lULY 1-5, I 



893J 



NATURE 



249 



Extract fro/n " Report for the year 1892 on the Trade of the 

 Consular District of Chicago." (F.O. Annual Series, 1893, 

 Diplomatic and Consular Reports, No. 1233.) 

 Five years ago the University of Chicago was not thought 

 of, and now there are twelve fine buildings of English Gothic 

 architecture, either finished and occupied or in course of con- 

 struction, on twenty-five acres of land owned by the University 

 in the neighbourhood of Jackson Park, near the Exhibition 

 grounds, where three years ago was a marsh. The University 

 has now a large s'affof professors, selected from other institu- 

 tions in the country and Europe, and about looo students. Its 

 II igin and rapid growth are greatly owing to the generosity of 

 Mr. Rockefeller, who in i889ofFered an endowment of^i20,ooo 

 ,1 committee could raise the sum of ^80,000 ; this sum was 

 lickly raised, and about the same time a merchant of Chicago 

 t sented the University with twelve acres of the ground on 

 lich the buildings now stand. Further gifts came in, and up 

 . the present time the total donations amount to ;,f 1,284,000, 

 nf which Mr. R ickefeller alone has contributed ,^754,000. 

 The sums given in 1892 amounted to ;£'? 11,500, and among the 

 lis was the offer of a telescope, to be the largest and most 

 .werful in the world, which, with the observatory in which it 

 illbeplaced, will cost more than ^f 150,000. The University was 

 uned last October with a faculty of 115 professors, men and 

 .vumen. One of the features of its regular work will be univer- 

 sity extension and a system for the education of the masses. 



A magnificent gift was last year presented to the city, and 



entitled the Armour Instiiute, after the patriotic and public 



benefactor of that name. Ic consists of a large and handsome 



building already completed, and fitted interiorly with marble 



wainscoting on every floor, marble arches and marble bath 



' )ms, and the gift was accompanied with an endo Ament of 



j89,ooo. It is to be used as a manual training school and 



n institute for every branch of science and art ; it is fitte 1 with 



laboratories, forges, gymnasium, and library, and contains 



electrical, lecture, and other rooms for domestic sciences. It 



is intended as a benefit to young men and women of every class 



to be within the range of the poorest, and is taking the form of a 



school of technology. 



ANTIPODEAN RETRENCHMENT. 



T AST week a brief reference was made in these 

 ■'-' columns to the decrease in the grant to the Univer- 

 sityJofMelboi;rne—acurtailmentonly justifiable under very 

 special circumstances, and one that may bring reproach 

 on the Colony that adopts it. Since then we have seen 

 a letter in iht Journal of Educalion for July by Dr. E. A. 

 Abbott, late Headmaster of the City of London School. 

 The letter is as follows : — 



I venture to ask space for the following extract from a letter 

 I received to-day from the Professor of Mathematics in Auck- 

 land College, New Zealand. Prof. VV. S. Aldis was Senior 

 Wrangler and First Smith's Prizeman in 1861, and subse- 

 quently, for several years. Principal of the College of Physical 

 Science in Newcastle-on-Tyne. The failure of his wife's health 

 induced him, about ten years ago, to accept the Auckland Pro- 

 fessorship, at some sacrifice of income, on the understanding, 

 of course, that he was irremovable as long as he could do the 

 work. After nearly ten years of service, here is the result, as 

 stated in the extract, which bears date May 19. I give it with 

 the mere suppression of the name of the chief mover in this 

 business. 



" Last Monday succeeded in getting a majority of the 



Council to give me six months' notice of the termination 



of my engagement, on the ground that the amount of 



work I did could be perfectly well performed by plenty of 



men who could be got for a much lower salary. . . . No 



charge of incompetence or neglect of duty has been made 



against me, unless by slander behind my back. I have 



never been asked to meet the Council ; the debates were 



held with closed doors ; and, before I even knew what 



wa.s being proposed, I was allowed to read the result of 



their discussion in the New Zealand Herald." 



