not for a 

 class, but for the people, stirring hives of Democracy. But 

 .Scotland may expect the new universities of the five prin- 

 cipal English cities to approach nearer to American institu- 

 tions in character, for their educational atmosphere and 

 aims are very different indeed from those of Oxford and 

 Cambridge, and similar to those of the great American 

 cities. They will be modern universities, fully equipped 

 for the work of to-day. Scotland has to keep marching 

 on. The progress of scientific departments in British uni- 

 versities, considerable as it has recently been, of which 

 the schools we are about to open here to-day are gratify- 

 ing evidence, yet has not kept pace with the startling 

 progress of science itself and the wonderful discoveries 

 which threaten to revolutionise human conceptions. The 

 discovery of argon by Rayleigh, Becquerel's rays, Ronlgen 

 rays, uranium, and, finally, the Curies' radium, threatens 

 to relegate the old atomic theory itself to the list of dis- 

 carded "creeds outworn," except that science has no 

 creeds. She has only theories and opinions based upon 

 phenomena, all held lightly because subject to progressive 

 discoveries that may be revealed through her unceasing 

 search for knowledge. Science has no preconceived 

 dogmas ; she has but one end, the pursuit of truth. It 

 was long claimed for the classics that they alone appealed 

 to the imagination, while dry, prosaic science was incapable 

 of doing so. This is a grievous mistalce. The recent dis- 

 coveries that have startled the world are sublime, and 

 appeal with intense force to the imaginative faculties of 

 iTian. The scientific man of to-day lives in an atmosphere 

 of wonder, arousing all his higher powers and coinpelling 

 reverence, .^t each startling revelation he feels " as some 

 watcher of the skies when a- new comet swims into his 

 ken." 



The older branches of learning in our universities may 

 weir welcome the newer branch, cap in hand, not only as 

 the foundation of material progress, but also as one of 

 the very highest agencies in the imaginative domain. It 

 is the man of science in our day 



This mighty force of our day — science — has hitherto been 

 the Cinderella of the sisterhood of knowledge, but the 

 Prince has appeared at last and taken her by the hand. 

 It is now the turn of the elder sisters to greet the once 

 neglected princess. .She will more than justify the millions 

 which are now being showered upon her in the most pro- 

 gressive lands. Thus has the university developed to the 

 present all-einbracing type through the successive reigns 

 of scholasticism, thcologv and ancient classics, always 



