March 22, 1900] 



NATURE 



493 



ment should be given to External Students to become 

 Internal, and if in time the University acquires the means 

 and the power to administer its own funds, the External 

 Student may become an extinct species, so far as the 

 science faculties are concerned. Then shall chemical 

 analysis no longer be taught by post, and " corre- 

 spondence " colleges fatten only on the ingenuous arts. 



One or two points deserve to be noticed in connection 

 with the examinations or qualifications for degrees. One 

 novelty is the proposal to hold " separate matriculation 

 examinations for different classes of students, having 

 regard to the courses of study which the students pro- 

 pose to follow." This power will doubtless be exercised 

 by the Senate with great deliberation. A loose inter- 

 pretation of this provision might lead to consequences 

 which would be disastrous for the future dignity and 

 reputation of the University. It is easy to recognise here 

 the influence of the " practical " man who is anxious to 

 get rid of the incubus of the classical languages. 



This is not the place to enter upon the discussion of 

 that question, but coupling this suggestion of relaxation 

 with the provision relating to the Bachelor of Science 

 degree, it is easy enough to smell danger. For the 

 degree of B.Sc, the Senate may accept in place of the 

 whole or part of the final examination, the results of the 

 study or research of any candidate who, in the opinion of 

 the Senate, has thereby made a distinct contribution to 

 the advancement of learning or science in any of the 

 subjects in which that degree is conferred. Whatever 

 may be the fate of Latin under the new arrangements, it 

 is to be hoped that more care than ever will be taken 

 to insist upon a real and practical command by all 

 candidates at matriculation of the orthography and 

 syntax, if not the etymology, of their own language. 



Another important statute gives power to the 

 Senate to make arrangements to hold any intermediate 

 examination or part thereof for the students of any 

 School of the University jointly with the governing 

 body of such School. In all such cases the examination 

 would be conducted by the professor of the subject 

 jointly with an external examiner appointed or recog- 

 nised by the University. This recognition of college 

 examinations was recommended by both the previous 

 Royal Commissions. 



The " Regulations " made by the Commissioners form 

 a separate issue. They contain schedules of the Boards 

 of Studies, of the recognised Teachers, of the provision- 

 ally recognised Teachers, and of the members of the 

 Faculties, also details relating to the B.Sc. degree by 

 research. It remains to be seen what will be the effect 

 of requiring a student to submit to the Senate, 

 before he begins his work, a statement of the nature of 

 the research upon which he proposes to enter, and 

 having, started the research to carry it on for a period 

 of not less than two years. Those who have a practical 

 acquaintance with the prosecution of research, and the 

 unexpected turns which inquiry often takes, will see 

 some difficulties in these requirements ; but it is, 

 perhaps, worth while to make the attempt to develop 

 a scheme by which successful work of this kind may 

 receive academic distinction. 



The business of the new University, like that of the 

 old which it supersedes, still relates wholly to curricula, 

 to studies, to examinations and degrees. The real value 

 of a university in helping to form character and building 

 up the intellectual and moral constitution of the man has 

 no place, and could have noplace, in the work of a Royal 

 Commission. Nevertheless, the association of a number 

 of institutions, individual and separate, though geographi- 

 cally near together, in a common interest and united 

 effort cannot but have an effect in quickening the collegiate 

 life of each, in promoting the mutual interest of teacher 

 and student, in stimulating research, and in fostering 



NO. 1586, VOL. 61] 



schools of thought. Such ends^the new University must 

 keep clearly in view. The Senate must see to it that 

 amid the clamour of contending interests, which for a 

 few years can hardly be expected to be satisfied and 

 silenced, the claims of true education shall not be 

 forgotten. w. A, T. 



DIFFICULTIES OF THE CALENDAR, 

 The Date of Easter. 

 COME interest has been excited by the fact that 

 ^ Easter appears to fall this year on a date not in 

 accordance with the rule in the Prayer- Book ; and a 

 question was even asked about it in the House of Com- 

 mons on Thursday last. The Attorney-General, of 

 course, explained that the full moon of the Prayer- Book 

 is not the real full moon, but the fourteenth day of the 

 rnoon according to certain rules, confessedly not very 

 simple or generally " understanded of the people." 

 The same difficulty was stated on the last occasion (in 

 1846) when this calendar or ecclesiastical full moon feU 

 on a different day at Cireenwich from that of the real 

 full moon. But it may serve as an object-lesson on the 

 futility of attempting to regulate Easter by the real moon,, 

 which would often produce the consequence of making 

 it fall on a different day (that is, as it must be on a 

 Sunday, a different week) at places some of which would 

 be not far apart. 



On the present occasion the absolute time of the full 

 moon, which follows the vernal equinox, corresponds by 

 Greenwich time to 2 minutes past i o'clock on the 

 morning of April 15. All over Europe its time will be 

 on the morning of that day : at Paris, at ih. iim. ; at 

 Berlin, at ih. 56m. ; at Rome, at ih. 52m. ; even sq far 

 west as Lisbon, at oh. 25m. (25 minutes past midnight 

 on April 14), and therefore by civil time reckoning as 

 April 15. But on the west coast of Africa the local time 

 of full moon will be before midnight on April 14 ; and 

 in America, of course, still more so, its time at New 

 York being 6 minutes before 8 o'clock on the evening of 

 that day. The ecclesiastical full moon (artificially 

 formed and tabulated) will be April 14, so that the 

 Sunday following, i.e. the next day, April 15, will be 

 Easter Day. 



The Russian Calendar. 



It is well known that the question has again been 

 recently discussed of assimilating the Russian calendar 

 with that of the rest of Europe ; but after consideration 

 the Russian Government again decided against adopting 

 the Gregorian reformation of the Julian calendar, ac- 

 cording to which a leap-year is dropped in the last year 

 of three centuries out of every four, the exception being 

 those of which the century-number is divisible by four 

 without remainder. The Russian non-adoption of this 

 is the cause that their calendar is several days behind 

 ours, and has this year become one day more so tharb 

 heretofore Tn consequence of their having a 29th of 

 February in 1900, which those who follow the Gregorian 

 reckoning have not. But they now propose to invite 

 other nations to join them in adopting a rule for the 

 calendar which will make it more accurate than the 

 reckoning in question. Prof. Glazenap explained this at 

 a meeting of the Russian Astronomical Society ; and, as 

 it consists in dropping a leap-year at regular intervals 

 instead of having an exception of an exception, which 

 (as Sir John Herschel pointed out) needs, to be quite 

 accurate, an exception again, we have no hesitation, on 

 our part, in expressing approval of it. Prof. Newcomb, 

 it may be remembered, in his " Popular Astronomy," 

 suggested that there was no sufficient reason for 

 abandoning the Julian reckoning, on the ground that it 



