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matical honourmen turn to engineering, they cease to go further in mathematics, as they find it pays better to qualify as engineers. The average mathematician who is not essentially by nature and genius devoted to pure mathematics, finds that it is more to his advantage, and is a far less arduous task, to qualify in physics, chemistry, or engineering, where he may find an outlet for his energies outside the teaching profession. Problems of the class contemplated by Mr. Paaswell depend essentially on a knowledge not so much of engineering as of applied mathematics, such as rigid dynamics, hydrodynamics, thermodynamics and conduction of heat, and elasticity, up to the standard of the old part ii. tripos, which is a less attractive sequel to part i. than the engineering tripos. Consequently applied mathematicians proper are few and far between, and a certain class of problems possessing no inherent difficulties is running to waste. Moreover, the few specialists interested in such work can only undertake it in the intervals between professional duties, often occupied with the teaching of engineering students of a very elementary standard.

MESSRS. DICKINSON and Osborne, of the U.S. Bureau of Standards describe in the April issue of the Journal of the Franklin Institute what they term an "aneroid calorimeter." It is an instrument in which equalisation of temperature is secured by means of the thermal conductivity of copper instead of by the convection of a stirred liquid. The calorimeter described, which consists of a thick walled cylindrical vessel of copper in the walls of which are embedded a coil of resistance wire to supply heat electrically, and a platinum resistance coil for use as a thermometer, has been found useful over a wide range of temperatures, and is applicable to a variety of problems. For use at low temperatures the calorimeter is mounted in a jacket surrounded by a bath of gasoline, the temperature of which can be controlled thermostatically to within a few thousandths of a degree at any temperature between -55° and +40° C., or can be changed rapidly in order to keep it the same as that of the calorimeter when heat is being supplied to the latter. A series of check experiments on the specific heat of water shows the order of reproducibility of results which can be obtained to be 1 part

in 2000.

A NOTE on radiation pyrometers and their characteristics, by G. K. Buyers and P. D. Foote has been communicated to the April number of the Journal of the Franklin Institute. It heralds the publication of a very complete paper which is to appear from the Bureau of Standards. Some twenty instruments have been examined, including all the ordinary types commonly met with in practice, such as the four due to Féry, and the Foster, Thwing, and Brown pyrometers. It has been established that the StefanBoltzmann law, E=a(T1-T ̧1), is not in general, except by accident, obeyed exactly by any of the pyrometers examined. The similar equation, E=aT1.Tb-4 in which bis slightly different from 4 (usually neglecting the T, term) is, however, obeyed with sufficient exactness by all total radiation pyrometers. The main

factors which influence the value of the exponent b are the geometry and mechanical construction of the instrument; the value of b for twenty thermo-electric pyrometers ranged from about 35 to 45. The same instrument of the Féry type may have a different exponent according to its use with or without the sectored diagram for increasing the temperature

range.

A HIGH-CAPACITY wagon for the South African railways is illustrated in Engineering for May 7, together with another wagon of special design and 160,000 lb. capacity, built for transport of whales. These wagons have been constructed by the Leeds Forge Co., Ltd., and are excellent examples of steel rolling-stock. The whale wagon is intended to carry whales over a special 3 ft. 6 in. line a few miles in length from the point where they are brought ashore to the factory, where they are dealt with for the extraction of oil, etc., not far from Durban. The bodies are hauled on to and off the wagon by windlasses. The line is very uneven, and it has been necessary to design the wagon with six-wheeled bogies, so as to keep the axle-loads down to the required limits and ensure the necessary flexibility.

SCREW pumps having blades like those of a steamer's propeller, mounted on a horizontal shaft, are a feature of several large pumping installations in the United States, particularly for drainage and flushing work, where large volumes of water must be handled promptly and rapidly. The latest and largest installation of screw pumps is at New Orleans, and is described in the Engineer for May 7. This installation is used in removing the storm-water drainage of the city and its surrounding district, lying between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. Eleven screw pumps, 12 ft. in diameter, are now being built to supplement the present pumping equipment, so that the total pumping capacity will be 7,240,000,000 U.S. gallons daily. The rapid removal of storm-water by pumping has a marked influence upon the sanitary condition, since it enables the ground to dry out more rapidly, and thus reduces the unhealthy conditions which result from damp and water-soaked ground in a large city. The total annual rainfall in the district ranges from 62 to 75 in., most of the heavy rainfalls being due to severe but brief storms.

OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. METEORS FROM HALLEY'S COMET.-Like the Perseids and Leonids, the meteors connected with Halley's famous comet probably constitute a complete ring. They were first discovered by Lieut.-Col. Tupman while cruising in the Mediterranean in 1870, when the parent comet was near aphelion, and Prof. Alexander Herschel pointed out the significant resemblance between the cometary and meteoric orbits.

This year, in the early mornings of the first week in May, Mrs. Fiammetta Wilson, of Bexley Heath, observed, notwithstanding rather unfavourable weather, several splendid specimens of the Halleyan meteors. Two of these were also recorded by M. Felix de Roy, hon. secretary of the Société Ástronomique d' Antwerp, but now resident at Thornton

Heath. One of these, observed on May 6, at 2h. 52m. a.m., was as brilliant as the planet Jupiter, and travelled over an extensive arc from E. to W. (Kent to Wiltshire). Its height according to Mr. Denning's computations, was from sixty-nine to fifty-nine miles, its luminous flight extended over eighty miles at a velocity of about forty miles per second. The radiant point was at 339°-20. Another fine meteor from the same system was seen by Mrs. Wilson on May 6 at 3h. 23m. a.m., and a smaller one, also observed by M. de Roy, appeared on May 3 at 3h. 2m. a.m., with a height from forty-eight to forty miles. Radiant 335° -2°. These new materials are interesting as affording further corroboration of the identity of the comet and meteors.

COMET 1915a (MELLISH).-The following ephemeris is a continuation of that given last week :

May 14

16

18

20

R.A. (true)

h.

m. S.

19 9 32

...

14 29 20 2

...

...

[blocks in formation]

5.9

5.6

-22 42.1 25 19.2 28 15:4 19 26 22 -31 32-7 The comet is rapidly moving southwards, and on May 18 will be found a little to the eastward of Sagittarii.

THE AUSTRALIAN SOLAR OBSERVATORY.-The March number of the Scientific Australian contains a short communication by Mr. P. H. Baracchi on the demand for an Australian Solar Observatory. Mr. Baracchi enumerates the several steps that have been taken to secure such an observatory for Australia, and directs attention to the selected site known as Mount Strombo, the highest summit of a group of hills situated about 6.5 miles west of the centre of the Federal capital and about 2500 ft. above sea-level. For the purpose of testing the "seeing" at the site for the period of a year, Mr. Baracchi and his assistant, Dr. Baldwin, erected in 1911 a 9-in. refracting telescope on the site and built a 19-ft. dome to house it. The result of the observations showed that the local conditions fulfilled the most essential requirements for any class of delicate astronomical work. As yet nothing is very definitely known concerning the future of the observatory, but Mr. Baracchi states that "the Commonwealth authorities seem well disposed to expand the Mount Strombo Observatory, and make it a permanent astronomical institution, including a solar department, but no further steps have, as yet, been taken.'

PHOTOGRAPHING THE CORONA.-Writing in the May number of the Observatory, Mr. E. B. Knobel directs attention to the subject of whether the best means are employed in photographing the solar corona, and whether our knowledge of the structure of the corona has advanced since the introduction of the photographic dry plate. He is of the opinion that "no results have been secured comparable in value to the photographs of the corona in 1871, which were obtained with wet collodion plates. " and that the time has arrived when the whole question should be investigated and the results of this investigation made use of on the next occasion of a total solar eclipse. In his communication he considers the merits of the three processes-daguerreotype, wet collodion, and dry plates. He refers to the difficulty in the daguerreotype process requiring much practice and experience, and to the principal drawback to its employment for the corona in that the image is only visible by reflected light, and that long exposures are necessary. He points out, however, the perfection of the resulting image. Mr. Knobel advocates strongly a serious attempt to revive the wet collodion process. He says: "There are no difficulties that cannot be

surmounted.... All the procedure . . . requires practice and experience, and the assistant should have some familiarity with chemical operations. It ought not to be difficult to find a suitable man to train up for eclipse work among process-workers in collodion, as he would already be practised in some of the operations." It is hoped, as Mr. Knobel suggests, that some of the funds provided by the Joint Permanent Eclipse Committee may be utilised to defray the expense of the necessary training in what is almost a lost art, so that the process may be brought into use again for eclipse work.

