September g, 1920] 



NATURE 



47 



These investigators activated hydrogen in different 

 ways, all the methods being dependent on gaseous 

 ionisation. The hydrogen was activated by the a-rays, 

 by the electrical discharge in a vacuum, by the corona, 

 and by Schumann light, though the last means of 

 activating hydrogen was unsuccessful. 



Sir J. J. Thomson found in 1913 (Proc. Roy. Soc., 

 A, Ixxxix., 20) that "X, disappears when a mixture 

 of it with hydrogen is sparked with sufficient oxygen 

 to give a violent explosion." In my experiments, 

 however, I find that the active hydrogen appears w^ith 

 the explosion ; moreover, the fact that under similar 

 conditions with excess of oxygen ozone is produced, 

 and with excess of hydrogen an active form of it 

 makes its appearance, is significant when we consider 

 the nature of the chemical process of the formation 

 of water when explosive mixtures are subjected to 

 an electric spark. Y. Venkataramaiah. 



Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, 

 July 23. 



The Organisation of University Education. 



The discussion that has been started by the Govern- 

 ment's offer of the Bloomsbury site to the University 

 of London has already opened up a bigger question, 

 namely, that of the vital necessity for re-organising 

 thoroughly the university system — or quasi-system — of 

 this country. It is becoming clear that we must 

 have a regional university system, such that every area 

 of sufficient population shall be provided with a fully 

 equipped and fully staffed university as its educa- 

 tional centre and capital ; and more and more it is 

 becoming evident that the duties and services of each 

 university will not by any means be exhausted by the 

 teaching and research carried on therein, but that it 

 must undertake besides the tremendously important 

 work of organising tutorial education for the adult 

 workers hungering after knowledge and the work of 

 aiding and leavening and guiding all the secondary 

 schools in its area. If we take account (i) of these 

 considerations and all that they involve in the way of 

 extra-mural organisation and supervision and teach- 

 ing, (2) of the demand that the Imperial College of 

 Science shall be elevated to university rank, (3) of 

 the objection raised to the Bloomsbury site that fen 

 times its acreage would be required for a university, 

 and (4) of the recent plea that universities should be 

 decentralised and located in the open so far as possible 

 rather than in a city; it seems to follow that very 

 probably the existing University of London will have 

 to be divided into, or replaced by, some half a dozen 

 or so independent universities, one or two central — as, 

 e.g., in Gowcr Street, etc., and Kensington — and the 

 others in the outer ring to serve the large popula- 

 tions of the Kent and Surrey and Essex and Middlesex 

 areas; and, if this necessity be made clear, no senti- 

 mental att.ichment to the old University of London 

 ought to weigh against the unquestioned needs of 

 education. Of course, millions would be required 

 from the Government to carry out such a scheme ; but 

 perhaps one day we may have a Government that, 

 mstead of wasting manv tens of millions on wild-cat 

 military expeditions, will invest one or two tens in 

 universities — to the incalculable gain of the country. 

 It seems to me, however, that, if the universities 

 themselves admit the need for regional division nnd 

 systematic organisation, they should at least pave the 

 wav therefor by such working agreements as will 

 utilise to the best advantage so much regional dis- 

 tribution as at present exists instejid of perpetuating 

 a sort of chaos. I have been led to these reflections 

 by a study of the pass-lists of the recent London 



NO. 2654, VOL. 106] 



matriculation, from which I see that nearly 3800 

 candidates entered. (Incidentally, the fact that under 

 33 per cent, passed suggests certain very serious 

 criticisms, into which, however, 1 will not digress.) 

 Now, obviously, we have evidence here of a very 

 serious congestion ; and it is clear that the congestion 

 might be very considerably lessened if the regional 

 system were applied at once, as a start, to matricula- 

 tion candidates. 1 find that among the first 176 suc- 

 cessful candidates there are scholars from (i) Bever- 

 ley, Chesterfield, Halifax, Huddersfield, Keighley, 

 Leeds, Spalding, and Sunderland; (2) Manchester; 

 (3) Birmingham and Worcester; (4) Cardiff, Merthyr 

 Tydvil, Pontypridd, and Swansea; and (5) Bath, 

 *Bideford, Bridgwater, Clifton, Cheltenham, *Exeter, 

 Sherborne, *St. Austell, and Taunton ; and this list 

 is not exhaustive, although it includes most of the 

 names specially relevant to my immediate argument. 

 Now it will be evident at once that candidates from all 

 these places have deregionalised themselves, since 

 they belong geographically (i) to the University of 

 Leeds or Sheffield ; (2) to the University of Man- 

 chester; (3) to the University of Birmingham; (4) to 

 the University of Wales ; and (5) to the University of 

 Bristol ; and it must be added that, if the proposed 

 South-Western University should come into being, 

 candidates from towns marked * would no longer 

 be in the Bristol region. 



Now much of this geographical confusion is already 

 gratuitous, since systematisation has already gone thus 

 far that various matriculations (including the Cam- 

 bridge Previous and Oxford Responsions) are ac- 

 cepted, with varying qualifications and conditions, by 

 various other universities as exempting from their 

 own matriculations; so that already to a considerable 

 extent a student may matriculate at his own regional 

 university and then proceed to his degree in any one 

 of many other universities; but the reciprocity and 

 interchangeability are not even conditionally com- 

 plete. It is true that in one important communication 

 with which I have been favoured it is stated that 

 "by the introduction in 1918 of school-leaving certi- 

 ficates all entrance tests were pooled " ; but on mquiry 

 and examination of the matriculation regulations of 

 the various universities I find that this comforting 

 statement is, unhappily, too sweeping. I will instance 

 the most important exception. One of the newer 

 universities — which is unique in having taken an 

 entirely independent line and in making very 

 practical recognition of the great educational fact 

 (largely ignored by all other universities) that un- 

 changeable inborn aptitudes vary very greatly, and 

 that brains of equal quantitative value' have profound 

 qualitative differences — deviates from all the other uni- 

 versities in its mat.-.culation requirements in that, 

 first, and of least importance, it does not limit a 

 candidate to five or six subjects, but merely stipulates 

 for a minimum o\ two each in two groups and one in 

 a third ; secondly, it makes no subject compulsory ;. 

 and, thirdly, it "passes" or "ploughs" by groups 

 apparently instead of by individual subjects, with the 

 very proper proviso that below a certain minimum 

 no marks in any subject shall count towards Its group- 

 marks. 



Now this scheme involves, to my thinking, an 

 educational advance of tremendous significance, since 

 it recognises the inborn qualitative differences and 

 proclivities of boys' and girls' brains, nnd refuses to 

 msist that round and square and hex.ngonnl and tri- 

 angular minds shall all be required to fit into one 

 Procrustean or Chinese ex.iminntion-gauge; but the 

 apparent diflficultv or Impossibility of reconcilinj^ the 

 requirements of this independent university with those 

 of its far more tra<lition-bound follows is obvious; and 



