1 68 



NATURE 



[April 26, 19 17 



All these urgent reforms can be instituted under 

 the regulations governing the policy of the 

 Board, and require no special legislative sanction. 

 They appeared to receive the warm assent of the 

 House, but it was the closing sentences of Mr. 

 Fisher's statement which aroused the deepest 

 attention, wherein he adumbrated the lines of a 

 Bill for the reform of education, of which the 

 measures he had already indicated were but an 

 instalment, which he hoped shortly to introduce. 

 He proposed in this measure, having regard to 

 the deplorable waste of child life, to make provi- 

 sion in nursery schools for children under five ; to 

 secure for every boy and girl a full period of in- 

 struction until the folirteenth year; to provide for 

 more satisfactory education in rural areas ; to 

 secure the proper co-ordination of every type and 

 grade of school throughout the country, and to 

 require county authorities, either separately or in 

 combination, to make complete and progressive 

 schemes of education for their areas ; to make 

 better and more complete provision for adolescent 

 education so as to ensure for young persons 

 engaged in employment a fuller intellectual, 

 moral, and physical discipline ; and, finally, as soon 

 as occasion serves, to consider the problem of the 

 universities with the view of meeting the urgent 

 need for promoting free and independent post- 

 graduate research and the higher forms of learn- 

 ing in the universities of this country, together 

 with a liberal provision t)f scholarships with this 

 object. We must await the introduction of this 

 Bill before we can discuss fully the actual means 

 proposed to .give effect to these measures of 

 reform, but it is well that a man speaking with 

 the high authority of the President of the Board 

 of Education and with the full knowledge of his 

 colleagues in the Government is bold enough to 

 set them forth as ideals to be shortly attained, and 

 his effort demands the fullest and most earnest 

 support of every enlightened authority through- 

 out the kingdom. Not until the whole fabric of 

 education is brought under review and each 

 department of it made effective and duly related 

 can its full value be realised and the highest 

 forms of education be ensured on sound and satis- 

 factory lines. 



CO-OPERATION IN RUSSIAN AND 

 BRITIS7I SCIENTIFIC UNDERTAKINGS. 



TOURING the past year the question of a closer 

 -*->' relationship between British and Russian 

 savants has been the subject of several meetings of 

 different learned bodies in Russia, chiefly in Petro- 

 grad. Particulars cannot here be given, but a 

 short account of the more important developments 

 likely to give some positive results may be of 

 interest. 



In April, 1916, the Minister of Public Instruc- 

 tion invited a number of universities to state the 

 measures which, in their opinion, would lead to 

 the promotion of closer intercommunication 

 between the Russian and the British scientific 

 worlds. The council of the University of Petro- 

 grad discussed the matter in May, and stated in 

 NO. 2478, VOL. 99] 



reply to the Minister in June last that a closer 

 relationship would be desirable not only with 

 British, but also with French men of science and 

 those of other allied countries. This object could 

 be best attained by forming an international asso- 

 ciation of universities and academies of sciences,, 

 which would promote mutual knowledge of 

 scientific work and activity, the organisation of 

 international scientific undertakings (expeditions,, 

 publications, etc.), and the dissemination of the 

 languages of the members of the association. 

 . Such an organisation could easily undertake to 

 bring about such measures as : (a) delegation of 

 professors and academicians to the chief universi- 

 ties of allied countries to give courses of lectures 

 in the language of the country (not their own) 

 and to promote personal intercommunication with 

 foreign men of science ; (b) mutual admission of 

 students of science to the universities and scien- 

 tific institutions of allied countries for the purpose 

 of advancement of their scientific studies and the 

 acquaintance with the scientific world of a given 

 country ; (c) organisation of congresses in separate 

 branches of learning for deliberating on questions 

 of international scientific and inquiry under- 

 takings, and of pedagogy ; (d) organisation of 

 yearly reports on the scientific literature of a given 

 country, to be printed in special periodicals ; (e) 

 reports on the scientific activities of different insti- 

 tutions and of persons working in these institu- 

 tions. To promote the foundation of the Inter- 

 national Association it is necessary first of all to 

 form an association of Russian scientific bodies, 

 which should undertake the necessary steps to 

 begin the publication of yearly reports on Russian 

 scientific literature in special periodicals. It is 

 also necessary, as a second preliminary measure, 

 to create at the Russian Legations abroad and at 

 the British, French, and other Legations in 

 Russia some sort of scientific attache, who would 

 be at the disposal of men of science. 



The matter was then taken up by the Imperial 

 Academy of Sciences, which considered the whole 

 question at a plenary meeting on October 15 '(28), 

 1916, after it had been reported upon by a com- 

 mittee composed of the permanent secretary of 

 the Academy, S. Oldenburg, and the academi- 

 cians N. Kondakov, P. Vinogradov, and P. 

 Walden. The report of this committee was 

 adopted at a plenary meeting, and was afterwards 

 presented to the Minister of Public Instruction. 

 It laid great stress on the necessity for mutual 

 cognisance of scientific work and scientific under- 

 takings of Russia and Great Britain. To this end 

 the academy formed a committee of specialists 

 charged with the editing of two scientific 

 periodicals devoted to physico-mathematical and 

 biological sciences, printed in Russian and French. 

 These periodicals will contain a summary of 

 scientific work of Russian savants. It is pro- 

 posed further to make more accessible British 

 scientific publications and books, which it is very 

 difficult to obtain at present,' by way of new 



1 For instance, only unbound books are now allowed to enter Ru«sia, 

 whereas British books are always sold bound. I am obliged to order them 

 with the covers torn off. 



