24 



NA TURE 



[July i, 1909 



The Viscountess Falmouth will present the prizes at the 

 Horticultural College, Swanley, Kent, on Thursday, 

 July 15. Sir John Cockburn will take the chair at 

 4 p.m. 



A DISTINGUISHED American physicist, Prof. E. F. 

 Nichols, of Columbia University, has been elected presi- 

 dent of Dartmouth College, a leading New England 

 institution with more than 1200 students. Dr. Nichols 

 is a graduate of Cornell, and held chairs at Colgate and 

 Dartmouth before being appointed to his present post at 

 Columbia. 



The issue of The Record, the magazine of the South- 

 western Polytechnic Institute, Chelsea, London, for May, 

 contains an account of this year's prize distribution, when 

 Dr. H. A. Miers, F.R.S., the principal of the University 

 of London, delivered an address. The report of the prin- 

 cipal of the institute, an abstract of which is printed in 

 the magazine, shows that there were 2573 students under 

 his supervision during 1907-8. 



The King has consented to lay the foundation-stone of 

 the new buildings of the Imperial College of Science and 

 Technology, South Kensington, on July 8. The building 

 is to accommodate the departments of mining and metal- 

 lurgy of the Royal School of Mines, geologv of the Roval 

 College of Science, and the extension of the engineering 

 department (City and Guilds College), and will be 

 situated on the land in Prince Consort Road lying to the 

 east of the Royal College of Music, and extending so far 

 as Exhibition Road. 



The fourth annual issue of the " Girls' School Year 

 Book (Public Schools) " has now appeared. The book 

 becomes year by year more complete, and certainly 

 provides a useful directory for those interested in the 

 education of girls. It is, however, still difficult to under- 

 stand the editors' method of selection of schools for de- 

 tailed treatment. Among new features this year are 

 articles on domestic science, teachers' registration, the 

 teaching of music in public secondary schools, and a list 

 of lecturers suitable for schools. The volume is published 

 by the Year Book Press, c/o Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein 

 and Co., Ltd., and its price is 2S. 6d. net. 



A FULLY illustrated description of the college of engineer- 

 ing of the University of Illinois is contained in the issue 

 of the Unh-crsity of Illinois Bulletin for March 8. 

 Descriptions are provided of the work and equipment of 

 the eight departments of the college, as well as those of 

 the engineering experiment station and the school of 

 railway engineering and administration. The college has 

 been organised to give such training to voung men as 

 will enable them to do efficient worlc in 'the branch of 

 engineering or architecture they may select, to meet the 

 demand for highiy specialised instruction and research, 

 and to conduct investigations of value to the industrial 

 enterprises of Illinois and distribute the knowledge gained. 



In the course of his recent presidential address to the 

 Society of Chemical Industry, of which a short abstract 

 appeared in N.ature of June 3, Prof. Meldola made the 

 following appreciative remarks on the modern methods of 

 laboratory instruction in chemistry : — " It is unnecessary 

 here to dwell at too great a length upon the general prac- 

 tical training, although I should like to add that if the 

 level has been raised, and if our teaching has become more 

 philosophical, we are mainly indebted to a former occupant 

 of this chair. Prof. Emerson Reynolds, who is unquestion- 

 ably the pioneer reformer in the laboratory teaching of 

 chemistry. I am glad of this opportunitv of acknowfedg- 

 mg the indebtedness of teachers to Prof. Reynolds, be- 

 cause, amidst the later clamour, his share in the develop- 

 ment of chemical teaching has been overlooked." This 

 address is published in full in the current number of the 

 journal of the society. 



Evidence of the rapid development of the Chinese 

 Empire will be found in an article in Engineerim; for 

 June 18 dealing with the engineering and rnining college 

 at Tang Shan, North China. This' college was" founded 

 in iqo6 for the education of Chinese students, and is in 

 connection with the Imperial Railways of North China, 

 both being under imperial administration. The staff 

 NO. 2070, VOL. 81] 



consists of a president (Mr. S. S. Young), four English 

 professors in mechanical engineering, civil engineering,, 

 mining, and physical faculties respectively, two Chinese 

 literati, and a clerical staff. A four years' course was 

 prescribed, and there are now more than 200 students in 

 regular attendance from various parts of the country. 

