354 



NATURE 



[June 22, 1916 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



In "A Forgotten Chapter in the History of Educa- 

 tion," referring especially to the important report of 

 the Consultative Committee on Examinations in 

 Secondary Schools, issued in 191 1, Mr. J. S. Thorn- 

 ton pleads earnestly the case of the College of Pre- 

 ceptors, a union essentially of the private schools, as 

 the originator and sustainer of a system of leaving 

 examinations which has not only been the inspirer of 

 the Local Examinations instituted by the Universities 

 of Oxford and Cambridge, but has also helped mate- 

 rially in making them efficient. To quote his own 

 words, the College '" was the poor inventor; the Univer- 

 sities, by their capital and prestige, have worked the 

 invention for all it is worth. College and University 

 have done together what neither of them could have 

 done separately." So he urges that, rather than setup 

 some other system, the State should more fully utilise 

 the services of both bodies. But Mr. Thornton's 

 pamphlet is much more than an apologia of the Col- 

 lege of Preceptors; it is really a fervent plea for the 

 full recognition by the State of the private school- 

 master and the private school, even to thfe extent of 

 adequate financial aid. In support of such a policy he 

 adduces the example of . Scandinavian countries, and 

 claims that the extraordinary success it has achieved 

 from the point of view of efficiency, fruitfulness of 

 suggestion, freedom of experiment, excellence of 

 results, and economy in working fully warrants the 

 closest investigation with a view to the recognition by 

 the State under conditions of educational freedom of 

 every kind of efficient and needed school. 



Several important points relating to university 

 education In the United States, Germany, and the 

 United Kingdom are referred to in the Ohserver of 

 June 18, in an interview which a representative of our 

 contemporary had with Mr. Alfred Noyes, who has 

 just returned to this country, after occupying the 

 chair of English literature at Princeton. Mr. Noyes 

 points out that a large proportion of the staffs of the 

 colleges and universities in the United States received 

 all its educational training, or at any rate its post- 

 graduate training, in Germany. Americans have been 

 encouraged to go to Germany and to pass from one 

 university to another to take whatever courses they 

 desire, but no facilities of this kind have been offered 

 them here. It must, however, be remembered that, 

 in addition to providing opportunities for intensive 

 or extensive study, English-speaking students — 

 whether American or British — have, by going to Ger- 

 many, had the advantage of acquiring the use of the 

 German language. This fact has no doubt often 

 induced American students to take post-graduate 

 courses in German, instead of British, universities. 

 Mr. Noyes says: — "I am told by Americans that in 

 many cases when they want to oome to English 

 universities to do post-graduate work they must begin 

 all over again, and that the work they have done for 

 their American degrees will not be allowed to count." 

 W« believe, however, that this is not now the case, 

 and that post-graduate students are welcomed at most 

 of our universities. Mr. Noyes refers to the large 

 number of students in American universities, and we 

 are able to supplement his remarks with figures show- 

 ing—to the nearest hundred — the enrolment for iqi5 

 in thirty institutions, excluding summer-session 

 students :— Columbia. 7000; Pennsylvania, 6600; Cali- 

 fornia, 6000; New York University, 5900; Michigan, 

 :;qoo; lUinois, 5500: Harvard, 5400; Cornell, 5400; 

 Ohio State, 4900; Wisconsin, 4900; Minnesota, 4700; 

 Chicago, 4300; North-western, 4100; Syracuse, 3800; 

 Pittsburgh, 3600; Yale, 3300; Nebraska, 3100; Mis- 



NO. 2434, VOL. 97] 



souri, 3000 ; Iowa State, 2700 ; Texas, 2600 ; Cincin- 

 nati, 2500; Kansas, 2500; Stanford, 2000; Indiana, 

 1800; Princeton, 1600; Western Reserve, 1500; 

 Tulane, 1300; Washington University, 1300; Johns 

 Hopkins, 1200; Virginia, 1000. 



The confidence of the German nation in the value 

 of education and in its uplifting and' recuperative 

 power, even in face of a disastrous termination to the 

 present struggle, is strikingly illustrated by the follow- 

 ing extract, which appeared in the Schoolmaster for 

 June 17, taken from Der Tag, a paper established 

 some years ago with the view of promoting German 

 naval supremacy. "We Germans," it said, "can 

 proudly point to the fact that our expenditure on the 

 education of our children has been fully maintained 

 during the war at its former level. In Prussia and 

 elsewhere it has even, for certain objects, been in- 

 creased. But the money-making, so-called democratic 

 England finds it necessary to cut down her education 

 bill to the lowest limit. We rejoice at the fact that 

 our enemies are discouraging the education and in- 

 struction of the masses. By the mere fact that British 

 children are being deprived of education we have a 

 great victory over England, for after the war, more 

 than ever before, will knowledge and education, 

 organisation and adaptability on the part of all classes 

 of the population bring victory in the economic 

 struggle." The leaders of the nation look forward 

 with triumphant anticipation to the resumption 

 of the economic struggle after the close of 

 the war, and are intent upon preserving and enhanc- 

 ing the educational means and methods which have 

 given them victory in the past. We, on the other 

 hand, both Imperially and locally, have entered upon 

 a policy of educational starvation : urgent building 

 operations are suspended, equipment is curtailed, 

 school buildings are commandeered and school hours 

 reduced, secondary-school fees are raised, scholarships 

 are reduced in value or are suspended, evening classes 

 are in large measure closed, and school children 

 allowed to leave school at a much earlier age. It is 

 not for want of means — witness the enormous profits 

 made as a result of the war as appears from a statement 

 in the Manchester Guardian of June 19, wherein ap- 

 peared a list of 154 firms engaged in shipping, coal, 

 iron, engineering, tea, rubber, and other industries 

 which showed a gross and net profit for 19 16 exceed- 

 ing bv thirteen millions sterling those for 1914; and 

 our direct expenditure upon drink exceeds 180 millions 

 annually — but lack of vision and indifference to the 

 value and potency of education. We need to raise the 

 status of the Board of Education and give it the rank 

 of a department of the State, so that it will attract to 

 its direction men of the hig^hest intelligence and zeal. 

 Education is at least as vital to the well-being of the 

 nation as anv other of the great services under the 

 Crown. Whilst leaving a desirable liberty of inter- 

 pretation according to local conditions, it should at 

 least make mandatory upon all local authorities the 

 duty of providing completely and adequately for all 

 forms of education. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 

 Royal Society, June 8.— Sir J. J. Thomson, presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — The Earl of Berkeley and E. G. J. 

 Hartley : Further determinations of direct osmotic 

 pressures. In this communication the osmotic pres- 

 sures of the following substances are measured 

 directly : — Cane-sugar and methyl glucoside, a number 

 of ferro- and ferri-cyanides, and one or two other 

 salts. The cane-sugar determinations were made on a 



