Apeil 3, 1898 ] 



SCIENCE. 



513 



vote themselves to some special and graduate 

 work. 



4. The securing men of distinction to lecture, 

 and for a time to reside at the University. 



These uses of the fund are not made abso- 

 lutely binding upon the trustees for all time, 

 but the donor expressed a desire to make the 

 gift as flexible as possible in its application, 

 recognizing the fact ' ' that gifts to universities 

 hemmed in too closely by restrictions are liable 

 to lessen in value as time goes on." 



In pursuance, however, of the end in view 

 in the foundation, definite action has been 

 taken in the establishment of a considerable 

 number of Graduate Scholarships and Fellow- 

 ships. The recommendations which were made 

 regarding these have been approved and will 

 now go into force. There are eight Graduate 

 Scholarships giving free tuition and $100 open 

 to those coming from the liberal courses in the 

 College of the University; and there are, with 

 the Hector Tyndale Fellowship in Physics, now 

 fifteen fellowships, fourteen of which, coming 

 from this Foundation, are open to students of 

 any university. The amount of the tuition 

 deducted from the full value of the Fellowship 

 ($600) does not go into the general funds of the 

 University, but may be used for the purchase 

 of books or apparatus which will aid the stu- 

 dent in his work, or may be used in the publi- 

 cation of theses. 



A somewhat unusual feature is the establish- 

 ment of Senior Fellowships, open only to those 

 who have taken the Doctor's degree in the 

 University of Pennsylvania. This amounts to 

 the introduction, in a modified form, of the 

 ' Docent ' system of German universities, the 

 object being not at all to use the Senior 

 Fellow as a teacher for the sake of the value 

 he may be to the University, but to test him 

 and give him an opportunity to do a little 

 teaching in the direct line of his special work. 

 From the Senior Fellowships there is no reduc- 

 tion for tuition. This gives eight Graduate 

 Scholarships, fifteen Fellowships and five Senior 

 Fellowships, making twenty Fellowships in all. 

 Fourteen of the Fellowships are open to men 

 from other institutions, but the Senior Fellow- 

 ships are limited to those having taken the 

 Doctor's degree from the University in order 



that some of the best men may be kept in resi- 

 dence here as long as possible, and their influ- 

 ence felt among the students. 



The whole plan aims at building up a cultured 

 group of men interested in the advancement of 

 knowledge and who shall be in residence at the 

 University. Probably most of them will live in 

 the dormitories, and their influence will un- 

 doubtedly be for good in the institution. The 

 whole time of every incumbent of a Fellowship 

 or Scholarship must be given to his scholarly 

 work at the University. 



GENERAL. 



Mr. W. C. McDonald, a tobacco manufac- 

 turer of Montreal, has given $500,000 to McGill 

 University for the purpose of providing a build- 

 ing for the study of chemistry, mining and ar- 

 chitecture. This brings his gifts to this univer- 

 sity up to $2,000,000. 



Mr. F. C. Macauley, of Philadelphia, has 

 bequeathed to the University of Pennsylvania 

 his library, $5,000 for the purchase of books re- 

 lating to Dante and Tasso, and $5,000 for archae- 

 ological researches in America. The bequest to 

 take effect on the death of his brother. 



The name of the University of the City of 

 New York has been changed to New York 

 University by the Board of Eegents. 



Dr. O. Cone has resigned the Presidency of 

 Buchtel College. 



Prof. Earl Barnes and Prof. Ewald Fliigel, 

 of Stanford University, and Prof. Bernard 

 Moses, of the University of California, are each to 

 deliver a series of fifty lectures at the University 

 of Chicago during the spring term. 



DISCUSSION AND COBBESPONDENCE. 

 certitudes and illusions. 

 Major Powell, having escaped (but tempo- 

 rarily, I fear) from the metaphysicians, has 

 courageously entered the camp of the physicists 

 in his paper of March 20th. Now the latter, 

 as a class, are proverbially a simple-minded 

 people, given rather to ' Certitudes ' than to 

 ' Illusions ' and, as a rule, especially anxious to 

 know what they are talking about, when they 

 talk. They have a distinct fondness for the 

 use of words whose meaning is precise and not 



