September i, 1923] 



NA TURE 



343 



only for biological work, but also for meteorology, 

 climatology, astronom^^ etc. 



Among the demonstrations, one by A. N. Richards 

 and J. T. Wearn, of Philadelphia, attracted much 

 attention. They showed how to collect glomerular 

 filtrate by insertion of a very fine capillary into 

 Bowman's capsule in the frog. The crowded labora- 

 tory must have increased the difficulties of this very 

 delicate operation. Prof. Richards subsequently ex- 

 plained how the minute volume of fluid was analysed 

 by the nephelometric methods of his namesake, the 

 chemist. The filtrate is rich in chlorides which must 

 be re-absorbed in the tubules, and hence a decision is 

 arrived at \vith regard to rival theories of urinary 

 secretion. Similarly, Bloor's nephelometric phos- 

 phorus determination, modified by H. Winterstein, 

 of Rostock, enabled the latter to investigate the 

 phosphorus metabolism of the central nervous system 

 of the frog ; the phosphatides here play a considerable 

 part. 



H. J. Hamburger and R. Brinkman, of Groningen, 

 claim that the nervous stimulation of the heart sets 

 free substances which influence the contraction of the 

 stomach and gut in the same way as if the nerves of 

 these organs are stimulated electrically ; they term 

 this humoral transmission of nervous impulses. 



Papers of methodological importance were com- 

 municated by A. Kossel, of Heidelberg, who has dis- 

 covered in the dinitronaphtholsulphonic acid of 

 naphthol yellow a reagent for the quantitative pre- 

 cipitation of arginine and for the isolation of many 

 other bases, and by E. London, of Petrograd, who 

 described a new method for investigating inter- 

 mediate metabolism, consisting in the introduction of 

 permanent metal cannulae into deep-seated abdominal 

 blood vessels. 



Owing to the circumstance that a conference on the 



physiological standardisation of drugs met under the 

 auspices of the League of Nations at Edinburgh just 

 before the congress, pharmacology was well repre- 

 sented. At the congress, J.J. Abel and C. A. Rouiller, 

 of Baltimore, described the further purification of the 

 oxytoxic principle of the pituitary, which they have 

 now obtained as a substance which is 1 000-1250 times 

 as active as histamine phosphate on the guinea-pig's 

 uterus ; the product also possesses powerful pressor 

 and diuretic properties. 



W. E. Brown and V. E. Henderson, of Toronto, 

 find that ethylene will produce complete surgical 

 anaesthesia, being more potent and in other ways 

 preferable to nitrous oxide. 



During the congress a number of important cine- 

 matographic demonstrations were given ; perhaps 

 the most interesting was by A. Krogh, of Copenhagen, 

 which showed, under great magnification, the effect of 

 various agents on capillary circulation (this film should 

 prove of immense value in teaching large classes) . 



In connexion with the congress a Harvey medal, 

 the work of Mr. Pilkington Jackson, the Edinburgh 

 sculptor, was given to every member, and the Uni- 

 versity of Edinburgh conferred honorary degrees on 

 eight distinguished foreign physiologists who were 

 present, namely, Prof. F. Bottazzi, professor of pltysi- 

 ology, University of Naples ; Prof. W. Einthoven, 

 professor of physiology, University of Ley den ; Prof. 

 W. H. Howell, professor of hygiene, Johns Hopkins 

 University, Baltimore; Prof. J. E. Johansson, pro- 

 fessor of physiology. University of Stockholm ; Prof. 

 A. Kossel, professor of physiology. University of 

 Heidelberg; Prof. H. H. Meyer, professor of pharma- 

 colog}^. University of Vienna; Prof. L P. Pawlow, 

 professor of physiology, University of Petrograd ; and 

 Prof. Ch. Richet, professor of physiology in the Faculty 

 of Medicine, Paris. 



A Seventeenth Century University of London. 



EVERY one knows that London was the last great 

 capital city to be provided with a University. 

 The reason for this is not obvious, but the fact remains 

 that after the failure of Sir Thomas Gresham's great 

 aspiration in the seventeenth century, the mere idea 

 of a University seems to have been dropped until it 

 was revived by the Benthamites in the nineteenth 

 century. But not altogether : a solitary enthusiast 

 now and again raised his voice. In 1647 there was 

 a curious proposal launched in a pamphlet, now ex- 

 tremely rare, for remedying this deficiency. The 

 ])roposal came to nought, like many educational 

 projects, not only, we may surmise, because the 

 country was in the grip of the Civil War, but, as will 

 appear, by reason of certain difficulties inherent in 

 the scheme. The title of the tract, or rather part of 

 the title — for it is a true child of the seventeenth 

 c entury, when long titles were the vogue — is " Motives 

 grounded upon the Word of God, and upon Honour, 

 Profit, and Pleasure for the present Founding an 

 University in the Metropolis London, ..." and the 

 author chose to be known as " a True Lover of his 

 Nation, and especially of the said City." 



The True Lover is manifestly a Puritan, and his 

 main concern is with the shortness in the supply of 

 preachers of whom he estimates that we want more 

 than 20,000, " and are hopeless of supply, without 

 other provision than yet we have." The old univer- 

 sities, even at their prime, could not bring forth such 

 numbers. Now was the golden opportunity for 

 London to remedy this lamentable defect " when so 

 many great houses may be had and made Colleges 

 of, with so little alteration, and Pauls Church and 

 London-House be the publike Schooles." Teachers 



NO. 2809, VOL. 112] 



were to be had on as easy terms as buildings : "by 

 reason of the Warres in other Countries, you may now 

 have the choicest of their Professours of the Arts." 



But the True Lover's financial plan displays 

 greater optimism than knowledge of human nature 

 warrants. If every sincere Christian in London gave 

 up one meat meal a week it would be possible to 

 maintain, he thinks, twenty thousand " poore 

 Schollars," and a similar abstention throughout the 

 Kingdom an hundred thousand. This greater number 

 by no means dismays the True Lover ; on the 

 contrary, it stirs his enthusiasm. After a general 

 course of military training, twenty thousand of the 

 " choycest " would be selected as ministers, the re- 

 mainder being " imployed in Trades, or Navigation 

 and show themselves for the defence of this country 

 Lions on the Land, and Dolphines on the Seas." 

 The elect would also " Discipline their Parishes and 

 put all England in Israels posture so that we might 

 be a Nation of Souldiers and defend our Religion both 

 with Divine arguments and (if need required) with 

 corporall Armes also." 



If the True Lover had read Milton's famous 

 Tractate on Education, published three years earlier, 

 he had not been impressed by it, nor had he apparently 

 breathed any of the ideas which were a few years 

 later to bring about the first meetings of the nascent 

 Royal Society. His notions of curricula may be 

 described as humanistic, coloured with a pronounce4 

 utilitarianism. Three colleges were to house the 

 hundred thousand. In one nothing but Latin was 

 to be spoken, and in two years the scholars would 

 thus be able to speak as good Latin as they do English. 

 " How easily afterwards," he exclaims, " would they 



