ii6 



.V^ TURE 



[November 25, 1909 



Birmingham. — The Huxley lecture this year is to be 



delivered on December i by Prof. W. Bateson, F.R.S., 



who has selected " Mendelian Heredity " as the subject of 

 his address. 



Mr. Fr.\ncis Darwin, F.R.S., Prof. Westlake, of 

 Cambridge, and Prof. Holland, of Oxford, have been 

 created Doctors of the University of Brussels. Mr. Darwin 

 has also been made a corresponding member of the Institut 

 National of Geneva. 



The Brussels correspondent of the Times states that a 

 great scientific meeting was held on November 21 at the 

 Solvay Institute in connection with the Brussels University 

 celebrations. A cheque for iCo.oooZ. was presented on 

 November 19 by the friends of the University. 



Dr. D. Waterston has been appointed professor of 

 anatomy in King's College, London, in succession to Prof. 

 Peter Thompson, appointed professor of anatomv in the 

 Birmingham University. Dr. G. C. Low has been elected 

 lecturer in parasitology and medical entomology. 



The new botanical laboratories at University College, 

 London, will be opened on Fridav, December 17, bv Dr. 

 D.H. Scott, F.R.S. The Vice-ChanceHor (Prof. M. "j. M. 

 Hill, F.R.S.) will preside. Applications for tickets of 

 admission should be made to the secretarv, University 

 College, London, W.C. 



At a meeting of the East London College committee on 

 November 16 a subcommittee was constituted to administer 

 the fund for the encouragement of research work at the 

 college, upon which Mr. H. F. Donaldson, C.B., Dr. 

 H. A. Miers, F.R.S. (principal of the University of 

 London), and Sir William White, K.C.B., F.R.S., were 

 asked to serve. 



A copy of the October issue of the Battersea Polytechnic 

 Magazine has been received. The periodical provides an 

 interesting record of the doings of the various societies 

 and clubs in connection with the institution, as well as 

 readable articles by members of the staff and students. 

 Great prominence is given to the work of the day section 

 of the Engineering Society; the issue of the magazine 

 before us, for example, contains full descriptive accounts 

 of four visits to important engineering undertakings, in 

 addition to complete particulars of the annual meeting of 

 the society. 



The School Board of Hartford, Connecticut, has decided 

 to establish a " tent school " for children from homes 

 where there_ is tuberculosis, and for children who suffer 

 from an;Emia or curvature of the spine. The tents will 

 be put up on some vacant ground in the neighbourhood 

 of one of the city's school buildings. Accommodation will 

 be provided for sixty or more children, who will spend 

 about seven hours a dav in the tents. Books and furniture 

 will be supplied by the School Board, but the Hartford 

 Society for the Prevention of Tuberculosis will furnish 

 meals and the especially warm clothing that will be needed 

 for such an experiment during the winter. 



Dr. Richard Arthur, president of the Immigration 

 League of Australasia, points out in a circular letter that 

 the Government agricultural colleges in Australia offer 

 exceptional advantages in the wav of a scientific and prac- 

 tical education in the various forms of agriculture, stock- 

 breeding, dairying, and fruit-growing. He has been able 

 to make arrangements for the reception of students from 

 the United Kingdom at them, and informs us that any 

 lad going to Australia can now be guaranteed entrance 

 at one or other of these institutions. The course is a 

 two-year one, and the fees are exceedinglv moderate, rang- 

 ing from 18I. to 30Z. a year, which sum includes board 

 and lodging. 



We learn from Science that bv the will of the late Mr. 

