October 21, 1909] 



NA rURE 



5C9 



endowment, and 15,000 dollars for the school of forestry 

 from Mr. G. H. Myers, a graduate of that school. 



The Joint Matriculation Board of the Universities of 

 Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, and Sheffield has appointed 

 Mr. J. Murray Crofts, of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 

 as their organising secretary for the inspection and 

 examination of schools. Mr. Crofts was for two years 

 assistant master at Glggleswick, for two years junior 

 inspector of the Board of Education, secondary branch, 

 and for five years headmaster of the Johannesburg College, 

 Transvaal, a post which he recently resigned. 



We learn from the Scolsman that during the recent 

 recess many alterations and additions to the buildings in 

 connection with the physiological department of the Uni- 

 versity of Edinburgh have been carried out, and that the 

 additional accommodation will be available in the course of 

 the present month. By utilising what was formerly the 

 lecture-room, a new physiological chemical laboratory has 

 been obtained, and the former chemistry room has been 

 re-fitted as a laboratory for special research in chemical 

 physiology. In addition to the foregoing, a new lecture- 

 room has been erected on a piece of vacant ground at the 

 south-west corner of the new buildings of the University. 

 It is a one-storey building, designed to harmonise in 

 appearance with the older adjacent buildings, and accommo- 

 dates about 350 students. 



The Eleciriciaii for October i reprints in slightly 

 abridged form from the Electric Journal an article by 

 Mr. F. W. Taylor, an employer and past president of the 

 American Society of Mechanical Engineers, on the reasons 

 why manufacturers dislike college graduates. The 

 difficulty in .'\merica appears to be that the graduate, on 

 first entering works, becomes dissatisfied with the 

 simplicity of the jobs allotted to him, and only after 

 a year or two of shop experience develops character 

 enough to do monotonous, unpleasant, or disagreeable 

 work. Mr. Taylor suggests as remedy a year of 

 hard work in the shops to follow immediately the first 

 year of college life of all students, whether they are in- 

 tended ultimately for the engineering profession or the 

 Church. He believes they will in this way get a sounder 

 knowledge of man and his duty in this world than can 

 be gained by any other means. The Electrician, in a 

 leading article devoted to the question raised by Mr. Taylor, 

 cordially endorses many of the opinions he expresses. 



Prof. W. Osler, F.R.S., formally opened on 

 October 15 three new laboratories for physiology, chem- 

 istry, and physics, respectively, at the London Hospital 

 Medical College. The laboratories have been constructed 

 and equipped at a cost of about 8000/., and afford accom- 

 modation for some 120 students. In declaring the labora- 

 tories open. Prof. Osier said that, after all, laboratories are 

 the foundation-stones on which the work of a hospital 

 rests. Medical students cannot spend too long a time in 

 them. Medical students ought to get their laboratory 

 methods so thoroughly ingrained into their constitution 

 that they carry them with them to their dying day. If 

 they are to be good practitioners they have to carry their 

 laboratory work with them into their practice. Prof. 

 Osier said he would like every medical student in one or 

 other of the laboratories to undertake during some portion 

 of his career a small piece of research work. It is difficult, 

 but it altogether depends upon the individual will of the 

 individual man. All can do it if they only make up their 

 minds to it, and in view of their large research endow- 

 ment fund there is no reason why some of the money 

 should not go to helping the research work of some of 

 the younger men. 



The new University College of South Wales and Mon- 

 mouthshire at Cardiff was opened on October 14 by Lord 

 Plymouth, president of the college. The King, as Protector 

 of the University of Wales, sent wishes for the success 

 and prosperity of the future work of the college. The 

 Prince of Wales, as Chancellor of the University, sent .a 

 letter to Lord Plymouth to be read at the ceremony. In 



NO. 2086, VOL. 81] 



the letter the Prince said : — " The steady growth of the 

 college and the record of work accomplished during the 

 first twenty-five years of its life are evidence that it has 

 adapted itself to the needs of the community. This 

 development is particularly noticeable in the technological 

 and medical schools, and, thanks to the generous support 

 of the coalowners of South Wales to the former and the 

 assistance specially given by the Treasury to the latter, 

 still further vigour and usefulness may be looked for from 

 these departments. To Principal Griffiths and the students 

 past and present I offer my hearty congratulations upon 

 the good results achieved by the college. Meanwhile, we 

 must look ahead and endeavour to be ready to meet all 

 the requirements of scientific and intellectual progress. 

 The imperative necessity for higher education and research- 

 is becoming more and more recognised, and I feel sure it 

 is not lost sight of by those who direct the great com- 

 mercial industries of the district. The University College 

 of South Wales is destined to provide the want, and I 

 confidently believe that the people of South Wales, through 

 whose patriotic generosity so much has already been 

 accomplished, will by their continued sympathy and 

 material support not only extinguish the debt upon the 

 new buildings, but secure the funds necessary for still 

 further developments." 



The trustees of the Oxford Unii'ersity Endowment Fund 

 have completed the first year of their administration of 

 the fund. The total sum received by the trustees was 

 86,570?., the greater part of which was forwarded to them 

 as the result of Lord Curzon's appeal for donations for 

 the further endowment of Oxford University. .\mong 

 grants made by the trustees the following may be men- 

 tioned. A grant of 500/. a year has been promised for 

 eight years to the curators of the Bodleian Library. The 

 trustees have also provided the funds required to convert 

 the North Gallery into a new reading-room, and have 

 undertaken to meet the cost of constructing an under- 

 ground chamber for the storage of books belonging to the 

 Bodleian Library. It is estimated that this chamber will 

 cost lo.oooL Five hundred pounds have been offered to 

 meet the cost of equipment for further accommodation if 

 space can be found by the University for the expansion of 

 the school of geography. The trustees have agreed to pay 

 for three years the salary of the newly appointed lecturer 

 in Japanese, so that the school of Japanese — the first to 

 be established in any English university — may be initiated 

 without more than nominal calls upon the funds of the 

 University. A school of engineering has been provided, 

 Largely by gifts allocated by donors and passing through 

 the hands of the trustees. From the sum thus provided 

 the trustees have promised a payment of 600?. a year for 

 five years as a contribution to the cost of the engineering 

 school, and have paid 300?. for equipment. Out of the 

 general income of the trust fund a further sum not exceed- 

 ing 150?. per annum has been promised for three years 

 to furnish accommodation for the professor, for whom at 

 present there is no adequate laboratory available. The 

 sum of 61,553/. has been invested. The income will enable 

 the trustees to make annual grants in aid of studies at 

 present endowed inadequately, or in the establishment and 

 initiation of new studies. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



Manchester. 



Literary and Philosophical Society, October 5. — Mr. 

 Francis Jones, president, in the chair. — .\ now binary pro- 

 gression of the planetary distances, and on the mutability 

 of the solar system : Dr. H. Wilde. In his table of 

 planetary orbits the author has adopted the radius vector 

 of Mercury as the unit to which the other planetary 

 distances should be referred, the terrestrial unit being a 

 survival of the geocentric system of the universe. The 

 change in the unit of distance has revealed a new binary 

 progression of the planetary distances nearer the observa- 

 tions than that of Bode's law. 