It

CIRCULARS OF THE UNION OBSERVATORY, JOHANNESBURG.-A batch of circulars of the Union Observatory, Johannesburg, has just come to hand dealing with a great number of varied observations. Circular No. 19 deals with the proper-motion stars south of declination - 19°, and contains three tables of great interest. The first is a list of all stars for which the proper motion is known to exceed a fifth of a second of arc in either right ascension or declination. includes also many double stars the proper motions of which exceed o.1", and a few stars of small proper motion. Table II. consists of those stars for which radial velocities have been published. The third table indicates groups of stars showing community of motion. The six groups given are the sun group, or group nearly stationary with regard to the sun, the 61 Cygnus, Taurus, Mensa, a Centaurus, and 8 Lepus groups. Circular No. 20, among other communications, gives an account of the discovery of variable stars, etc., with Pulfrich's blinkmicroscop, with remarks upon its use in astronomy. Circular No. 21 is devoted to observations made of the transit of Mercury in November last, a 9-in., two 6-in., and a 4-in. telescope being employed. In Circular No. 22 an orbit and observations of comet 1914e are given. This comet, as mentioned in this column last week, was discovered independently by several widely distributed observers. Observations of the Galilean satellites of the planet Jupiter made during the period April 8 to December 31, 1914, form the subject of Circular No. 23. These observations are in continuation of the series commenced in 1908. The present series has been compared with the times given in the American ephemeris, which are founded very closely on Damoiseau's tables, but the 1915 comparisons will be made with the Nautical Almanac, as Samson's tables have now been adopted.

SHELLFISH AND SEWAGE.

IT is perhaps only by chance that the conclusion of the work of the Royal Commission on Sewage Disposal should almost coincide with the Shellfish Regulations issued by the Local Government Board. Nothing like the task performed by the Sewage Commission had ever been attempted by a similar body. It met throughout three reigns, during which time its personnel underwent notable changes. It interpreted liberally its "terms of reference," and conducted an inquiry which was most comprehensive in scope. It employed a scientific staff who carried out investigations of quite the best kind, and made reports which, for a long time to come, must be regarded as authoritative. It suggested legislation based on great knowledge of the conditions that were to be improved.

After all this it was with a kind of shock of surprise that those interested in the development of the inshore fisheries read the Shellfish Regulations of the Local Government Board, which were published on February 16, and came into force on March 1. For

the last eight years the fisheries authorities have entreated the Board to legislate, and more than once Mr. John Burns assured them that a Bill would be drafted and laid before Parliament; it was believed that this would be necessary. The British Science Guild lent its authority in aid of the agitation. The fishing trade and the public health bodies were equally desirous that something might be done to remove the dangers that were inherent in the unrestricted exploitation of sewage-polluted shellfish beds and layings. It was felt that some comprehensive scheme of regulations, based on the well-thought-out recommendations of the Sewage Commission (and on the reports of the Board's own inspector, Dr. H. T. Bulstrode), was being prepared and awaited a favourable opportunity for consideration by Parliament.

