APRIL 4, 1912| 
by many surveyors, and notably at an early date by 
Mr. Hooley, of Nottingham, in putting together road 
crusts with the aid of tarry components substituted 
for mud binding. 
{ have probably said enough to show that a good 
road, which shall keep smooth, be impervious to 
water, and not tend to disintegrate, is now an accom- 
plished fact, and I only need to add that the cost, 
taken over a series of years, will not be more—indeed 
there is good ground to believe it will be less—than 
that of a road as it has been constructed in the past. 
One question remains—will it not be well to en- 
deavour to provide an elastic skin or carpet to lie 
between the vehicle and the bearing crust? The 
laboratory experiments made seem to indicate that 
this will be accomplished. Research has beeri made 
with pitch and with bitumen, and the conclusion has 
been reached that pitch will not give satisfactory 
results, but bitumen will do so. A stick of pitchy 
material has very little resiliency when subjected to 
strain. A bitumen stick of the same size is capable 
of being twisted without fracture, and when freed 
slowly resumes its shape. 
It is expected that with such material laid on the 
top of the main road crust and integrated with it a 
valuable road protection will be supplied, so that the | 
NATURE 
road crust will be practically permanent, the upper | 
protecting sheet being remade up and relaid as 
required. 
For the carpet or topping, the case is somewhat 
different from the crust. Here strength is not of so 
much importance as the elastic and silencing qualities, 
and the freedom from liability to produce any dust in 
summer or mud in winter. Another requirement 
which is very difficult to meet in this transition age 
is that of giving a surface good for motor and 
mechanical transport, and which will not be slippery, 
and will afford good foothold for horses. The carpet 
must be a compromise; it must not be as hard as 
motorists would wish for, but just so hard that it “will 
wear a little and yet be cheap and easy to maintain. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
Science announces that the Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology has received from a donor whose name 
for the present is anonymous a gift of 500,o0ol. for 
the erection of the buildings on its new site. 
Since our last issue, Lord Haldane, chairman of 
the Royal Commission on University Education in 
London, has received a promise of 50,0001. towards | 
the purchase of the site on the Duke of Bedford’s | L ! 
| learned to serve with the method and in the spirit of 
estate north of the British Museum for London 
University. This brings the total amount subscribed 
for a new site and Senate house for the University to 
355,000l. 
THE new buildings of the Spinning Section of the 
Textile Department of the University of Leeds will 
be opened by the Master of the Clothworkers’ Com- 
pany on Friday, April 26. The ceremony, at which 
the chancellor of the University (the Duke of Devon- 
shire) will be present, will take place in the hall of 
the University. The Clothworkers’ Company, whose 
liberality has made the new extension possible, will 
be represented by the Master (Mr. F. G. Fitch), the 
Warden (Mr. G. H. Nussey), Mr. A. W. Snow, Sir 
Owen Roberts, Sir Swire Smith, Mr. William Latham, 
K.C., and the Right Hon. G. W. Balfour. 
A PRIZE fellowship of 1201. was offered by the 
Federation of University Women in December last, 
open to women who have been engaged during a 
| portant developments of the year. 
129 
have been published. Thirteen applications were re- 
ceived, investigations in zoology, geology, physiology, 
botany, physics, history, Oriental religions, English 
literature, French literature, and philosophy being 
| submitted. ‘The fellowship has been awarded to Miss 
C. E. Spurgeon, docteur de 1’Université de Paris, 
lecturer in English literature at Bedford College, 
London. Miss Spurgeon’s published work deals 
chiefly with mysticism in poetry and with Chaucer 
criticism. 
THE annual report on the work and progress of 
University College, London, has just been issued. 
The total number of students during the session 
Ig10-I1 was 1600; of this number there were in the 
faculty of science 197 undergraduate and non-matri- 
culated students, and 90 postgraduate and research 
students. The report contains a résumé of the chief 
activities of the year, together with appendices show- 
ing the list of original papers and other publications 
recording the results of investigations carried on in 
the college. There is also a summary of the im- 
Among these, the 
two most noteworthy are to be found in the progress 
made in the scheme for new chemical laboratories, 
due especially to the gift by Sir Ralph C. Forster of 
30,0001. towards the buildings, and in the anonymous 
benefaction of 30,0001. primarily for the building of 
the new School of Architecture. The report shows 
| that a sum of about tIo0,oool. is still required to com- 
plete the new chemical laboratories. 
IN an address at Boston on March 6, Dr. R. C. 
Maclaurin, president of the Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology, said nearly everyone recognises to- 
day the power and might of science, and nearly 
everyone pays it at least the homage of the lips. 
He reviewed some of the controversies that marked 
the foundation of the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology. It was attacked only a_ half-century 
ago on the ground that science is antagonistic to 
humanity. The idea was that science was unsuited 
to be an instrument of education because it dealt 
with nature rather than with men. This limited 
idea can find little favour to-day, when science is 
seen to be human to the core. Even when it deals 
with nature it deals with man’s views of nature; but, 
apart from this, half a century of its sway has dis- 
played to the world something of the immensity of 
its power to make for human betterment. ‘‘ Science 
| in the service of man,” continued Dr. Maclaurin, ‘‘is 
| indeed the watchword of modern progress, and men 
and women who could serve their fellows in the future 
will find themselves handicapped unless they have 
science.”” 
Tue recently published report of the Board of 
Education for the year 1910-11 (Cd. 6116) gives much 
useful information concerning the number of efficient 
secondary schools in England and of pupils in them. 
The total number of schools regarded as eligible for 
grant during 1910-11 was 862, as compared with 841 
during 1909-10. In these schools there were, on 
January 31, 1911, 79,506 boys and 66,378 girls, as 
compared with 76,699 boys and 64,450 girls in 1910. 
There were 96 other schools recognised by the Board 
as efficient during 1910-11, though they were not on 
the grant list. In these schools on the date given 
above there were 9946 boys and 7666 girls. So far 
as the number of pupils in public elementary schools 
is concerned, the report shows that in rg10-11 the 
number under five continued to fall, as in previous 
years, and, in addition, during this year there was a 
number of years in research, the results of which | decrease of S118 in the number of pupils over twelve; 
NO. 2214, VOL. 89] 
