October 14. 1909] 



NATURE 



479 



Other papers which call for passing mention are one 

 by Mr. Sidney Hartland, on a cult of executed criminals 

 in Sicily ; another, by Mr. W. H. S. Jones, on a study 

 of malaria in ancient Italy, which will shortly be pub- 

 lished in the Liverpool Annals of Archajology and Anthro- 

 pology ; and one by Dr. Shrubsall, on the influence of 

 geographical factors on the distribution of racial types in 

 Africa, in which he showed that the trend of the migra- 

 tions was from the north southwards, and also directed 

 attention to the importance in the problem of the presence 

 of the tsetse-fly in certain areas, which, by modifying the 

 conditions of animal life in those districts, influenced their 

 occupation by the native population. 



Among the reports of the various research committees 

 special attention should be directed to that on stone circles, 

 which reported that excavations had been continued at 

 Avebury, with the result that additional evidence had been 

 collected which tended to confirm the opinion, arrived at 

 in the course of the previous year's excavations, that the 

 monument was of Neolithic date. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge.— Colonel Sir T. H. Holdich, K.C.M.G., will 

 deliver a lecture on Thursday, October 21, on some 

 aspects of political geography. The lecture will be given 

 in the large lecture-room of the Sedgwick Museum of 

 Geology. Lieut. Shackleton will lecture on Thursday, 

 October 28. The lecture will be given in the examination 

 hall. 



Dr. Breul, the reader in Germanic, will conduct prac- 

 tical exercises in reading scientific German for students 

 of natural science at the literary lecture-rooms on Tuesdays 

 and Thursdays, beginning on Thursday, October 14. 



London. — University College : — A course of lectures in 

 electrochemistry will be begun by Dr. Wilsmore on 

 Monday, October 18. The lectures on vertebrate palaeonto- 

 logy, by Prof. J. P. Hill and Dr. Woodland, began on 

 Tuesday last. It is announced that Dr. Woodland will 

 deal with fishes in the first term, and Prof. Hill with 

 Amphibia, Sauropsida, and Mammalia in the second and 

 third terms. 



Oxford. — Mr. Walter Brudenell Gill, formerly scholar 

 of Christ Church, has been elected to a fellowship at 

 Merton College to undertake research work in physics, 

 and to act as a demonstrator in one of the laboratories 

 of the University. 



Dr. G. B. Longstaff, of New College, has, through the 

 trustees of the endowment fund, presented the sum of 

 2400/. to be invested as an additional endowment for the 

 Hope Department of Zoology. A decree will be intro- 

 duced in Convocation on October 26 to record the grati- 

 tude of the University for the gift, and to sanction regula- 

 tions for the employment of the fund. The regulations 

 contemplate the endowment of an assistantship to the 

 Hope professor of zoology, but the curators of the Hope 

 collections are empowered to make other arrangements 

 with the sanction of the donor. 



Miss Alice P.4ri<tn has been appointed organising 

 secretary for the courses in home science and economics 

 at King's College, London, for Women. 



A SPECUL course of lectures by Mr. A. P. Thurston on 

 aeronautics is announced by the East London College, 

 Mile End Road. The first lecture will be given on 

 Monday, October 18. 



A LAKii of dollars (8750/.) has been collected in the 

 Canton district, and forwarded to the Governor of Hong 

 Kong, as a contribution towards the endowment fund of 

 the Hong Kong University. 



Ix addition to the men of science referred to on p. 419 

 of Nature (September 30), the Bohemian University of 

 Prague has conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of 

 Philosophv upon the following : — Prof. H. B. Dixon, 

 F.R.S., Prof. J. Burnett, and Prof. W. R. Morfill. 



Tme Ottawa correspondent of the Times states that Mr. 

 Andrew Carnegie has given 20,oooZ. to the general funds 

 of the McGill University, Montreal. The offer was made 

 upon the condition that 100,000/. should be raised from 

 other sources, and this has been done largely through the 

 generosity of Lord Strathcona. 

