49 8 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



supports itself by hard teaching. It is stated in the published accounts to receive 

 sums which it in fact does not receive, and which if it did receive would enable the 

 teaching staff to be increased and some time allowed for research. It is idle for 

 any public or private benefactor to give money for a specific object, such as the 

 improvement and extension of the opportunities of scientific research, until the 

 system is overhauled which makes it possible for moneys so given to be diverted. 



The University fees go almost wholly into the one " General Fund " created by 

 the Act of 1889. The departmental expenses are borne by grants from this fund, 

 from the public money provided by the Exchequer, and by the Carnegie Trust. 

 Hitherto the giving of a grant to a department has often meant merely the diminu- 

 tion of its grant from the General Fund. If the departments are all stereotyped 

 as regards the amount of tuition performed, it is obvious that the simultaneous 

 gift of public money and the withdrawal of the same amount of fees would not 

 benefit the department in the slightest, nor lessen its burden of tuition. But if, as 

 is the case with a subject like Chemistry, the fees earned and burden of tuition, of 

 which they are to some extent the measure, are rapidly growing relatively to the 

 rest of the University, each year must increase its burden and lessen its power of 

 original production, its increased earnings all the time going to make up corre- 

 sponding losses of fees in other departments. This has got to the point with the 

 Chemistry Department of Aberdeen that it has actually become self-supporting, 

 though nominally receiving large grants of public money. It would be better off 

 if it had been left as it was before 1889 in possession of its own earnings, and 

 without the sort of assistance it receives from the Carnegie Trust and the Govern- 

 ment. Until this matter is looked into, it is useless for the Chancellor of the 

 Exchequer or the Carnegie Trust to grant further moneys to the Universities if 

 their object is to foster those departments which are becoming of increasing 

 national importance, and for which there is growing up an increasing demand. 



The British Association Meeting, 1916 



The precedent in regard to the curtailment of the customary social side of the 

 British Association Meeting and of the visits to works set at the previous meeting 

 was followed again last autumn at Newcastle, for, as the Lord Mayor humorously 

 reminded the visitors in welcoming them, the town was a " prohibited area." In 

 spite of this and of the somewhat small attendance the interest of many of the 

 papers and the usefulness of the discussions should be a sufficient answer to 

 those who had maintained that the meeting should not be held. The war, the 

 one business of the country at the present time, naturally influenced the character 

 of the proceedings in practically all the sections. The discussions as a rule dealt 

 with work of national importance, the application of scientific knowledge and 

 methods to the nation's needs, etc., either in progress or in contemplation. At 

 such an annual gathering it was impossible to avoid thinking of those met in 

 former years, who had laid down for their country a life full of promise. 



In his address the President dealt with "New Archaeological Lights on 

 the Origins of Civilisation in Europe ; its Magdalenian Forerunners in the South- 

 West and ^Egean Cradle.'' It was a well-thought-out and attractively written 

 account of the old civilisation of Europe, a subject on which few men have ever 

 been better qualified to speak than Sir Arthur Evans. After referring to the 

 Roman occupation of Britain, and paying a well-deserved tribute to the good work 

 done by the local antiquarian society, the President glanced briefly at the Minoan 

 civilisation which may be regarded as the forerunner of that of Greece and Rome. 



