332 



NATURE 



\August 4, 1887 



'to succeed, because we are labouring not merely for our own 

 aggrandisement, but for the foundation of a University in and 

 ►for London which will be of incalculable benefit to University 

 ■ education in this mighty centre of population where we live. 



II. 

 Dealing with the objection that a new University cannot be 

 necessary in the capital, since we have already got the University 



•of London, Dr. Erichsen said: — 



I wish to speak with the very greatest respect of the University 



•of London, and I entertain the highest respect for the work that 

 has been done in that great institution during the half century 

 that it has been in existence ; and I think that everyone connected 

 with University College must always speak and think of the Uni- 

 versity of London with that affection with which a parent looks at 

 his child, the University of London being the outcome of Univer- 

 sity College. We may sometimes look upon it with that feelinsj 

 of mixed affection and regret with which we contemplate a child 

 that we think has not always been so grateful as it might have 

 been for the favours received in its early life. But, however that 

 may be, we all speak of the University of London with, and we 

 all feel towards it, the greatest respect and a certain affection. 



But the University of London is, in truth, not a university in 

 any sense of the term. The title is misleading and is a misnomer. 

 By a " university " is meant an association of teachers and of 

 students, properly organized, destined for the increase and the 

 transmission of all learning, of knowledge in all its branches, 



• and containing complete Faculties of Arts and Laws, Science and 

 Medicine, and empowered to grant degrees to those of its pupils 

 who are found to be sufficiently qualified for such a distinction. 

 The University of London never has pretended to be a teaching 

 institution, and, so far as its present constitution is concerned, 

 never can be a teaching institution. If it were to become a 

 teaching university it would require to become so completely 

 altered in its constitution as practically to become a new in- 

 stitution. The University of London has only performed one of 

 the functions of a university — that of examining candidates for 

 its degrees. It has performed that function admirably well. The 

 examinations have been carried to a very high standard, so much 

 so that the ordinary pass-examination in some subjects is almost 

 an honours examination. Yet it is only a degree-giving institution, 

 and not a university in the sense in which a university is generally 

 known. 



Nor is it " of London " ; for, as was truly said by the Dean of 

 the Faculty of Science in that admirable report that we listened 

 to at the commencement of these proceedings, it is an Im- 

 perial University, which draws its candidates from almost every 

 part of the habitable world. It has nothing to do with London 

 except that its head-quarters are situated in Burlington House ; 

 but, so far as London is concerned, it might just as well be 

 situated anywhere else. The University of London, then, 

 does not, in any way, supply the want that we wish to fill. 

 With regard to London itself, I may say this, that even as 

 an examining institution the University of London does 

 not supply the desire that has sprung up of late years for 

 academic distinctions. It does not supply the desire amongst 

 the inhabitants of London itself. I can speak of my own pro- 

 fession. Of late years there has been a craving in the medical 

 profession for the possession of degrees. As Sir George Young 

 stated very truly in distributing the prizes in the Medical Faculty 

 about a month ago, if there were no degrees at all we should 

 be none the worse for it ; but one may also state something 

 like the converse of that proposition, that if everybody has 

 got a degree nobody is a bit the better for it, and what is 

 common to all can be an honour to none. However, that there 

 exists a great desire for degrees and for academic distinctions there 

 can be no doubt. Well, do the students of the medical schools in 

 London go to the University of London for those degrees ? Not 

 at all. They go elsewhere. They go to Edinburgh ; they go to 

 Cambridge ; they go to Oxford. At the present moment there 

 are about nineteen hundred medical students at the University 

 of Edinburgh, and nearly seven hundred of them are English. 

