292 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Appeal Fund, and merchants interested in the African trade have promised 

 ;^i2,ooo for a chair of colonial commerce, administration, and history, and 

 to increase the endowment of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. 

 Dr. Rudolf Messel, among other bequests, left;^5,ooo to the Royal Institution, 

 and ;^i,ooo to the Chemical Society. The residue of his estate goes as to 

 four parts to the Royal Society, and as to the other, to the Society of Chemical 

 Industry, the income in each case to be devoted to scientific research. 



At the time of writing, the decision of the Senate of the University of 

 London concerning the Government offer of a site in Bloomsbury for the 

 central offices of the University and the new buildings for King's College hangs 

 still in the balance. The question is a dif&cult one in itself, and it is compli- 

 cated by the refusal of the Government to bear the very heavy cost entailed 

 by the construction of new buildings on the land they offer. It is clear 

 that a University already too impoverished to pay its staff decently cannot 

 lightly accept the responsibility for so huge a burden . On grounds of sentiment 

 and, perhaps, of prestige, it would be a fine thing to establish a definite 

 University quarter in a central position in the County of London ; it is by no 

 means certain, however, that the wealthy citizen would show his appreciation 

 of that fact by adequate contribution to the Building Fund. Further, 

 sentiment should not be the controlling factor in a matter of this kind, nor, 

 indeed, the convenience of members of the Faculties or even of the Senate. 

 A University exists for the benefit of its students, and there seems little doubt 

 that, in so large an area as London, these are best served by a wise distribution 

 of the constituent colleges of the University. King's and University Colleges 

 are each large enough to produce an atmosphere of learning; and, placed 

 within a few hundred yards of each other, their organisations and individu- 

 alities would inevitably, in time, merge into one : the science faculties being 

 concentrated in the one set of buildings, and the Arts in the other, instead 

 of mingling as they do now, to the undoubted advantage of both. 



Apparently, however, certain persons are considering favourably the possi- 

 bility of transferring King's College and the University Headquarters to 

 Kenwood. It is difficult to believe that this suggestion is a serious one, and 

 not merely a means of opposing the Government scheme, for Kenwood is a 

 rather inaccessible locality even to dwellers in the North of London ; attend- 

 ance from other parts of the county would be out of the question. Part would 

 no doubt find excellent use as a Residential College ; but the University as a 

 whole cannot be residential, and to suggest that the main University activities 

 of the county should be concentrated in so remote a position is simply 

 ludicrous. There is a third aspect of the matter — that of possibility. "The 

 Government can offer the land at Bloomsbury, and has no land to offer in 

 any other reasonably central position. London certainly should have a 

 University quarter, and the surroundings at Bloomsbury are quite suitable 

 for the purpose. If the Senate finds itself unable to accept the offer, it is to 

 be hoped that it will be on the ground of inadequate means, and not with the 

 idea of a remote and inaccessible suburb as alternative. 



The views of the London Graduates' Association on this question are 

 expressed by the following resolution, passed unanimously at a recent 

 m.eeting of the Council : — 



" That the University of London Graduates' Association, recalling the 

 undertaking of His Majesty's Government of the removal, at their instance, 

 of the Headquarters of the University from Burlington Gardens to the 

 present buildings at South Kensington, to continue to provide site and build- 

 ings rate- and tax-free with maintenance and upkeep, and also to make 

 provision for the full extension and development of the University as 

 reconstituted under the Act of 1898, is of opinion that the renewed ofier of 

 land on the Duke of Bedford's estate, accompanied by an undefined main- 

 tenance grant, now made by the Government, is in no sense an equivalent 



