NATURE 



\Nov. 3, 1887 



at least aims of a high and noble character — aims which could 

 not fail to have an elevating effect on those by whom they 

 were entertained. In former times to have taken a degree in 

 arts, as a necessary preliminary to the beginning of a student's 

 purely professional career, may not have meant, and, as a matter 

 of fact, did not in the majority of cases mean, any very high 

 standard of learning or culture. It did, however, carry with it 

 some inestimable advantages which can never be attained under 

 the existing system of specialization. It meant that a young man, 

 while his mind was still plastic to all surrounding influences, was 

 brought into contact with and joined in the same pursuits as fellow- 

 students whose tastes would lead them to different pleasures, and 

 whose circumstances would lead them to a variety of destina- 

 tions. The physician or surgeon of the future became the com- 

 panion of those who were afterwards to become clergymen, 

 barristers, or schoolmasters He read the same books, played 

 the same games, belonged to the same clubs. In this way, how- 

 ever little actual knowledge he may have acquired, he gained an 

 invaluable acquaintance with men's lives and habits. He formed 

 friendships with men destined to follow very different careers. 

 These associations could not fail to be of the greatest value to 

 him in the pursuit of his special profession. I do not mean 

 mere monetary advantage, but that derived from intercourse 

 with men in other walks of life — that interchange of ideas so 

 neces-ary to a healthy mind. Such a training must have been 

 beneficial to all, but to the student of medicine it was an incal- 

 culable boon. Much of his success and much of the good he 

 can hope to do depend on an intimate knowledge of mankind. 

 Without that, no matter how highly trained he may be as a man 

 of science, his acquirements will be of little avail, and his skill 

 can never be used to the highest purpose. 



How is the existing system likely to work in this direction? 

 The student is advised and encouraged to enter at once on his 

 special pursuits. He is to apply himself without delay to scien- 

 tific study, associated with men like himself, plodding along the 

 same track. If he aims at taking honours in natural science, he 

 must curtail his exercise to the limits of a short "constitutional" 

 and cut himself off from the common pleasures of the cricket- 

 field and the river. His very social gatherings tend to consist 

 more and more exclusively of men working in his own depart- 

 ment. The Union and other such Clubs are given up for 

 scientific Societies, where he thinks he can combine business 

 with amusement. Such a life can hardly fail to narrow the most 

 sympathetic mind, to hamper and confine the most command- 

 ing intellect ; it is most unlikely to turn out a practitioner 

 of the highest and most useful type. To live in a clique where 

 priggishness is fostered by the worst kind of mutual admiration 

 is hardly the ideal of University education. Fortunately the 

 curriculum indicated in the pamphlet to which I have referred is 

 not compulsory, and an intending medical student might not be 

 altogether unwise if he decided to pass the first three years of 

 his career in the ordinary pursuits of the University before turning 

 his attention to more technical studies. Even the delay of a 

 year or two would be more than counterbalanced to some by the 

 benefits which such a course would undoubtedly confer. 



Oxford. George I. Wilson. 



_;.Migration of Swallows along the Southern Coast. 



The following notes were made by me during a short stay at 

 Lulworth, twelve miles east of Weymouth, from September 16 

 to 26. They may be of interest to some of your readers, as I 

 have not been able to find the facts I observed recorded in any 

 work on British birds. 



When I arrived at Lulworth on the i6th, swallows and house- 

 martins were about, but in no great numbers. On the 19th, in 

 the course of a walk, I observed a few swallows apparently 

 moving eastwards ; and this caused me to spend the next morn- 

 ing on the fop of a high and narrow ridge of down (Bindon Hill), 

 running parallel with the sea — an admirable position for observa- 

 tion, as the movements of all birds were discernible from it at a 

 long distance. The wind was east-north-east, and the air cold 

 and very clear. 



