October 21, 1920J 



NATURE 



'■37 



tained the underlying object of his travels, 

 namely, taking; his reader from area to area of 

 the tropics, demonstrating existing sanitary de- 

 fects and the possibilities of improvements were 

 the existing fruits of medical research applied, 

 and showing where further light on disease 

 aetiology is requisite. He has thus met a long- 

 felt want by placing at the disposal of both the 

 medical and the lay reader valuable information 

 hitherto unobtainable without toiling through 

 masses of scientific publications or dry official 

 reports. No politician need reflect that 

 the matter thus condensed does not con- 

 cern the prosperity of the Empire; no adminis- 

 trator dealing with tropical races will fail to per- 

 ceive that there is here much matter that will aid 

 decision when the multitude of counsellors con- 

 fu.se with diverse schemes to the same end, and 

 demand finance instead of conferring wisdom ; 

 nor need the man of commerce hesitate in arriving 

 at the conclusion that there is an indissoluble con- 

 nection between production and the health state 

 of labour. To the intending tourist the word pic- 

 tures of scenery and the description of the 

 characteristics of races must be a source of much 

 interest. Indeed, even the humorist will find that 

 there is scarcely a page which does not yield a 

 specimen of that genial "pin-prick" banter with 

 which the Scot is wont to drive home truths he 

 conceives his audience has failed sufficiently to 

 evaluate. ^^'• f"'- K. 



Yearbooks of Universities. 



(i) Athena: A Yearbook of the learned ]\'orld. 

 The English-speaking Races. Edited by C. .\. 

 Ealand. F'p. viii + 392. (London: A. :ind C. 

 Black, Ltd., 1920.) Price 15$. net. 



(2) The Yearbook of the Universities oj llw i-.mpire, 

 1918-1920. Edited by W. H. Dawson. (Pub- 

 lished for the Universities Bureau of the British 

 Empire.) Pp. xiv-t-503. (London: G. Bell and 

 Sons, Ltd., 1920.) Price 15*. net. 



SIMULTANEOUSLY with the publication 

 of the first volume of ".Athena," 

 " Minerva : Jahrbuchder gelehrten Welt " has made 

 • its reappearance after the war. It is described as 

 the twenty-fourth yearly issue, 1920, the previous 

 edition being for the year 1913-14. "Athena "is a 

 •stately volume (8J in. by 5I in.) of 392 pages. " Min- 

 crva," of just half the cubic capacity, contains 

 I 148 (plus 118) pages. "Athena's " learned world 

 is restricted to the English-speaking races. "Min- 

 erva" takes cognisance of all civilised peoples; 

 although, as was inevitable, the editor has but little 

 information to give regarding the universities and 

 NO. 2660, VX)L. 106] 



other institutions of higher learning of the coun- 

 tries with which, until recently, Germany was at 

 war. Italy is an exception. The personnel and 

 other particulars of the Italian universities and 

 learned societies are given as fully as in pre-war 

 editions. Of the great majority of British and 

 American institutions the permanent features alone 

 are set forth in a few lines. The editor is careful 

 to state that figures, e.g. the number of books in 

 a library, relate to the year 1914. In the rare 

 instances in which a calendar of a British or a cata- 

 logue of an American university has been obtained, 

 the names and offices of the members of the staff 

 are set forth ; but a study of the list will, usually, 

 reveal its date. 



Nevertheless, in accuracy, the advantage does 

 not in all things lie with the English book. Turn- 

 ing first to the account in "Athena" of our two 

 most famous universities, we read that Cambridge 

 numbers 2700 students, Oxford 4582. The Vice- 

 Chancellor of Cambridge is still Sir Arthur Shipley, 

 although his successor, elected on June i, 1919, 

 entered upon office the following October. None 

 of the names of the proctors and pro-proctors of 

 Oxford tally with the University Calendar, 1920. 

 Looking up the obituary notices of university pro- 

 fessors which have appeared in Nature during the 

 past twelve months, we miss but one name from 

 the lists given in "Athena" as those of members 

 of existing university staffs. Some names of men 

 who died still earlier are retained. It is not 

 remarkable that "Minerva's" keen-sighted eyes 

 have failed to discover the existence of the univer- 

 sities of Benares (i9ifi) and Patna (1917); but such 

 an oversight is less excusable in ^kOiljvq, who is 

 not yXawicuiTrK only, but also vLKTi]<i>opo%. The 

 information given regarding the constitution and 

 functions of the universities is very scanty. Under 

 the names of the various British universities at 

 home and overseas, we are told the number of 

 terms in the year (without dates), the number of 

 students (frequently omitted), in some cases the 

 budget, and in all the degrees conferred and the 

 colours of the hoods appropriate to each degree. 



The statement that in the University of Durham 

 the D.D. hood is of "scarlet cassimere, lined with 

 palatinate purple silk," is, no doubt, of general 

 interest, but the half-page devoted to the hoods of 

 this university might possibly have been more 

 profitably used. Even in this connection there are 

 some curious irregularities. The hoods of the 

 I'niversity of Wales (Cardiff) arc carefully de- 

 scribed as to form, material, and colours ; but we 

 find the li.st repeated under the heading' "Univer- 

 sity College of North Wales, Bangor," which is 

 not a degree-giving institution. The " University 



