November 24, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



687 



third quarter of the year. According to the 

 abstract in the British Medical Journal, the 

 births registered in England and Wales during 

 the quarter ending September last numbered 

 236,205, and were equal to an annual rate of 

 27.3 per 1,000 of the population, estimated at 

 34,152,977 persons in the middle of the year. 

 This is the lowest birth rate recorded in the 

 third quarter of any year since civil registra- 

 tion was established, and was 1.8 per 1,000 be- 

 low the average in the corresponding quarters 

 of the ten preceding years, 1895-1904. Among 

 the several registration counties the birth rate 

 last quarter ranged from 21.3 in Sussex, 22.6 

 in Herefordshire, 22.8 in Dorsetshire and in 

 Cornwall, and 22.9 in Somersetshire, to 30.8 in 

 Nottinghamshire, 32.2 in Northumberland, 



32.6 in Carmarthenshire, 34.1 in Durham, 34.6 

 in Glamorganshire, and 35.7 in Monmouth- 

 shire. In seventy-six of the largest English 

 towns, including London, the birth rate aver- 

 aged 28.2 per 1,000 ; in London the rate was 

 26.8. During the third quarter of the year 

 the deaths of 120,792 persons were registered, 

 equal to an annual rate of 14.0 per 1,000; this 

 rate was 2.5 per 1,000 below the mean rate in 

 the corresponding periods of the ten preceding 

 years. The lowest county death rates last 

 quarter were 10.3 in Surrey and in Hertford- 

 shire, 10.5 in Berkshire, 10.6 in Bedfordshire, 



10.7 in Dorsetshire, and 10.8 in Cambridge- 

 shire; the highest rates were 15.1 in the East 

 Riding of Yorkshire, 15.9 in Glamorganshire, 

 16.1 in Northumberland and in Monmouth, 



16.8 in Lancashire, and 17.1 in Durham. In 

 seventy-six of the largest English towns, with 

 an aggregate population of more than fifteen 

 and a half millions, the mean rate of mortality 

 was 15.2 per 1,000; in 141 smaller towns, con- 

 taining in the aggregate about four and three 

 quarter millions of persons, the rate averaged 

 13.3 per 1,000; while in the remaining, and 

 chiefly rural parts of England and Wales the 

 rate was 13.0 per 1,000. In London the death 

 rate was 14.6 per 1,000. The rate of infant 

 mortality, measured by the proportion of 

 deaths among children under 1 year of age to 

 registered births, was equal to 155 per 1,000, 

 against an average rate of 192. In the sev- 

 eral counties the rates of infant mortality 



ranged from 61 in Cambridgeshire, 64 in Dor- 

 setshire, 68 in Somersetshire, 70 in Bucking- 

 hamshire, 75 in Hertfordshire, and 76 in 

 Shropshire, to 176 in Glamorganshire, 182 in 

 the West Riding of Yorkshire, 186 in Durham, 

 and 200 in Lancashire and in the East Riding 

 of Yorkshire. In the seventy-six large towns 

 the mean rate was 186 per 1,000; in London 

 the proportion was equal to 174 per 1,000, 

 while it averaged 191 in the seventy-five large 

 provincial towns, among which the rates 

 ranged from 74 in Homsey, 75 in Bourne- 

 mouth, 77 in King's Norton, 88 in Burton-on- 

 Trent, and 89 in Hastings, to 261 in Sheifield, 

 267 in Wigan, 275 in Norwich, 277 in Stock- 

 port, 282 in Rhondda, and 354 in Grimsby. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



By the will of Joseph E. Gillingham, nu- 

 merous bequests are made to educational and 

 charitable institutions, including $50,000 each 

 to the University of Pennsylvania for the 

 veterinary department, to Haverford College, 

 to Swarthmore College and to Bryn Mawr 

 College. 



The trustees of the agricultural school, pro- 

 vided for in the vsdll of Oliver Smith, of Hat- 

 field, sixty years ago, have bought a site in 

 Northampton, Mass., in order^to be ready for 

 establishing the school when the funds become 

 available on December 22. The purchase 

 consists of ninety-three acres, obtained for 

 $19,450. The endowment now amounts to 

 $312,000. 



The school fund of Minnesota now amounts 

 to over $16,000,000, and is increasing at the 

 rate of a million dollars a year. It is said 

 that this fund, which by the constitution of 

 the state accrues from the sale of certain 

 lands, will ultimately amount to $100,000,000, 

 only the interest of which can be used for 

 school purposes. 



By the will, of the late Mr. J. E. Williams, 

 the University of Wales receives £10,000 and 

 the University College of North Wales at 

 Bangor £12,000. 



The council of University College, Dundee, 

 have declined Mr. J. K. Caird's gift of £16,000 

 for the erection of a physical laboratory on 