In February last it was seen that the Board Board possessed power to legislate by Order in Council. Emergency legislation was in the air; and there were probably reasons traceable to the abnormal state of affairs in the country at present which stimulated the Board to action. Anyhow, the Regulations proceeded to establish a means of dealing with sewage-polluted shellfish on quite other lines than those suggested by the Sewage Commission or the fishery authorities. They set up a machinery for closing suspected layings which must invite criticism inasmuch as it can be put in motion without utilising scientific or technical skill. Briefly stated, the Regulations confer power on the local sanitary authorities to prohibit the exploitation of suspected shellfish beds or layings. If the medical officer of health of any local authority attributes disease of any kind in his district to the consumption of shellfish he may require the vendor of the food to state what was its place of origin. The disease need not be enteric fever, and it need not be traceable by any process of scientific investigation to the suspected shellfish. If the medical officer suspects (for that is what it comes to) that the consumption of shellfish from a certain place is the cause of disease he may ask the local sanitary authority in whose district this place is situated to take action. If the latter authority do not take action they can be compelled to do so by the Board.

Even then no investigation need necessarily be made. The local authority need only invite the fishermen and others interested in the industry to show cause that the shellfish which they place on the public markets are not the means of communicating disease. If they do not produce evidence of this nature the local authority may prohibit fishing on the suspected beds. It is true that the local authorities are invited to make investigations, and that it is suggested that they should base their conclusions on topographical and epidemiological evidence rather than on the results of bacteriological analyses. But many of the shellfish beds which are likely to come under suspicion may be situated in districts where the medical officer of health is a busy man with a private practice, and where the only other official to whom the investigation may be committed is perhaps an imperfectly trained sanitary inspector. No special technical training may be necessary for the consideration of "topographical and epidemiological" evidence, as it is for the conduct of a bacteriological investigation, but it is certain that evidence of the former nature is more easily misinterpreted, and is no less a matter for the expert.

It is not at all certain that this machinery will prove to be effective, for we may strongly suspect that the local authorities of the shellfish-producing districts will resent suspicion being cast on their local industries, and there is nothing to prevent them accepting the unanimous opinion of their local fishermen that the shellfish they market are to be regarded as blame

less. This, however, is not our main point. Expert assistance for the investigation of the layings by the local sanitary authorities is easily procurable. There are the inspectors of the Local Government Board itself, as well as those of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, and some of the local fishery authorities have officers well qualified to make the necessary investigations. At all events, the sanitary authorities might well have been advised to follow the example of higher judicial bodies and obtain the assistance of assessors to help them in weighing the value of the opinions of the local fishermen. But one need scarcely say more about this; it is surely evident that the question as to whether an area of shellfish-producing foreshore is to be condemned, and a local industry destroyed, is a matter for the application of scientific investigation by men possessing special knowledge.

Then the suggestion conveyed in the covering letter of the Board, accompanying the issue of the Regulations, that stress is to be laid on the value of topographical and epidemiological, rather than bacteriological evidence, may also be criticised. There is no doubt that the Board were influenced by the opinion of the Sewage Commissioners, which rather deprecated the application of bacteriological analyses, as a matter of routine practice. In Dr. Bulstrode's last report no use was made of bacteriological methods; also there is, no doubt, much confusion as to "standards of impurity"; and there is no "norm" generally adopted in public health laboratories as to the precise methods of analyses. But much research upon the distribution in nature of intestinal bacteria is in progress, and we may be very sure that the extension of such investigation would soon enable us to utilise bacteriological methods with complete success at least as an adjunct to whatever other investigations were employed. It is, in fact, unfortunate that the Regulations should have set up a machinery which can be made to work without the employment of scientific assistance, and with respect to a question upon which much research has already been made and much more suggested by the Royal Commission on Sewage Disposal. J. J.

LENGTH STANDARDS AND MEASUREMENTS.

1

N his recent presidential address to the PhiloFischer, of the Bureau of Standards, gave an interestsophical Society of Washington, Mr. L. A. ing historical account of standards of linear measure. He explained the intimate relation which existed between the American and the British official standard

of length up to the year 1893. At present the yard

is defined in the United States in terms of the metre, but the numerical ratio adopted agrees very closely with that legalised in this country. In fact, the American yard only differs from the British standard by about 0.0001 in. Until 1856 the United States official standard of the yard was for more than forty by Troughton, which had been brought from London years a length of 36 in. on an 82-in. brass bar made by Ferdinand Hassler, the first superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey. Between 1856 and 1893 a bronze yard presented to the United States by the British Government in 1855 was recognised by the Office of Weights and Measures at Washington as the national standard.

