October 28, 1909] 



NA TURE 



539 



Many old students of the Royal College of Science and 

 Royal School of Mines having expressed the opinion that 

 there should be a reunion in the Midlands, in addition to 

 the annual dinner of the Old Students' Association in 

 London, arrangements have been made for a dinner at the 

 Imperial Hotel, Birmingham, on Saturday, November 6. 

 Tickets or particulars can be obtained from Mr. Philip C. 

 Coultas, Municipal Technical School, Birmingham. 



The commissioners under the Irish Universities ."^ct, 

 iqo8, have appointed the following professors, among 

 others, in University College, Dublin : — mathematics, H. C. 

 M'Weeney; chemistry. Dr. Hugh Ryan; experimental 

 physics, Dr. J. h.. M'Clelland; mathematical physics, Dr. 

 Arthur W. Conwav ; zoology. Dr. George Sigerson ; 

 anatomy. Dr. E. P. 'M'Loughlin ; surgery, J. S. M'Ardle; 

 geology, H. J. Seymour : physiology and histology. Dr. 

 B. J. Colli ngwood ; pathology and bacteriology. Dr. E. J. 

 M'Weeney; medicine. Sir Christopher Nixon; civil 

 engineering, P. F. Purcell. 



The following candidates were successful in this year's 

 competition for the Whitworth scholarships and exhibi- 

 tions : — Scholarships (tenable for three years), 125/. a year 

 each. A. W. Judge, Plymouth; J. Airey, Shipley; H. S. 

 Rowell, Newcastle-on-Tyne ; H. Mawson, Leeds. Exhibi- 

 tions (tenable for one vear), 50/. each. F. Duncanson, 

 Sunderland; A. Rvan, Oldham'; A. H. Campbell, Ports- 

 mouth ; J. J. Clark, Liverpool ; W. H. Shinkfield, Ports- 

 mouth ; A. W. Stevenson, Melrose ; G. W. E. Hayward, 

 Southsea ; J. Morgan, Sheerness ; A. F. Grieveson, Chat- 

 ham ; A. E. Gladwyn, Plumstead ; W. H. T. Harvey, Swin- 

 don ; T. H. Webster, Newcastle-on-Tyne ; W. J. Davis, 

 Plymouth ; O. R. Randall, Birmingham ; G. F. Haddock, 

 Sunderland ; F. H. Reid, Plymouth ; G. B. Kellagher, Gil- 

 lingham (Kent) ; T. Norcross, Hollinwood, Oldham ; L. P. 

 Parker, Leytonstone ; A. Morris, Portsmouth; J. Smith, 

 Crewe; W. Shaw, Woolwich; H. E. Pinch, Sheerness; 

 D. H. Emby, Plumstead; W. Fox, Plumstead; R. H. 

 May, Leytonstone ; E. D. Brodie, Swindon ; H. J. Goudie, 

 Leith ; H. Collins, Gillingham (Kent) ; C. Williams, Plum- 

 stead. 



On October 20 the University of Birmingham held the 

 first special degree congregation since its inauguration. In 

 commemoration of the Royal opening of the University in 

 July last, a number of distinguished persons received 

 honorary degrees. Among the representatives of pure and 

 applied science upon whom was conferred the honorary 

 degree of Doctor of Laws were Mr. W. N. Atkinson, 

 H.M. Inspector of Mines for South Wales; Mr. H. T. 

 Butlin, president of the College ol Surgeons of England ; 

 Sir William Crookes, F.R.S. ; Mr. Maurice Fitzmaurice, 

 C.M.G., engineer-in-chief to the London County Council; 

 Sir .Archibald Geikie, K.C.B., president of the Royal 

 Society; Dr. John S. Haldane, F.R.S., reader in physio- 

 logy to the University of Oxford ; Sir Alexander Kennedy. 

 F.R.S. ; Sir Joseph Larmor, Sec.R.S., Lucasian professor 

 of mathematics in the University of Cambridge ; Sir 

 Richard D. Powell, K.C.V.O., president of the Royal 

 College of Phvsicians ; Sir William Ramsav, K.C.B., 

 F.R.S. : Lord Rayleigh, O.M., F.R.S. ; Prof. E. Ruther- 

 ford, F.R.S., professor of physics in the University of 

 Manchester; Prof. S. P. Thompson, F.R.S.; Prof. W. A. 

 Tilden, F.R.S. ; Sir Joseph Thomson, F.R.S. ; Mr. C. S. 

 Tomes, F.R.S., past-president of the Odontological Society 

 of Great Britain ; and Dr. B. C. .'\. Windle, F.R.S., presi- 

 dent of University College, Cork. 



The issue of Science for October 15 announces the follow- 

 ing gifts to higher education in the United States. Yali' 

 University has received from Mr. W. D. Sloane and Mr. 

