NATURE 



\Oct. 15, 1874 



T^ 



LECTURES IN NATURAL SCIENCES AT 

 CAMBRIDGE 



"HE following lectures in Natural Science will be 

 given at Trinity, St. John's, Christ's, and Sidney 

 Sussex Colleges, during Michaelmas Term 1874. 



On Ehctricity aiid JMagnetism. — By Mr. Trotter, 

 Trinity College, in Lecture Room No. 1 1. (Mondays, 

 Wednesdays, Fridays, at 1 1, commencing Friday, Oct. 16.) 

 Students desiring to attend this course are requested to 

 call upon Mr. Trotter at his rooms on or before Thursday, 

 Oct. 15. Students of Colleges other than Trinity, St. 

 John's, Christ's, and Sidney, can be admitted on payment 

 of a fee of \1. is. 



On Elementary Organic Chemistry. — By Mr. Main, 

 St. John's College. (Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, at 

 1 2, in St. John's College Laboratory, commencing Tuesday, 

 Oct. 20.) Instruction in Practical Chemistry will also be 

 given. Students desiring this instruction are requested 

 to call upon Mr. Main on or before Monday, Oct. 19. 

 For members of Trinity, St. John's, Christ's, and Sidney, 

 the fee for the lectures in Chemistry is 10^. 6^., and for 

 instruction in Practical Chemistry i/. \s. per term ; for 

 others the fees are respectively i/. \s. and il. ^s. per term. 



On Pala-ontolooy. — (The Protozoa and Ccelenterata.) 

 By Mr. Bonney, St. John's College. (Tuesdays and 

 Thursdays, at 9, commencing Thursday, Oct. 15.) 



On Geology.- -{Vox the Natural Sciences Tripos. Pre- 

 liminary matter and Petrology.) By Mr. Bonney, St. 

 John's College. (Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, at 

 10, commencing Wednesday, Oct. 14.) A course on 

 Physical Geology will be given in the Lent Term, and on 

 Stratigraphical Geology in the Easter Term. Papers will 

 be given to Ouestionists every Saturday at 11, but the 

 first paper will be set on Wednesday, Oct. 14, at 11, when 

 arrangements will be made for further instruction, should 

 it be required. Students desiring to attend any of these 

 courses are requested to call upon Mr. Bonney on or 

 before Wednesday, Oct. 14. Students of other Colleges 

 can be admitted to these lectures on payment of a fee of 

 i/. is. for the course. An Elemen'.ary Course will be 

 given in the Lent and Easter Terms. 



On Vegetable Moi phology. — (For the Natural Sciences 

 Tripos.) By Mr. Hicks, Sidney College. (Tuesdays, 

 Thursdays, and Saturdays, at II, in the Taylor Lecture 

 Room, beginning on Tuesday, Nov. 3) The lectures 

 during this term will be on the Morphology of Phanero- 

 gamia. For members of the above Colleges the fee for 

 this course is il. \s. ; for others 2/. is. 



A Course of Practical Physiology and Histology. — By 

 the Trinity Prrelector in Physiology (Dr. Michael Foster) 

 at the New Museums. Lectures on Tuesdays, Thursdays, 

 and Saturdays, at 10, commencing Tuesday, Oct. 20. Fees 

 for the Practical Class, 3/. 3^. ; for the course of two terms, 

 5/. 5^. This course is intended for those who have gone 

 through a course of Elementary Biology similar to that 

 given last Easter Term. 



Also a short course of lectures on the Physiology of 

 Nutrition, on Wednesdays, at 10, commencing Oct. 21. 



On the Compa) ative Anatomy of Invertebrata. — By 

 Mr. Martin, Christ's College. ( Mondays, Wednesdays, 

 and Fridays, at 12, commencing Friday, Oct. 16.) 



NOTES 



Among the Fellowships atj Trinity College, Cambridge, 

 awarded on S.iturday last, one was given for proficiency in 

 Natural Science. Although thrown open to the whole Uni- 

 versity, it was gained by a member of Trinity College, Mr. 

