176 



NA TURE 



[June 23, 1898 



Africa, in which the absence of the mosquito is associated 

 with a conspicuous absence of ague. It would, however, 

 be prematureto sweep aside by such observations those of 

 many previous writers, according to whom infection with 

 the malarial poison occurs both by way of the alimen- 

 tary canal (through drinking water) and of the respiratory 

 organs (through air). However this may be, whether 

 malarial infection under natural conditions is carried out 

 to a large extent by way of inoculation through mos- 

 quitoes ; whether the mosquito serves merely as the 

 instrument of infection ; or whether it is^as is main- 

 tained by Laveran, and notably by Manson — the host of 

 the malarial plasmodium ; whether artificial immunity 

 against malarial fever is procurable and by what means, 

 are some of the questions which, having a principal 

 bearing on prevention, ought to receive an immediate 

 answer. 



It is for reasons of this kind that Koch's great authority 

 and weighty opinion are welcome ; they ought to stimu- 

 late to action those Governments whose possessions in 

 tropical and subtropical countries impose on them the 

 responsibility of better protecting the health and life of 

 their civil and military subjects, a responsibility which 

 hitherto, unfortunately, does not seem to have weighed 

 heavily on them. Our own Indian Government has with 

 laudable spirit initiated important work by appointing for 

 specific research on malaria an able young military sur- 

 geon, Surgeon -Major Dr. Ronald Ross. While this is a 

 beginning, it is small as compared with what is needed to 

 meet the case ; what is wanted is a staff of specialists, 

 whose systematic and concerted work is required to 

 elucidate the many problems connected with the subject. 

 The Colonial Office also, with its sway over vast malarial 

 territories in tropical and subtropical Africa, might do a 

 great deal in the matter, considering that the health and 

 life of their numerous civil and military servants is 

 exposed continually in some of the most notorious hot- 

 beds of deadly fevers to dangers which ought to, and 

 with advancing exact knowledge might be prevented. 



E. Klein. 



THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON 

 COMMISSION BILL. 



T^HE second reading of the University of London 

 ■*■ Commission Bill last week, without a division, 

 should make its passage into law this Session certain. 

 After the elaborate pains taken by the leaders of the 

 irreconcileable graduates to personally instruct members 

 of Parliament during the week preceding the debate, the 

 feeble nature of the actual opposition came as something 

 of a surprise. It is dangerous to treat Parliament as if 

 it were a body of graduates with a vote to cast at a 

 senatorial election, and methods suitable for the one 

 kind of campaign are likely to fail in the other, as Sir 

 John Gorst made plain, when he referred to the misstate- 

 ments of fact which are inseparable from a contested 

 election. But the danger is by no means altogether 

 overpast. Having failed to persuade Parliament to re- 

 ject the Bill, Sir John Lubbock and his friends are now 

 preparing to do their best to wreck it and to ensure its 

 passage in a form which will effectually prevent the 

 University from adding to its present usefulness or 

 doing anything to encourage learning and research. 

 The member for the University has placed his name to 

 two arnendments, each of them, if accepted, calculated 

 to stultify the labours of half a generation for the advance- 

 ment of higher education in the metropolis. To begin 

 with he proposes to abolish the thirty-mile limit, which is 

 necessary if the reconstituted University is to be a seat 

 of learning for London as well as of London. The effect 

 of this would be to encourage those provincial Colleges 

 at present unconnected with any University to apply for 



NO. 1495, VOL. 58] 



incorporation with London, to delay indefinitely the 

 formation of a University for the Midlands — a founda- 

 tion much to be desired, and to render impracticable 

 the working of the Boards of Studies of the new Uni- 

 versity in London — a provision upon which a large part 

 of its efficiency will depend. It would be difficult to 

 imagine any single amendment which could reach 

 further in its evil consequences, or be more destructive 

 of the whole purpose of the Bill than this. 



But Sir John is not content with making any unity of 

 policy unattainable ; he is anxious to ensure that as large 

 a proportion as possible of the University scholarships 

 and exhibitions shall help to maintain the students of 

 other seats of learning. It has long been one of the 

 anomalies of the present University that a large number 

 of the scholarships are won by men and women who are 

 studying elsewhere than in London, and very frequently 

 at other Universities. Especially is this the case with 

 mathematics, the rewards for which study are almost 

 invariably taken by Cambridge men. In order to main- 

 tain and extend this condition of things, the member 

 for the University proposes that external students shall 

 be admitted to the examinations for internal students. 

 Under the dual examination system which the Senate 

 will have the power of establishing, by the terms of the 

 Bill, should it seem advisable to do so, internal students 

 will be admitted to the examinations for external students ; 

 and rightly, for these tests, like the present ones, will be 

 open to all the world, irrespective of the manner or 

 place of study. But this is no argument for reciprocity 

 in regard to the internal examinations. Should an 

 internal student win an external scholarship, the Uni- 

 versity funds will at least go to the encouragement of 

 learning in London itself; but should an external student 

 take an internal scholarship, the University chest will, in 

 the large majority of instances, be depleted for the 

 benefit of some other institution. And what is even more 

 objectionable, this amendment would divest the internal 

 degree of its chief value in the eyes of students and 

 the public alike, the guarantee namely which it will give 

 under the Bill as it stands, that its holders have under- 

 gone a definite course of training and study. This 

 guarantee is far more valuable in the eyes of those who 

 understand educational matters than the difficulty of the 

 questions which a candidate may succeed in answering 

 during a few days at the close of his studentship, under 

 conditions which at best admit a large measure of chance. 



It is hard to believe that the Colleges will consent 

 to take a part in reconstitution on these lines, or that 

 Parliament will play into the hands of the wreckers by 

 accepting such amendments. The proposal to bind the 

 hands of the Senate and force them willy-nilly to subject 

 external and internal students to the same examination— 

 a point to which so much attention was directed in the 

 recent debate — is not worth serious argument ; for apart 

 from its inherent impracticability, the facultative dual 

 examination was the basis of the compromise on which 

 the present Bill rests, and to destroy this would be to 

 render legislation ineffectual because unacceptable to all 

 the teaching bodies interested. 



THE SCIENCE AND ART BUILDINGS AT 

 SOUTH KENSINGTON. 



"lirE were able to print last week the text of the 

 * * Memorial forwarded to the Government by the 

 President of the Royal Academy, pointing out how 

 disastrous it would be for the future of Art in this country 

 if the new proposals regarding the buildings at South 

 Kensington were carried out. As our readers will re- 

 member, the same course had already been taken by the 

 President of the Royal Society with regard to the Science 

 side of the question. 



