226 



NATURE 



[April 21, 192 1 



contemplated when the grant was originally made. 

 One would think that such provision should be 

 made by special Parliamentary vote. Further, on 

 the same page, it will be seen that the sum of 

 8o,oooL is allocated to five institutions which did 

 not receive a penny from this source in the year 

 1920-21. Two of them — Oxford and Cambridge 

 — are each to receive 30,000!. Now we do not 

 for a moment begrudge them these grants. But, 

 by extending the field of the distribution, a large 

 sum, in the cases just mentioned 106,030!., has 

 been diverted from institutions which otherwise 

 would have benefited from it, and this fact ought 

 not to be overlooked. 



It cannot be too strongly urged that Universi- 

 ties and institutions of University rank are in an 

 anomalous position in that they are compelled by 

 force of circumstances to look to the Government 

 for assistance. Their financial burdens, largely 

 due to the crisis through which the country is 

 passing, cannot be met from their normal sources 

 of income. Benefactions are problematic. 

 To raise the fees to meet the additional 

 and necessary costs would be to make them 

 so high as to prevent a large number of 

 deserving students from entering the University, 

 with ultimate loss to the community and nation. 

 Already the fees charged are considerably 

 larger than those which prevail in the United 

 States of America. It is facts such as these which 

 make the problem of University finance so diflficult 

 and the necessity of further Government assistance 

 so imperative. 



If our legislators have any doubt about this 

 necessity, let them examine the figures on p. 54 

 of the Estimates, and note the relative disparity 

 between the grants for England and Scotland. Six 

 Scottish institutions are to receive i8o,oooI. , 

 whereas forty-two English institutions will 

 get only 591,180!. ! A footnote makes it 

 clear that the Scottish estimate includes 

 72,000!. awarded by Scottish Acts of Parliament 

 in 1889 and 1892 respectively. The right of Scot- 

 land to so large a sum is not questioned, since, 

 no doubt, when these Acts were passed the Scots 

 were willing to forgo other privileges in 

 order to make better provision for their own 

 higher education. Our point, however, is this : 

 whatever may be the genesis of the grant or 

 grants, the total sum is relatively much larger 

 than that assigned to England. If such a sum is 

 necessary for Scotland — and we do not doubt it is 

 — surely the Government should see that a pro- 

 portionate sum should be given to England. 

 NO. 2686, VOL. 107] 



One other point. The Estimates provide for a 

 sum of 500,000!. for superannuation purposes. 

 This is intended to be a special non-recurrent grant 

 in aid of certain Universities, colleges, medical 

 schools, etc., to assist them to provide retrospec- 

 tive benefits for senior members of the staffs under 

 the Federated Superannuation System of the Uni- 

 versities. In a previous issue we have already 

 criticised the proposal and expressed the opinion, 

 that this sum will fall far short of the amount 

 necessary for the purposes indicated. Unless a 

 grave injustice is done to the senior members of 

 the staffs, the grant will have greatly to be in- 

 creased, or an opportunity given them to come 

 under the School Teachers (Superannuation) Act. 

 It is certain that a very large number of Uni- 

 versity teachers would gladly avail themselves of 

 the latter alternative. 



Colloidal Theory. 



An Introduction to Theoretical and Applied 

 Colloid Chemistry: "The World of Neglected 

 Dimensions." By Dr. Wolfgang Ostwald. 

 Authorised translation from the German by 

 Prof. Martin H. Fischer. Pp. xv -1-232. (New 

 York : John Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; London i 

 Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1917.) us. 6d. net. 



The Chemistry of Colloids. Part i, Kolloid- 

 chemie. By Prof. Richard Zsigmondy. Trans- 

 lated by Prof. EUwood B. Spear. Part 2, In- 

 dustrial Colloidal Chemistry. By Prof, EUwood. 

 B. Spear. Pp. vii + 288. (New York : John 

 Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; London : Chapman and 

 Hall, Ltd., 1917.) 13s. 6d. net. 



AFTER reading the books the titles of which 

 stand at the head of this article, one is inclined 

 to ask whether the word "colloid " as it has come 

 to be used does refer to a definable state of matter, 

 or whether it is not, in fact, used as a convenient 

 label for a heterogeneous group of states which 

 have only this in common, that they are not 

 easily assimilated to the ordinary doctrines of 

 molecular physics. 



It is agreed that the word refers to systems ia 

 which one state of matter is dispersed through 

 another, but it is claimed that there are no natural 

 boundaries between such systems and coarse 

 settling suspensions on one hand, and true 

 molecular solutions on the other. 



Having convinced themselves that there are no- 

 natural limits, both Dr. Ostwald and Prof. 

 Zsigmondy select arbitrarily certain sizes of 

 particles or degrees of dispersion and define 

 mixtures which lie between as colloidal. This 



