36 



NATURE 



[April i8, 191 8 



before entering the university or medical school. More 

 scholarships should be provided for candidates of both 

 sexes tenable throughout tlie medical course. 



Engineering. — A thorough and practical training in 

 mathematics and science is essential to the school edu- 

 cation of engineers; it cannot be replaced and need 

 not be supplemented at school by practice in an 

 engineering workshop. 



Agriculture.- — Specific instruction in agriculture or 

 agricultural science should not be given in elementary 

 or secondary schools, though in favourable circum- 

 stances a rural bias may be given to the work of a 

 secondary school. All county education authorities 

 acting either singly or in co-operation should provide 

 well-equipped farm institutes for their areas. 



Army. — Science should be an obligatory subject in 

 the examination for entrance into the Royal Military 

 College, Sandhurst, and be included in the course 

 of instruction in the college. Steps should be 

 taken to improve the efficiency of the instruction in 

 science at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. 

 More encouragement should be given to officers at 

 later stages of their career to improve their scientific 

 qualifications. 



Home and India Civil Service. — An inquiry should 

 be made as to the best methods of securing the services 

 of scientific men for the purposes of the State in per- 

 manent posts and otherwise. Many permanent posts 

 can best foe filled by men selected, not by the ordinary 

 competitive examination, but at a riper age on the 

 ground of high scientific qualifications and profes- 

 sional experience. All candidates for the competitive 

 examination for these servites should supply evidence 

 of a continuous course of training in science extend- 

 ing" over several vears. To ensure sufficient catho- 

 licitv in questions propounded in the viva-voce exam- 

 ination, these examiners should include some repre- 

 sentative of science. 



Vniversity Educaiion. — The universities should 

 adopt the First School Examination as the normal 

 examination for admission, and should abolish special 

 matriculation examinations for candidates from 

 schools. Gr.eek should not be retained as a necessary 

 subject in Responsions at Oxford or the Previous 

 Examination at Cambridge. The universities should 

 make special arrangements to test the fitness for 

 entrance of candidates who are above twenty-three 

 years of age. 



Degree Courses in Science at the Universities. — ^The 

 Universities of Oxford and Cambridge should arrange 

 to provide more suitable courses in science for candi- 

 dates who do not aim at an honours degree. Candi- 

 dates for the university intermediate exa«iinations 

 should be allowed to take the examinations from 

 school. The universities should recognise the Second 

 School Examination as alternative to the whole or part 

 of their intermediate examinations. It is desirable 

 that a year spent mainly on research should form 

 part of the work of university students preparing for 

 careers concerned with science and its applications ; 

 but this should follow the course for a first degree in 

 science. Scholarships are needed to enable a voung. 

 graduate to spend a year or more in research, at his 

 o\vn or at another university. 



State Aid to the Universities. — Large expenditure of 

 public money is necessary to equip the universities for 

 their work in pure and in applied science. Grants 

 from public funds to the universities should be in- 

 creased to allow the universities to make a substantial 

 reduction in their fees. 



University Teachers.— The duties of junior demon- 

 strators should be limited so that they can . spend a 

 considerable amount of time on research. There 

 NO. 2529, VOL. lOl] 



should be posts of substantial value in university de- 

 partments for senior men whose best work lies in 

 teaching. The iieads of technological departments 

 should be allowed to undertake private professional 

 practice. 



Scottish Universities. — Steps should be taken to re- 

 move the limitations which confine a large proportion 

 of the old-established bursaries to the faculty of arts. 



Scholarships at Schools and Universities. — Scholar- 

 ships should be considered as distinctions awarded in 

 recognition of intellectual merit and promise. All 

 scholarships should be of nominal value, to be supple- 

 mented according to need. Where necessary the whole 

 cost of a scholar's education and maintenance should 

 be defrayed. Scholarships at the universities should 

 be tenable for at least three years with a possibility 

 of extension. Scholarships awarded by local education 

 authorities should not be restricted to particular univer- 

 sities. Scholarships at the universities should be 

 awarded on a wider range of subjects than at present. 

 The age limit for scholarships at Oxford and Cam- 

 bridge should be eighteen rather than nineteen. 

 Scholarships should not be awarded on work done in 

 large pass examinations for schools. Scholarships to 

 the universities for candidates from technical and even- 

 ing schools should be awarded without an age limit, 

 and for the present on a limited range of subjects. 

 The number of scholarships at the women's colleges 

 should be increased. Loan funds should be estab- 

 lished to enable senior students to obtain professional 

 training. 



Supply of Trained Scientific Workers. — Concerted 

 efforts should be made by employers, teachers, local 

 education authorities, and the State to increase the 

 .flow of capable students to the universities and higher 

 technical institutions with the view of securing the 

 larger supply of trained scientific workers required for 

 industrial and other purposes. 



APPLICATIONS OF ELECTRICITY TO 

 MEDICINE. 



THE Institution of Electrical Engineers devoted an 

 evening meeting last week to a visit to the 

 Cancer Hospital, Fulham Road, S.W. The occasion 

 was a joint meeting of the members of the institution 

 and the members of the Electrotherapeutic Section of 

 the Royal Society of Medicine. Two papers were read 

 by medical men, and there was a large and representa- 

 tive exhibition of radiographic and electrical apparatus 

 used in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. 



The modern and thoroughly well equipped research 

 institute of the hospital, under the direction of Dr. 

 Alexander Paine, was thrown open to the visitors, who 

 had an opportunity of seeing the inner working ar- 

 rangements of several laboratories equipped for research 

 work in physics, pathology, bacteriology, chernistry, 

 and other subjects associated with the investigation of 

 disease by modern methods. 



The governing body of the Cancer Hospital has 

 always exercised a wise judgment in the adoption of 

 new methods for the investigation of the causa- 

 tion of disease, its diagnosis and treatment. This hos- 

 pital was one of the first in this country to recognise 

 the therapeutic use of X-rays and other electrical 

 methods in the treatment of malignant disease. So 

 far back as '1903 it inaugurated a very complete X-ray 

 department, which was carried on for several years 

 under the directorship of Dr. J. D. Pollock. 



In 191 1 the research institute was ready for work, 

 and a year or two later the scheme for modernising 

 the special branches of the hospital work was com- 

 pleted by the equipment of the new electrical and 

 radiotherapeutic department, which is housed in a 