The most important part of Mr. Fischer's address is that dealing with the measurement of base lines. During the last thirty years very radical changes have taken place in geodetical operations. End standards, Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, March 4, 1915, vol. v No. 5, pp. 145-159

"compensated for temperature," were in use when Mr. Fischer was first engaged on the Coast and Geodetic Survey. These gave place to 5-metre contact rods, consisting of a single bar of steel enclosed in a closely fitting wooden case, and covered with padded canvas. For use in the field they were mounted on tripods and placed end to end. In the hands of skilled observers it was possible with this type of bar to attain a degree of accuracy approaching i part in 2,000,000. In the elaborate apparatus devised by Dr. R. S. Woodward a line bar was supported when in use on a steel trough and covered with crushed ice, the trough being carried by two trucks travelling on a portable track. Micrometer-microscopes were mounted on supports fixed in the ground at carefully measured intervals approximately equal to the length of the bar. The operation of measuring was effected by bringing the bar under the first two microscopes and then setting the cross-wires of the micrometers on the lines of the bar; then without disturbing the reading of the forward micrometer the bar was displaced longitudinally until the line at its rear end was brought under the forward microscope, while at the same time an observer at the forward end set the micrometer on the line at that end, this process being repeated throughout the length of the base line. A kilometre base measured in this manner was estimated to have an accuracy of 1 part in 3,000,000.

Eimbeck's duplex base bars were next employed on the survey. These consisted of two concentric brass tubes in the inner of which a brass and a steel measuring bar were mounted. The inner tube could be rotated through 180° so as to equalise the temperature of the brass and steel components if one side of the apparatus should be more exposed to direct radiation. This method was in its turn superseded by the introduction of invar tapes. All primary bases of

the United States Survey are now measured with invar tapes, tested preliminarily at the Bureau of Standards, and by this means base operations, while maintaining the high degree of precision which the work demands, admit of vastly greater rapidity in the field, with a consequent reduction in the expense involved.

PLIOCENE MAN.

THE discussion originated by the Rev. Osmund Fisher in NATURE of September 4, 1913 (vol. xcii., p. 6), has led to the systematic exploration, by a committee of the Dorset Field Club, of the Dewlish "elephant-trench," and the report on the excavations was read at the anniversary meeting on May 4.

This curious trench in the chalk yields bones of the Pliocene Elephas meridionalis, and Mr. Fisher suggested that it was artificial and dug for trapping the elephants. There can no longer be any doubt that the trench was of natural origin. The elaborate plans, elevations, and photographs exhibited by Mr. Charles Prideaux, who superintended the excavations, show clearly that a few feet below the surface the supposed trench divides into a chain of pipes or potholes in the chalk connected by a narrow joint. These become very narrow below; but one of them was traced to a depth of 36 ft. One or two of the smaller pipes still show traces of the lining of black clay commonly found in pipes caused by solution in the chalk; the larger ones were filled with chalky sand full of flints, and Tertiary material; many of the flints were beautifully polished. Flakes caused by sudden changes of temperature were also abundant.

Mr. Clement Reid discussed the geological evidence. He thought that it proved the existence of a fissure or joint transverse to the valley of the Devil's Brook. Along this joint a chain of pipes was formed by the

action of percolating rain-water. Then the pipes nearest to the valley-bottom acted as "swallow-holes,' into which the brook sank, the constant swirl of the water laden with calcareous sand giving the flints the wonderful polish now seen. In short, the Devil's Brook, then flowing at a level 90 ft. higher, was a "winter bourne," which at Dewlish, for part of the year, at any rate, was swallowed up and disappeared into these pot-holes. Such pot-holes are common in the Carboniferous Limestone, though rare in the Chalk. This chain of pot-holes acted as a natural pitfall, into which the elephants fell, or into which their bones were washed; thus far Osmund Fisher was right in calling it an "elephant-trap," though it probably had a natural origin. Mr. Reid saw no sign of human agency in the trench. The date of the deposit must still remain somewhat uncertain, for all the determinable bones belong to E. meridionalis, and this species, though mainly Pliocene, may have lived on into early Pleistocene times.

