178 



NATURE 



[May 2, 1918 



available for the assistance of municipal effort in this 

 direction. In certain cases, however, the initial equip- 

 ment of ground suitable for the purpose, which has 

 already been acquired by local authorities, might prove 

 an obstacle in the way of the early establishment of 

 play centres. The committee, therefore, proposes to 

 consider favourably applications for grants from local 

 authorities for the preparation and equipment of such 

 open spaces for children's playgrounds, on condition 

 that the authorities are prepared to maintain them. 



Library, Policy. 



The committee expressed the view last year that con- 

 sideration of library matters should not be deferred 

 entirely on account of the war, and that steps should 

 be taken to strengthen a movement which will occupy 

 a place of increased importance after the cessation of 

 hostilities, when various reconstructive measures — edu- 

 cational and social — will call for prompt attention. 

 Endorsement of this view has been given by the in- 

 creased interest taken in libraries, and their future posi- 

 tion in the educational system of the country, by those 

 who are engaged in the consideration of reconstruction 

 after the war. Probably the library movement has 

 never before received the same degree of public atten- 

 tion as during the past twelve months. 

 ^ There is a universal consensus of opinion in the 

 library world that the greatest barrier to progress with 

 which the public library movement is confronted is the 

 present limitation of rate aid; in this view the com- 

 mittee fully concurs. It is useless to expect the library 

 movement to fulfil its enlarged function in the educa- 

 tional system of the future, unless adequate means are 

 forthcoming for its efficient development and mainten- 

 ance. From time to time suggestions have been placed 

 before the trust to the effect that it might supplement 

 by endowment the meagre incomes at present avail- 

 able, and so make up for the deficiencies which exist 

 in numerous instances owing to the inadequacy of 

 the rate produce. Any step of this character would, 

 in the opinion of the committee, be disastrous, and 

 inevitably postpone the day when larger rating powers 

 are placed within the reach of local authorities. 



The Library Association has instituted an inquiry 

 into the existing provision of scientific and technical 

 literature in public and other libraries in the United 

 Kingdom. Probably there is no branch of public 

 library work relatively so neglected at the present time 

 as that which deals with technical literature. The 

 reason is not far to seek. Technical books bearing on 

 industrial operations, scientific and commercial, are 

 costly, and rapidly become out-of-date. The meagre 

 income available for the purchase of books does not, 

 as a rule, allow of extensive outlav in this direction. 

 Book selection committees are apt 'to look askance at 

 proposals which involve a substantial expenditure for 

 the acquisition of a single work. But in the future, 

 when the public libraries become more closely cor- 

 related with the educational system of the country, 

 their reference sections will come to be of increasing 

 importance. The existing state of affairs needs further 

 examination, and the trust has responded to an appeal 

 from the Library Association in order that a complete 

 review may be obtained. 



The activities of the Central Library for Students 

 have continued to widen, and its work has promise of 

 considerable importance in the future. The function 

 of the library is to supply students with the loan of 

 necessary books which they are not in a position to 

 obtain otherwise. The books are lent, as a rule, to 

 classes organised under the Workers' Educational 

 Association, the Adult School Movement, or other 

 similar organisations of working men and women en- 

 gaged in systematic courses of study; they are also 



NO. 2531, VOL. lOl] 



lent to individual students. At the present time there 

 is necessarily a considerable number of students who 

 are prevented from following their studies in the usual 

 manner by reason of their absence from the United 

 Kingdom, In neutral countries and in enemy coun- 

 tries hundreds of students are interned, and conse- 

 quently cut off from access to text-books. The British 

 Prisoners of War Book Scheme is a voluntary organ- 

 isation expressly constituted to supply books and litera- 

 ture to British subjects so situated. In normal times 

 these students would have enjoyed the facilities pro- 

 vided by the Central Library for Students, and the 

 committee has accordingly made a special grant to the 

 Central Library in order that the organisation named 

 above may supply more adequately books of study to 

 those who are at present aoroad. It is hoped that on 

 the cessation of hostilities these books will be returned 

 to this country, and, in that event, it has been arranged 

 that they shall be handed over to the Central Library 

 as a permanent addition to its contents. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Mr. Thomas J. Mackie has been appointed pro- 

 fessor of bacteriology in the South African Medical 

 College, Cape Town. 



The impending resignation of the chair of materia 

 medica and clinical medicine in the University of Edin- 

 burgh by Sir Thomas R. PYaser, F.R.S., is announced. 



Mr. F. J. Harlow has been appointed to succeed 

 Dr. R. S. Willows as head of the mathematics and 

 physics department of the Sir John Cass Technical 

 Institute. 



Dr. T. Franklin Sibly has been appointed professor 

 of geology at Armstrong College, Newcastle-upon- 

 Tyne, in succession to the late Prof. Lebour. Dr. 

 Sibly has been since 1913 professor of geology at 

 University College, Cardiff, and was lecturer in 

 geology at King's College, London, during the pre- 

 ceding five years. He was an 185 1 Exhibition Re- 

 search Scholar in igof^-y, and is a doctor of science 

 of both London and Bristol Universities. 



The course of public lectures on " Some Biological 

 Problems of To-day " will be continued in the second 

 term at University College, London, on Mondays, at 

 c p.m. instead of at 4 p.m., as in the first term. 

 Major Martin Flack, member of the research staff 

 I of the National Medical Research Committee, will lec- 

 ture on "The Physiological Aspects of Flying" on 

 May 6; and Dr. H. M. Vernon, of the University of 

 Oxford, will lecture on " Industrial Efficiency and 

 Fatigue" on May 13. Further particulars of the 

 course may be obtained by sending a stamped ad- 

 dressed envelope to the Secretary, University College, 

 London (Govver Street, W.C.i). 



A series of pamphlets urging the national necessity 

 for the passage of the Education Bill, providing com- 

 pulsory whole-time education until the age of fourteen 

 and compulsory part-time education for some years 

 afterwards, has been issued and distributed by the 

 Messrs. Tootal Broadhurst, Lee Co., Ltd., of 'Man- 

 chester and London. A set of four leaflets is entitled 

 "The Great Decision." and the various parts are called 

 "Now or Never," "Our Success or Failure," "A Just 

 Complaint," and "A First Step." Throughout they 

 urge the paramount importance of improved educa- 

 tional facilities, if the future well-being of the nation 

 is to be assured. Over and above the proposals of 

 the Education Bill, one leaflet urges that "a straight 

 road to the university should be open to all who desire 

 the fullest development of their intellect. Only by 



