July i6. 1908J 



NA TURE 



257 



bandages to wrists and ankles. In another sculpture the 

 hideous face of the figure seems to be masked by the 

 flayed skin of a human victim. Indeed, as might have 

 been expected, human sacrifice seems to have played a 

 leading part in the cruel religious rites of this people-. 



Mr. Maler docs not venture an explanation of the 

 symbolism, nor does he speculate on the origin and signifi- 

 cance of these sculptures, which cannot be interpreted 

 until the buildings to which they were attached have been 

 fully examined. Meanwhile, he has done good service in 

 collecting drawings, moulds, and photographs of a remark- 

 able series of monuments, which under the present 

 government of the country are in imminent danger of 

 destruction before they can be subjected to careful scientific 

 examination. 



IHE NEW BUILDINGS OF THE 

 UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS. 



'PHF. opening of the new buildings of the University of 

 Leeds by the King, who was accompanied by the 

 Queen, was bWefly recorded in N.«ure of July 9. A visit 

 oil the part of the Sovereign to a modern university, though 

 not a unique occurrence, is sufficiently rare to be regarded, 

 at least by the favoured institution, as an historical event. 

 It is a Royal tribute to learning, cultivated not, as hereto- 

 fore, in the silent precincts of sombre, mediaeval halls, 

 but strenuously pursued within earshot of busy factories 

 and the hum of city life. It is, moreover, a public recog- 

 nition and encouragement of the aims of a community 

 which has provided from its own resources a centre of 

 active scientific and academic life. 



Historical. — Although the Leeds School of Medicine, 

 which dates so far back as 183 1, represents the oldest 

 branch of the University, it is the Yorkshire College of 

 Science, founded in 1874, which forms its real nucleus, 

 the School of Medicine being incorporated in 1884. The 

 College was then a modest block of buildings near the 

 centre of the town, and began its first year with three 

 professors and one student. 



The first important development of the College of Science 

 occurred in 1877, when it took over from the LTniversity 

 Extension Committee the teaching of arts subjects, and 

 became the Yorkshire College. In the same year the 

 foundation-stone of the present buildings was laid by the 

 late Dr. Thomson, .Archbishop of York. 



The Clothworkers' Company, the generosity of which 

 to the technical departments of the college is as con- 

 spicuous as it is consistent, undertook the first section 

 of the college buildings by erecting the textile industries 

 and dyeing departments at a cost of 70,000/. 



In 1887 the Yorkshire College entered the Victoria' 

 L'niversity as its third constituent college, and thus obtained 

 the privilege of preparing its students for its own degrees. 



To pass briefly in review the more recent developments, 

 we must record the building of the Baines wing as a 

 memorial to Sir Edward Baines, which was opened by the 

 Prince and Princess of Wales (their present Majesties) in 

 Julv, 1885 ; the building of the leather industries depart- 

 ment in i88f) at a cost of 5668/., mainly defrayed by the 

 Skinners' Company ; the founding of the agricultural 

 department in iSqo ; and the building of the library, college 

 hall, and medical school in 1894. 



In 1903, when the union of the three constituent colleges 

 of the Victoria University was dissolved and the York- 

 shire College became the University of Leeds, the Privy 

 Council, in recommending the grant of a university charter, 

 stipulated that the capital of the institution should be 

 increased. 



The council has now succeeded in raising a little more 

 than 100,000/., more than half of which has already been 

 expended in extensions, constituting the new buildings 

 which His Majesty the King, as visitor of the University, 

 opened on Julv 7. 



The new buildings, the design and erection of which 

 have been entrusted to Mr. Paul Waterhouse, comprise the 

 main block extension in College Road for the arts and 

 education departments, the temporary building for physics 

 and chemistry, the mining, fuel, and metallurgical block, 

 the laboratories for electrical engineering, the extension of 



NO. 2020, VOL. 78] 



the mechanical engineering building, certain additions to 

 the textile department, and a central boiler house. The 

 first of them in date of completion is the laboratory for 

 mining, fuel, and metallurgy. The building was erected 

 and equipped mainly from a fund of about 8000/. con- 

 tributed by the Yorkshire Coal Owners. It stands by itself 

 near the main university buildings, and is a simple three- 

 storied red-brick structure. It is divided into two depart- 

 ments, that of mining, which is mainly on the ground 

 floor, being under the supervision of Prof. Thompson, 

 whilst the fuel and rictallurgy department, under Prof. 

