January it>. 1919] 



NATURE 



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examination " would assure that the candidate 

 has, alter tin- stage marked by the "first exam- 

 ination," folio 1 more specialised course on 

 the lines indicated by the regulations for 

 secondary schools. 



Three kinds of certificates are to be issued: 

 (1) The certificate - in the "second exam- 



ination " bears the name of the subjects in which 

 the candidate has passed, and is accepted pro 

 tanto by the universities in respect of the subjects 

 uhirh they recognise .is satisfying their regula- 

 tions for matriculation, and art- likewise accepted 

 by the General Medical Council; (2) that form of 

 certificate in the "first examination " in which tin- 

 candidate has obtained a "pass with credit" in 

 certain of the subjects bears the names of the 

 subjects, and these will be accepted pro tanto by 

 the universities and the General Medical Council; 

 (;) the form of certificate in the "first examina- 

 tion " for candidates who have not passed with 

 i is termed an "ordinary pass. " The names 

 of the subjects actually passed an- not detailed, 

 but only the "groups" to which the subjects 

 passed belong. 



The last certificate is a general one, and as 

 such is supposed to give evidence of a general 

 education, and no information is given as to the 

 subjects in which the candidate has attained pass 

 marks unless he has attained a "pass with credit " 

 in such subjects ; as, however, the General 

 Medical Council requires evidence of proficiency 

 in certain subjects, it will be compelled to call 

 for a "pass with credit " in these subjects. The 

 committee accordingly recommends the council to 

 accept the " first schools examination " of the 

 Knglish Board of Education as sufficient evidence 

 that the holder has fulfilled the educational condi- 

 tions required of candidates for admission to its 

 "Register of Medical Students," provided that the 

 subjects of English and mathematics have been 

 passed "with credit." 



It is hoped that this plan, if adopted, will raise 

 to some extent the standard of the present junior 

 entrance examination. The essence of the new- 

 si heme is that it is based on education, and not 

 examination only, for one of the Board's main 

 objects in instituting the new system of examina- 

 tions was to remove the pressure of external influ- 

 ences from the teaching work of the schools. If 

 the General Medical Council refused to accept this 

 examination in any form, it would in so doing 

 place a serious obstacle in the way of the Board 

 of Education, since many pupils preparing, for a 

 career in medicine, while possibly being submitted 

 to the "schools examination" by their schools, 

 would have also to train for some external ex- 

 amination. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 



THE ex-President of the United States who 

 died in the lirst week of 1919 was in many 

 ways the most remarkable man I have ever met, 

 and combined with unusual qualities of intellect 

 and co-ordinated development of bodily skill — for 

 was he not a line shot, a bold equestrian, an 

 NO. 2568, VOL. I02] 



untiring marcher, an adept at most games and 

 s|K>rts> — a kindness and sweetness of disposition, 

 and a thoughtlulness for the happiness and well- 

 being of all around him, very rare in great men 

 of the world. 



He was a field zoologist of the new school, the 

 school which has given us J. G. Millais, Rad- 

 1 lyffe Dugmore, Ernest Seton, C. W. Bee.be, and 

 .1 host of young and middle-aged Americans, who 

 have studied wild life with unswerving accuracy, 

 seeking only to set forth the truth in real 

 natural history, and disposing summarily of 

 many a hoary lie and legend about wild lib-, 

 scorning, moreover, the vagueness of statement 

 and nomenclature which arises from imperfect 

 observation and inadequate study. 



Theodore Roosevelt was not only a great natu- 

 ralist himself, but — what in its ultimate effect was 

 even more important — he set, as President, the 

 fashion in young America for preserving and 

 studying fauna and flora until he had gone far 

 to create a new phase of religion. Under his 

 influence young men whose fathers and grand- 

 fathers had only studied the Bible, the sacred 

 writings of the post-exilic Jews and Grseco-Syrian 

 Christians, now realised that they had spread 

 before them a far more wonderful Bible, the 

 book of the earth itself. Geology, palaeonto- 

 logy, zoology, botany, ethnology, were part 

 of Roosevelt's religion. He may have been a 

 specialist in none of these branches of science, 

 but he saw the divinity pulsating through them, 

 more glowingly apparent than in narrow imagin- 

 ings of theology. 



The man's memory was prodigious. I once 

 spent some ten days — in two separate visits — as 

 his guest at the White House in 1908. At one 

 luncheon party the question of Mayne Reid's 

 novels came up. Roosevelt gave a precis of the 

 more remarkable of their plots, of their characters, 

 their defects and strong points. So he could 

 with Dickens, Thackeray, Jane Austen, Nathaniel 

 Hawthorne, and Mark Twain. When I was setting 

 out to study the negro in the New World he 

 gave me from memory an almost complete biblio- 

 graphy of the works discussing the slavery ques- 

 tion in the United States, from the books of 

 Anthony Benezet in 1762 to those of Olmsted in 

 1 86 1. Once, when the then Provost of Oriel 

 called and lunched, and was rather perversely 

 Hellenistic in his lore, Roosevelt, with a twinkle 

 in his eye, turned the subject to the Tatar in- 

 vasion of Eastern Europe in the thirteenth 

 century, and gave us a really remarkable sketch 

 of its chief incidents and ultimate results. 



It would be a great mistake to represent this 

 great man as one who monopolised the conversa- 

 tion in public or in private. On the contrary, 

 he was a rarely good and encouraging listener 

 to anyone who had something to say, and singu- 

 larly courteous about not interrupting. Indeed, he 

 drew out good conversation in those around him, 

 besides being an exceptionally interesting talker 

 himself. 



As a writer on zoology Roosevelt is best known 

 by his "African Game Trails" and "African 