 They are attracted there not so much by the superiority of 

 teaching, because — and I say it with all respect to the University 

 of Edinburgh, to which I have reason to be very grateful — the 

 teaching, high as it is, and excellent as it is in all its depart- 

 ments, is not better than the teaching in four or five of the 

 principal medical schools in London ; but the students go there 

 simply in order to obtain a degree, because at the end of their 

 studies, instead of coming out as simple Mr. So and- So, they 



come out as Dr. So-and-So. Well, the others who do not go to 

 Edinburgh, go to Cambridge or go to Oxford ; and there is a 

 very large medical school now at Cambridge also, frequented by 

 young men who are desirous of obtaining the degree of that 

 distinguished University. The following incident will show how 

 little the University of London supplies the need for degrees 

 which is felt by London medical men. A few weeks ago there 

 was a vacancy at one of the large hospitals of London for an 

 assistant physician. There were no less than twelve or fourteen 

 candidates. They were all graduates of British universities, and 

 out of this large number of candidates, all London men, edu- 

 cated more or less in London, and practising in London, and 

 attending hospitals in London, there was only one candidate 

 who was a graduate of the University of London. All the 

 others were graduates either of Oxford or of Cambridge. I say, 

 therefore, that men go away from London to get their degrees 

 at the present day. They go to Edinburgh, they go to Oxford, 

 they go to Cambridge, they go elsewhere ; but the vast majority 

 do not go to the University of Loudon. That, as a degree- 

 giving institution, does not supply the needs of London itself. 



The proposed establishment of this new teaching and degree- 

 giving university has been termed an act of hostility, a kind of 

 declaration of war, against the University of London. Now I 

 can say truly, speaking in the name of my fellow-members of 

 the Council here, that there is no such feeling whatever. No 

 such feeling has animated, I believe, any one of the Council or 

 any person connected with this institution. This proposed 

 university will compete, probably, to a certain extent, with the 

 University of London, but it will compete much more with 

 other universities. It will compete much more with the Uni- 

 versity of Edinburgh ; it will compete much more with the 

 University of Cambridge. There is no direct competition 

 intended with regard to the University of London. There is 

 no reason why a new university should not be established. 

 There is no more reason to complain of competition in the estab- 

 lishment of a new university than there is in the establishment of 

 a new school. Every new school competes with every other 

 school in existence. There is no more reason to complain of it 

 than to complain of the introduction of a new member into any 

 of the learned professions. Every man who becomes a lawyer 

 or becomes a doctor may be said to compete with every existing 

 lawyer or doctor. In the same sense the new university, if 

 established, might be said to compete, more or less, with every 

 existing university in the kingdom. In this case there is a com- 

 petition of friendly rivalry, but nothing else ; and beyond that I 

 cannot admit that there is any special competition with regard to 

 any existing university. 



If the University of London does not supply the want felt for 

 higher education, how is that want to be supplied in London? 

 There are only one or two methods. You must either take 

 existing instituaons, or you must create a terliiim quid, and what 

 that lertiu77i quid may be I know not. But what existing insti- 

 tutions are we do know, and we do know that there are two 

 institutions in this metropolis which for the last half century 

 have been doing the only work in London that approaches to 

 the higher education, or approaches in any way whatever to 

 university education. They have done that work diligently and 

 well under great difficulties and great disadvantages, but with a 

 fair share of success. I mean this College and King's College. 

 Those are the two institutions ; and by the combination of those 

 two institutions we may fairly look for the establishment of a 

 new university in London fully capable of discharging the func- 

 tions of such an institution. 



I happen, from circumstances, to be personally acquainted 

 with, I believe, every university in the kingdom ; and I can say 

 that so far as the equipment of universities is concerned, in the 

 way of museums, laboratories, libraries, lecture-i^ooms, and all 

 other appliances — what may be termed the "plant" of a uni- 

 versity — these two institutions taken singly are equal to most ; 

 this one certainly is, and taken in conjunction they are superior 

 to almost all, except the old Universities of Oxford and of Cam- 

 bridge. I put them aside ; but these institutions. University 

 College and King's College, taken in conjunction, are fully 

 equal in all the requirements of a university to the other univer- 

 sities in Great Britain, the Scottish universities and the two 

 universities of this country — one in the north and the other in 

 the midland counties. 



I cannot speak with any precision of detail of King's College, 

 but I can speak with precision of this College ; and it may be 

 interesting to you to know what this College really is, and what 



