February 7, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



233 



the study of the thermal difEusivity of massive 

 rocks. Mr. Barus's investigation of diabase 

 vras most fruitful pioneer work and afforded 

 the starting point for improvements which 

 ought now to be applied to a revision of his 

 results. 



Notwithstanding the inadequacy of the data, 

 I can not but believe that the 60-million-year 

 earth here discussed is a fair approximation 

 to the truth and that with better data this age 

 will not be changed by more than perhaps 5 

 million years. It is in good accord with 

 geological estimates from denudation and 

 sedimentation, with the age of the ocean as 

 inferred from the sodium content and with 

 the age of the moon as computed by Sir Geo. 

 Darwin. Finally, as I shall show elsewhere, 

 it indicates that the part played by radio- 

 activity in the heating of the earth is a sub- 

 ordinate one. George F. Becker 



U. S. Geological Survey, 

 Washington, D. C, 

 January, 1908 



QUOTATIONS 



THE GREAT BEQUEST TO TRINITY COLLEGE 



By the death without issue of Lady Pearce, 

 who survived her husband, the late Sir William 

 George Pearce, by less than two months. 

 Trinity College, Cambridge, becomes imme- 

 diately entitled, as we have recently recorded, 

 to the large property in which she had a life 

 interest. It does not often happen that the 

 way is cleared for the owner of the remainder 

 interest with such dramatic rapidity as in this 

 instance. Nor does it often happen that so 

 substantial a sum comes into the hands of 

 any college or educational institution in this 

 country. The total value of this bequest to 

 Trinity College is probably considerably more 

 than £400,000, but taken only at that figure 

 the benefaction is an extremely handsome one. 

 Trinity, as the most distinguished college in 

 the two universities, is in evei-y way worthy 

 of this piece of good fortune, though there are 

 doubtless many less prosperous colleges that 

 may be pardoned for regarding it with some- 

 what envious eyes, and for quoting the hard 

 saying, " to him that hath shall be given." 

 Trinity will undoubtedly know how to make 



good use of the money for educational pur- 

 poses; still, it may be regretted that, in view 

 of the poverty of the university as distin- 

 guished from the colleges, some part at least 

 of this large sum was not placed at its dis- 

 posal. There are statutory provisions in force, 

 both at Oxford and at Cambridge, whereby 

 each college contributes a certain portion of 

 its revenues either to some specific purpose, 

 such as the payment of a professor's stipend, 

 or to a common university fund to be applied 

 to university purposes in general. Under 

 these provisions, the university will, we pre- 

 sume, take its appointed toll of the Pearce 

 benefaction to Trinity. But it is not other- 

 wise a beneficiary. Yet in 1896 the total 

 revenue of the university amounted to only 

 £62,000 odd— only £844 of which was not 

 specially appropriated — whereas in 190Y the 

 gross annual revenue of Trinity was over 

 £76,000. 



A few comparative figures will serve to em- 

 phasize this contrast. Trinity already pos- 

 sesses the largest revenues of any college in 

 the university, its gross income amounting, as 

 stated above, to over £76,000 out of an aggre- 

 gate total of £316,000 odd enjoyed by all the 

 colleges. No doubt its outgoings and respon- 

 sibilities are proportionate to this large in- 

 come; but the new benefaction, probably 

 amounting, as we have said, to considerably 

 more than £400,000, may perhaps be taken as 

 equivalent to an additional net income of 

 £15,000 annually. There are no fewer than 

 eleven out of the seventeen colleges at Cam- 

 bridge of which the respective gross annual 

 incomes amount to less than this, ranging 

 from Magdalene with only £4,782 a year to 

 Christ's with £14,371 a year; while a twelfth, 

 Clare, only just exceeds it, having a gross 

 annual income of £15,104. These figures are 

 not cited invidiously. Their sole purpose is to 

 show that 'Trinity is now about to enjoy an 

 additional income, free of all charges, which 

 is more than equivalent to the gross annual 

 incomes respectively enjoyed by more than 

 two thirds of the colleges at Cambridge. On 

 the other hand, it is certain that at this junc- 

 ture the needs and deserts of the university as 



