July 25, 1895] 



NA TURE 



295 



■Charter, that is, by Convocation assembltd in a regular way. 

 The constituency may be, as Sir John states, an exceptionally 

 •educated and intelligent one ; but a very large proportion of the 

 graduates have never studied the question of reorganisation, 

 •and are ignorant of its complications and difficulties. V\'e have 

 jilready had painful experience cjf how the votes of these 

 graduates may lie influenced by inaccurate or misleading state- 

 ments in circulars issued through the post on the eve of an 

 -election by the party who are hostile to the Gresham scheme. 

 If made in debate in Convocation, these statements could at 

 once be corrected. 



But, secondly, we object to the refereniiiiin in itself. Con- 

 vocation has already, twice, deliberately, knowing what it was 

 about, waived the right of final veto by agreeing to the ap]xj!nt- 

 ment of a Slalulory Commission. It maintains its full right of 

 presenting its views to this Commission, when appointed, and of 

 protesting against any provision that may interfere with its 

 rights and privileges ; and, furthermore, of influencing Parlia- 

 ment against it through its Member, or through any graduate 

 who may have a seat in the House of Commons, or through its 

 Chancellor, w^ho sits in the I louse of Lords, should any such 

 provision still be retained when the Bill is presented to Parlia- 

 ment. Any further right than this Convocation does not claim. 



For my own jiart, should the position assumed by Sir John 

 Lubbock be maintained by Parliament, it seems to me that we 

 must abandon all hope of bringing our University irto a line 

 with the requirements of the age. Alfred W. Be.nnett. 



The Earliest Magnetic Meridians. 



In reply to Prof. L. A. Bauer's letter in Nature of July i8, 

 p. 269, I may remark that I possess two of Churchman's Mag- 

 netic Atlases. The first of these I now believe was published in 

 1790, and to be that described in his tract, " An Explanation of 

 the Magnetic Atlas, Philadelphia, 1790." The lines on this 

 ■chart are magnetic meridians only, as fully defined in Churchman's 

 text, and largely based upon Cook's observations of the variation. 



It is evident that Churchman depended largely on observation, 

 as, he discussed the question of the effects of a .ship's iron in 

 -altering the value of the variation when observed on board ship. 



The second atlas, which is dated July i, iSoo, has isogonic 

 lines for each degree of variation with magnetic meridians super- 

 posed, similar to Veates' Chart of 1S19, which I also possess; 



Lastly, I would observe, that ^'eates mentions the charts of 

 Halley, Bellin, and Mountaine, and Dodson in 1794, but makes 

 no reference to Churchman, who presented a copy of his work to 

 the Koyal Society in January 1791. It is possible, therefore, 

 that \'eates constructed his chart in ignorance of Churchman's 

 work, but the latter certainly was the first of the two to construct 

 ■magnetic meridians. Ettrick W. Creak. 



London. lulv 20. 



■Variegation in Flowers and Fruits. 



Referring to a letter by Mr. Xewnham Browne, in Natire 

 •of July II, describing a parti-coloured rose, it may be of interest 

 to state that a somewhat similar occurrence in the case of an 

 •apple is recorded by Mr. Darwin in his " .■\nimals and Plants 

 .under Domestication" (vol. i. pp. 392-3). The reference is to 

 a specimen which I brought from Canada, and of which I sent 

 him a careful drawing. In this specimen it appeared as if a 

 smooth-skinned bright green apple had been cut in half and 

 joine<l to a rough hxovin. ponimc-gris. The line of junction was 

 perfectly sharp, but not quite .symmetrical, the brown portion 

 extending over the whole of the bud, while the green just included 

 the stalk. I was told that similar instances sometimes were 

 .found on the tree from which it was gathered. 



J. D. La Touche. 



Slokesay Vicarage, Craven .\rms, July 12. 



Science Scholarships at Cambridge. 



Thouc.ii the arrangements for the competitions for Science 

 :Scholarships at Cambridge, as described in Nature of July 

 18, are in many respects eminently satisfactory, yet from the 

 point of view of the candidates they leave something to be 

 •desired. 