 John S. Kennedy, banker, of New York Citv, who died 

 last October in his eightieth year, bequests are made for 

 public purposes amounting to nearly 6,ooo,oooZ. A bequest 

 of 445,000?. is made to Columbia' University ; another of 

 300,000/. to Robert College, Constantinople ; and a bequest 

 of 150,000/. to New York University. Gifts of 20.000/. are 

 made to the University of Glasgow, Yale University, 

 Amherst College, Williams College, Dartmouth College^ 

 NO. 2091, VOL. 82] 



Bowdoin College, Hamilton College, the Protestant College 

 at Beirut, the Tuskegee Institute, and Hampden Institute; 

 and of 10,000/. to Lafayette College, Oberlin College, 

 Wellesley College, Barnard College (Columbia University), 

 Teachers College (Columbia University), Elmira College, 

 Northfield Seminary, Berea College, Mt. Hermon Boys' 

 School, and Anatolia College, Turkey. Bequests of 5000/. 

 are made to Lake Forest University and Center College. 



A UNION has recently been formed by graduates of the 

 University of London to promote the Parliamentary 

 enfranchisement of women on the same terms as men. 

 Since 1878 the University of London has adniitted women 

 as candidates for all degrees, honours, and prizes on pre- 

 cisely the same terms as men, and at the present- day in 

 all university affairs men and women are accorded the 

 same electoral and other rights, and acquire them through 

 identical qualifications. Graduates of a certain standing 

 are entitled to become members of Convocation, and the 

 register of Convocation would constitute the Parliamentary 

 electoral roll were it not for the condition imposed by Act 

 of Parliament that a Parliamentary voter must be of the 

 male sex. About one-sixth of the members of Convoca- 

 tion are thus deprived of any share in the choice of the 

 representative of their university in Parliament. ■ That such 

 exclusion of an intellectual section of the nation from 

 representation in its councils is contrary to public policy 

 cannot be denied. The university qualification for the vote 

 is a purely intellectual one, and those who do not recognise 

 its sufficiency in the case of one sex would have a difficult 

 task to maintain the right of the other to the privilege 

 attaching to that qualification. All graduates of the Uni- 

 versity of London — both men and women — who are in 

 sympathy with the objects of the union are urged to join 

 it. Particulars and forms of membership can be obtained 

 from Miss Jessie W. Scott, hon. sec. London Graduates' 

 Union for Woman Suffrage, 114A Harley Street. 



The prospects in the matter of the inauguration of a 

 Teachers' Registration Council are much brighter as a 

 result of a conference held on November 13, when repre- 

 sentatives of all the important teachers' associations met 

 together, under the presidency of Sir Herbert Cozens- 

 Hardy, Master of the Rolls, to discuss the whole question 

 of registration and to pass resolutions expressing the 

 general feeling of teachers throughout the country. The 

 proposals agreed upon include the establishment of a 

 council on which elementary, secondary, and technical 

 education are represented equally, each by nine representa- 

 tives, and associations of teachers not included under these 

 three heads by three representatives. Technological educa- 

 tion is given a very wide interpretation in the proposed 

 scheme, and includes the work done in technical schools, 

 schools of art, and by teachers of music, of commercial 

 subjects and physical education in its various branches. 

 There were few points on which the meeting had difficulty 

 in coming to practically unanimous conclusions, and armed 

 with the resolutions now adopted the representatives of 

 the conference should have little trouble in convincing the 

 Board of Education that the time has arrived when the 

 provisions included in Education Acts, which long since 

 came into force, for the establishment of a Teachers' 

 Registration Council should be put into force. The work 

 of education is, from the national point of view, of prime 

 importance, and any procedure deserves encouragement 

 which will improve the status of the teaching profession. 



Sir John Hewett opened the new laboratories and 

 workshops at Thomason College, Roorkee, at the. end of 

 October last, and the address he gave on that occasion 

 is printed in the Pioneer Mail of November 5. .The speech 

 was the first statement of the general policy accepted by 

 the provincial Government for the development of technical 

 and industrial education. The encouragement of educa- 

 tion in applied science was takeil up by Sir John Hewett 

 at an early stage of his administration, his first, step 

 being the promotion of a technical conference. • The pro- 

 posals of the conference included the provision of industrial 

 and trade schools at important centres and the improve- 

 ment of the existing industrial school at Lucknow. ; These 

 were to provide for the lower stages of industrial training. 

 Our contemporary states that this scheme has been . adoptejl 

 by the Government, and is being given effect to as funds 