 H. T. Sloane the sum of 95,000/. to build, equip, and 

 endow a physical laboratory. This laboratory, it is under- 

 stood, will replace the present Sloane Physical Laboratory. 

 Yale University has also received 5000^ from Mr. A. G. 

 Vanderbilt for general endowment, and 3000/. from Mr. 

 G. H. Meyers for the endowment of the Forest School. 

 Columbia University has received gifts amounting to about 

 47,2oqi., of which 22.500/. is from Mr. W. H. Charpentier, 

 to bt idded to the J. .S. Charpentier fund, and 20,000!'. is 

 given tinonymously. The Pratt Institute of Brooklyn has 

 received the sum of 350,000?. from Mr. Charles M. Pratt. 



NO. 2087, VOL. 81] 



son of the founder and now its president, and from his 

 five brothers and his sister, Mrs. E. B. Dane. Dr. D. K. 

 Pearsons has offered to give 20,000/. to Berea College, 

 provided that the sum of 80,000/. is otherwise subscribed, 

 and Mr. N. B. Duke has made a further gift of 10,000/. 

 to Trinity College at Durham, N.C. 



The first part of " Statistics of Public Education in 

 England and Wales," 1907-8, has been published (Cd. 

 4885) by the Board of Education, and deals wholly with 

 educational statistics. We notice that during the year 

 thirty-five technical institutions were recognised by the 

 Board, these being defined as institutions giving an 

 organised course of instruction in day classes, including 

 advanced instruction in science, or in science and in art, 

 and provided with a staff and equipment adequate for the 

 purpose. Provision must be made in such institutions for 

 at least a two years' systematic course in science, or in 

 science and art, either alone or in conjunction with sub- 

 jects of general commercial, manual, or technological 

 instruction. With a few exceptions, no student may be 

 admitted to the course unless he has passed through a 

 three years' course in a recognised secondary school, or is 

 more than sixteen years of age and is qualified from his 

 general education to' profit by a course of advanced instruc- 

 tion. There were in these thirty-five institutions 644 

 teachers, while 2768 students attended at some time during 

 the year, though 1630 only attended a full course of instruc- 

 tion! It is noteworthy that twenty-one of the teachers 

 were women, and 198 of the students were girls or women. 

 Of the 2570 boys and men in attendance, 7 were fourteen 

 years of age ; 492 were fifteen and under seventeen years 

 of age ; 465, seventeen and under eighteen years of age : 

 439, eighteen and under nineteen ; 343, nineteen and under 

 twenty ; 232 were twenty and under twenty-one ; and 592 

 were twentv-one vears of age or more. It must be remem- 

 bered that,' in addition to these students, there were many 

 others attending dav technical classes. The Board recog- 

 nised day technical 'classes in ninety-six institutions during 

 the year, and upwards of 9000 students attended these 

 classes at some time or other during the year. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, October 21 — 

 Mr. Edgar Taylor, president, in the chair. — The influence 

 of the railroads of the United States and Canada on the 

 mineral industry : Dr. J. Douglas. After a brief historical 

 summary of the development of the railroad systems of 

 the North American continent, the author gave statistics 

 of the mileage and traffic of the various railroads, showing 

 the proportion of mineral traffic conveyed and its nature. 

 He also showed the part taken by improved railroad com- 

 munication in developing the mineral resources of the 

 continent, and sought to prove that as the vast regions 

 so far untouched by railroads, especially in Canada, are 

 opened up, it is reasonable to conclude that greater stores 

 of mineral wealth will be discovered and developed. — The 

 development of heavv gravitation stamps : W. A. 

 Caldecott. The autho'r opened his subject with the state- 

 ment that the history of ore crushing by means of gravita- 

 tion stamps shows a progressive increase in their weight 

 and in corresponding efficiency, and by means of figures 

 he proceeded to prove how closelv the factors of weight 

 and efficiency are related. The first stamp-mill erected in 

 the United 'States, in 1835, was equipped with 50 lb. 

 stamps, this weight being increased to 380 lb. ten years 

 later. Nowadays, on the Rand and elsewhere, stamps are 

 in operation weighing as much as 1750 lb. In the mean- 

 time, however, the introduction of secondary grinding by 

 means of tube mills, &c., has modified the original require- 

 ments of a stamp-batterv, and tended to render the heavier 

 stamps more efficient for their present purpose than were 

 the older and lighter stamps under then existing conditions. 

 The author concludes that the future limit of weight i.s 

 difficult to foretell, and may be determined by mechanical 

 considerations rather than by any decrease of relative 

 efficiency as a device for pulverising ore. The data given 

 as the ' result of exhaustive experiments with different 

 weights and duties of stamps add considerably to the prac- 

 tical value of the paper. 



