March 30, 191 1] 



NATURE 



147 



nearest relative, while the remains were buried in the 

 house. On Ysabel (Solomon Islands) and also in 

 Aneityum (New Hebrides) the body was buried in 

 such a position that the head could be severed from 

 the trunk, which was not itself exposed. At Ysabel 

 the process was accelerated by lighting fires round the 

 ixposed head, from which the scorched flesh was 

 (■asily peeled. At Aneityum female mourners watched 

 the head until the soft tissues had decomposed. A 

 special interest attaches to both these methods, since 

 they contrast with the disposal of the dead by crema- 

 tion practised in some of the western Solomons and 

 New Ireland, while they agree in principle and in some 

 degree in detail, with the methods of inhumation 

 accompanied by the preservation of the skulls in vogue 

 .imong the archipelagoes lying off the eastern ex- 

 iremity of New Guinea. These facts support a view 

 held by the reviewer that the inhabitants of the Solo- 

 mon Islands will be found to be divisible into two 

 ethnic groups, the dividing line falling somewhere in 

 the neighbourhood of the line of political division. 



Dr. Brown mentions that on his early journeys in 

 New Britain he was able to buy fowls of a small 

 white breed in large numbers, and he suggests that 

 these were indigenous. The interest of this observa- 

 tion is greatly increased by the fact that in many 

 parts of eastern British New Guinea the natives main- 

 tain that thirty or forty years ago they possessed a 

 breed of pure white fowls. 



No praise could be too high for the plates with 

 which this book is abundantly illustrated. One pic- 

 ture shows four men of the remote islet Lua Niua 

 (Ontong Java), who speak a language "very closely 

 related to the Samoan." So far as the writer knows 

 this is the first adequate portrait to be published of 

 these Polynesians, stranded long ago in Melanesia, who 

 although they have retained their Polynesian features 

 appear to have come into intimate contact with Mela- 

 nesians since, as Dr. Brown informs us, they are 

 divided into two exogamous classes. An alternate 

 explanation favoured by Dr. Brown is that they are 

 descended from a group of exogamous castaways 

 from the Ellice group, who, it is assumed, were 

 derived from Samoa at a time when that island was 

 inhabited by a people having an exogamous clan 

 organisation. 



Two unfortunate slips occur in the description of the 

 plates. The masks and figures shown in the upper 

 figure facing p. 238 are from New Ireland (not from 

 New Guinea), and the two masks facing p. 316, also 

 attributed to New Guinea, certainly do not come from 

 there. An insufficient index gives an inadequate idea 

 of the real value of the book. C. G. S. 



THE BUSINESS SIDE OF A UNIVERSITY.^ 



UP to the present time the development of the 

 American university system has proceeded 

 mainly by the multiplication of universities, and by 

 Increase in their endowments. The cost of university 

 education has, however, steadily risen everywhere ; 

 and while it has been possible up till now to provide 

 for expansion by increased contributions of funds from 

 outside, it is clear that a limit exists to the possibili- 

 ties of further increase. It follows that the question 

 as to whether the efficiency of American universities 

 can be increased by a better use of their existing re- 

 •sources is an important question which may become 

 urgent in the future, even if it has not done so in 

 the past. 



Under the auspices of the Carnegie Foundation for 

 the Advancement of Teaching, a report has been drawn 



1 "Academic and Industrial Efficiency." A Report to the Carnecie 

 Foundation for the Advatirement of Teaching. By M. L. Cooke. Pp. vii + 

 I 54. (New York City, loio.) 



NO. 2 161, VOL. 86] 



up on '"Academic and Industrial Efficiency." The 

 author, Mr. Morris Llewellyn Cooke, claims to 

 have studied the problem practically exclusively from 

 the point of view of a business man, while freely 

 admitting that there are other aspects of the question 

 not dealt with in his report. In order to collect 

 information, he visited eight universities and colleges, 

 and in every case chose the department of physics for 

 his inquiries, on the ground that the conditions pre- 

 vailing in this department might be regarded as typical 

 of those prevailing generally in the work of all depart- 

 ments. He notices a certain lack of intensiveness in 

 the wo-k of the colleges, and while admitting that a 

 considerable amount of leisure is wanted for the teach- 

 ing staff and tliose engaged in private research, points 

 out that this affords no reason why janitors and 

 gardeners should not carry on their duties out of 

 lecture hours. 



On the difficult question of administration, Mr. 

 Cooke expresses fairly definite views. Three methods 

 of administration are possible : firstly, " committee 

 management"; secondly, what he calls the "military 

 type," in which the whole of the direction falls on 

 the shoulders of one man ; and thirdly, what Mr. 

 Cooke describes as " functional " management, in 

 which the responsibility is divided amongst a number 

 of individuals, each having complete authority over a 

 limited range of duties. Observing that the system 

 of government by committees does not prevail in the 

 business world, the author objects to this system on 

 the ground that it tends to produce lack of initiative, 

 departmental autonomy, and lack of authority on the 

 part of the heads of departments, especially in the 

 matter of discipline when their decisions are liable to 

 revision at the hands of a board or committee. The 

 functional system is considered to be the best, though 

 the author admits that the other systems are in many 

 cases working well, and better than he would have 

 expected. 



Under the heading, "The College Teacher as a 

 Producer," Mr. Cooke refers to the difficulty of in- 

 creasing the efficiency of professors so long as their 

 duties are so multifarious and varied as they are at 

 present. He is quite astonished at the number of 

 tasks they have to perform. Teaching, research, and 

 administration alone form a group of duties, of which 

 it is difficult for the same individual to combine more 

 than two efficiently. But, in addition, it is becoming 

 increasingly important for the professor to keep him- 

 self in touch with what is being done elsewhere, and 

 this involves study of pedagogic methods as well as 

 of the literature of his own subject. Moreover, the 

 committee system, where it exists, makes increasing 

 demands on his time. Yet Mr, Cooke finds pro- 

 fessors spending time in taking inventories, kec'ping 

 track of appropriations, mimeographing examination 

 papers, and handling routine correspondence. "Those 

 things," he point-; out, ".arc clciit-.al work, and should 

 be handled outride of ihc leaching ndd, and not as a 

 part of the teacher's duties." Further on he oliscrvrs : 

 "The high-priced presidents of our railways, hanks, 

 and steel companies would not dream of performing 

 this variety of functions. They would refuse to do so, 

 because they know they could not do them well. This 

 part of raising the efficiency of the college professor 

 will have to be done by building up ronfral ngenci(^s 

 for doing much of the woii< he does now, and for 

 doing it so much better th.in lie possihh- ran. that 

 he will be glad to relinqui:-li his re^i)onsiI)ilities in 

 these respects." 



Passing on to the question of " n xe.inh," the author 

 dinnMs attention to the dani^ei: wliieh i>xists of sarri- 

 ficiny' efllcienex- in other direelions, e^peelallv in class- 

 te.arliinu', 1)\' .attachine e\aeo|.i;,|,.(l Importance to 

 work of a research cliaracter. Mr. Cooke is here 



