Febeuaey 2, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



195 



est value for producing the strongest acid, and 

 avoids especially any necessity for concentrating 

 plants. For weaker acid, such as chamber acid, 

 it is probable the old process will always be 

 more economical. The new process has, how- 

 ever, the further advantage of giving an acid 

 exceptionally pure and especially free from 

 arsenic. This would seem at the present out- 

 look to be the most important advance in 

 technical chemistry in the last few years. 



J. L. H. 



CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY* 

 A COMMENCEMENT has already been made 

 with the new Geological Museum which will 

 cost about £44,000, of which sum the fund 

 raised as a memorial to Professor Sedgwick will 

 supply £27,000. The contributions to the Bene- 

 faction Fund have made it possible to consider 

 the erection of new buildings for Law, part of 

 the funds for which will, it is understood, be 

 contributed by the trustees of Miss Squire's 

 will, for Medicine, Botany, Archaeology and 

 rooms for business purposes and examinations ; 

 but it is impossible to say until plans have been 

 drawn and estimates made whether the re- 

 sources of the University will allow of the erec- 

 tion of all these buildings at the present time. 

 Although the extreme pressure upon the 

 funds of the University is thus removed and 

 some of the most urgent of long-standing claims 

 can be satisfied, the response made as yet to the 

 Chancellor's appeal will not allow of any of the 

 new developments of University work which 

 many friends of the University consider oppor- 

 tune. In the interests of national progress it 

 is greatly to be desired that laboratories of ap- 

 plied science should not be isolated, but should 

 be established in connection with schools which 

 are already strong in pure science. Technical 

 training in any limited sense of the expression 

 is impossible. In every subject of practical 

 application, whether it be a learned profession 

 or an industrial art, success depends upon 

 breadth of knowledge of the sciences upon 

 which the profession or art is based. Advances 

 in technology are almost invariably due to the 

 application by practical men of principles dis- 



* From the report of the retiring Vice-Chancellor, 

 Dr. Alexander Uill, Master of Downing College. 



covered by those who carry out investigations 

 in pure science. Conversely the strength and 

 vitality of the school of pure science is largely 

 increased when opportunities are afforded to 

 students of passing on to its applications. 



The remarkable progress of Natural Science 

 in Cambridge is closely associated with the 

 growth of the Medical School. During the past 

 twelve years a larger number of students have 

 entered for the Natural Sciences Tripos than for 

 any other examination for honors, notwith- 

 standing the fact that but few students are in a 

 position to allow their prospects in life to de- 

 pend upon the discovery in themselves of a spe- 

 cial aptitude for pure science. Almost all those 

 who have since distinguished themselves in 

 various branches of science have commenced 

 their career by preparing to qualify for a pro- 

 fession. The majority of the graduates, for ex- 

 ample, who are at present prosecuting re- 

 searches in the physical, chemical, botanical, 

 zoological, physiological, anatomical and patho- 

 logical laboratories, making, to the great credit 

 of the University, additions to knowledge which 

 are not exceeded, if they are equalled in 

 amount, by any other university in the world, 

 entered as medical students. The phenomenal 

 growth of the Eagineering Department under 

 Professor Ewing is also beginning to produce 

 similar results ; students who entered with the 

 intention of becoming engineers have discov- 

 ered in themselves a special aptitude for pure 

 mathematics or for physics in one of its various 

 branches. Thus experience shows that whereas 

 there can be no doubt as to the advantages 

 which a professional or technical department 

 reaps from the support of a school strong in 

 pure science, the advantages which pure sci- 

 ence reaps from the proximity of departments 

 of applied science are not less substantial. An 

 examination of the class-lists, as well as the 

 records of work done after graduation, shows 

 with equal clearness that the older subjects of 

 university culture do not suffer from the rivalry 

 of new departments. 



GRADUATE STUDY AND THE SMITHSONIAN 

 INSTITUTION. 

 It will be remembered that a committee rep- 

 resenting the American Association of Agricul- 