In half-an-hour it became clear to me that a general migration 

 of swallows and martins was taking place along the coast in an 

 easterly direction. The air would be thick with birds over my 

 head for tvvo or three minutes ; then for a considerable interval 

 hardly a bird would be visible. An ordinary glance at these 

 dense parties was not enough to prove that they were travelling, 

 or to show in which direction they were going ; but by keeping 



the eye steadily upon them for some little time, and bringing 

 the field-glass to bear on them when the eye failed, it became 

 obvious that they were going east at a steady rate of speed, and 

 apparently following the long spine of chalk down on which I 

 stood, which extends from near Weymouth as far as Poole 

 Harbour. The migration on this large scale lasted during the 

 whole of that morning ; in the afternoon the parlies did not 

 seem so large. 



The next day (the 21st) a strong east wind was blowing, and 

 the birds were not travelling high in air, but creeping steadily 

 along the flanks of the down, and on the lower ground north 

 and south of it. They were continually tacking, but every 

 individual that I followed with my glass was moving swiftly 

 towards the east. Those that were on the southern or seaward 

 side of the down would come upon the sea at one point where 

 the coast turns sharply northwards for a short distance : they 

 did not attempt, however, to leave the land, but turned north- 

 wards with the coast, and pursued their way along the heights. 

 On the 22nd and 23rd the same thing went on, but the numbers 

 of the birds seemed to diminish, and they no longer went in 

 parties that were plainly discernible. AH this time there were a 

 very few stationary swallows in one or two warm corners by the 

 seaside. 



From Dorset I went to Devonshire on the 26th. At Crediton 

 and at Bideford (both warm and sheltered towns), I did not see 

 a dozen swallows or martins in the course of a week ; but I 

 learnt that they had gathered for departure a few days before. 

 I have since been informed that the gatherings had been noticed 

 in Cornwall in the first week of the month. I infer that the 

 migration I saw at Lulw jrth was that of the extreme West of 

 England birds, who were proceeding along the coast to the 

 point at which they crosi the Channel. I should be glad to 

 know where that point is. 



I had reason to believe that one or two other species were 

 moving up regularly in the same direction. The well-known 

 migration of the pied wagtail was apparently over ; but the 

 large number of gray wagtails in a district almost destitute of 

 water was very striking, and, as far as I could see, these also 

 were passing eastwards. But I hope to make further observations 

 next year. 



I may add that, on returning to my home in Oxfordshire in the 

 first week of October, I found swallows and martins passing 

 over my village in parties during the earlier hours of each day ; 

 but, owing to the want of a convenient elevated position for 

 watching, it was much more difficult to follow their movements 

 than it had been at Lulworth. W. Warde Fowler. 



Swifts. 



Though I cannot add anything to the interesting and valuable 

 evidence given by your correspondent, in your last issue, with 

 regard to swifts remaining on the wing during the dark hours of 

 a summer night, it reminds me of a most beautiful exhibi- 

 tion of their flight which I witnessed at Moscow this last 

 summer. It was on August 2, as the last rays of the setting 

 sun were lighting up the domes and cupolas of that wonderful 

 city, which we gazed upon from the heights of the Kremlin for 

 the first time, that we noticed hundreds of these birds wheeling 

 round their summits or darting hither and thither in every direc- 

 tion. At the same time the ?natchless Russian bells were peal- 

 ing forth from every bell- tower in honour of the Empress's 

 birthday, which was to be celebrated on the morrow, and it was 

 surely difficult to believe that the swifts were not revelling in the 

 music like ourselves, especially as I cannot remember ever seeing 

 them again in such numbers, though our visit to Moscow was 

 prolonged for ten days, and we frequently visited the Kremlin at 

 the same hour. E. Brown. 



Further Barton, Cirencester, October 29. 



Hughes's Induction Balance. 



The points noted by Mr. Cook on page 605 (vol. xxxvi.), are 

 merely the well-known facts that a magnetic body has most 

 effect when presented to the coils end-ways, i.e. with its greatest 

 dimension along their axis, whereas a substance which acts mainly 

 by conduction has most effect when presented flat-ways, or parallel 

 to their face. Any possible effect due to diamagnetism is far too 

 small to be thus easily noticed. Oliver J. Lodge. 



