June 15, 1911] 



NATURE 



0^3 



the amendments proposed during the negotiations 

 which followed the publication of the report of the 

 Departmental Committee of the Board of Education. 

 A special question, on which opinion is sharply 

 divided, is whether the colleges incorporated in or 

 affiliated to the university should be accorded direct 

 representation on the senate. There appears to be 

 fairly general agreement that the senate should have 

 greater powers of delegation than are given by the 

 existing statutes. The organisation of the faculties, 

 composed of the teachers of the great groups of 

 university studies in which degrees are granted, 

 should, it is suggested, be made more effective, faculty 

 boards being formed in the case of the larger faculties 

 to exercise the administrative functions of the facul- 

 ties. General approval has also been expressed of the 

 existing organisation of the boards of studies for 

 special subjects. The boards of studies, the faculty 

 boards, and, lastly, an academic council, in which all 

 the faculties would be represented, would form an 

 administrative chain which would become largely 

 responsible for the educational side of the work of 

 the university, subject to the supreme control of the 

 senate. 



The existence of the external side of the university 

 presents some difficulties in the way of such an 

 organisation of the educational work of the 

 university. Very little substantial evidence 

 has so "far been published in favour of the 

 abolition of the system of external degrees, 

 and a good deal of cogent reasoning has been 

 adduced in its support. But it is admitted 

 on all sides that the present statutory require- 

 ments for the equivalence of internal and 

 external degrees have caused serious difficul- 

 ties in practice, and that means should be 

 found for averting these difficulties in the 

 future. In this connection, the extension of 

 the system of common examinations has been 

 suggested, or, alternatively, the complete 

 separation of the work of examination on the 

 internal and external sides. 



As already suggested, the Commission 

 appears to be anxious to defer consideration 

 of the future status of the Imperial College 

 until some understanding is reached on other 

 issues. Some interesting evidence has, M.-. j. C 

 however, been presented by Sir Alfred 

 Keogh, on the actual working of the college. 

 He states that it is the intention of the 

 governing body to do nothing but post-graduate 

 work eventually (Question 4521), and to get rid of the 

 elementary students. As the evidence of the govern- 

 ing body has not yet been published, it will be wise 

 to defer discussion of this policy for the present, ex- 

 cept for the remark that its aaoption will have far- 

 reaching effects on the work at present carried on at 

 South Kensington. Some valuable reports on the 

 future work of the various departments of the college, 

 prepared for the governing body, including a report 

 on the organisation of a department of applied 

 science, are printed in an appendix to the volume of 

 evidence. 



It should be mentioned, in conclusion, that the 

 volume contains a large amount of information in 

 regard to university work in London and elsewhere, 

 both in its educational and financial aspects.^ Full | 

 statistics relating to the work of the University of i 

 London are printed in the reports of the various coun- 

 cils, faculties, and committees, which are included in the 

 volume. Conditions in the United States and Canada 

 are described in the evidence of President Murray 

 Butler, of Columbia Universit\', New York, and 

 Principal Petersen, of the McGill University. Montreal. 



NO., 2172, VOL. 86] 



BRITISH SHEPHERDS AND THEIR FLOCKS.^ 



T N this volume, which, as stated on the title-page, 

 ■■• mainly consists of extracts from the writings of 

 others, the author has succeeded in bringing together 

 a large amount of valuable and interesting informa- 

 tion concerning, not only the shepherds, but likewise 

 the sheep, of the British Isles. In regard to the 

 latter item, Miss Cosset has certainly not done her- 

 self justice in the title she has chosen, and it may 

 perhaps be permissible to suggest that a better desig- 

 nation would have been the one standing at tlie head 

 of this review. Neither, perhaps, has she conveyed 

 an adequate idea on the title-page of her own con- 

 tributions to the volume, at least one of which, 

 namely, the article on sheep and shepherding in the 

 Isle of Man, contains much interesting and little- 

 known information. 



Nor do shepherds and sheep by any means exhaust 

 the contents of this fascinating volume, for we find a 

 large collection of articles on sheepdogs, with others 

 relating to shearing, to wool in connection with manu- 

 factures, and 5'et others on the arts, implements, 

 crafts, and pastimes of shepherds, with a final series 

 on pastoral folklore. There appears to be no mention 

 in the index of black-horned sheep, which are stated 



Hacon's Klock of Loughton Manx Sheep. From " Shepher.ls of Urilain. 



in the preface to include some of the oldest British 

 breeds; but possibly the author intended to write 

 black-faced in place of black-horned. With this ex- 

 ception there seems no fault to be found with the 

 book. 



Since sheep-farming has for several centuries been 

 one of the most important industries in the British 

 Islands, it is not a little curious that it has been 

 reserved for the author — as she herself remarks — to 

 treat of shepherds and their flocks in the full manner 

 such an interesting subject undoubtedly demands. 

 The charms of shepherd-life (with allusions here and 

 there to its obvious discomforts and trials at certain 

 seasons and on certain occasions), and the manners, 

 customs, and nature-lore of the old-time shepherd — 

 who, by the way, is fast disiippearing from the face 

 of the country, at least in our southern counties- — 

 are illustrated by a series of apposite extracts from a 

 number of well-known writers on country life, among 

 whom may be specially mentioned the late Mr. 

 Richard Jefl'eries and Mr. VV. 11. Hudson. Several 

 of these contain some delightful anecdotes, while others 

 serv'e to bring out the accurate and comprehensive 



' " Shepherds of Biitain."' Scftie» from Shepherd Life, pit*t and prrjicn 

 Vram the best niithorUif », by Adelaide I~_J. GoRset. Pp. xxiv-f-33t. 

 (I,oi)don : Constalle and Co., f.td., igii.)' Price jt. (nf. not. 



