6o 



NATURE 



[January 12, 1922 



The. Treasury Grant to Universities. 



■\X7E have already referred on several occasions to 

 ** the proposed reduction, from 1,500,000^ to 

 i,20o,oooL, in the Treasury grant-in-aid of university 

 education for the coming financial year 1922-23. A 

 memorandum, in which the dangers of reducing the 

 grants and the rightful claims of the universities are 

 ably stated, signed by the Vice-Chancellors of the 

 Universities of Birmingham, Durham, Leeds, Liver- 

 pool, Manchester, and Sheffield, has been forwarded 

 to the Prime Minister. The document has also re- 

 ceived the approbation of the Vice-Chancellors of the 

 Universities of Oxford, Cambridge London, Bristol, 

 Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Wales. As we have re- 

 peatedly pointed out, the universities are the chief 

 centres of research ; they advance science and, to 

 regard the matter from the purely comniercial side, 

 they have unquestionably added millions to the 

 national wealth by the way in which they have en- 

 riched industry and commerce. In return for their 

 great services, and in order to continue to be able to 

 give such service, they are asking the Government to 

 assist in maintaining their relatively modest financial 

 resources. Encouraged by the hope that funds raised 

 locally would be met by a corresponding increase in 

 Treasury grants, great efforts have been made and 

 every form of self-help employed ; severe economy has 



been practised in structural expenditure and in the 

 maintenance and equipment of laboratories; students' 

 fees have been increased so that one-third of the total 

 income of the universities of the North is derived from 

 this source; private benefactors have given 1,175,000^. 

 in response to urgent appeals ; and local authorities 

 have increased their grants to these universities from 

 74,268L in 1913-14 to 135,868!. 



In spite of this effort and the proportion of the 

 Treasury grant allocated to the universities of the 

 North of England, heavy losses were sustained in the 

 working of the last academic year. It is therefore 

 considered that with a curtailment of the existing 

 grant the efficiency of the universities will be seriously 

 impaired. In other countries, with which Britain 

 must come into competition, efforts are being made 

 to increase the resources of the universities. It is 

 only necessary in this connection to recall the case of 

 McGill University of Montreal, which has recently 

 received sums amounting to seven million dollars in 

 gifts from private benefactors and subsidies from 

 public funds. The universities are admittedly of prime 

 national importance, and when their resources, ex- 

 ploited to the uttermost, are insufficient for the main- 

 tenance of efficiency and vigour, it becomes a national 

 duty to provide the necessary additional funds. 



The Royal Academy Winter Exhibition. 



THE exhibition which opened this week of works 

 by recently deceased members of the Royal 

 Academy affords an opportunity of comparing the pic- 

 tures which have been exhibited at different dates 

 during the past fifty years with those of the present 

 time as shown year by year at the summer exhibi- 

 tions. Even a rapid tour round the galleries shows 

 that", so far as landscapes and Nature studies are 

 concerned, the past can well bear comparison with 

 the present, the number of unsatisfactory repre- 

 sentations of Nature in the present exhibition being 

 remarkably few. This does not prove that such 

 pictures were not exhibited fifty years ago; it may 

 indicate only that the Selection Committee in making 

 choice has avoided pictures of that type. It may, 

 on the other hand, indicate that "recently deceased 

 members " were less addicted to post-impressionism 

 and similar phases of art than those still living. 



Thirty-six artists are represented in the exhibition. 

 Of those who excelled in landscapes Sir Ernest 

 Waterlow must be mentioned. He is represented by 

 eighteen works of almost uniform excellence. Alfred 

 Parsons's landscapes are equally pleasing, particularly 

 No. 233, "River Scene," first exhibited in 1878. His 

 garden pictures are not quite so successful, the flowers 

 not presenting in all cases an entirely natural appear- 



ance. Napier Hemy, whose sea paintings are so well 

 known, is represented by several of these works, and 

 also by views of the Thames in London, of which 

 No. 80, "The Riverside, Chelsea" (1873), derives an 

 added historical interest as showing a wooden bridge 

 over the Thames in the foreground, the familiar 

 square tower of Chelsea old parish church being seen 

 behind. Much more ancient history is shown in "The 

 Catapult " (No. 208), a stout wooden apparatus 

 manipulated by Roman soldiers in the siege of a 

 walled city. The construction looks strangely modern. 

 Peter Graham's works show much more variety 

 than was to be found in his recent paintings. One 

 of the earliest shown, "A Spate in the Highlands" 

 (No. 105), exhibited in 1866, is typical of his modern 

 work with hill-mist in a Scotch glen, but without 

 cattle. Then in 1873 came a Highland farm scene, 

 and in 1896 and 1898 two really excellent pictures of 

 sea and rocks (Nos. 191 and 216). It is a great pitv 

 that a subject in which the artist showed such skill 

 should have been entirely discarded later in favour of 

 the mountain scenes, successful as these were. It 

 would not be fitting to close this note without favour- 

 able mention of Briton Riviere's numerous scenes 

 from animal life, some of which are verv striking. 



J. S. D. 



Botany of the Argentine Republic. 



THE Anales (vol. 29, 1917) of the Museo Nacional 

 de Historia Natural de Buenos Aires, recently 

 received, a bulky volume of 700 pages, is devoted to 

 the botany of the Argentine Republic. The earlier por- 

 tion of the book contains the first part of a catalogue 

 of the flowering plants, with the preparation of which 

 Messrs. Hauman and Vanderveken have been occupied 

 since the foundation of the botanical section of the 

 museum in 19 14. The catalogue consists of a list of 

 all the species recorded for the area, under their 

 families, which are arranged according to Engler's 

 NO. 2724, VOL. 109] 



system. The entries in each family have been revised 

 by the latest monograph dealing with the family in 

 question. Under each species references are given 

 to the publications on the authority of which the 

 species is included. A systematic enumeration of the 

 results of botanical explorations in this large area of 

 temperate and sub-tropical South America has been 

 much needed, and it is to b^ hoped that the authors 

 will carry it to completion. A communication by Mr. 

 Hauman on the orchids of the Argentine gives some 

 indication of the work which remains to be done. 



