February 15, 1900] 



NA TURE 



369 



hesitate to give it so marked a pre-eminence from the 

 geographical point of view. 



Considerable stress is laid upon the importance of 

 town-sites and the growth of towns. This is as it should 

 be ; and we would gladly have seen the peculiarities of 

 every important town-site made clearer by means of small 

 plans, such as are employed in Reclus' great work, and 

 in a few modern atlases. There are excellent general 

 and local maps, in some cases specially prepared, in 

 others adapted from old maps, and in these instances 

 bristling with unnecessary and sometimes mis-spelt 

 place-names, and over one hundred pictorial illustrations, 

 most of which are well chosen. The photograph we 

 reproduce shows the site of Amalfi, concerning which 

 Mr. Chisholm says, in explaining its commercial supre- 

 macy over Naples in the Middle Ages : "one may con- 

 jecture that in those troubled times merchants felt more 

 secure on a site so well defended by nature on the side 

 of the land as Amalfi." The disastrous landslip which 

 occurred since the book was published gives a hint of 

 the price exacted by nature from the posterity of the 

 merchants who acquired this defended position. 



Not the least interesting part of the book is furnished 

 by the footnotes and parentheses, which abound in 

 curious or illustrative statements in the tersest form. 

 These are often explanations of the forms of place- 

 names, or the pronunciation of the more uncouth Slavonic 

 consonants, or the briefest comparative statistics. Mr. 

 Chisholm has studied the question of geographical 

 orthography, and introduces some forms of Russian 

 transliteration not usually employed, such as the terminal 

 letter //. The difificult matter of the rendering of the 

 Russian e is not yet fully grappled with, its phonetic value 

 ve is not, for instance, given in the case of Ekaterinburg, 

 nor in Kiev. The spelling Kossack is surely wrong; if the 

 usual form Cossack (which occurs in one place) is departed 

 from, the only reasonable forms to adopt would appear 

 to be Kossak or Kosak. These, however, are matters 

 which do not affect the quality or the value of the book. 



Amongst the larger maps it is interesting to notice one 

 of the geology of Europe, in which the colour-scheme of 

 the International Geological Map is employed. It has a 

 striking and interesting appearance ; but its legibility 

 would be improved by the adoption of reference initials, 

 to enable similar colours to be distinguished. The 

 Permian and Devonian, in particular, are very much 

 alike in small patches. Huc;h Robert Mill, 



NO. I 581, VOL. 61] 



THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON ELECTION. 



I 'T^HE University of London has preserved its dignity 

 ; -*■ by returning Sir Michael Foster as its Parlia- 

 j mentary representative. From the commencement of the 

 ; contest he led the way, and when the poll was declared 

 i on Monday the numbers were : Sir Michael Foster, 1271 ; 

 Dr. Collins, 863 ; and Mr. Busk, 586. 



That such a large majority should have been obtained, 

 in spite of the fact that Sir Michael Foster entered 

 the field nearly a fortnight after his opponents, is a 

 j result which was scarcely anticipated by the most san- 

 i guine of his supporters, and is therefore all the more 

 \ satisfactory. It shows that the majority of the electors 

 are capable of taking a broad view of their responsibili- 

 ties, and that a University constituency is not influenced 

 by the political practices found successful elsewhere. 

 I The graduates may rest assured that Sir Michael Foster 

 [ will guard their privileges, and promote the progress of 

 \ Science and Learning in the House of Commons. The 

 I following remarks, made by the new member for the 

 \ University after the declaration of the poll on Monday, 

 as reported in the Titnes, will convince the 

 whole body of graduates that a representative 

 in every respect worthyi of the electorate has 

 been sent to Parliament. 



Sir Michael Foster said that the graduates had 

 for the first time in the history of the University 

 returned to Parliament one of themselves. He 

 wished to be allowed to state how deeply he felt 

 the honourable and proud position in which they 

 had placed him. He took it that in the main they 

 sent him to Parliament, not that he should add one 

 more unit to this party or to that, but that he 

 should place at the disposal of the House the 

 somewhat special experience which he had gained 

 in science and learning. But the Government of 

 this country was by party, and there were only 

 two sides to the House, on one of which he 

 must sit. Even if he were the superior person he 

 had been called by some newspapers, he could not 

 expect to sit in an isolated chair, and he must re- 

 spond to the lash of the Whips of one side or the 

 other. He had carefully considered on which side 

 of the House he should sit, and he had come to 

 the conclusion that it was only consistent with the 

 opinions which he had expressed concerning the 

 present war, and with the feelings which he had as 

 to the supreme importance of strengthening the 

 bonds of our great colonies with this little island, 

 that he should first of all, at all events, take his seat 

 among the supporters of the present Government. But 

 he took it that he might so order his ways that he did 

 not sacrifice to party demands, or jeopardise by party action, 

 the opportunities that he might have of forwarding in the 

 House all interests of science, learning and education. He was 

 subject to tradition. As one who was born in the same town as 

 Oliver Cromwell, who was married from the house in which he 

 dwelt, as one whose forefathers — obeying what they thought 

 their consciences — sheltered their friend John Bunyan 

 when he preached outlaw sermons in the woods of 

 Hertfordshire, he felt that tradition wrapped him so 

 about that the war cry of civil and religious liberty 

 always made him prick his ears. Without saying what exact 

 meaning in the new order which had given place to the old 

 might be attached to those words, it at least meant this to him 

 — that the affairs of the nation should not be conducted either 

 to the detriment or to the advantage of any particular set of 

 religious opinions. He believed that that was not his tradition 

 only, but the tradition of that University. The University 

 began as University College, and that college was founded, 

 not simply for local reasons, but to afford the highest academical 

 training to those to whom access was more or less denied to the 

 older Universities. And he had a tradition in the University 

 itself. To the University in its old form he owed all that he 

 had. It had made him what he was. Did they think it was 

 likely, therefore, that he should take any steps which he believed 



