800 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 281. 



passed freely through the earth, and vice 

 versa. Lord Kelvin still hoped that it did, but 

 from the results of that experiment, which 

 proved that it did not, he could see no 

 way of escape. The second cloud over the 

 dynamical theory was the Maswell-Boltzmana 

 doctrine of the partition of energy. Here the 

 outlook was less sombre. He held that mathe- 

 matics had not proved the doctrine and that 

 the doctrine was not true. Still he did not 

 know any one but himself that attacked it, 

 and his own views had been attacked by Poin- 

 care. Lord Rayleigh, and other distinguished 

 mathematicians, though none of his assailants 

 had proved the proposition. Lord Kelvin pro- 

 ceeded to give some illustrations of the doc- 

 trine, and emphasized the labor and difficulty 

 of putting it to experimental tests. Its mathe- 

 matical consequences indeed sometimes ap- 

 peared to be contrary to common sense, but 

 that was not conclusive, for mathematics must 

 never be judged by common sense. Still, 

 within the last few months he had worked out 

 a large number of cases and had obtained re- 

 sults that did not agree with the doctrine. 

 The simple way, therefore, to destroy this 

 second cloud on the dynamical theory was to 

 drop the destructive general conclusion of the 

 Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. In conclu- 

 sion, Lord Kelvin brought forward some con- 

 siderations respecting the structure of the atom 

 and the nature of the ether, regarded as a true 

 imponderable outside the law of universal 

 gravitatioTi. 



UmVEBSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



The endowment fund committee of Brown 

 University has issued a statement of the condi- 

 tion of the fund. The effort to raise $1,000,000 

 in order to secure the conditional gift of $250,- 

 000 of John D. Rockefeller resulted in securing 

 in cash, legacies and pledges $700,000. The 

 remaining $300,000 must be pledged by com- 

 mencement in order to make Blr. Rockefeller's 

 gift available. 



Yale University has purchased land oppo- 

 site the State Hospital for its medical school. 



The Cambridge University General Board 

 proposes to establish a lectureship in ethnology 



for Dr. Haddon and a lectureship in bacteriology 

 and preventive medicine for Dr. Nuttall. New 

 lectureships in experimental physics and agri- 

 cultural chemistry are also recommended. 



The Educational Times states that active 

 steps are now being taken for the establish- 

 lishment of Commercial Universities at Mar- 

 seilles, Hamburg, and Berlin. The advance of 

 commercial education is very marked in Japan. 

 The establishment of an Imperial High School 

 of Commerce at Tokio has had such satisfactory 

 results that a like school is now in contempla- 

 tion for Osaka, and the creation of a degree of 

 Doctor of Commercial Science is under discus- 

 sion. There are four grades of commercial 

 schools in the Japanese Empire. In schools of 

 the second and third grades, designed for 

 youths who have completed their fourteenth 

 year and will devote thi-ee to five years to 

 special study, amongst the subjects taken up 

 we find ethics, Japanese, Chinese, and English 

 (or other foreign language), mathematics, geog- 

 raphy, history, economics, commercial legisla- 

 tion, bookkeeping, commodities, principles of 

 commerce, business practice, and gymnastics, 

 together occupying respectively thirty and 

 thirty-three hours a week, with a five years' 

 course. In the third grade correspondence and 

 commercial arithmetic figure as additional sub- 

 jects, and the whole course is more extensive. 



Edwin A. Alderman, for several years 

 president of the University of North Carolina, 

 has accepted the presidency of Tulane Univer- 

 sity, New Orleans. 



De. Charles W. Green of Leland Stanford 

 University, has been elected to the professor- 

 ship of physiology in the University of Missouri. 

 Dr. Green is a graduate of Leland Stanford, 

 '92, and for the last two years has been assist- 

 ant professor of physiology at that University. 



Herbert G. Lord, A.M. (Amherst), has 

 been appointed professor of philosophy in Co- 

 lumbia University. He will have charge of 

 the introductory collegiate courses. 



Teachers College, Columbia University, 

 has awarded four fellowships as follows : Frank 

 P. Bachman, A.B. (Chicago); Edwin C. Broome, 

 Ph.B. (Brown); Rufus C. Bently, A.B. (Ne- 

 braska) ; John W. Hall, A.B. (Colorado). 



