October 24, 1907 J 



NA TURE 



655 



pursue in developing' the teaching and research in forestry 

 in the University. 



The number of students who have just matriculated is 

 1099, ^s compared with 102 1 who matriculated in October, 

 1906. Of these, fifteen are advanced students. 



The number of first-year students studying medicine is 

 130, as compared with 122 last year and 117 in 1905. 



Mr. R. P. Gregory has been appointed university 

 lecturer in botany in succession to Mr. Hill, as from 

 Michaelmas, 1907, until Michaelmas, 1912, and Mr. A. M. 

 Smith has been appointed demonstrator in the same sub- 

 ject for the five years ending September 30, 1912. 



The general board of studies will shortly proceed to 

 appoint a university lecturer in advanced human anatomy 

 in succession to Dr. Hill. The annual stipend is 50!. 

 Candidates are requested to send their applications, with 

 such testimonials as they think fit, to the \'ice-Chancellor 

 on or before November 5. 



Oxford. — In a Convocation held on October 22, the 

 honorary degree of D.Litt. was conferred upon Prof. E. 

 Meyer, professor of ancient history in the University of 

 Berlin, in recognition of his work on Egyptian hieroglyphs 

 and researches in Egyptian history and chronology, and 

 his general study of history. 



The offer of a sum of about iooo(. for the foundation 

 of a prize as a memorial of the late Prof. Weldon, and for 

 the encouragement of biometric science, has been accepted 

 by Convocation. The prize is to be awarded every three 

 years for the most noteworthy contribution during the 

 previous six yea,rs to biometric science without regard to 

 nationality or sex, biolog\- being interpreted to include 

 zoology, botany, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and 

 medical science. 



Mr. a. a. Read has been appointed professor of 

 metallurgy at the University College of South Wales and 

 Monmouthshire. 



At University College (University of London) on 

 October 16, the Chadwick medals for municipal hygiene 

 and engineering were presented to Mr. K. G. Dunbar, Mr. 

 W. D. Reynolds, and Mr. J. R. Wade. 



The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland will open the new 

 Municipal Technical Institute at Belfast on Wednesday 

 next, October 30. In connection with the opening, a 

 conversazione will be held in the institute on Friday, 

 November i. 



The third annual general meeting of the .Association of 

 Teachers in Technical Institutions will be held on 

 November 9, at 3 p.m., in the South-Western Polytechnic, 

 Chelsea, S.W. The annual report of the council will be 

 presented, and other business transacted. 



At Bedford College for Women (University of London), 

 Reid fellowships for research have been awarded to Miss 

 Tchayl<ovsky and to Miss C. Saunders. Dr. W. H. Will- 

 cox has resigned the appointment as lecturer in hygiene, 

 and Mr. J. A. H. Brincker has been appointed temporarily 

 to take his place. 



The President of the Board of Education, Mr. McKcnna, 

 on October 18 laid the memorial stone of a new girls' 

 high school at Gloucester. The cost of the school build- 

 ings alone is to be 13,615!. Subsequently, Mr. McKenna 

 delivered an address to a large meeting of persons 

 interested in education, and directed attention to a modern 

 tendency in educational administration by which is being 

 realised the American conception of a single type of public 

 school for all classes of the community. 



The report read by the principal, Mr. H. B. Knowles, 

 at the distribution of prizes to the students of the Salford 

 Royal Technical Institute on October iS, referred to 

 several points of interest to administrators of technical 

 institutions. Mr. Knowles directed attention to the fact 

 that the Board of Trade requires that a candidate who 

 seeks to qualify as an engineer in the mercantile marine 

 must have served as an apprentice for at least four years. 

 Time spent in a suitable technical school may, however, 

 be accepted as equivalent to artisan service in the ratio 

 of three years in the' technical school to two years' artisan 

 service.' The Board -of Trade has recognised the day 



NO, 1982, VOL. 76J 



mechanical engineering courses at Salford as giving suit- 

 able training for this purpose. During last session all 

 applicants for admission to the Salford institute under 

 sixteen years of age were required to give evidence that 

 they possessed a satisfactory preliminary knowledge of 

 English and mathematics, and, failing this, were advised 

 first to attend special courses preparatory to the work of 

 the institute. Sixty per cent, of the applicants for 

 admission were thus rejected. Courses of study are now 

 arranged suitable for persons engaged in the chief indus- 

 tries of the district, based upon attendance at the institute 

 on three evenings per week. 



