THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



517 



the smaller and more 1 emote institu- 

 tions to retain or form associations 

 with the work of the large universities. 

 The professor from the large univer- 

 sity may also gain by first-hand knowl- 

 edge of educational conditions else- 

 where. There is, however, a risk that | 

 we may by such means cultivate the i 

 traits of the propagandist and exploiter ; 

 rather than those of the scholar. This 

 is the danger to which the American 

 professor is exposed and from which he 

 has not escaped. 



We may hope that the Harvard plan 

 is the initiation of a larger movement 

 which would be wholly beneficial. The ' 

 colleges of each state should be allied i 

 with the state universities or with the 

 private corporations standing in its \ 

 place. There should be a free ex- I 

 change of professors and students be- j 

 tween all parts of the country. Then 

 there should be a great national uni- ■ 

 versity at Washington or elsewhere 1 

 frequented by advanced students and i 

 professors from all parts of the coun- \ 

 try and all parts of the world — men 

 who would gladly learn and gladly 1 

 teach. Harvard, Columbia and Chi- 

 cago, Michigan, Wisconsin and Dlinois 

 may be secondary centers, but they 

 should cooperate to establish a super- 

 university, which would have the same 

 relation to existing universities that 

 these should hold to the colleges. 



THE CAVENDISH- LABOBATOUT 

 OF CAMBRIDGE UNIVEESITT 

 Certain centers of research and 

 scholarship are national and interna- 

 tional in character. It seems that 

 there would be advantages in greater 

 division of labor, so that one subject or 

 group of subjects would be especially 

 favored at each university. To a cer- 

 tain extent this happens under existing 

 conditions, for a department which is 

 strong is likely to become stronger, 

 while a weak department does not 

 readily improve. But there are usually 

 se%eral universities having departments 

 of about equal strength in a given sub- 

 ject and graduate students find the 



leading men widely scattered. A large 

 group of students and teachers working 

 m the same field exerts an enormous 

 influence. 



A real world center of this character 

 is the mathematical and physical work 

 of Cambridge University, maintained 

 since the time of Newton. The Caven- 

 dish Laboratory for experimental phys- 

 ics, established forty years ago, has 

 had in its directors three men of re- 

 markable distinction, Clerk-Maxwell, 

 Lord Rayleigh and Sir J. J. Thomson 

 having in succession filled the Caven- 

 dish professorship. At the end of 1909 

 Sir J. J. Thomson had completed 

 twenty-five years of service and to com- 

 memorate a tenure of office so full of 

 achievement his colleagues have pre- 

 pared a volume giving a history of the 

 Cavendish Laboratory, from which we 

 borrow the facts and the pictures of 

 this note. The book contains a series 

 of chapters in which the Clerk-Maxwell 

 period is reviewed by Professor Schus- 

 ter, the Rayleigh period by Mr. Glaze- 

 brook, and the tenure of Professor 

 Thomson by himself and a number of 

 the former students of his laboratory, 

 including Professor Rutherford. There 

 is given a list of memoirs, containing 

 an account of work done in this labora- 

 tory and a list of those who have car- 

 ried out researches in it. They number 

 more than two hundred, including dis- 

 tinguished investigators in all parts of 

 the world. 



The practical teaching of physics and 

 laboratories equipped for research are 

 of comparatively recent origin. At 

 Paris, Oxford and London there were 

 but modest beginnings, when the Duke 

 of Devonshire, then chancellor of the 

 University of Cambridge, gave about 

 $40,000 for the erection of the Caven- 

 dish Laboratory completed in 1874. It 

 was enlarged at a cost of $20,000 in 

 1896, and again in 1908, mainly 

 through the gift of Lord Rayleigh of 

 the greater part of the Nobel priie for 

 physics awarded to him in 1904. Ac- 

 cording to American standards the in- 

 vestment in the building is modest, but 



