February 12, 1920] 



NATURE 



^n 



important works on Spitsbergen would have en- 

 hanced the value of the book to interested readers, 

 who will nevertheless find it the best available 

 compendium of Spitsbergen information. 



G W. T. 



THE LEAGUE OF UNIVERSITIES. 



A REPRESENTATIVE body of Bri'tish uni- 

 versity men and women spent the autumn 

 of igi8 in America as the guests of the United 

 States. By invitation of the Government of the 

 French Republic a similar delegation visited the 

 universities of France last May. From the Belgian 

 Government an invitation was received and ac- 

 cepted in November. The reports of these three 

 university missions may be obtained from the 

 Universities Bureau, 50 Russell Square, W.C.i. In 

 each of the countries visited the representatives of 

 the Ignited Kingdom were received with profuse 

 hospitality and treated with the utmost considera- 

 tion by the Head of the State and his Ministers, as 

 well as bv the heads of the universities and their 

 professors. In innumerable speeches the general 

 objects of this university "entente" received 

 eloquent and enthusiastic expression, stress being 

 laid upon the necessity, in the interests of the 

 world's peace, of bringing the intellectual leaders 

 of the allied and associated countries into closer 

 and permanent touch. There may be rivalry 

 amongst the universities of the civilised world, but 

 there can be no competition, in the sense in which 

 commercial enterprises compete, with the risk of 

 producing discord. All are engaged upon a com- 

 mon task, the making of knowledge, and the train- 

 ing of men and women for professions and occupa- 

 tions in which learning is the only trustworthy 

 equipment. 



During the last three or four years the universi- 

 ties of the United Kingdom have discovered that 

 their power and influence may be greatly strength- 

 ened lay taking counsel together, without any sacri- 

 fice of independence. There is the same need for 

 conference and co-operation amongst the universi-* 

 ties of the world. Amongst definite problems dis- 

 cussed was the interchange of teachers and 

 students — the migration of those who dispense 

 and of those who seek knowledge, adjusted to 

 modern conditions. The reports of .all three 

 missions are in approximately similar terms. It 

 is recognised that professors who are heads of 

 departments have many administrative duties in 

 addition to their duties as teachers. Their uni- 

 versities cannot spare them for any considerable 

 time, nor can their duties be taken ovefr by 

 strangers. Heads of departments might with 

 great advantage give short courses of lectures in 

 foreign countries, provided the language diflficulty 

 can be overcome. Professors of highly specialised 

 or recondite subjects, for which the demand is 

 limited or occasional, might well distribute their 

 services amongst several universities, spending an 

 occasional year abroad. 



With regard to migration of students, it is 

 clearly desirable that students of languages should 

 NO. 2624, VOL. 104] 



spend a part of their undergraduate career in 

 foreign countries ; but with this exception it is 

 almost universally agreed that only in rare in- 

 stances would it be to the advantage of a student 

 to leave the university in which he is matriculated 

 until after graduation. The first year's work at 

 any one university is not easily articulated to the 

 second year's work at any other. Nor would any 

 university be content to part with its third-year 

 students. For a graduate, every possible facility 

 for migration should be afforded. Even though 

 his new university be not so well equipped for 

 work in the subject to which he is devoted, it is 

 to his advantage that his experience should be 

 enlarged. So far as British universities are con- 

 cerned, post-graduate study will be encouraged by 

 the new Ph.D. degree which all have now estab- 

 lished. The same degree is obtainable in the 

 U.S.A., and its equivalent, the doctorat de 

 r University, in France and Belgium. 



NOTES. 



The new session of Parliament was opened in state 

 on Tuesday by the King, who was accompanied by 

 the Queen and the Prince of Wales. Among the 

 matters referred to in the King's Speech were a Bill 

 to make further provision for education in Ireland, 

 measures to stimulate and develop the production of 

 essential foodstuffs within the United Kingdom, and 

 to encourage and develop the fishing industry, and 

 Bills providing against the injury to national industries 

 from dumping and for the creation of an adequate 

 supply of cheap electric and water power. 



As successor to the late Mr. Henry Watts in the 

 editorship of the Journal of the Chemical Society, and 

 as the first secretary and registrar of the Institute 

 of Chemistry, Mr. Charles Edward Groves, F.R.S., 

 was for many years a very prominent figure in the 

 chemical world. His scientific education was re- 

 ceived under Hofmann at the Royal College of 

 Chemistry, where he was contemporary with a group 

 of young men of whom many became distinguished 

 men of science. In October, 1862, Mr. Groves became 

 senior assistant to Dr. John Stenhouse, F.R.S., who had 

 established a private laboratory for research in Rodney 

 •Street, Pentonville, and there he remained as factotum 

 until Dr. Stenhouse 's death in 1880. He then be- 

 came lecturer in chemistry at Guy's Hospital. The 

 greater part of Mr. Groves 's scientific work was done 

 in the Pentonville laboratory, and was published under 

 the joint names of Stenhouse and Groves, though, in 

 consequence of Dr. Stenhouse's infirmity, the work 

 was mostly done by his assistant. Mr. Groves was a 

 good manipulator and a skilful analyst, and not only 

 assisted in the research laboratory, but for five years 

 also took part in the work of external assayer to the 

 Royal Mint — an office held by Dr. Stenhouse until 

 1870, when it was abolished. Mr. Groves in his 

 early days was a very active walker and climl>cr in 

 the Alps. For many years he spent his summer holi- 

 days in Switzerland, and will be remembered by many 

 of the senior members of the Alpine Club. His death on 

 February i, at an age approaching eighty years, leaves 



