July 2, 1891] 



NATURE 



197 



' a radius of fifteen miles from Somerset House ') a University 

 . . . commending to its students systematic courses of teach- 

 ing and methods of study." But "commending" is what we 

 all do now. 



The new University is to be of the federal type. Beginning 

 with University and King's, " other Colleges may from time to 

 time be admitted." This was inevitable, though my pointing 

 out the fact made my friend Prof. Lankester somewhat angry. 



Any medical school may be admitted which is recognized as 

 efficient by any qualifying body under the Medical Acts. But 

 while Colleges will have representatives on the Council, the 

 medical schools will only have representatives on the Faculties. 



Degrees may be granted apparently in any subject the Council 

 please, subject to a regular course of study and examination. 

 This will apparently admit theology, which is probably a 

 desirable thing, provided it be unsectarian. 



The powers to grant degrees are rather large, and deserve 

 careful consideration. The London radius at once, as has been 

 the case with the existing University, goes off into Imperial 

 infinity in the provision that anyone who has been a resident 

 student in any University in the Empire may count his time and 

 examinations, except that a "final portion of the period of 

 study" and the "final examination shall be passed in the 

 University. 



There is an unlimited power to grant ad eundem degrees as 

 well as honorary degrees at the discretion of the Council. 

 Fellows of University and King's Colleges (a purely honorary 

 distinction in itself) are indicated as fitting recipients, and also 

 "past students of the said Colleges," a rather large door to open 

 if in the future a degree is to have any meaning at all. 



Power is taken to examine into the efficiency of schools or any 

 academic institutions — work already in the hands of other Uni- 

 versities — and apparently the London radius again becomes 

 infinite. 



Independent University lecturers may be appointed. 



The Council will consist of members appointed for five 

 years by (i) the Crown (Lord President); (2) Convocation; 

 (3) Colleges ; (4) Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons ; (5) 

 Faculties. The Faculties are to be constituted (i) of teachers 

 in the Colleges ; (2) of examiners ; (3) of persons who are or 

 have been engaged in University teaching in London. The 

 Boards of Studies are delegations from the Faculties, as they 

 should be. All this is much on the lines sketched out in my 

 own letter in Nature. 



A rather remarkable feature in the scheme is the creation of 

 a Convocation of graduates. Whatever may be the function of 

 this body in other Universities, it is somewhat surprising to 

 meet with its existence in what professes to be a teaching 

 University. 



The examinations are to be conducted by examiners who are 

 members of the respective faculties associated with external 

 examiners ; the teacher- examiner seems not to be insisted upon. 



These are the essential elements of the proposed constitution. 

 If it is asked what distinctive character the Albert University 

 will possess which will mark it off from the existing University, 

 or from that body as it might be conceivably reconstituted, I 

 must confess that it seems to me to lie in a very small compass. 

 Notwithstanding the use of the ambiguous word " commending," 

 when one would have expected " prescribing," I take it for 

 granted that the essential feature in the whole scheme is the 

 enforcement upon candidates for degrees of attendance upon a 

 curriculum. But in the existing University, this is already re- 

 quired in the Faculty of Medicine. Prof. Huxley has further 

 urged it in the Faculty of Science ; and for my part I believe 

 that the time has arrived when it might be demanded without 

 difficulty. The prominence given to practical work in the 

 science examinations has made it all but impossible for a can- 

 didate to acquit himself successfully who has not attended 

 a competent course of instruction. To insist upon a curri- 

 culum would be now scarcely more than the practical recog- 

 nition of this fact. The only real point of divergence is in 

 the Faculty of Arts ; about this I speak with some hesitation. It 

 may be that the enforcement of a curriculum is desirable ; I am 

 not satisfied that in this faculty it is so, or at any rate absolutely 

 essential, as I think it is in tlie Faculty of Science. With this 

 exception I can see no net public gain in the new scheme to 

 justify the creation of the cumbrous machinery of a new federal 

 University. 



Seeing that the existing University is a State institution in 

 actual possession of the field, I think the public at large might 



have reasonably expected from the Senate some statesmanlike 

 criticism, rising above the petty level of supposed self-interest in 

 the very serious action which the Government is apparently about 

 to take. 