 Francis M. Balfour, B. A., the circumstances of whose election are 

 worthy of notice. The Fellowships at Trinity College are 

 awarded according to the results of an examination held specially 

 for the purpose, and not as in other Colleges, according to the 



positions gained by the candidates in the University Exami- 

 nations or Triposes. The Natural ; Science Fellowship was no 

 exception to this custom : a special examination in Physics, 

 Chemistry, and Biology, was held in order to test the proficiency 

 of the candidates. But it had previously been announced that 

 the examiners were prepared in estimating the proficiency of the 

 candidates to take into consideration records of original work in 

 the shape of published memoirs or unpublished dissertations, 

 and to be guided by the value of these as well as by the ordinary 

 examination answers. In other words, the^authorities of Trinity 

 College formally declared that they were' prepared to bestow a 

 Fellowship as a mvard for, and thus as an encouragement to, 

 research. Mr. Balfour's success in his candidature was, we 

 understand, due to the value attached to the original memoirs, 

 chiefly on embryological subjects, sent in by him, as well for 

 their actual worth as for the future of which they gave promise. 

 We congratulate him and the Natural Science School at 

 Cambridge on the result. The deadening influence of the 

 examination system at Cambridge, great as it is in mathematics, 

 bears with fearful effect on all Natural Science studies. The 

 cramming necessary for success m a competitive examination 

 such as the Natural Science Tripos, renders original research for 

 the time being impossible, and 'goes far to destroy all power for 

 it In the future. Mr. Balfour had the courage to commence 

 original work before he had taken his degree. In spite of 

 warnings that he was endangering his position in the Tripos, 

 he chose the belter part, and spent in research the time he 

 might have frittered away in cramming for an examination. 

 Incidentally he has thereby won a Fellowship. We trust that 

 his example will, be followed by other students, and the example 

 of Trinity College by other Colleges, so that henceforward on 

 the one hand early research may be the rule at Cambridge 

 instead of the exception, and on the other the injurious effects of 

 the Fellowship system may be lessened as much as possible. 



The following changes are proposed to be made in the Coun- 

 cibof the Mathematical Society for the ensuing session : — Dr. 

 Hirst, F. R. S., the retiring president, will become a vice-presi- 

 dent, and be succeeded by Prof. H. J. Stephen Smith, F.R.S. 

 Mr. Spottiswoode, F.R.S. , having served his term of office as 

 vice-president, will become an ordinary member of the Council. 

 The vacancies caused by the retirement of Prof Ilenrici, F.R.S., 

 and Mr. J. J. Walker, have been filled up by the selection of 

 Mr. R. B. Hayward and Mr. W. D. Niven. The Society has 

 nearly completed its tenth year, and has had as ]iresidents 

 De Morgan, Sylvester, Cayley, Spottiswoode, and Hirst. It 

 would, we think, be difficult to find more fitting representatives 

 of the mathematical ability of this country, should the day ever 

 arrive, in this day of congresses, for holding an International 

 Congress of Mathematicians. When the Society started into 

 existence 011 Jan. i6, 1S65, there were, we believe, not more than 

 two similar societies in the world ; now, each year adds to the 

 ever-lengthening chain. It is a singular and sad coincidence 

 that as the present president on his accession to the chair had to 

 announce to the members the great loss the Society had sus- 

 tained through the death of the lamented Dr. Clebsch, so, too, 

 as he vacates his office will it be his last task to tell of the 

 decease of Dr. Otto Hesse ; though in this sad case mathemati- 

 cians have to mourn the loss of a man full uf years and 

 honours. The Society is thus left without a representative of 

 the great body of German mathematicians in its list of foreign 

 members. The election of the new Council will take place on 

 Nov. 12. The above-named changes are those suggested by 

 the present Council, and will be submitted in the usual way 

 to all the'members of the Society for their approval. 



Another College for Working Women is about to be 

 opened. Its inaugural meeting is announced for Friday evening, 

 at No. S, Fitzroy Str^t, Fitzroy Square. The committee aims 



