August 4, 192 1] 



NATURE 



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Prof. Einstein's main object in recently visiting 

 America was to meet the Jewish community of the 

 United States in order to enlist its support for the 

 proposed University of Jerusalem. The foundation- 

 stones of this University were laid in 19 18, and pre- 

 parations are being made to erect an institution 

 worthy of the noblest ideals of modern knowledge. 

 It is proposed to commence with physical and 

 chemical departments, a medical faculty, an arts 

 faculty, departments of law and commerce, and a 

 Jewish faculty. The object of the promoters is to 

 make the institution serve the interests of the Pales- 

 tinian population as well as those of general culture. 

 The University will be up to date in equipment and 

 representative of the highest scholarship in each 

 department : the association with the institution of 

 men like Einstein, VVassermann, Bergson, Alexander, 

 Lord Rothschild, etc., makes this perfectly clear. 

 The University will be in no sense exclusive. So far 

 as possible, Hebrew will be the medium of instruc- 

 tion, this being the language spoken by the Jews of 

 Palestine, but it need scarcely be said that religious 

 and racial tests will be unknown. Mr. C. Crossland, 

 Director of the Fishery Service, Sudan Government, 

 writes to us to express the fear that the University will 

 be Jewish in a clerical sense, but we believe this need 

 not be entertained for a moment, because Jews all 

 over the world, and especially in Palestine, are abso- 

 lutely opposed to any form of clericalism in social, 

 political, or cultural life. The University of Jeru- 

 salem will be the only real university for a consider- 

 able section of the Orient, and it is to be hoped that 

 it will become a great centre of culture for the Near 

 East, acting as a link between the East and West, 

 and thus helping to encourage feelings of friendship and 

 co-operation between the representatives of the great 

 civilisations of the past and of the modern world. Of 

 course, as regards methods of teaching and research 

 the University will be modelled entirely on European 

 and American standards. The outcome of Prof. Ein- 

 stein's visit is that the medical faculty of the Uni- 

 versity is now assured, and we can expect in the 

 near future to have this -faculty established in a 

 country where the combating of disease is of par- 

 ticular importance. Other . faculties and departments 

 will follow as the means are obtained for them. 



The Right Hon. Viscount Haldane delivered an 

 address on November 9 last before the Old Students' 

 Association of the Royal College of Science, South 

 Kensington, dealing with the subject of the nationalisa- 

 tion of the universities. The address has recently 

 been issued in pamphlet form by H.M. Stationery 

 Office. The title, as Lord Haldane observes, " is 

 somewhat of a paradox, so far as I an^i con- 

 cerned," since he proceeds to declare his un- 

 relenting opposition to any suggestion that the 

 universities of the United "Kingdom should come 

 under the control of any State Department. He 

 submits that the most vital element in a university 

 is that of an atmosphere "which in itself is the most 

 excellent of things, and would be as difficult as it is 

 rare were it not for that divine spark in the human 

 soul which means that those who are gifted need but 

 little to bring them to devote their whole energies to 

 concentration on the highest ideas." That atmosphere 

 no State Department can produce. Nevertheless, the 

 State as representing the nation must have a care for 

 the abiding well-being of the people. The highest 

 education, that offered by the universities, touches, 

 after all, but a fraction of the people. Not one in ten 



NO. 2701, VOL. 107] 



of the population get any education at all after they 

 leave school at the age of fourteen, and not one in a 

 thousand get the advantage of the higher education 

 of the universities. The problem is how to bring 

 higher education to bear upon the democracy. One 

 crucial difficulty is the cost, only a fraction of which, 

 about 28 per cent., is met by the fees which well- 

 to-do parents vainly imagine represent the real cost 

 of the education which their sons and daughters 

 receive. Apart from the endowments of past bene- 

 factors, the balance must be found by the gifts of the 

 benevolent, which represents in the United Kingdom 

 less than half a million sterling annually against the 

 five millions contributed in the United States. The rest 

 of the expenditure must be met from public sources, 

 either from the rates or from the Exchequer, but the 

 universities must be left free as to the means and 

 methods which they employ in order to realise their 

 obligations to the community, which are not only to 

 train duly prepared students for their various faculties, 

 humanistic and scientific, but also to undertake extra- 

 mural work such as the Workers' Educational Asso- 

 ciation demands. 



The University of Bristol has issued a striking and 

 beautifully illustrated appeal with the view of raising, 

 under the novel form of "a group scheme," a five- 

 vear million fund, the participants in which may 

 spread their contributions over a period of five years. 

 The appeal is headed "The First Line of National 

 Defence," as, indeed, rightly considered, a university 

 significantly is. Already more than one million pounds 

 sterling has been contributed in money, land, and 

 buildings, chiefly by the inhabitants of Bristol, and 

 notablv by the Wills family, and now the University 

 owns 19 acres of land within the city area, upon which 

 its various fine buildings have been erected or are in 

 course of erection. The University obtained its charter 

 in 1909, and its course of instruction for degrees in- 

 cludes the customary faculties of arts, science, medi- 

 cine, and engineering, inclusive also of agriculture 

 and theology, together with many forms of extra- 

 mural activities dealing with adult education. It is 

 specially devoted to research in the various faculties. 

 More endowed chairs and an increased staff of lec- 

 turers are needed, together with money for the estab- 

 lishment of fellowships, for departmental libraries, 

 for equipment, and for research. One thousand two 

 hundred full-time students and more than 1000 part- 

 time students are in attendance, and the demand will 

 grow as facilities for secondary education are increased 

 and developed. The area embraced within the opera- 

 tions of this " University of the West " extends from 

 the Cotswolds throughout the four south-western 

 counties to Land's End. It is confidently to be hoped 

 that within this area there may be found, not only on 

 the part of private benefactors, but also on that of the 

 local authorities, an eager willingness to support the 

 efforts which the Council of the University is making 

 to bring within the reach of the inhabitants of the 

 four counties the highest possible facilities of learning 

 and research in all departments of knowledge. The 

 Treasurv grant is to be raised in 1922 from one million 

 to a million and a half sterling, and the University 

 of Bristol can participate in it in proportion to the 

 amount publicly subscribed. All the universities of the 

 kingdom are iii like straits for means of development, 

 and it is worth whi'e in this connection to direct atten- 

 tion to the munificence displaved in the United States 

 by private persons, who gave in one year, 19x7-1'^, in 

 support of the universities and colleges of that co"n try, 

 nearlv 5,500,000?., whilst benefactions to such institu- 

 tions in the United Kingdom amounted in the three 

 years, 1916-19, to only 1,192,000?. 



