October 15, 1903] 



NATURE 



573 



staff, partly to supplement university lectures, but partly also 

 to give more individual instruction to the duller or idler 

 students. One of the results of this system can be easily 

 seen — the average graduate quits his university with the 

 greatest affection for his college, but with little or nothing 

 of that broader esprit de corps towards his university as a 

 whole. 



In America, on the other hand, each university has only 

 one college preparing him for the B.A. degree. Con- 

 sequently, a single American college, e.g. Harvard College, 

 Cambridge, contains several thousand students. ^ The 

 centre of social life can no longer be in the college ; it is 

 transferred to the class, the class consisting of all students 

 who are in the same year. Each class elects its own presi- 

 dent and other officers, has its various rowing, football, and 

 baseball teams, and holds meetings for the discussion of 

 matters of common interest. A class in Cambridge, 

 Massachusetts, knits the students together in somewhat the 

 same way as does a college in Cambridge, England, 

 although, of course, far less closely. 



In the second place, there is a comparatively large number 

 of students in American universities, who intend to lead, or 

 finally do lead, a business life after they leave college. It 

 is true that just now the question is being raised whether 

 a college training is the right one for an American busi- 

 ness fnan, but the only probable outcome of this discussion 

 -will be an improved adjustment of the college curriculum 

 .in the interests of those who intend to embark on a busi- 

 ness career. Already at Harvard there is a proposal on the 

 part of the president to make it possible for such students 

 to complete their training in a shorter time than the usual 

 four years. 



In the end these two American features, the formation 

 of class ties and the presence of students who are intended 

 for a business career, combine to place a number of wealthy 

 alumni at the beck and call of the universities. It is a 

 cmnmon occurrence for the class of a certain year to defray, 

 wholly or in part, the cost of a building of which their 

 alma mater stands in need ; at Cornell alone twenty-two 

 class-gifts of this or similar kind are on record. More- 

 over, the alumni of the various universities form themselves 

 into societies, both local and general. Every important 

 city in America contains various associations of alumni, 

 each association representing one of the more important 

 universities. The alumni of various classes, dispersed 

 throughout the States, are periodically invited to revisit 

 their university. In some universities they directly elect a 

 certain number of their body to serve on the board of 

 trustees or corporation of the university. Such is the hold 

 exercised by many American universities on their former 

 students. 



But it is not only from wealthy alumni, but also from 

 citizens who have never been to college, that the universi- 

 ties of the United States derive their greatest benefactions. 

 Now this would be impossible unless the American people 

 were in full sympathy with American university work. 

 Indeed, the university holds as warm a place in the heart 

 of the American as the hospital holds in that of the English- 

 man. He feels that it is a living organisation, not an inert 

 out-of-date machine, which is doing necessary work in the 

 advancement of the civilisation of his country. Further, 

 we come to understand the reason of this feeling when we 

 contrast the undergraduate courses at the two Cambridges. 

 At Harvard, the examination for admission consists of 

 papers in English, history, algebra, geometry, and natural 

 science, Latin or Greek, and French or German. After 

 passing this, the student has to choose four courses of 

 lectures per year in more than one of the following sub- 

 jects : — English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, history, 

 government, economics, philosophy, fine arts, music, 

 mathematics, engineering, or some natural science. Apart 

 from certain reasonable restrictions, which prevent him 

 from acquiring a too superficial knowledge in too many 

 subjects, the student is at liberty to select just those courses 

 which will best suit him in after life; and, of course, he 

 can readily obtain advice in any difficulties that may beset 

 him when making his choice. In his second and later years 

 he may specialise more deeply in these and other sub- 



1 The words college and university have thus acquired a significance in 

 America which is unfamiljar to us. No college is regarded as a university 

 unless, besides teaching, it encourages post-graduate research. 



NO. 1772, VOL. 68] 



jects. He is examined twice a year, and shows thereby 

 whether he is capable of proceeding to more advanced 

 courses advantageously. He obtains his degree on the 

 result of these bi-annual examinations. For an honours 

 degree a thesis or special examination is required. 



The undergraduate of our English Cambridge, on the 

 other hand, having mastered at school the modicum of 

 compulsory Greek required for the previous examination, 

 has the choice of two distinct paths. He can straightway 

 read for an honours degree in any one of the triposes which 

 suits his requirements, the classical, mathematical, theo- 

 logiqal, natural sciences, mental and moral sciences, 

 mechanical sciences, mediaeval and modern languages, 

 oriental languages, historical or other tripos — in which case 

 he takes his degree almost always upon the results of a 

 single examination in a single tripos at the end of his three 

 years ' ; or he may be content to take an ordinary degree, 

 for which he must devote at least the whole of his first 

 year to Greek, Latin, English, algebra, statics, hydrostatics 

 and heat, and spend his later years preparing for examin- 

 ation in any one subject {inter alia) of the following : — 

 theology, economics, law, history, logic, mathematics, 

 classics, music, chemistry, physics, botany, physiology, 

 zoology, or agriculture. This examination, qualifying him 

 for the ordinary B.A. degree, is completed at the end of his 

 third year. 



Few graduates who have been educated on the basis of 

 a Cambridge tripos would welcome changes in so admir- 

 ably conceived a system of education. At one time it was 

 believed that the student who devoted his three or four 

 years in this manner to a single subject must suffer in 

 general culture, whereas it is nearer the truth to believe 

 that there is scarcely any branch of learning which cannot 

 impart a very high degree of culture, provided only that 

 it be taught from, a sufficiently wide and liberal point of 

 view. On the other hand, there are probably few who 

 would not desire considerable changes in the regulations 

 for the ordinary degree. The examir.ation is hardly more 

 than an advanced Little-go, ending in a feeble effort at 

 specialisation. Instead of having to spend a year or more 

 at Greek, hydrostatics, heat, &c., why should it not be 

 possible for the undergraduate who is bent on an army 

 career to qualify in modern or oriental languages, geo- 

 graphy, surveying, and ethnology, or for him who intends 

 to enter into finance to study mercantile law, economics, and 

 modern languages, or for the future country squire to read 

 straightway in history, literature, law, and agriculture? 

 Is a university to confine herself solely to the encourage- 

 ment of research and to the preparation of ministers, 

 teachers, physicians, engineers, and musicians? Or is it 

 impossible to prepare men for other walks of life without 

 the sacrifice of culture in the interest of practical needs? 

 Surely America gives us a useful lesson as to the unwisdom 

 of driving away such embryo financiers and others else- 

 where owing to the lack of attractive and useful courses 

 of study which they could pursue after leaving school. The 

 expenses of administration in our universities increase so 

 enormously from year to year that, unless they are to 

 receive State aid or to decay from sheer stagnation, they 

 must be continually appealing to the public for support. 

 And public interest can only be maintained when the uni- 

 versities are prepared to equip men appropriately for many 

 more different walk.« in life than they are at present. Such 

 changes, which involve merely the framing of new regula- 

 tions, cannot fail to be followed by an increase in bene- 

 factions, whereby training in languages, archaeology, 

 history, and economics may be improved, and the teaching 

 and laboratories be alike brought to the requisite condition 

 of efficiency for establishing a successful school of post- 

 graduate research. C. S. Myers. 



Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. 



An Ancient Lava Plug like that of Mont Pel^e. 



The photograph of what is described as " a gigantic 

 plug of solidified lava " in the centre of the new cone of 

 Mont Pelde, which appears in Nature of October i (p. 530), 



1 No mention is here made of the still more specialised second part of the 

 triposes which corresponds in many respects to the training given in the 

 post-graduate schools of the better American universities. 



