Fkbrvarv t3, K)K)] 



NATURE 



467 



The object of this communication is to direct 

 ion to the fact that thousands of soldiers, 

 whose disabilities are curable, have been dis- 

 harged from the Army. Treatment is necessary 

 to enable the pensioner to return to useful civil 

 employment and to save the State from vast ex- 

 penditure in unnecessary pensions. A. K. 



THE PROPOSED UNIVERSITY FOR THE 

 EAS1 MIDLANDS. 



I^HE movement for securing a charter for 

 University College, Nottingham, with the 

 of making the College the seat of a Univer- 

 sity lor the East Midlands, has been carried 

 further forward an important stage. A large con- 

 Ference ol representatives of the counties oi 

 Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, Northampton, Notting- 

 ham, and Rutland was held in the Grand Jury 

 Room of the 1 ruildhall, Nottingham, on Thursday, 

 January <). The Duke of Portland, who is the 

 idenl of University College, took the chair, 

 and the meeting included representatives of the 

 leading civic and educational bodies and institu- 

 throughoul the whole area. 

 The population concerned forms a well-marked 

 geographical unity. It is concentrated, roughly 

 speakiag in an ellipse, with ns major 1x1s striteh- 

 ing north and south from Mansfield to Northamp- 

 ton, and its minor axis east and west, with Not- 

 tingham at the northern focus. The nearness — 

 half an hour by rail — of Derby, Leicester, and 

 Nottingham will render possible the interchange 

 oi students and teachers in a specially economical 

 manner. And the remoter centres of population, 

 is Lincoln and Northampton, are within easy 

 h of one at least of the cities already named. 

 For the present, indeed, University College, 

 Nottingham, and the Midland Agricultural Col- 

 lege are the only institutions within the area 

 which, in a systematic manner, provide instruction 

 and pursue research of the highest standard. 

 And the centre of the administration of the Uni- 

 versity will be at Nottingham. Hut there are in 

 existence or immediately contemplated a consider- 

 able number of institutions providing instruction 

 of a special character, which will become integral 

 puis of the new University, ranging through 

 various degrees of affiliation to the position of 

 schools in the University. Schools of engineering, 

 of lace, and of hosiery will, it is expected, take 

 their respective places on a footing like that of 

 the existing Agricultural College. Plans of a 

 more ambitious character, involving the establish- 

 ment of colleges of pure science and of arts, are 

 ilso being developed. The proposed University, 

 therefore, will furnish a type of a federal character 

 in so far as the various schools rise towards, and 

 obtain, recognition. 



The movement is thus organic to the soil, and 

 is not an adventitious growth. Amid local differ- 

 ences there is a similarity of social conditions and 

 temperament which will bring a high degree of 

 .operation within reach. This co-operation may 

 NO. 2572, VOL. I02] 



already be found in the joint foundation of the 

 Agricultural College, in the East Midland Educa- 

 tional Union, and in the Mast Midland District of 

 the Workers' Educational Association. But no 

 more hopeful omen tor the realisation of the pro- 

 posed University could have been anticipated than 

 the unanimity with which, on January 9, the large 

 and representative conference first affirmed the 

 principle in view: "The need lor a University 

 providing university and advanced technical 

 education, and promoting scientific research " for 

 the East Midland area, and then, in the second 

 place, outlined the committee which should take 

 the next steps required. 



With the proposed foundation, the establish- 

 ment of a University in each province will be 

 nearly complete. And such is the richness of our 

 English tradition, human and material, that the 

 more recent foundations may look forward to 

 gaining some of that atmosphere which lends a 

 magical stimulus to the studies of our two most 

 ancient Universities. Of the local wealth of which 

 the new University should be the guardian, two 

 instances may suffice, one for arts, and one for 

 science. By a happy accident, not so many years 

 ago, the famous Leicester Codex of the New- 

 Testament was rescued from obscurity and care- 

 less handling, and is now secure in the muniment- 

 room of the Town Clerk of Leicester. 



In Nottingham, for the lack of a proper en- 

 vironment, the remarkable mathematical genius 

 of George Green displayed itself partly in vain. 

 His epoch-making essay, " On the Application of 

 Mathematical Analysis to the Theories of Elec- 

 tricity and Magnetism," was published in Not- 

 tingham in 1828 by subscription. In the preface 

 the youthful author expressed the hope that " the 

 difficulty of the subject will incline mathematicians 

 to read this work with indulgence, more particu- 

 larly when they are informed that it was written 

 by a young man, who has been obliged to obtain 

 the little knowledge that he possesses at such 

 intervals and by such means as other indis- 

 pensable avocations, which offer but few oppor- 

 tunities of mental improvement, afforded." The 

 hope was vain. To quote the ninth edition of the 

 "Encyclopaedia Britannica " : "The work of 

 Green, which contained these fine researches, 

 though published in 1828, escaped the notice not 

 only of foreign, but also even of British, mathe- 

 maticians; and it is a singular fact in the history 

 of science that all his general theorems were redis- 

 covered by Sir William Thomson, Chasles, and 

 Sturm and Gauss." Some years ago, at the in- 

 stance of my colleague, Prof. E. H. Barton (to 

 whom, himself a local mathematician, the L T ni- 

 \ersitv College is proud to have furnished the op- 

 portunities which Green lacked), I gathered from 

 Miss Green some interesting particulars about her 

 distinguished father; and these particulars were 

 forwarded to Sir Joseph Larmor. I cannot 

 imagine a more impressive argument for the 

 foundation of the new University than a careful 

 consideration of the biography of George Green. 

 The traveller to Nottingham from the south can 



