44 



NATURE 



[May 14, 1896 



believed that this was greatly over-estimated, and that it would 

 be of short duration. But whether the inconvenience be little or 

 great, it must some lime be encountered, and it will not be 

 decreased by the increase of the population. It will be no easier 

 for a hundred millions of people ten years hence to make the 

 change than for seventy millions to-day. It is simply a question 

 whether this generation shall accept the annoyance and incon- 

 venience of the change largely for the benefit of the ne.\t, or 

 shall the people of to-day selfishly consult only their own ease and 

 impose on their children the double burden of learning and then 

 discarding the present " brain-wasting system." The present 

 generation must meet this test of selfishness or unselfishness, and 

 answer to posterity for duty performed or neglected. 



The Committee, after a careful consideration of the whole 

 subject, unanimously reached the conclusion that the metric 

 system of weights and measures should be put into exclusive use 

 in the various Departments of the Government at such future 

 date as shall allow adequate preparation for the change, and at the 

 end of a fixed time thereafter that said system shall be recognised 

 as the only legal system for general use. They, however, do not 

 deem it wise at present to require a change in the methods of 

 surveying the public lands, as this would in that respect destroy 

 rather than promote uniformity. 



The Committee deemed it prudent to enlarge the time for the 

 proposed system to take effect to a date somewhat later than the 

 date proposed in the Bill submitted, adopting for America about 

 the average time deemed necessary by other nations. It is there- 

 fore recommended that the time for adoption in the Departments 

 and operations of the Government, except in the completion of 

 the survey of the public lands, be fixed for July i, 1898, and that 

 the adoption of the metric system for use in the nation at large 

 be fixed as coincident with the dawn of the twentieth century, 

 and that date be accordingly changed to January i, 1901, the 

 first day of the new century. 



The Bill reads as follows : — 



" A Bill to fix the standard of weights and measures by the 

 adoption of the metric system of weights and measures. 



' ' Be it dialled by the Senate and House ojtiepresentalives of the 

 United States of America in Congress assembled, That from and 

 after the first day of July, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, 

 all the Departments of the (lovernment of the United States, in 

 transaction of all business requiring the use of weight and 

 measurement, except in completing the survey of the public 

 lands, shall employ and use only the weights and measures of 

 the metric system. 



"Sec. 2. That from and after the first day of January, nineteen 

 hundred and one, the metric system of weights and measures 

 shall be the only legal system of weights and measures recognised 

 in the United States. 



"Sec, 3. That the metricsystem of weightsand measureshere- 

 in referred to is that in which the ultimate standard of mass or 

 weight is the international kilogram of the International Bureau 

 of Weights and iNIeasures, established in accordance with the 

 convention of May twentieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-five, 

 and the ultimate standard of length is the international metre of 

 the same bureau, the national prototypes of which are kilogram 

 numbered twenty and metre numbered twenty-seven, preserved 

 in the archives of the office of standard weights and measures. 



" Sec. 4. That the tables in the schedules annexed to the Bill 

 authorising the use of the metric system of weights and measures 

 passed July twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, shall 

 be the tables of equivalents which may be lawfully used for 

 computing, determining and expressing the customary weights 

 and measures in the weights and measures of the metric system." 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge.— The first Smith's Prize is awarded to Mr. 

 W. S. Adie, bracketed Senior Wrangler 1894; the second is 

 divided between Mr. A. Y. G. Campbell, bracketed ninth 

 Wrangler, and Mr. F. W. Lawrence, bracketed fourth Wrangler 

 in the same year. All the j^rizemen are members of Trinity 

 College. 



Prof. Newton, F.R.S., has been reappointed one of the 

 managers of the Balfour Studentships in Animal Morphology 

 until June 1901. 



The School of Medicine of the University of Toronto has 

 been placed on the list of Colonial Schools recognised by the 

 Special Board for Medicine. 



NO. 1385, VOL. 54] 



The Council of the Senate recommend for affiliation to the 

 University the Roman Catholic College of St. Edmund's, Ware, 

 the successor since 1793 of l'"^ former English College at 

 Douai. 