 Bone, is housed mainly on the first floor. 



The Mining Dcjtarlmcnt.— This includes a lecture-room 

 capable of seating fifty students, which it shares jointly 

 with the department of fuel and metallurgy ; a drawing 

 office, which is equipped with surveying instruments ; a 

 general mining laboratory for the study of ore dressing 

 and coal washing, which contains laboratory crushing and 

 sampling machines, small jigs, slime tables, vanning 

 shovel, and gold-washing pans, with the necessary assay- 

 ing equipment for testing the products. Adjoining is an 

 annexe for larger sized coal-washing and ore-dressing 

 machinery, and includes a stone breaker, Cornish rolls, a 

 stamp battery, jigging screens, &c. There are also fans 

 and galleries for demonstrating the principles of ventilation 

 of coal mines, and a photometric and lamp room for the 

 study of safety-lamps and of difl'erent methods of gas-test- 

 ing as ordinarily employed in collieries. 



The Gas Engineering, Fuel, and Melalliirgy Department. 

 —This includes a large furnace-room, a general laboratory 

 more especially for gas and fuel investigations, a balance 

 and galvanometer room, stores, private laboratory,' and a 

 museum with a lecture-room on the top floor. The depart- 

 ment represents a somewhat new departure in technical 

 training, for in addition to the usual work connected 

 with the study of metallurgy, it is laid out for the 

 experimental study of difl'erent kinds of fuel and for pre- 

 paring students for the working of gas plant for light- 

 ing and heating. In this connection it may be mentioned 

 that the department is receiving financial assistance fro-n 

 the Institute of Gas Engineers in the form of an endow- 

 ment of 500/. a year, which is being raised by the efforts 

 of Sir George Livesey, and a fellowship of 100/. a year 

 for research in connection with the gas industry. The 

 furnace-room is equipped for the practical study of the 

 characteristics of metals and alloys. The whole length 

 of the room along one side is furnished with furnaces 

 standing on stone slabs, including a full range of gas 

 crucible furnaces, oil cyclone furnaces, a gas reverberatory 

 furnace, muffle, sagger, and retort furnaces, with blast 

 driven by a Crowell blower. Half the floor space is 

 occupied 'by machines for testing the mechanical proper- 

 ties of metals and alloys, a rolling mill for reducing J-inch 

 rods to i-inch section, tensile-testing machine, a torsion- 

 testing machine, and a set of electrically driven machines 

 for cutting, grinding, and polishing sections, and preparing 

 them for microscopic examination and photography. 

 Adjoining the furnace-room is a laboratory with a special 

 installation of apparatus for research on gaseous explosions 

 under pressure, a compressing plant for obtaining corn- 

 pressed gases up to 200 atmospheres, and bench for analysis 

 of coal, steel, &c. 



The furnace and adjoining balance-room contain a com- 

 plete installation of recording electrical and optical pyro- 

 meters, and the laboratory is also equipped with gas and 

 bomb calorimeters for calorimetric determinations and 

 apparatus for gas analysis. The equipment of these labora- 

 tories has been carried' out at a cost of about 1000/. 



The Electrical Eni;ineering Department.— This depart- 

 ment has been removed from its very cramped quarters in 

 the main block, and now occupies a new and spacious 

 building specially arranged, and standing by itself on the 

 north side of the north quadrangle. It comprises a lecture 

 theatre, drawing oflice, and photometer room equipped 

 with the latest standards and apparatus for the measure- 

 ment of the candle-power of electric glow and arc lamps, 

 gas burners, &c. ; a transformer room supplied with low- 

 and high-pressure static transformers, rotary and electro- 

 lytic rectifiers, and apparatus for investigating efficiency 

 of such plant ; an instrument room, equipped with pressure, 

 current and power standards, and a variety of testing 