Speaking at Wakefield on October 17 at a public meet- 

 ing held in connection with the Wakefield Education 

 Guild, Mr. Haldane said that higher education is of great 

 value to those engaged in industrial pursuits, in fact it is 

 of value to the whole nation. Learning for learning's 

 sa'Ke is a great text, and it does not shut out the utilitarian 

 side. The profits of industrial enterprise go to the man 

 of brains, to the man with the power of direction. This 

 shows that it is vital to those engaged in industrial enter- 

 prises that they should have command of science and as 

 much knowledge as they can get. Unless knowledge is 

 spread among the people there cannot be equality of oppor- 

 tunity. There is only one leveller, only one man who 

 does anything substantial to make people equal, and that 

 is the schoolmaster. Education in this country will never 

 be right until the elementary school, the secondary school, 

 and the university are linked together. The British people 

 perhaps need education more than any other nation. We 

 are very prosperous ; we are very self-reliant ; we have 

 magnificent energy; if we had not, we should have been 

 distanced in the race. But we are competing against 

 science and the increasing science which science gives. 

 We are being more and more handicapped in the race, 

 and it is our own individual powers that have enabled us 

 still to get to the goal In front of our competitors. Let 

 us learn before science makes still further advances, and 

 before they are appropriated by foreign nations, to bring 

 ourselves at least up to their level. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Entomological Society, March 2 — Mr. C. O. Water! ouscj 

 president, In the chair. — Exhibits. — Commander J. J. 

 Walker : Living specimens of the heteromerous beetle 

 Sitaris minalis, first re-discovered at Oxford in 1903 by 

 Mr. A. H. Hamm on old stone walls in the vicinity of 

 Oxford inhabited by the mason bee, Podalirius (Aniho- 

 phora) pilipes, on which it is parasitic in its early stages. 

 — G. T. Porritt : Black specimens of both sexes of 

 Fidonia atomaria from the Harden Moss Moors, Hudders- 

 field, illustrating the melanic tendency of Lepidoptera in 

 the district. — H. St. J. Donisthorpe : Apion scniivitta- 

 tum, taken at Deal ; Magdalis duplicata from Nethy 

 Bridge, the first record of the species for Scotland ; 

 Formica sanguinea from Aviemore and Nethy Bridge, the 

 first record for Scotland; and Pie::ostethus formicetorum, 

 taken with Formica rufa at Rannoch, a species not re- 

 corded since 1S74. — A. H. Jones : A case of butterflies 

 taken this year from Hcrculesbad, South Hungary, in- 

 cluding specimens of Ercbia mclas from the Domogled, 

 which bore a remarkable resemblance to Erebia alccto, 

 var. nichoUi, Oberth., from Camplglio, and Erchia 

 Icfebvrci, Oberth., also shown for comparison by Mr. H. 

 Rowland-Brown. Mr. Jones also exhibited examples of 

 Chrosophanus dispar, var. rutiius, and C. alciphron, from 

 the neighbourhood of Budapest, both species of great size 

 and brilliant colouring. — Dr. F. A. Dixey : Specimens 

 from Uganda of the African Plerine genus Mylothris, show- 

 ing an almost complete gradation between Mylothris chloris. 

 Fabr., and M. agathina. Cram. — M. Jacoby : Several 

 fine forms of the ab. ceroiuis of L. bellargiis taken this 

 autumn at Folkestone, and one example of the ab. 

 cimiidcs. Stgr. — Norman Joy ; A specimen of the rare 

 beetle, Cryptophagus subdeprassus, Gyll., taken near Garva, 

 Ross, on August 4 last. — W. J. Lucas : Two specimens of 

 DcilcphUa euphorbiac bred by Mr. Nicholson and Mr. 

 Summers from larvae found in Kew Gardens. Mr. Lucas 

 also exhibited several examples of predaceous insects with 



