Nov. 3, 1887] 



NA TURE 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



The Sailor's Sky Interpreter. By S. R. Elson. (Calcutta : 



Thacker, Spink, and Co., 1879) 

 This little book, which is written in verse, is a practical 

 storm guide, dealing especially with the October cyclones 

 in the Bay of Bengal. Many years of experience as pilot 

 in the dangerous waters of the bay have made the author 

 familiar with the phenomena of the weather in this 

 part of the world. The details convey many a hint to 

 students of Nature, and above all to navigators interested 

 in the very violent storms which occur periodically at the 

 change of the monsoons, and more especially about 

 October at the close of the summer monsoon. The con- 

 cluding stanza deals with the rules for avoiding the centre 

 of a cyclone, and on this head the advice is both good and 

 sound, and is at the same time put in a very concise form 

 Sailors are very familiar with rhymes for the " Rules of 

 the Road," but we can scarcely hope that the author's verse 

 will be similarly mastered and remembered. Probably 

 the author himself never contemplated such a use of his 

 work ; but yet there are couplets and triplets of Admiral 

 FitzRoy's which have lived for a quarter of a century, and 

 are still valuable aids. In the last volume of the " Indian 

 Meteorological Memoirs" full credit is given to Mr. Elson 

 for his valuable observations on the False Point cyclone, 

 and especial mention is made of the high value of his 

 observations bearing on the movement of the clouds. 

 The author possesses just that local knowledge which 

 in a recent issue of the " Fishery Barometer Manual *■' 

 the Meteorological Ofifice lamented the want of among 

 its observers around our coasts for the further perfecting 

 of our " Weather Forecasts ; " and in the twenty stanzas 

 which he has written he has pithily handed down his 

 experiences for the benefit of his fellow-sailors. 



Austral Africa. By John Mackenzie. Two Vols- 

 (London: Sampson Low, 1887.) 



This work, written by one who understands his subject 

 thoroughly, ought to be cordially welcomed by all who 

 have given any attention to the questions which have 

 caused, during the last few years, so much trouble in 

 South Africa. Mr. Mackenzie is convinced that these 

 questions are not nearly so complicated and difficult as 

 they are generally believed to be, and he has taken great 

 pains to expound clearly and forcibly the policy which, 

 in his opinion, would open up new markets for our com- 

 merce in South Africa, and secure the highest and best 

 interests of the natives. The book is addressed rather 

 to politicians than to persons interested in science, but 

 students of the early forms of social institutions will find 

 some statements worthy of their attention in Mr. Mac- 

 kenzie's account of those native tribes with which he 

 himself has come into contact. Archaeologists will be 

 interested, too, in what he has to say about the remark- 

 able stone structures which are found over an extensive 

 district to the east and north-east of Shoshong. These 

 buildings, in the neighbourhood of which are the remains 

 of ancient gold-mines, he compares with Persian towers 

 of refuge and with the ancient round towers of Ireland 

 and Britain. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 

 \The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions 

 expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he under- 

 take to return, or to correspond with the writers of, 

 rejected manuscripts. No notice is taken of anonymous 

 communications. 



Medical Education at Oxfjrd. 



The problem, how far the older Universities should under- 

 take special training for the professions, is fast finding its own 

 solution. A degree is no longer any evidence that its possessor 



has been through any course of wide general culture preparatory 

 to his technical education. Recent legislation, both at Oxford 

 and Cambridge, has all tended in the direction of enabling the 

 undergraduate to specialize at the earliest possible point in his 

 career. Whether advisable or not, some such movement seemed 

 inevitable if, in the midst of the daily increasing pressure of 

 competition, the Universities were to retain any hold on the 

 educational development of the country. Even Prof. Freeman's 

 articles in the Contemporary Rcviau are marked by a tone of 

 querulous despair, rather than by any hope that the tide of in- 

 novation may be checked. For knowledge as a luxury or an 

 ornament there is neither leisure nor inclination. Cambridge 

 was the first to yield ; but the multitudinous statutes which are 

 every day promulgated at Oxford prove that the latter University 

 is eagerly hurrying along the same path. New schools, new 

 Boards of Faculties have been established ; old restrictions have 

 been remo\ ed Large sums of money have been expended on 

 new buildings, in which new professors may give instruction in 

 arts and sciences unheard of by the last generation. All this has 

 been done in order that the student may proceed as speedily as 

 possible to those special researches which are to arm him for the 

 battle of life. 



The ordinary curriculum at Oxford is now so modified and 

 subdivided that a Bachelor of Arts may have no more extensive 

 general education than that smattering of school-boy knowledge 

 required for the examination called Responsions. It is hardly 

 realized by those who are chiefly responsible for this move- 

 ment how much the whole life of the University must be 

 altered by so radical a change in its methods and its aims. The 

 statute-book, indeed, is in such a state of chaos that there are 

 few, even among the officials, who can unravel the intricacies of 

 any one Faculty. In the department of medicine an attempt 

 has recently been made, in a pamphlet issued by the Clarendon 

 Press, to afford concise and accurate information to the hitherto 

 bewildered undergraduate. By means of this publication it is 

 possible to trace out the curriculum of an Oxford medical student 

 and to contrast the present with the older system of education. 

 Responsions, or some equivalent test, can be pas-ed while the 

 candidate is still at school, and at the same time he can take an 

 extra subject which will exempt him from the First Public Ex- 

 amination. After reaching the University, only an elementary 

 pass examination in divinity will stand between him and his 

 scientific work He may then give himself up to preparation 

 for one of the fJonour Schools of natural science. For this he 

 will have to pa •> various "preliminaries," for which there are 

 schedules of abi tiing proportions. Physiology and chemistry 

 are suggested as the most suitable schools, as by their means 

 exemption is gained from portions of the First M.B. Whichever 

 he may select, two years of the most severe application are 

 necessary in order to gain a satisfactory position in the Class 

 List. He will then, in his third or fourth year, be enabled to 

 take his B.A. degree. The study of human anatomy will next 

 absorb his energies. The amplest opportunities are now afforded 

 to those who desire to take up this subject while residing at 

 Oxford. The ideal candidate depicted in this pamphlet is sup- 

 posed to spend but one academical year in this department. 

 Extraordinary, indeed, must be the powers of the teacher who 

 could impart, and of tlie pupil who could receive, a sufficiently 

 deep impression of so important a science in so briet a time. 

 After the first examination for the M.B., residence in Oxford 

 would come to an end, and the student would migrate probably 

 to London. With everything in his favour he might be able to 

 obtain his degree in six or seven years from the date of his 

 matriculation. There are other ways in which the course of 

 study might be arranged, but the details are of small consequence. 

 It matters little to the public whether the degree can be 

 obtained in five years or seven. In either case the professional 

 acquirements will be alcove -the average. The eminence of the 

 examiners and the reputation of the University will be a suffi- 

 cient guarantee that tests are applied of sufficient stringency to 

 exclude the ignorant and incompetent. It is well, however, 

 that the real state of affairs should be fairly recognized and 

 understood by tho^e who have been accustomed to attribute 

 some special virtues to a University degree. It is important 

 also to consider whether in leaving the older methods and 

 yielding, however reluctantly, to the pressure of the hour, a 

 retrograde step has not been taken in the history of medical 

 education. It is always a loss when something even distantly 

 approaching to an ideal is degraded to the level of every-day 



The older Oxford .system, if antiquated and imperfect, had 