Those who know my old schoolfellow, Prjf. Aldis, as a man 



incapable of direliclion of duty or exaggeration of fact, will 



think that the only way of meeting the necessities of the case is 



NO. 1237, VOL. 48] 



to rescind the resolution. Others may reasonably defer their 

 final judgment till they hear what is to be said on the other side ; 

 but meantime I would appeal to all University men to defer 

 applying for the professorship. For the present, to succeed a 

 professor thus arbitrarily dismissed by the Council involves not 

 only the possibility of being .similarly treated, but alst) the cer- 

 tainty of contributing to what Sir Robert Stout has justly 

 desciibed as " a grievous injury to higher education." Many 

 teachers, and many University men who are not teachers, will, 

 perhaps go with me still further, and agree that, if Prof. Aldis's 

 statements cannot be denied, no one can take the post without 

 some forfeiture of self-respect. 



Dr. Abbott puts the case plainly and fairly enough, and, 

 lacking an explanation from the Council concerned, we 

 conclude that this is another e.xample of the reactionary 

 policy of retrenchment which now fills the minds and 

 dictates the deeds of Colonial officials. Let them re- 

 trench by all means, but in the right direction. There 

 could hardly be a more short-sighted and mistaken policy 

 than that of curtailing educational grants in order to 

 redeem a position lost by extravagant expenditiire. 

 Wealth-producing power and facilities for obtaining 

 knowledge go hand in hand. In the past many of the 

 Colonies have proved that they recognised the prime 

 importance of their Universities and similar establish- 

 ments. Indeed, they have often shown the way to the 

 authorities at home. Apparently, however, this wisdom 

 is departing from Colonial Councils, for healthy branches 

 are being lopped off indiscriminately, while obtrusive 

 suckers at the roots of the constitution are left untouched. 

 However, it is not too late to rescind the measures that 

 have been taken — measures that are derogatory both to 

 the good sense and dignity of Colonial Governments. 

 We trust that the next mail will bring us news of the 

 reinstatement of- Prof. Aldis and the restoration of 

 University grants. 



SCIENCE IN THE MAGAZINES. 



T^HE July magazines contain a few papers of scientific 

 ^ interest. In the New Review Mr. E. R. Spearman 

 writes on " Criminals and their Detection." This article 

 is a vigorous protest against the crude methods of 

 identification employed at Scotland Yard. In spite of 

 the thousands of blunders that have been made, our 

 police authorities are stolidly indifferent to their imper- 

 fections, and look upon the Bertillon system as a "scien- 

 tific fad." But this is the way in which the official mind 

 usually views matters of scientific importance. To show 

 the absurdity of the position taken up, Mr. Spearman 

 gives a full description of the Bertillon process o 

 measurement, with the results obtained since the method 

 was adopted in France, and compares it with the hap- 

 hazard system of identification used in our prisons. But 

 for the fact that officialism never acknowledges itself to 

 be in the •■xxor\^,bertillonage vio\A^ have been established 

 in England long ago. 



The Bertillon system, says Mr. Spearman, is fast circling the 

 globe. Our great Indian Empire has taken it up, the whole pro- 

 vince of Bengal being recently put under its protection, and still 

 more recently the island of Ceylon. Even in still more Eastern 

 Asia, Japan has borrowed M. Bertillon's scheme. In E.istern 

 Europe, Russia (St. Petersburg and Moscow) and Roumania are 

 using the system, which is also practised in Norway and Switzer- 

 land. In North America the United St.ates Government has suc- 

 cessfully applied anthropometry to deal with deserters in the army 

 and navy ; while Chicago not only uses the system for its own 

 purposes, but is the centre of a large field of operations in the 

 States and in the adjoining portions of the Dominion of Canada. 

 Beside this, on the Pacific coast it was successfully used to 

 enforce the Chinese immigratio 1 law, the Celestials being able 

 to use each other's permits with impunity, all being alike as 

 two peas to the casual Caucasian glance, but not to the Ber- 

 tillon compasses. In South America the Bertillon system has 

 also penetrated, the Argentine Confederation making use of it. 



