NA TURE 



19; 



THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 1903. 



THE UNIVERSITY IN THE MODERN STATE. 



AMONG the many documents prepared by Principal 

 Sir Oliver Lodge in relation to the development 

 of the University of Birmingham, there are more than 

 one of which the interest is by no means merely local. 

 Of these, the pamphlet entitled " Survey of the Sciences," 

 which forms an appendix to a paper on University De- 

 velopment, is of especial importance at the present time 

 for we are glad to know that the belief that the weak- 

 ness of our universities must lead to national weakness 

 in several directions is growing with a rapidly accelerating 

 pace. 



It may be long in this slow-moving country before the 

 influence of Brain-power on history is recognised as fully 

 as the influence of Sea-power has been, thanks to Captain 

 Mahan, but undoubtedly it will be bad for our future if 

 much more time is lost. 



While Sir Oliver Lodge has been investigating the 

 " needs " of Birmingham, similar inquiries have been 

 made elsewhere, and we have received from the Clarendon 

 Press a statement of the " needs " of Oxford. We are glad 

 to see that the Times, in a sympathetic article, goes to 

 the root of the matter in stating that " if the pocket of 

 the millionaire is closed, the pocket of the nation must be 

 opened." Our eleven universities are competing with 

 134 State and privately endowed in the United States 

 and twenty-two State endowed in Germany. English 

 private endowment is much less than 10 per cent, of the 

 American endowment, and the German State gives to 

 one university more than the British Government allows 

 to all the universities and university colleges in England, 

 Ireland, Scotland and Wales put together. These are 

 the conditions which regulate the production of brain- 

 power in the United States, Germany and Britain re- 

 spectively, so far as Universities are concerned, con- 

 ditions which Sir Oliver Lodge proposes to face as 

 manfully as he may. His paper on the "Survey of 

 the Sciences" runs as follows: — 



In a recent pamphlet I considered the question of the relation 

 of the University of Birmingham to its central and suburban 

 sites, with a view of determining what recommendation should 

 be made to the Council concerning the Departments which 

 ought to migrate and the Departments which ought to remain. 

 I was able to arrive at some judgment on the matter except in 

 connection with the Faculty of Science, and there the problem 

 became so complicated that it was necessary to make a survey 

 of the sciences in order to get the material on which to form an 

 opinion. This survey is now printed, not only as an appendix 

 to the former paper, but because it is hoped that it may be 

 useful for other purposes ; especially I hope that it may be of 

 interest to those who are able to help financially in the forth- 

 coming great educational development of the future, enabling 

 them to realise the immensity of the area which we attempt to 

 cover, and the largeness of the sum which could be properly 

 invested in suitable buildings and equipment and in endowment 

 of staff. Our position is such that if some man of power thought 

 fit to exercise it by entrusting us with a sum of five millions for 

 University development, it could be well and properly 

 employed ; 1 nor could such an investment fail to exercise an 

 extraordinary influence on the progress of the country. 

 Hitherto the ideas of this country in education and scientific 

 research have been conceived on a wholly inadequate scale, 

 1 See "Concluding explanation." 



NO. 173 1, VOL. 67] 



and without proper appreciation of the vast extent of territory 

 over which a modern University is called upon to preside. 



Let us, therefore, now run over the pure sciences, and trace 

 the collateral branches and practical applications with which 

 they are most allied ; taking them in alphabetical order, and 

 enumerating only those sciences with which we ourselves at 

 present in some degree attempt to deal. 



Anatomy : — is clearly so closely allied to professional medi- 

 cine as practically to have drifted out of general culture ; 

 though it is to be remembered that it is in touch with Fine Art 

 on the one side— and a course of lectures on Artistic Anatomy 

 is annually given by our Professor or our Lecturer at the School 

 of Art — and on another side it is in touch with the sciences of 

 Anthropology and Ethnology. At the present time the 

 course of lectures and practical instruction in the subject of 

 Anthropology, laid down in the Calendar as an optional subject 

 for Degrees in Science, is under the charge of the Professor of 

 Anatomy, who has made a study of this subject and of 

 Ethnology, particularly from the side of Prehistoric Archeology, 

 and on two occasions has given courses of lectures on these 

 subjects, though at the present time the plant possessed for 

 their teaching is not large. He possesses a collection of lantern 

 slides of an ethnological character, also a private collection of 

 stone and metal implements, and the Summers-Freer collection 

 is now displayed in his department ; with it will shortly be ex- 

 hibited — as a loan from the Geological Department to which it 

 belongs — the Seton-Carr collection of early Egyptian stone im- 

 plements : and there is, besides, a small collection of Palaeo- 

 lithic and Neolithic implements in the Geological Museum. A 

 case of similar implements is in the City Museum, and there are 

 a number of ethnological objects, some of considerable interest, 

 in the Aston Hall Museum, which might, perhaps, become 

 available some day for the purposes of the University. 



On the practical side of colonial development modern 

 Ethnology is a subject not altogether to be lost sight of. 



Arch.bologv :— A study of the past from relics and monu- 

 ments and excavated sites : skilled interpretation of which 

 enables us to reconstruct the life of ancient times. Our present 

 Lecturer in Greek has made a special study of Greek 

 Archaeology. 



Botany : — Studied with us partly for its own sake as a 

 department of Natural History, allied to Horticulture and 

 Gardening generally, and also from the point of view of 

 Vegetable Physiology. This science is the foundation of much 

 of Agriculture, of Forestry, of Materia Medica, of Timber and 

 Plant diseases, the Fermentation industries, and of many human 

 diseases. It is allied on its morphological side with Palxonto- 

 logy. On its Physiological side it is largely dependent on 

 Physics and Chemistry. 



At the present time it is not now taught as a separate subject 

 in the medical curriculum at Birmingham, but admittedly only 

 because the course is so crowded that something had to give 

 way. 



Chemistry: — This gigantic science branches out in every 

 direction. Almost every manufacture is more or less directly 

 concerned with it, and as a pure science it is a most important 

 branch of Natural Philosophy in alliance with Physics. 



In many places there is a Professor of its Inorganic and 

 another of its Organic division : in Germany it is still further 

 greatly subdivided, even from the point of view of the pure 

 science. Flourishing departments of the new and growing 

 science of Physical Chemistry exist at Leipzig and at other 

 German and American Universities, in furtherance of pioneer 

 work begun at Amsterdam and Stockholm. 



As to the applications of Chemistry, they are almost too 

 numerous to mention, and every one of them demands the full 

 time and special knowledge of an expert. At present we have 

 only attempted Brewing and Metallurgy. 



A training in elementary chemistry, both inorganic and 

 organic, is universally recognised as an essential ingredient in 

 the training of a medical student. 



And recently Chemistry has allied itself, on the fermentation 

 side, with a branch of Biology, through the discoveries of the 

 great chemist Pasteur — a subject in which our present Professor 

 and his wife are eminent. 



EconomicScience : — is a branch of Sociology or the theory 

 of Politics, of which we have recognised the commanding im- 

 portance, on one of its many sides, by arranging that there shall 

 be hereafter constituted a Faculty of Commerce. In the hands 

 of our present Professor there is no fear lest either the term 



K - - 