On account of the increasing length of the practical examina- 

 tions for the Natural Sciences Tripos, the Medical Board propose 

 that the examinations for M.B. shall in future take place at a 

 later date in the Michaelmas and Kaster Terms. It is noted 

 that a number of medical students are following with advantage 

 the course lor the ordinary B.A. degree, and a rearrangement 

 of the dates of the examinations has become necessary to meet 

 their case. 



The next examination for the diploma in Agriculture will 

 begin on July 6, and last a week. 



Sir William Priestley, the distinguished physician, has 

 been elected i>arlianientary representative of the Universities of 

 Edinburgh and St. Andrews. 



The City and Guilds of London Institute is inviting applica- 

 tions for the Professorship of Mechanical Engineering and 

 Applied Mathematics at the Technical College, Finsbury, 

 rendered vacant by the appointment of Prof. John Perry, 

 F. R.S. , to a Professorship at the Royal College of Science. 

 Applications for the appointment should be addressed to the 

 Honorary Secretary at the office of the Institute, Gresham 

 College, E.G. 



The following are among recent appointments ; — Dr. Zuber, 

 Privatdocent in Geology in Lemberg University, to be Extra- 

 ordinary Professor ; Dr. Ilenking, Privatdocent in Zoology in 

 Giittingen University, to be Extraordinary Professor ; Dr. 

 Oertel to be Observer in the Observatory at Munich ; Dr. 

 Ludwig Kathariner to be Professor of Zoology and Comparative 

 Anatomy in the University of Fribourg ; Prof. Dr. Buchner to 

 be Extraordinary Professor of Chemistry at Tubingen ; Dr. 

 Albert Fleischmann to be Director of the Zoological Institute at 

 Erlangcn ; Dr. George Riirig to be Extraordinary Professor of 

 Zoology in Konigsberg University. 



Mr. James G. Lawn, Instructor in Mine Surveying at the 

 Royal College of Science, London, has been appointed Professor 

 of Mining at the South African School of Mines. The School 

 was started some years ago, but it is undergoing reorganisation. 

 It is proposed that the course of instruction shall extend over 

 four years ; the first two years — in which scientific instruction 

 will be given — being spent at the South African College, Cape 

 Town. The third year will be spent at Kimberley, where 

 theoretical and practical instruction in mining will be given. 

 The fourth year will be chiefly taken up with practical work at 

 Johannesburg. The Cape of tjood Hope University is to be 

 asked to establish a .Mining degree, the final examinations for 

 which the students would attend at the end of their fourth year. 

 So far only the preliminary scientific instruction has been given, 

 and Mr. Lawn is going out to organise and initiate the in- 

 struction to be given in the third and fourth years of the course. 

 The salary is .^800 a year. 



Full ri;cognition is being given to the scientific attainments 

 of women in America. We learn from Scienee that at Bryn 

 Mawr College Miss F. Cook has been appointed Fellow in 

 mathematics ; Miss F. Lowwater, in physics, and Miss C. 

 Fairbanks, in chemistry. 



Science records the following gifts to education and research 

 in America. Mrs. Lydia Bradley, of Peoria, III., has made 

 known her attention of giving 1,000,000 dols. for a polytechnic 

 institute in Peoria. — A Boston citizen, wliose name is withheld, 

 has given 100,000 dols. to establish a chair of Comparative 

 Pathology in the medical school of Harvard University. — Mrs. 

 J. S. T. Stranahan, of Brooklyn, has given 5000 dols. to the 

 building fund of Barnard College. — The Catholic University has 

 received 5000 dols. by the will of the Kev. Father Dougherty, of 

 Honesdale, Pa. — It is expected that .Mayor Strong will approve 

 the Bill authorising the Board of Estimate and Apportionment 

 to give the College of the City of New York 175,000 doLs. a 

 year instead of 150,000 dols., the amount it has received for 

 .several years. 



.\T the gLueral meeting of Convocation of the University nf 

 London, held on Tuesday, it was resolved — "That some uuans 

 should be devised for a more thorough preliminary investigatiim 



