November 4, 1909] 



NA TURE 



29 



expended on publications was so great as to hinder the 

 activity of the societies in other directions. 



Sir Alexander Pedler, F.R.S., explained how the 

 British Science Guild had sought to relieve the scientific 

 societies by endeavouring to obtain a reduction in the rate 

 of postage of their publications, but he much regretted 

 that the Postmaster-General, though sympathetic, could 

 not see his way to grant such relief. Some of the delegates 

 suggested a renewal of the application, but it seemed 

 unlikely that this would be successful. The general ques- 

 tion of founding a publication fund was discussed by re- 

 presentatives of many scientific societies, including the 

 Chemical, the Royal Astronomical, the Zoological, the 

 Entomological, the Royal Anthropological Institute, and 

 the Institution of Mining Engineers. 



In a paper on the financial position of our local socie- 

 ties, Mr. John Hopkinson sketched the history of the 

 Hertfordshire Natural History Society, and showed how 

 a society which had always struggled with a small income 

 had yet managed to publish excellent original work. 



Although the opinion of the conference was generally 

 favourable to the formation of a publication fund, a few 

 speakers expressed the opinion that it would be in- 

 expedient to take any step which might tend to increase 

 the publications of local societies, inasmuch as the mass 

 of such literature was already embarrassing to the biblio- 

 grapher. 



On the afternoons of Monday and Tuesday the delegates 

 visited, under scientific guidance, the Natural History 

 Museum and the Zoological Gardens. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



C.'iMBRiDGE. — An election to the Clerk-Maxwell scholar- 

 ship will take place at the end of this term. Candidates 

 are requested to send in their names to Sir J. ]. Thomson 

 on or before December i. 



Dr. G. H. F. Nuttall has been re-elected to the Quick 

 professorship of biology. Mr. J. S. Gardiner has been 

 elected to the professorship of zoology and comparative 

 anatomy. Mr. E. O. Lewis has been appointed demon- 

 strator of experimental psychology until Michaelmas, 191 1 ; 

 and Mr. D. G. Lillie has been elected to a Hutchinson 

 research studentship for natural science. 



Mr. H. F. Tiarks has supplemented Messrs. J. Henry 

 Schroder and Co. 's gift of an endowment of a professor- 

 ship of German by placing at the disposal of the University 

 the sum of 5000/. for the endowment of one or more 

 scholarships for the encouragement of the study of German 

 in the University. 



It is announced in Science that Mr. Andrew Carnegie 

 has subscribed 20,000/. to McGiU University as a part of 

 the general fund of 400,000/. which friends of the Uni- 

 versity are trying to raise. 



The Black Bear Press, Cambridge, has sent us a copy 

 of the first issue of a new weekly magazine, the Gowns- 

 man, which is to be a record and comment of university 

 life. The contents range over every department of uni- 

 versity activity — academic, athletic, social — and the 

 periodical should appeal to all Cambridge men, past and 

 present. With this first issue is published, as a supple- 

 ment, an excellently reproduced portrait of Sir Joseph 

 Thomson, F.R.S. The price of the new publication is 

 2il. weekly. 



The annual meeting of the Association of Teachers in 

 Technical Institutions will be held on. November 6 at St. 

 Bride Institute, Fleet Street, E.C. The chair will be 

 taken at 3 p.m. by Mr. J. Wilson, who is the president 

 of the association for the coming year. The report of 

 the council will contain an abstract of the educational and 

 professional work accomplished during the year. The 

 educational work comprises the consideration of such ques- 

 tions as syllabuses in such subjects as applied mechanics 

 and electrical engineering, the training of craftsmen, the 

 preliminary training of technical students, and the Royal 

 Commission on university and higher education in London. 



In his inaugural address,, at the beginning of the present 

 session, the president of Harvard University, Dr. .'\. 



