ii 4 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



The word other shows that the specified Arts subjects are included as cognate 

 to a technical or commercial education, but the Faculties of Science and Medicine 

 and scientific study and research participate on their own merits independently, 

 and not as subserving or ministering to a technical or commercial education. It 

 is recognised by the clause that technical or commercial education can only to a 

 limited extent be brought within the scope of the present University curriculum. 

 That it is technical and commercial education rather than the subjects of the 

 present University curriculum that are to be benefited is shown by the concluding 

 paragraph of Clause B, which deals primarily with the payment of students' fees : 



" In the case of Schools or Institutions in Scotland established to provide 

 Technical or Commercial Education, the Committee may recognise classes which, 

 though outside the present range of the University curriculum, can be accepted as 

 doing work of a University level, and may allow them and the students thereof to 

 participate under both A and B to such an extent as the Committee may from 

 time to time determine." 



It is thus natural to inquire in the cases to which I directed attention in which 

 scientific and medical studies had not received a due share of the moneys, whether 

 technical or commercial education has received it. It is only necessary to reiterate 

 a specific instance. In the University of Aberdeen, the scientific and medical 

 subjects: Chemistry— Inorganic, Organic, Physical, Agricultural, Physiological, 

 and Technological; Physics — Mathematical and Experimental; Mathematics; 

 Astronomy ; Engineering — Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, and Marine ; Geology ; 

 Botany ; Physiology ; Pathology ; Bacteriology ; Anatomy ; Embryology ; and 

 the subjects of Medicine and Surgery in their numerous subdivisions, received 

 one endowment for a lectureship in Geology. Whereas in Arts subjects endow- 

 ments were given for History and Archaeology, Political Economy, French, 

 German, Education, and Constitutional Law and History, without regard to 

 whether or not these subjects were taught with reference to the requirements of 

 technical or commercial education. * 



If this had been done genuinely in the interests of technical or commercial 

 education, and Aberdeen in comparison with the other University centres had in 

 this respect a specially urgent and pressing need, it would be only the discretion 

 of the Trustees that was in dispute. But it was not. It is true that, since the 

 war, the commercial community have realised the need of higher commercial 

 education on a University level. These endowments were allocated long before 

 the war, and the best proof that the needs of commercial education were not the 

 consideration at the time of the allocation is that they are now being considered 

 and a Faculty of Commerce is in process of being brought into existence. 



The powers of the Trustees in law may be so great as to enable them to 

 override the claims of both science and technical or commercial education, in order 

 to elevate Arts subjects that can be in any way regarded as cognate to the latter. 

 But, if so, it would be sanguine to expect that any one ever again will provide 

 funds for the improvement and extension of the opportunities for scientific study 

 and research in the Universities of Scotland or in the efficacy of the law to 

 accomplish the object when the funds were provided. 



The question being whether the Trust as constituted has in point of fact 

 fulfilled the wishes and intentions of the Founder, the second head of the 

 Executive Committee's reply hardly calls for comment, except in so far as it raises 

 a point of interest. At the date of the minute, January 7, 1918, there were eight 

 original nominated Trustees, and five subsequently appointed. The Rt. Hon. 