Mr. Reid Moir, in another report, described a number of the flints as showing undoubted human workmanship of eolithic type. Mr. Reginald Smith, however, after an examination of the same specimens, thinks that one or two of them may possibly be worked, the others he rejects.

A report by Mr. Dewey pointed out that a sample of calcareous sand from the trench proved under the microscope to consist mainly of minute rhombs of calcite, such as would be precipitated from a saturated solution. This he thought pointed to an arid climate.

SYSTEMATIC ZOOLOGY OF THE
INVERTEBRATA.

AMONG recent systematic papers on the invertebrates, a noteworthy account of the parasitic worms collected on the British Antarctic (Terra Nova) Expedition, written by Dr. R. T. Leiper and Dr. E. L. Atkinson, has been published by the British Museum ("Terra Nova Zoologv." vol. ii., No. 3). From the summary of results we learn that the Ross Expedition of 1841-4 brought back two species of Entozoa; the Scott (Discovery) Expedition of 1901-4 four species; the Bruce (Scotia) Expedition_seventeen species; the French (Pourquoi Pas?) Expedition eighteen species; the Terra Nova twenty-eight species. These figures show how greatly zoological knowledge has been increased through our latest national Antarctic enterprise. Three of the worms now recorded from the far south had previously been known only from the Arctic regions. Two of these-a Filaria and an Echinorrhynchus-have whales as their hosts in both localities, but the third-a monostomid trematode, Ogmogaster plicatum, Creplin-is parasitic in rorquals. in the north, and in the Crab-eating and Weddell's Seals in the south; a remarkable divergence in habit.

From home waters there is still much material to be gathered, and C. M. Selbie's important paper on the Decapoda Reptantia of the coasts of Ireland, part 1 (Fisheries, Ireland, Sci. Invest., 1914, i.), adds to the fauna of the Britannic marine area the family Eryonidæ, as represented by four species of Polycheles and four of Eryonicus. These were all taken in deep water off the west coast of Ireland, though the speci-mens of Eryonicus "lead a free-swimming life at a considerable distance from the bottom." The paper is illustrated by fifteen excellently drawn plates.

A very important paper on those interesting copepod fish-parasites, the Lernæopodidæ, has been published by C. B. Wilson in the Proc. U.S. Nat. Museum (vol. xlvii., pp. 565-729). Though dealing especially with species from North American waters, the author gives a revision of the whole family, thus affording a trust

worthy work of reference for students of the group all over the world. The systematic part of the paper is preceded by a useful introduction to the anatomy and metamorphosis of the parasites, and is illustrated in thirty-two clear plates of diagnostic drawings.

The zoological results of the Abor Expedition (N.E. India) continue to appear in the Records of the Indian Museum. The lately issued part 6 of vol. viii. contains papers on land planarians by Prof. R. H. Whitehouse, terrestrial Isopoda by W. E. Collinge, and Onychophora by Stanley Kemp. The last-named deserve more than passing notice, for the discovery of a Peripatid "at the foot of the eastern Himalaya" is one of the most important faunistic results of recent years; no member of the class had hitherto been found at all as far north as this. The specimens were found under stones in a comparatively small area at an elevation of 1320 ft. From a consideration of the structure of the species, Mr. Kemp considers it allied to the Malayan Eoperipatus, but on account of the total absence of eyes (although the optic ganglia are present), and other distinctive characters, establishes a new genus (Typhloperipatus) for its reception. The unpaired oviduct in the female and the ejaculatory duct (also unpaired) in the male are remarkably long. The eggs are richly yolked, and embryos at various stages were found in the uterus. From the appearance of the embryos and young it is concluded that reproduction takes place only during the wet season. G. H. C.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
INTELLIGENCE.

CAMBRIDGE.-Messrs. F. T. Brooks, Emmanuel College, and R. H. Compton, Gonville and Caius College, have been appointed demonstrators of botany, and Mr. T. S. P. Strangeways, St. John's College, has been reappointed demonstrator of physiology. The council recommends to the Senate that the ViceChancellor be authorised to countersign and seal certificates of attendance to Belgian students attending the courses of instruction organised by Belgian professors now lecturing in Cambridge.