In the first place, they are unduly favourable to those whose 

 nineteenth birthdays will fall early in 1896, and correspondingly 

 uinfavoiirable to those who are six or eight months yoimger. 



NO. 1343, VOL. 52] 



They will compel these younger candidates not only to compete 

 at a marked disadvantage in the matter of age, but also after a 

 shorter period of reading in science ; unless, indeed, they have 

 sacrificed an important part of their general education by con-.- 

 mencing specialised .study at an undesirably early age. .Secondly, 

 they are calculated to throw out altogether any candidates who 

 may, through illness or other causes, be unable to compete 

 during the very limited period covered by the examinations as at 

 present arranged. 



Similar difficulties are avoided in the case of the Army 

 examinations by holding them twice yearly, at intervals of about 

 six months. In the present case, sufficient equality could be 

 secured by a fairly strong group of colleges holding their examina- 

 tions a little later — for example, in April or May. 



If it be feared that only the inferior candidates would be left 

 to compete at this later examination, we would point out that, on 

 the contrary, there would be less chance of this happening if our 

 suggestion be adopted than under the present scheme. In April 

 or May the older of the previously unsuccessful candidates would 

 be excluded, and only the younger and, presumably, better 

 candidates would remain. On the other hand, the later examina- 

 tion would have attractions for the ablest of those still younger 

 candidates, who will not, under the present system, come into 

 the field until the autumn of 1896. \V. A. Shenstone. 



Clifton College, July 23. D. Rintoul. 



SIR JOHN LUBBOCK AND THE TEACHING 



UNIVERSITY FOR LONDON. 

 'HP HE feelings of "surprise and regret" which we said 

 -'■ had been aroused by Sir John Lubbock's election 

 address, will not be diminished by the perusal of the 

 reply to which, at his request, we gave publicity in our 

 last issue. Rather the surprise will turn to amazement, 

 that he should deem that to be a reply which evades 

 every material issue, and appears to be written in ignor- 

 ance or forgetfulness of all that has taken place. And 

 the regret will be enhanced when it is observed that his 

 language now makes plain what could only be inferred 

 from his address, namely, that he has never grasped the 

 distinction between a Charter granted by the prerogative 

 of the Crown, and a scheme framed under the authority 

 of the Legislature. 



Yet Sir John Lubbock has for many years taken an 

 active, and even a prominent, part in public afTairs ; has 

 for many years occupied a seat in Parliament ; has in 

 the course of his lifetime seen almost every university 

 in the three kingdoms reformed by the machinery of 

 Statutory Commissions : and has, if we are not mistaken, 

 himself sat on a Commission entrusted by the Legis- 

 lature with the duty of remodelling the constitution of 

 the great public schools, which, next to the universities, 

 are the most important educational institutions of the 

 country. That he should be unaware of the distinction, 

 or have forgotten it, seems incredible ; but his language 

 and his reasoning seeni to leave no doubt on the point. 

 " I ani glad," he says, " to observe that the only point 

 objected to is the reference of any new Cliarter to Con- 

 vocation. In this, however, I am not asking that any 

 privilege which they do not at present possess should be 

 conferred on my constituents, but only supporting what is 

 now their legal right." 



\\'hat then, we are forced to ask, is Sir John's idea of 

 a Statutory Commission ? Does it need an .A.ct of 

 Parliament to authorise a body of persons to formulate 

 proposals affecting a public corporation or institution, 

 which, when framed, may be accepted or rejected at the 

 pleasure of those whom they affect .' Or docs he 

 suppose that it needs an .•\ct of Parliament to enable 

 the Crown to concur with bodies which the Charter of 

 the Crown has called into existence, in eflfecting a 

 modification of the franchise which they enjoy ? .-Xn .■\ct 

 of Parliament, we had thought, was an Act of the 

 Sovereign Legislature, which changed the "legal rights" 

 as they previously existed ; and we had never heard that 

 Parliament added to its necessary labours the superfluous 