NO. 2088, VOL. 82] 



Lawrence Lowell, discussed an ideal college training from 

 three points of view. He considered the highest develop- 

 ment of the individual student, the proper relation of the 

 college to the professional school, and the relations of the 

 students to one another. Each line of thought led him 

 to the same conclusion. The best type of liberal educa- 

 tion in our complex modern world aims at producing men 

 who know a little of everything, and something well.^ The 

 essence of a liberal education, said Dr. Lowell, consists in 

 an attitude of mind, a familiarity with methods of thought, 

 an ability to use information rather than a memory stocked 

 with facts, however valuable such a storehouse may be. 

 No method of ascertaining truth, and therefore no depart- 

 ment of human thought, ought to be wholly a sealed book 

 to an educated man. It has been truly said that few men 

 are capable of learning a new subject after the period of 

 vouth has passed, and hence the graduate ought so to be 

 equipped that he can grasp effectively any problem with 

 which his duties or his interest may impel him to deal. 

 In the present age some knowledge of the laws of nature 

 is an essential part of the mental outfit which no cultivated 

 man should lack. He need not know much, hut he ought 

 to know enough to learn more. To him the forces of 

 nature ought not to be an occult mystery, but a chain of 

 causes and effects with which, if not wholly familiar, he 

 can at least claim acquaintance ; and the same principle 

 applies to every other leading branch of knowledge. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences. October 26.— M. Bouchard in the 



chair. E. L. Bouvier : The phenomena which characterise 



the change of nest in the ant Messor barbarus. A detailed 

 account of the curious habits of these ants when exchang- 

 ing nests.— M. Gouy : The constitution of the electric 

 charge at the surface of an electrolyte.— Armand Gautier : 

 Remarks on the second International Congress for the 

 Repression of Fraud in Food and Drugs, held at Paris, 

 October 18 to 23.— J. Guillaume : Observations of the 

 sun made at the Observatory of Lyons during the second 

 quarter of 1909. Observations were possible on sixty- 

 three days, the results being summarised in three tables 

 showing 'the number of spots, their distribution in latitude, 

 and the distribution of the faculee in latitude.— Charles 

 Nordmann : The temperature of (3 Perseus (Algol). 

 Taking 6000° as the temperature of the sun, the applica- 

 tion o'f Planck's law leads to 22,900° as the temperature 

 of .\lgol. This is nearly identical with the temperature 

 (23,800°) found previouslv by a totally independent method. 

 — M. Javelle ; Hallev's comet. Observations of the comet 

 made with the large' equatorial at Nice. On October 12 

 it appeared as a small round nebulosity, 10" to 15 in 

 diameter, with a central nucleus of the fourteenth to 

 fifteenth magnitude.— R. Jariry-Desloges : Observations 

 on the surface of the planet Mars. Two diagrams accom- 

 pany this paper, showing the details perceived during 

 July, August, and September, 1909. — G. Athanasiadis : 

 The influence of temperature on the phenomena of polar- 

 isation in the electrolytic valve. The potential difference, 

 producing a definite current in the electrolytic valve, 

 diminishes as the temperature increases. — L. Gay : The 

 vapour pressure of mixed liquids. A new demonstration 

 and generalisation of the formula of Duhem-Margules.-- 

 G. Belloc : The emission of gases by heated metals. A 

 definite volume of gas can be extracted by heating a metal 

 such as steel to a definite temperature in a vacuum. If 

 the metal is allowed to cool, the vacuum being maintained, 

 a re-heating to the same temperature after an interval of 

 some days gives rise to a fresh amount of gas, and this 

 process can be continued ; even after seven heatings small 

 amounts of gas continue to be evolved.— Maurice Coste : 

 The transformations of selenium. Exact measurements of 

 the densitv of selenium submitted to various treatments 

 have been made. — E. Cornea : Cryoscopic study of the 

 neutralisation of some acids.— Maurice Barree : The 

 points of transformation of the copper-aluminium alloys 

 as determined bv a study of the variation of electrical 

 resistance with temperature.— Georges Darzens and M. 

 Post : Hexahydrophenvlacetylene and hexahydrophenyl- 

 propiolic acid. Starting this hexahydroacetophenone. 



