^74 



NA TURE 



I'yuly II, 1878 



of London began in 1828, and when University College was 

 incorporated in 1836, Oxford and Cambridge had not 

 dreamt of throwing open their doors to dissenters. To- 

 day the whole world so absolutely recognises the pro- 

 priety of the step which University College then took, that 

 it is difficult to give it enough credit for a courage which 

 was then without precedent in England. Only the other 

 day its invitation has been widened still farther. Ctntcti 

 adsint is to be understood as including Cunctce adsmt, 

 and women as well as men will henceforth hare unre- 

 stricted access to the classes in the faculties of arts, law, 

 and science. Women are at least as much influenced in 

 character by the kind of education which is given them 

 as men are, and the action of University College 

 guarantees that women— in London, at least — will have 

 .at their disposal the best education which England can 

 offer. 



The Chancellor of the University of London reminded 

 us that the new demands of teachers of science have 

 compelled institutions like University College to extend 

 their buildings and to provide laboratory facilities in 

 addition to the class-rooms and lectures of old days. 

 University College is not alone in recognising this vital 

 fact. King' s College has thoroughly developed its practical 

 teaching; the Scotch Universities have latterly been 

 very much alive on the subject; Owens College, as 

 becomes a new institution claiming to take rank with the 

 most advanced teaching bodies of the day, has given 

 exceptional prominence to laboratory work. But Uni- 

 versity College has not been unconscious of the move- 

 ment, and she purposes, if possible, to outstrip her 

 rivals. 



The last movement, in which Lord Granville reminds 

 us that her action has counted for a great deal, is that to 

 extend the English definition of a university. She con- 

 siders herself entitled to that appellation. "Now the 

 term ' University,' " says Lord Granville, "has been differ- 

 ently understood by different persons and by different 

 nations, and I think that the exact construction of it is 

 very likely to be still more minutely debated in conse- 

 quence of the able efforts of one of the most distinguished 

 students of your college, now the most successful presi- 

 dent of Owens College, whom we see among us, who has 

 raised the question whether the number of universities 

 ought not to be increased. In France 'university' means 

 an aggregrate of all the schools and colleges of the king- 

 dom. In Germany their famous universities are really 

 professorial schools. Our two elder universities are 

 really academical institutions — an aggregate of colleges. 

 You know that the London University is not a teaching 

 body at all, and that it is only an examining body, 

 depending upon other sources, of which this college 

 is the most prolific in giving us candidates for our 

 examinations." The institution of University College has 

 done much, the movement of Owens College has done 

 more, to widen our ideas of what a University might do. 

 There is no reason why we should be confined to the 

 existing type of "academical institutions— an aggregate 

 of colleges," supplemented by an examining body de- 

 pending on other sources. We do not aim at French 

 centralisation, but there is no reason why one or two 

 universities on the German or the Scotch model should 

 not be added to the very limited list of our English 



Universities. An amalgamation of University College 

 arid King's College into a teaching University of 

 London would be a natural consequence of such a 

 movement. 



WINDMILLS AND WATERFALLS 



/^UR readers may remember the consternation caused 

 ^~J some years ago by the publication of Prof. Jevons's 

 work on our coal supplies, and the alarmed inference 

 drawn from his calculations that the days of Britain's 

 supremacy and prosperity were numbered. Certainly, if 

 our prosperity is entirely dependent on our coal supplies, 

 there can be no doubt that ere very long the beginning 

 of the end will have arrived. Abundant as our coal 

 supplies are their consumption at the rate of about 150 

 million tons annually cannot go on for ever ; and while 

 we may have the ships and the money too, it would be 

 a serious thing for England if she had to look abroad 

 for her greatest source of physical power. It is certainly 

 at present difficult to see how the work of the world 

 could be carried on if the supply of coal were completely 

 exhausted ; still if man were compelled to find a substi- 

 tute or relapse into savagery or even perish altogether, 

 we think the chances are he would be able in some way, 

 without detriment to his progress, to adapt himself to his 

 new circumstances. These ideas have been suggested by 

 an interesting lecture, just published, recently delivered at 

 Glasgow by Dr. C. W. Siemens, " On the Utilisation of 

 Heat and other Natural Forces." 



"The supremacy," he justly says, "which man enjoys 

 over the animate and inanimate creation, and for which 

 Divine Authority may be quoted, cannot be said to be 

 the result of his superior muscular development, for 

 amongst the members of the animal kingdom there are 

 many which are his superiors in strength, agility, swift- 

 ness, and in natural aptitude to provide themselves 

 against the vicissitudes of cold and hunger. The com- 

 pensating advantage in our favour is the intelligence with 

 which we are enabled to call forces of nature not our 

 own into requisition to do our behests. It would not be 

 too much to say that the power of man consists really 

 in his ability to direct the forces of nature, and that the 

 degree of civilisation to which he has attained is com- 

 mensurate with his command of those forces." 



Could any more forcible argument be urged in favour of 

 the national advantages of scientific research, or of the 

 yearly increasing importance of scientific knowledge in 

 the every-day life of humanity ? 



Fortunately Dr. Siemens, in his lecture, gives us a 

 pretty wide glimpse'of hope that we need not despair 

 because of the prospective exhaustion of the existing means 

 of producing utilisable heat. Other methods, he sug- 

 gests, might be found of bringing into action this greatest 

 source of mechanical power, and that even now one of 

 these methods might be so used that the exhaustion of our 

 coal might be postponed for a considerably longer period 

 than has been calculated. Dr. Siemens traces the pro- 

 gress of our knowledge of the real nature of heat and of 

 the methods of ascertaining its mechanical equivalent. 

 He shows how gradually we have learned to produce a 

 greater and greater amount of mechanical effect from the 