 Residential accommodation is provided for 160 students, 

 together with houses for the staff, dining hall, and threu 

 educational buildings. All technical lectures are delivered 

 in English. While the equipment is as yet far from 

 being complete, it is indisputable that the existence of 

 such an institution is a factor which cannot be disregarded' 

 when considering the future position of the Empire. 



Mr. David Boyle, the curator of the Provincial Museum 

 of Toronto, had the degree of LL.D. of the University of 

 Toronto conferred on him on June 12, for his eminent 

 services in the cause of archaeology and ethnology. Dr. 

 Boyle has been incapacitated for some time, and as he 

 was too ill to attend the regular Convocation, the authori- 

 ties paid him the unique compliment of holding a special 

 Convocation at his residence, and of conferring the degree 

 while he was lying in bed. Dr. Boyle was presented by 

 Prof. Galbraith, and in the absence of the president, who' 

 had sailed for England, the degree was conferred by the 

 vice-president. Prof. Ramsay Wright. Dr. Boyle went to 

 Canada in 1856, and in the face of great diflficulties has 

 built up the fine archjeological and ethnological collections 

 in the Provincial Museum of Toronto. He is best known 

 to students as the editor of, and chief contributor to, the 

 annual archaeological reports of the museum. They were 

 begun in i8gS, and form a valuable record of Canadian 

 archreology and ethnology. The later reports have been 

 duly noticed in Nature. We congratulate Dr. Boyle on 

 this academic honour, which crowns a life of self- 

 sacrificing and poorly remunerated toil for the subjects he 

 has so much at heart. 



The proceedings at the inauguration of Mr. R. C. 

 Maclaurin as president of the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology have been reported at considerable length in 

 the American Press. One of the chief speakers was Mr. 

 Bryce, who greeted the new president as a fellow-Briton, 

 a fellow-Scotsman, and a fellow-member of Lincoln's Inn. 

 Mr. Bryce said that Englishmen and Scotsmen would" 

 naturally be sorry that Mr. Maclaurin was not serving 

 their country " in one of the new institutions which we 

 have lately founded to try to make up for lost time in 

 the promotion of scientific instruction." Still, " a scien- 

 tific inquirer and teacher helps the whole world by the 

 work which he does anywhere in it." In his own in- 

 augural address. President Maclaurin emphasised the 

 following articles in his creed as an educator : — (i) that 

 the end of education is to fit men to deal with the affairs 

 of life honestly, intelligently, and efliciently ; (2) that in 

 the higher education of a large and increasing section 

 of the community science should play a very prominent, 

 if not a leading, part; (3) that science and culture must 

 go hand in hand, science being studied and taught in 

 such a way as to make for that broad and liberal outlook 

 on the world that is the mark of the really cultured man ; 

 and (4) that " above all we must preserve in our students 

 the freshness and vigour of youth, and see to it with 

 all care that their natural powers of initiative are improved 

 and not checked by our training." 



In recent years there has grown up in connection with 

 local education authorities in all parts of the country 

 systems of scholarships providing for the education of 

 boys and girls of varying ages and attending schools of 

 different grades, and also for young men and women 

 anxious to continue their education after school days are 

 over. The report of the higher education subcommittee 

 on the scholarship scheme of the London County Council, 

 recently adopted by the Council, provides an exhaustive 

 account of the educational facilities offered in London to 

 the sons and daughters of parents of limited incomes who 

 have sufficient ability, as tested by examinations, to profit 

 by continued attendance at school and college. The report 

 indicates that in London, as elsewhere, there has been a 

 disposition to multioly unduly the number of scholarships 

 offered for competition, with the result that in certain 

 districts there has had to be a marked lowering cf standard 



