318 



NATURE 



[November i8, 19 15 



war than the vital necessity, for national 

 prosperity and national existence, of the organ- 

 isation of applied science. Education may be 

 said to be permanently in a state of transition, 

 and this is to the good. Without change there 

 is no development ; without change there is only 

 decav. Those who received, a quarter of a cen- 

 tury ago, the standard classical education of a 

 public school, now know that it was only a caste- 

 system, suitable only (and that, too, only by pre- 

 judice) as a quasi-literary and so-called character 

 training, for the barrister and the politician. 



The growth of universities in recent years 

 throughout the Empire, having as their main 

 function the teaching of science, is the most 

 hopeful feature of the present period of transition. 

 Ars longa, vita brevis ; the accumulation of im- 

 portant knowledge, year by year, to be added to 

 the sum of man's understanding and control of 

 his environment and resources, makes the task 

 of learner and teacher alike more and more diffi- 

 cult, in a geometrical progression of difficulty. 

 Here, therefore, is an occasion for revision of 

 methods of teaching; also for economy of study. 

 Old subjects must be scrapped, or side-tracked 

 as luxuries. University education, again, must 

 obviously commence earlier. It is encouraging 

 to note that in the majority of the new universities 

 of the Empire the age of entrance is more and 

 more approximated to that adopted in the days 

 when universities were first developed, viz., about 

 sixteen. 



The second issue of the "Yearbook of the Uni- 

 versities of the Empire " is a very useful work 

 of reference, especially for young men going out 

 to the Colonies and Dominions or coming thence 

 to the mother-country. The educationist will find 

 in it the more important details of the university 

 equipment of the various countries of the Empire, 

 how it meets the special needs of particular en- 

 vironments which call for special studies, and 

 what response in attendance and results is made 

 by the various communities. The volume is also 

 a reminder of the fact that in 191 2 a congress 

 of the universities of the Empire was held in 

 London, and a Universities Bureau of the British 

 Empire was formed. The committee of the 

 Bureau has thirteen members, and fifty-four 

 correspondents act for the fifty-four universities. 

 The hon. secretary is Dr. Alex Hill, who has 

 edited the yearbook since Mr. W. H. Dawson 

 joined His Majesty's forces. 



The " comparative presentations," says Dr. Hill, 

 " will, it is hoped, enable the authorities of universi- 

 ties to see at a glance what is being done elsewhere. 

 To the student they will display the fields of know- 

 ledge which the several universities especially culti- 

 vate." 



The Bureau will perform a great service to the 

 Empire if it can link up scientifically all the 

 mechanisms of the university education into an 

 "Imperial Chain," and thus make the way clear 

 for a consistent and scientific development of 

 British culture. In the numerical returns there 

 is, as the editor points out, a difficulty in check- 



NO. 2403, VOL. 96] 



ing, owing to the length of transit from over- 

 seas. 



The fifty-four universities have attached to them 

 two hundred and forty-two colleges. Outside 

 Great Britain, among great institutions deserving 

 special study, are the University of Toronto 

 (which dates from the eighteenth century) ; the 

 McGill University of Montreal; the University 

 of Adelaide ; and the Universities of Allahabad, 

 Bombay, and Calcutta. To the last-named are 

 affiliated forty-five colleges, an example of the 

 organisation and thoroughness of the educational 

 system which India owes to the British raj, and 

 the success of which is proved by the achieve- 

 ments of so many native students in science and 

 other subjects. 



As regards special lines of study, one notes the 

 development of metallurgical instruction at 

 Sheffield and Johannesburg, of financial and com- 

 mercial instruction at Birmingham, of forestry 

 and agricultural instruction at various Canadian 

 universities, and of the curious preoccupation 

 with legal studies that obtains in, for instance, 

 the Alberta University, which has seventeen lec- 

 turers on law, but none on botany. The attention 

 paid to medicine, surgery, and dentistry is very 

 noticeable, as on the mechanical side is that paid 

 to engineering and applied science generally. In 

 theoretical and applied science, universities like 

 Cambridge, Birmingham, Bristol, and Toronto 

 (to name a few) are very thorough in their curri- 

 cula. Some Canadian universities present local 

 peculiarities in catering for oratory, dogmatic 

 and apologetic theology. 



Private benefactors have done much in building 

 up this nucleus of a scientifically educated Greater 

 Britain. Such application of wealth is scien- 

 tific ; the foundation of free libraries, three- 

 fourths of their contents being ephemeral fiction, 

 is not. 



A very interesting section of the Yearbook is 

 the War Roll, which shows very clearly how the 

 more highly educated section of the Empire's 

 people has responded in the most practical way 

 to the call of duty, which after all is another 

 name for scientific sense. The editor estimates 

 the number of students below military age as 

 not less than five per cent. " A considerable pro- 

 portion of university students have been rejected 

 owing to physical unfitness, especially defective 

 eyesight." This note should receive the atten- 

 tion of eugenists. The only possible method of 

 estimate was " to give the number of stydents of 

 the session 1913-14 who were known to be serv- 

 ing with His Majesty's Forces plus the number 

 of freshmen who had withdrawn for this reason." 

 This War Roll is a list to be proud of ; the pro- 

 portion of members of staff is remarkable. Not 

 less remarkable is the number of commissions 

 obtained, which is a significant datum for a 

 voluntary army ; no less is the number of men 

 "in the ranks." Education, as Pericles observed 

 long ago, is the best seed-bed for patriotic ser- 

 vice ; noblesse oblige. 



A. E. Crawley. 



