NA TURE 



May 1 8, 1905 



it is unfortunately true that much money is needed to 

 make up for the neglect of university teaching in London 

 in the past. Though the increase in the Government 

 grant to university colleges will be of great value, the 

 equipment of both University and King's Colleges needs 

 improvement, and the salaries of the professors are quite 

 inadequate. The whole question of retiring pensions, to 

 which a private donor has just devoted 2,ooo,oooi. in 

 .America, is untouched in London. 



.-\fter the presentation for degrees at the University of 

 London, there was a reception at Bedford College. The 

 occasion is always one for the assembling of the friends 

 of the higher education of women in London, and about 

 live hundred guests were received by the principal, Mrs. 

 James Bryce, and Mrs. Leonard Darwin. The students 

 who were presented at the university included eight for 

 science degrees. The college authorities are contemplating 

 a great re-building scheme, for the lease of the present 

 premises in Baker Street is almost on the point of ex- 

 piring, and an appeal is being made for a quarter of a 

 million sterling, of which 100,000!. would be devoted to 

 endowing a college capable of accommodating five hundred 

 students. 



Lord I^ondonderry, in his speech at the annual dinner 

 of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, referred to 

 the work of the committee appointed by the Government 

 to consider the coordination of the Royal College of -Science 

 at South Kensington with other institutions for higher 

 scientific and technological instruction in London. An 

 interim report has been presented by the committee. The 

 Government has definitely informed the committee that, 

 provided satisfactorv arrangements can be arrived at for 

 the due coordination of the work of the various higher 

 scientific teaching institutions in London and elsewhere, 

 ;md provided that guarantees are obtained for the adequate 

 management of what will practically be a congeries of 

 highly organised technical courses, and for the provision 

 of a thoroughly satisfactory annual income for the upkeep 

 of a great centre for this higher work, the Government 

 is prepared to entrust the management of the Royal 

 College of Science, including the Royal School of Mines, 

 to a committee to be newly established for the purpose. 

 This procedure, it is expected, W'ill bring the work of the 

 Royal College and School of Mines into the closest possible 

 relations with that of the other higher teaching institu- 

 tions, so that a higher degree of cooperation and coordin- 

 ation may be attained in this important portion of the 

 educational field. Lord Londonderry announced that he 

 has good grounds for believing that the Chancellor of the 

 Exchequer has been considering the financial aspect of the 

 new condition of things that will be brought about in re- 

 gard to the Royal College of Science if the changes out- 

 lined actually take effect, and that a reasonable increase 

 in the sums at present annually devoted towards the ex- 

 penses of the Royal College of Science will be made. Thus 

 the Royal College, in its immensely enhanced possibilities 

 of usefulness owing to its large new buildings, will be able 

 to bring to the common aim, not only its fabric and its 

 excellent equipment, and, of course, its good will and 

 prestige, but also a satisfactory annual income as a sub- 

 stantial contribution to what must be the heavy annual 

 expenditure involved in the great work to be carried on 

 for higher scientific and technological education in the 

 metropolis. 



.\s .Mr. Haldane, the chairman of the committee referred 

 to by Lord Londonderry, said on the same occasion, there 

 is now a prospect of the establishment of such a school 

 of mining and metallurgy as will make London the first 

 city of the Empire in point of education in these matters. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — Some five or six years ago a special com- 

 mittee was called together at Cambridge, and an effort 

 was made to obtain the cooperation of the colleges and 

 the town and county councils in a scheme for the improve- 

 ment of the milk supply of Cambridge. The committee 

 had as its primary object the eradication of tuberculosis, 

 beginning with bovine tuberculosis, from the county of 

 NO. 1855, VOL. 72] 



Cambridge. Concurrently it took up the question of the 

 housing of cattle, the sterilisation of milk, the methods 

 of storage and distribution of milk, and the question of 

 what milk should be refused by the colleges and by private 

 purchasers. .Ml these points were considered, not only 

 with regard to tuberculosis, but also in connection with 

 other infectious diseases, e.g. diphtheria, scarlet fever, and 

 typhoid fever. The Cambridge Town Council undertook 

 to pay the expenses of a veterinary surgeon, and the follow- 

 ing colleges undertook to consider the matter favourably, 

 and in most cases offered a certain annual subven- 

 tion : — Gonville and Caius, Trinity Hall, King's, Christ's, 

 .Sidney, Emmanuel, Downing, and Girton, but the larger 

 colleges stood out, and the scheme fell through. 



Prof. Woodhead, in an interesting article in the Cam- 

 bridge Rcvic-M of last week, raises the question whether 

 some such scheme should not be revived, and points to 

 the recent outbreak of scarlet fever, which was especially 

 prevalent in one or two colleges, as an instance of a 

 disease which might easily have been avoided if the com- 

 munity had taken proper precautions. 



It is proposed to erect a building containing examination 

 rooms on a site on the north-east corner of the museum 

 grounds. .At present the university is put to great cost 

 in hiring rooms which, apart from their expense, are not 

 well adapted for examinations. The syndicate appointed 

 to consider this question estimates that for a sum of 

 7500?. it could provide for all e.xaminations held in the 

 university throughout the year, except, perhaps, for a week 

 or two in June and December. 



The Vice-Chancellor announces the generous offer of the 

 Drapers' Company to find the sum of 5000?. towards the 

 cost of a building for the department of agriculture pro- 

 vided that a further sum of 5000/. is raised by voluntary 

 subscriptions by the end of the current year. 



The long vacation course in pathology, public health, 

 and pharmacology will begin on Monday, July 3. Special 

 courses of lectures have been arranged on phagocytosis, 

 by Prof. Woodhead, with the assistance of Mr. W. Maiden ; 

 on illness caused by unsound food, by Mr. H. E. Durham ; 

 on diphtheria, agglutinins, precipitins and hremolvsins, by 

 Mr. G. S. Graham-Smith ; and on protozoa and protozoal 

 diseases, by Dr. Nuttall. Further information about these 

 courses may be obtained by writing to Prof. Woodhead, 

 The Museums, Cambridge. 



Special courses on physiology, osteology, human 

 anatomy, and histology will be given during the long 

 vacation by Mr. Barcroft and Mr. Cole, Dr. Barclav-Smith, 

 Dr. A. Hill, and Mr. Manners-Smith. These will begin 

 on July 5. 



The jubilee of Cheltenham Ladies' College was cele- 

 brated on .Saturday last, and a new science wing was 

 declared open. The new laboratories and lecture-rooms 

 have been erected at a cost of 18,000!., and include rooms 

 well equipped for the teaching of physics, chemistry, and 

 botany. 



The following resolution was carried at a meeting of 

 the council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 

 held on Thursday last : — " That it be referred to the Com- 

 mittee of Management to consider and report as to the 

 desirability of treating chemistry, physics, and biology as 

 subjects of preliminary education, and of requiring that 

 an examination in them should be passed before the re- 

 cognition of the commencement of medical studies, and to 

 report further as to the desirability of the two colleges 

 approaching the Universities and other examining bodies 

 with the view of adopting a five years' curriculum of pro- 

 fessional study from the date of passing the Preliminary 

 Science Examination." 



.\n entrance scholarship in science, value 48!. for three 

 years, will be awarded by the council of Bedford College 

 for Women (University of London) on the result of an 

 examination to be held June 28-30. Full particulars can 

 be obtained from the principal, and forms of entry must be 

 received by June 12. The council, on the recommendation 

 of the Reid trustees, will award the Reid fellowship in 

 June to a graduate of the LTniversity of London who is 

 also an associate of Bedford College.' .Applications should 



