288 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 557. 



proper breeding place and rearing ground of 

 intellect — of the best elements of our people 

 to be swallowed up or deteriorated in our big 

 towns. Not less untenable than the notion 

 that the agricultural laborer was dull of intel- 

 lect was the idea that the city urchin was 

 cleverer and better endowed mentally than the 

 little yokel. The rule seemed to be that the 

 mental development of children was hastened 

 by city life, but soon stopped short. Up till 

 thirteen or fourteen years of age they were 

 precocious and then came to a standstill. City 

 life at its best was bad for children, involving, 

 as it did, early puberty, exciting distraction, 

 superficiality of knowledge, insufficient repose 

 and the want of soothing influences that the 

 country afforded; and at its worst, when it 

 meant a tight squeeze in squalid dwellings, 

 poor food,' foul air, contact with vice and 

 manifold temptations, it was utterly demoral- 

 izing. It seemed obvious that, if the city 

 went on growing at the nineteenth century 

 rate, and under nineteenth century conditions, 

 it would dry up the reservoirs of strength in 

 the population and leave an immense prole- 

 tariat of inferior quality and without com- 

 manders. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



Moses A. Dropsie, of Philadelphia, for- 

 merly president of Gratz College, has be- 

 qiieathed about $600,000, for the endowment 

 of a college for the study of Hebrew literature 

 and Rabbinical learning in that city. There 

 are to be no restrictions in admission as to 

 creed, sex or color. 



The Department of Chemistry of Washing- 

 ton and Lee University is being reequipped 

 this summer in new quarters. In all fourteen 

 rooms will be occupied, nearly the whole of 

 the old main building of the university being 

 given over to the departments of chemistry, 

 geology and biology. 



Logan Hall, containing the anatomical and 

 surgical departments of the University of 

 Pennsylvania, was burned on August 14, en- 



taili'ng a loss of about forty thousand dollars. 

 Many microscopes were destroyed. 



We learn from Nature that probate has 

 been granted of the will of Mr. John Innes, 

 of Merton, Surrey, who died on August 8, 

 1904, leaving the sum of about £200,000 for 

 public and charitable purposes. Among other 

 bequests he left his house, the Manor Farm, 

 Merton, and two acres of ground, " to establish 

 thereon a school of horticulture or such other 

 technical or industrial institution as the law 

 will allow, to give technical instruction in the 

 principles of the science and art of horticul- 

 ture and the necessary physical and mental 

 training incidental thereto; to erect suitable 

 buildings and furnish them, and to ptovide 

 workshops, tools, ' plant, scientific apparatus, 

 libraries, reading-rooms, lecture and drill 

 halls, a swimming bath and gymnasium. If 

 this may not be legally carried out, then to 

 establish in these buildings a public museiim 

 for the exhibition of collections of paintings 

 and similar works of art, objects of nattiral 

 history, or of mechanical or philosophic inven- 

 tions, and to lay out land for a park."' 



The Draper's Company has made a further 

 grant of £5,000 for an extension of the prem- 

 ises of the East London Technical College. 



The University of Melbourne has received 

 a largely increased endowment from the .gov- 

 ernment of Victoria on condition of insti- 

 tuting a course for a degree in agriculture. 

 The necessary arrangements for such a course 

 have now been made, and the university is 

 inviting applications in England and America 

 for a professorship of botany and a lectureship 

 in biochemistry in connection with the school 

 of agriculture. A new professor of anatomy 

 is also to be appointed for the medical school. 



Mr. S. Herbert Cox has been appointed to 

 the professorship of mining at the Royal 

 School of Mines, South Kensington, vacant 

 on the death of Sir Clement le Neve Foster. 



Mr. Edward Ward, who has held the pro- 

 fessorship of surgery in Leeds for the past 

 six years, has resigned and will be succeeded 

 by Mr. Harry Littlewood. 



Dr. Richard Willstater, associate pro- 

 fessor of chemistry at Munich, has resigned. 