The Financial Board has presented a report to the Senate in which the financial position and prospects of the University are reviewed. The income of the University chest for 1913 and 1914 was 53,400l. and 46,8ool. respectively, and is estimated at 26,600l. for 1915; the corresponding figures representing the receipts of the common University fund are 22,510l., 23,8ool., and 15,780l. Details are given in the report of the manner in which the board proposes to meet the large deficiency disclosed in the estimates by the temporary suspension of vacant teaching and research posts, of salaries to officials now in the national service, and of contributions to pension and building sinking fund accounts. One of the most substantial items of expenditure under the control of the Financial Board is that of grants to the departmental funds of the scientific departments of the University; these amounted to 5580l. in 1914. The accounts of these departments, although controlled by the Board, are not incorporated in those of the University chest or the common University fund, but the board estimates that in 1915 the receipts from fees of the scientific departments of the University will fall some 16,000l. to 18,000l. below those of 1914. It is evidently not desired that the University contribution towards the upkeep of the science laboratories in the University should be diminished; it is obvious, however, that even in normal times the chest and the common fund could do little to support natural science in Cambridge if the annual revenue of the science laboratories were

suddenly diminished by 16,000l. to 18,000l. The Cambridge Review records the number of undergraduates in residence this term as 1097, as against 3181 during the Easter term of 1914.

LONDON.-Lord Rosebery presided at the presentation of graduates on May 5. The annual report of the principal (Sir Henry Miers), his seventh and last report in view of his appointment as Vice-Chancellor of Manchester University, referred to the special work resulting from the war, particularly the training of 1300 officers and educational provision for two hundred refugee students. In his retrospect of his period of office, the principal referred to the report of the Royal Commission, the incorporation of King's College and King's College for Women in the University, the Universities' Congress, the transfer of Bedford College to Regent's Park, the new buildings at the Imperial College and University College, the development of the professoriate, the increase of internal students from 3580 to 4950, and in the number of external candidates, and many benefactions for teaching and research. He looked forward to the time when the University would have a dignified home bearing its own name, and would be adequately endowed; and expressed his complete faith in its power to fulfil all its duties, both local and imperial. Lord Rosebery, in an eloquent address, hoped that as one result of the war, a new spirit of co-operation would enable the University to work out its own salvation. He had never believed that there was anything incompatible between the local and imperial aspects of the work of the University.

The London County Council is prepared to award for the session 1915-16 a limited number of free places at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, South Kensington, S.W. The free places will be awarded on consideration of the past records of the candidates, the recommendations of their teachers, the course of study which they intend to follow, and generally upon their fitness for advanced study in science as applied to industry. Candidates will not be required to undergo a written examination. It is possible that the free places may be extended to two or more years. Particulars may be obtained from the education officer, L.C.C. Education Offices, Victoria Embankment, W.C., and application forms must be returned not later than Saturday, May 22.

SHEFFIELD.Dr. J. Sholto C. Douglas, lecturer on pathology in the University of Manchester, has been appointed to the Joseph Hunter chair of pathology, in succession to Prof. Dean.

FOUR lectures on the progress of public health in Egypt will be delivered at Gresham College, E.C., on May 18-21, by Prof. F. M. Sandwith, Gresham professor of physic. The lectures are free to the public, and will begin each evening at six o'clock.

WE learn from Science that grants for two new buildings to meet the needs of the University of Ohio and for additional tracts of farm land west of the Olentangy have been voted through the finance committee of the lower branch of the State legislature. These extensions would involve an expenditure of 68,000l. A domestic science building to cost 30,000l. and a shop building for manual training to cost 24,000l. are provided. Ninety acres of land would be purchased west of the Olentangy River at a probable cost of 14,000l.

A SUMMER School of Mining and Engineering for the South Wales coalfield is to be held in August next at the Technical College, Swansea. The courses of instruction will be seven in number, comprising a surveyor's course (to meet the requirements of the

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