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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 593. 



science and kindred subjects, and for training 

 teachers. 



We learn from English exchanges that the 

 special board for mathematics has recom- 

 mended important changes in the Cambridge 

 mathematical tripos, which, they say, as at 

 present constituted, exercises in several re- 

 spects an unsatisfactory influence upon the 

 course of study of the candidates. The board 

 proposes that an examination of an elementary 

 character be established to be called ' The 

 Mathematical Tripos, Part I.' This examina- 

 tion would be taken by the better students at 

 the end of the first year, and by others at the 

 end of the second year. It would serve the 

 two main purposes of relieving those who had 

 passed it from the obligation of spending 

 further time on the elementary parts of sub- 

 jects contained in it, and of indicating a course 

 and providing a test suitable to the needs of 

 those students of engineering or physics who 

 are willing and able to spend part of their 

 time in acquiring such a knowledge of pure 

 and applied mathematics as the examination 

 will test. The present Part H. would be dis- 

 continued, the name ' The Mathematical 

 Tripos, Part II.' being applied to an examina- 

 tion to be taken at the end of the third year. 

 It is proposed that the list of successful candi- 

 dates shall be arranged in the three classes of 

 Wranglers, Senior Optimes, and Junior Op- 

 times, the names in each class to be arranged 

 alphabetically. The ablest students, being 

 thus relieved from the necessity of competing 

 for places in the examination, would be able 

 to spend a considerable part of their time 

 during the first three years on advanced work, 

 whilst it is hoped that other students of some- 

 what less ability would be encouraged to spend 

 part of their time in this manner. 



An official report on the University of Paris 

 by M. Tannery, abstracted in The British 

 Medical Journal, shows that the total number 

 of students in the university last year was 

 14,462, of whom 1,638 were foreigners. Of 

 the whole number, 968 were women, and of 

 these 513 were foreign. The teaching staff 

 comprised 281 professors, professeurs agreges, 

 and lecturers. The number of students in the 



medical faculty was 3,482, being 93 less than 

 in the previous year. The dean of the faculty 

 is quoted as stating that ' he would rejoice if 

 the diminution were still greater.' Of 109 

 foreign women who were students of the 

 faculty, 98 were Russians. In the faculty of 

 law there were 6,086 students, showing an in- 

 crease of 1,289 as compared with the previous 

 year. Of the law students, 231 were foreign- 

 ers, mostly Roumanians, Egyptians and Rus- 

 sians. Of the representatives of the last- 

 named nation, 29 were women. 



Dr. Francis R. Lane, of Brooklyn, N. Y., 

 has been appointed director of the Jacob Tome 

 Institute, at Port Deposit, Md. He succeeds 

 Dr. Abram W. Harris, who resigned to accept 

 the presidency of the Northwestern University. 



Professor Prank Thilly, who recently 

 went from the University of Missouri to 

 Princeton University as professor of philos- 

 ophy, has been made professor of philosophy 

 in the Sage Schdol of Philosophy of Cornell 

 University, succeeding Professor E. B. Mc- 

 Gilvary, who was last year called to the Uni- 

 versity of Wisconsin. 



The trustees of Wellesley College have re- 

 cently made the following changes and new 

 appointments in the department of botany: 

 Dr. Margaret C. Ferguson was promoted from 

 associate professor in charge to professor and 

 head of the department. The title of Clara 



E. Cummings was changed from professor of 

 botany to professor of cryptogamic botany. 

 Mary 0. Bliss was reappointed with the title 

 of instructor and curator of the museum. H. 

 S. Adams was reelected instructor and con- 

 sulting landscape architect. The new appoint- 

 ments were: L. W. Riddle, instructor and 

 curator of the phanerogamic herbarium ; Mary 



F. Barrett, instructor; Caroline L. Allen, 

 assistant. 



Mr. R. R. Gates, M.A., who has just re- 

 ceived the degree of B.Sc. from McGill Uni- 

 versity, and who during the past year has 

 been engaged upon special cytological work 

 with reference to an elucidation of the laws 

 governing hybridization, has received an ap- 

 pointment to a senior fellowship in Chicago 

 University. 