They content themselves, however, with a sort of half-sulky 

 acquiescence in the scheme ".«o far as it proposes to confer on 

 the petitioning Colleges the power of granting degrees in arts 

 and science to students of the Colleges who have pursued their 

 entire academic curriculum within the Colleges." The Senate, a 

 little maliciously, proceeds to point out that " the petition of 

 the Colleges lays great stress upon the paramount importance of 

 close association of students and teacher-examiners, and of 

 placing the power of granting degrees in the hands of those 

 teachers who have instructed the candidates." It not un- 

 naturally insists upon the inconsistency with this position of the 

 proposal "to accept residence and examinations at other Uni- 

 versities," if only a final period of study, " which might be a short 

 attendance at evening classes," be passed at the new University. 



It also objects to the honorary and ad eundem degrees. But 

 its criticism is even more destructive in regard to the Medical 

 Schools. It is quite obvious that if the Medical Schools joined 

 the Albert University, the teacher-examiner system would dis- 

 appear, and the new and the old Universities would be simply 

 competing agencies for doing the same kind of work in the same 

 kind of way. The same argument applies more or less to the 

 other faculties as soon as the number of constituent Colleges 

 becomes numerous. 



Yet so great is the magic of a phrase that the daily papers in 

 reporting the proceeding-, in the Privy Council describe the scheme 

 as that of a Teaching University. A University of the Scotch 

 or German type may have some claim to that title ; but no 

 federal University can ever possess a valid one, for the simple 

 reason that there will always be a morphological distinction 

 between the Colleges which teach and the University which 

 examines and grants degrees. 



Prof. Lankester contended in his letter that the question 

 whether University and King's Colleges should have a University 

 Charter was a sort of private affair between them and the Govern- 

 ment. But I do not think this view can be accepted. Whether 

 we like degrees or whether we do not, they have a certain value 

 in the eyes of the public. Personally, I have no objection to the 

 multiplication of Universities, if each has a proper geographical 

 area assigned to it. But the multiplication of Universities in the 

 same place seems to me a great evil. It cannot be assented to 

 without the necessity being shown to be overwhelming. And 

 in the present case it appears to me that it cannot be so shown. 

 If the existing University is so injurious to the best interests of 

 the higher education that another is imperatively demanded to 

 do the work in which it fails, then it appears to me that two 

 obvious points present themselves : — 



(1) The new University should be free from the defects that 

 attach to the old one. Prof. Lankester speaks of the " thraldom " 

 of "the Imperial centralizing institution" ; but when the matter 

 comes to be looked into, the new institution also proposes to be 

 Imperial and centralizing, and will be found to exercise the same 

 or even greater thraldom on the individual teacher. 



(2) If the old University is really doing mischief, it is the 

 paramount duty of the supreme Government, whose creature it is, 

 to reform it. The fact that the Senate and Convocation are 

 at loggerheads how this is to be effected is really beside the 

 question. When public opinion demanded the reform of the 

 older Universities, new ones were not created alongside the un- 

 reformed old ones ; but a Commission with executive powers 

 effected the changes which were necessary. And for a similar 

 procedure there is still time at Burlington Gardens. 



W. T. Thiselton-Dyer. 

 Royal Gardens, Kew, June 30. 



The Holarctic Region. 



Reviewing the recently published "Introduction to the 

 Study of Mammals" by Prof. Flower and Mr. Lydekker, Prof. 

 Lankester slates (jw/n^, p. 122) that "The authors of the present 

 work mention Dr. Heilprin's opinion that the Palxarctic and 

 Nearctic regions should be united and called the Holarctic 

 region. But they do not adopt this opinion, nor refer to 

 Huxley's proposal to term this same area Arctogaea," and so 

 on. Now, in this last statement my good friend the reviewer, 

 perhaps writing from memory, is mistaken. Had Prof. Huxley 

 proposed to limit his "Arclogsea" to the Palaearctic and 



NO. II 3 I, VOL. 44] 



