January 26, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



159 



same institute, Mr. Percy E. Newberry, is 

 already at work in Egypt upon the history of 

 the ancient civilization of that country, under 

 the endowment of Sir John Brunner. 



The New York Medical Record states that 

 according to recently published statistics, the 

 number of medical students has been steadily 

 decreasing in Germany. In the year 1902-3 

 the total number of aspirants for medical 

 degrees in all the German universities was 

 6,232, which was the lowest figure noted in 

 about twenty years. The maximum was 

 reached in 1887-8, when 8,513 medical stu- 

 dents were enrolled. In 1890-1 the number 

 of medical students to 1,000 students in all 

 departments was 296 ; in 1902-3 the proportion 

 was only 178. In 1892-3 more students chose 

 medicine than atiy other profession, but ten 

 years later both philosophy and law were more 

 popular. 



The highest recorded velocity of under- 

 ground waters has been discovered by Mr. H. 

 C. Wolff, of the department of mathematics 

 of the University of Wisconsin, in the course 

 of an investigation which he carried oh in 

 Arizona during the Christmas holidays. The 

 rate of movement of underground water in 

 gravels near Tucson he found to be 144 feet 

 in twenty-four hours, while the highest previ- 

 ously rated by observers was only about 100 

 feet. Mr. Wolff was commissioned by the 

 chief hydrographer of the United States Geo- 

 logical Survey to spend the Christmas recess 

 giving instructions to the members of the 

 engineering department of the University of 

 Arizona in the methods of measuring the rate 

 of movement of under-flow streams. The 

 University of Arizona is carrying on this 

 work for the purpose of developing the water 

 resources for irrigation in the neighborhood 

 of the city of Tucson. 



The inaugural address of the Manchester 

 Literary and Philosophical Society was deliv- 

 ered, on October 17, by Sir William H. Bailey, 

 the president of the society. The address, 

 according to the abstract in Nature, took the 

 form of an interesting historical account of 

 the society since its foundation in 1781, and 

 included appreciative references to the work 



of many distinguished members whose names 

 are to be found in early volumes of memoirs. 

 The founders were the chief scientific men of 

 Manchester. Among the honorary members- 

 were Erasmus Darwin, Dr. Eranklin, Lavoi- 

 sier, Dr. Priestley, William Roscoe, of Liver- 

 pool, the poet and grandfather of Sir Henry 

 Roscoe, Doming Ramsbottom, Josiah Wedg- 

 wood and others. The chief tools of the work- 

 shops of the world, not only those where steam 

 engines, locomotives and steamships are built, 

 but also of the textile factories of the world, 

 were invented in Manchester or within thirty 

 miles of it. The records of the society con- 

 tain the names of many of these inventors who 

 were members, for the men of Lancashire were 

 the first to use steam power for spinning and 

 weaving, and for punching, cutting and shap- 

 ing metal. Prominent among the inventors 

 was that genius Richard Roberts, who was 

 always in the front rank in advocating tech- 

 nical education. His chief inventions were 

 the slide lathe, planing machine and self-act- 

 ing mule for spinning cotton. Then there 

 was Nasmyth, the inventor of the steam-ham- 

 mer. Sir William Fairbairn and Sir Joseph 

 Whitworth. Finally, Sir William Bailey re- 

 ferred to the great work of the illustrious 

 members Dr. Dalton and Dr. Joule, whose 

 effigies in marble are in the entrance to the 

 Manchester Town Hall. 



Dr. Ludwig Mond has written to the vice- 

 chancellor of Cambridge University : " I un- 

 derstand that a fund exists for the augmenta- 

 tion of the endowment of the Stokes and 

 Cayley university lectureships in mathematics, 

 and that the object of such fund is to set free 

 the time of two distinguished resident mathe- 

 maticians for the promotion of advanced 

 mathematical science by public teaching and 

 research. I further understand that the in- 

 come of such fund will in about three years' 

 time be reduced by £300 a year. I have the 

 pleasure in enclosing herewith a cheek for 

 £1,750, which I trust will enable the lecture- 

 ships to be maintained by the university for 

 a further period. I desire that this sum 

 should be separately invested and the income 

 thereof accumulated until the time when the 