 NO. 2085, VOL. 81] 



At the inauguration of Dr. A. L. Lowell as president 

 of Harvard University on October 6, the honorary degree 

 of Doctor of Letters was conferred upon the Right Hon. 

 James Bryce, the British Ambassador to the United States, 

 and the following representatives of British universities : — 

 Prof. W. A. Herdman, K.R.S., Dr. W. N. Shaw, F.R.S., 

 Dr. G. A. Gibson, Prof. J. Biles, and Mr. J. Willis Clark. 



The opening meeting of the autumn session of the 

 Eugenics Education Society was held last week in the 

 Caxton Hall, Westminster, when Lieut. -Colonel C. H. 

 Melville delivered a lecture on eugenics and military 

 service, in the course of which he stated that one of the 

 objects of eugenics was to improve the individuals of the 

 present generation. He contended that military service, by 

 strengthening character, was a positive benefit to the in- 

 dividual, who was physically improved by better food and 

 housing, while moral advantages accrued from discipline 

 .•^nd association with comrades. 



The Board of Education has published (Cd. 4875) the 

 fifteenth volume of reports from the universities and 

 university colleges which participated in the year 1907-8 

 in the annual grant, now amounting to 100,000/., made by 

 Parliament for " University Colleges in Great Britain," 

 and from the three colleges in Wales which received a 

 grant of 4000?. each. For the first time a report is 

 included from the London School of Economics, which was 

 in 1907 awarded a grant of 1150/. The individual reports 

 are exhaustive and full of information on every matter of 

 importance in connection with higher education in the 

 districts served by the participating institutions ; but the 

 value of the bulky Blue-book to students of educational 

 administration is impaired seriously because nothing is 

 attempted by the Board of Education in the direction of 

 summarising the scattered information, or of tabulating 

 the facts concerning the various colleges, so that it may 

 be possible rapidly to compare, say, the local support for 

 higher education in various parts of the country, the cost 

 of such education per head in different districts, and so 

 on. The attention of the Board may be directed to similar 

 reports issued by the U.S. Bureau at Washington, in 

 which reference and comparison is made easy for the 

 student. 



An examination of the calendars of the newer universi- 

 ties shows how completely their governing bodies realise 

 the importance of pro\'iding, in addition to the more 

 ordinary courses of academic training in arts, pure science, 

 medicine, and law, lectures and laboratory and workshop 

 practice in the higher branches of technology of special 

 importance in the districts in which their universities are 

 located. The current calendar of the University of Leeds, 

 for instance, shows that its students may attend techno- 

 logical courses, and, if they so elect, graduate in, civil and 

 mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, mining, gas 

 engineering, fuel and metallurgy, applied chemistry — 

 whether having reference to leather or colour manufacture 

 or dyeing — and agriculture. The textile industries, too, are 

 catered for in a very complete manner. Facilities for 

 research work also are provided in each of these depart- 

 ments. Similarly, the new calendar of the University of 

 Sheflield gives full particulars of the faculty of applied 

 science in the University. This department provides lecture 

 and laboratory courses of instruction in the subjects of 

 applied science required in the engineering, metallurgical, 

 and mining industries, and awards degrees in engineering 

 and metallurgy. It is a noteworthy sign of the times, also, 

 that each university has a professor of education, and that 

 modern attempts to place educational methods upon a 

 scientific basis are receiving encouragement. 



The report of the principal of the Bradford Technical 

 College for the session 1908-9 shows that the total number 

 of students in attendance during the session was slightly 

 greater than in 1907-8. In the day classes the total 

 reached 221, fifty of these being apprentices. The total 

 number of students in the evening classes was 887 ; 324 

 were concerned with the textile industries, 169 with 

 chemistry and dyeing, and 394 with engineering. Of the 

 171 day students other than apprentices, it is satisfactory 

 to find that more than a hundred had previously attended 

 secondarv schools. The standard of the entrance examina- 

 tion, which admits new students to the diploma courses, 

 is being raised gradually, and should soon secure adequate 



