28 NATURE- 
[| NOVEMBER 12, 1903 
and Perot, which would vary but little from Rowland’s 
values, and yet be free from their systematic errors. 
Prof. Hartmann has already done this for the part of the 
spectrum on which Fabry and Perot worked, and has 
obtained a correction, C, which, when applied to the values 
given in Rowland’s ‘“‘ Preliminary Table,’’ rids them of the 
errors discussed by him. Not having the necessary facili- 
ties for pursuing this important work himself, Prof. Hart- 
mann appeais to those spectroscopists who have them to 
complete the work commenced by Michelson, Jewell, and 
Fabry and Perot for the whole of Rowland’s tables. 
PaRaLLax Or 8 Cassiopr1£.—In a note to No. 3910 of 
the Astronomische Nachrichten, Herr S. Késtinksky, of 
Pulkowa, discusses the results of three separate determin- 
ations of the parallax of 8 Cassiopeiz. The first of these 
was obtained by Prof. Pritchard, using the photographic 
method, at Oxford in 1888, and gave the value r=+0"-15 + 
0".02; the second, obtained by Herr Késtinksky himself, 
using the transit instrument in the prime vertical, gave a 
mean value of m=+0"-14+0"-03, whilst the third was 
recently obtained by Mr. A. S. Flint, of the Washburn 
Observatory, from meridian-passage observations, and pro- 
duced as the mean result m=+0"-10+0"-03. 
On considering these three values, obtained by three 
different methods, Herr Késtinksky arrives at the conclusion 
that the absolute value of the parallax of B Cassiopeiz is 
with great probability very near to +0"-1, and rather a 
little greater than less. 
ASTRONOMY IN ScHoots.—Mr. W. W. Payne contributes 
an interesting article to No. 108 (October) of Popular 
Astronomy, in which he strongly advocates the introduction 
of practical yet simple astronomical observations into the 
ordinary higher grade school’s curriculum. He points out 
the absurdity of the general opinion that large instruments 
and expensive equipments are necessary in order to render 
observational astronomy a truly educative subject, and 
shows that a large amount of real training of the observ- 
ational powers might be given with a small telescope. As 
examples of the type of observation he would suggest, he 
mentions the recognition of the brighter stars by name, 
and the keeping of methodical records of their light and 
colour characteristics and their occasional changes. Then, 
with quite a small telescope, a large amount of useful work 
—from an educative point of view—might be performed 
in observing and methodically recording the characteristics 
of some of the finer examples of multiple stars. 
UNIVERSITIES:: THEIR AIMS, DUTIES, AND 
IDEALS. 
VaRIETY OF Types Or UNIVERSITIES. 
NE remark of a general kind must be made before pro- 
ceeding to a synthesis of the purposes of universities. 
It is a platitude, yet not unimportant, to the effect that they 
will not be (and cannot be expected to be) uniform in 
character. Old universities have their traditions, some- 
times the growth of centuries; and though they have to 
review their ideals from time to time and to revise their 
practice to meet the challenges and the demands made by 
the growing needs of the nation, changes are made only 
gradually, and the main character tends to persist through 
the changes. On the other hand, new universities arise in 
response to new demands of diverse kinds, and_ their 
character is bound to be shaped by their origin, their cir- 
cumstances, and their growth. In the later Middle Ages, 
the philosophy of the schoolmen yielded before the onset 
of the study of the humanities—a study which has largely 
determined the character of our oldest universities. The 
physical sciences, by their growth during the last century, 
have modified the range of education and have influenced 
profoundly some of the older universities, while they have 
had no small share in dominating the form of newer found- 
ations. The needs of applied sciences and practical 
sciences in our own day are stirring ideals of education 
widely removed from those that reposed upon the humani- 
ties, and they are leading to the establishment of learned 
1 Part of an address to the Southport Literary and Philosophical Sotiety, 
delivered on September 17 by Prot, A. R. Forsyth, F.R.S. 
NO. 1776, VOL. 69] 
institutions of types hitherto unknown. Sometimes between 
one university and another, sometimes within the limits 
of a single university, there will be what is almost a 
struggle among the subjects in their historical assignment 
to courses of study. Fundamental questions are being 
asked. Should the study of modern languages. displace 
that of the ancient languages? Will applied science 
diminish the attention paid to pure science? Will practical 
needs direct the study of applied science? Must the 
acquisition of so-called useless knowledge be renounced in 
favour of so-called useful knowledge? Can it still be 
possible to maintain the process of a liberal education in 
the presence of the demands for technical instruction and 
commercial instruction? These and many other questions 
will arise in practically every university. They must be 
answered when they arise, and the answers will vary, per- 
haps from time to time, certainly from body to body. Yet 
diversity of character, of circumstances, and of practice, 
will not exclude a certain community of spirit and a certain 
similarity of obligation. 
Wuat 1s A UNIVERSITY ? 
What is a university? Is it a building, or a set of 
buildings? Is it a federation of schools? Is it an aggre- 
gation of faculties? Is it a corporation of individuals, 
formally devoted to a common purpose? Is it an examining 
body with power to grant degrees? In each of these senses, 
and doubtless in several others, the word university has 
been vaguely used at different times and of different bodies. 
In its earliest use in regard to the kind of institution under 
consideration, a university appears to have been a sort of 
scholastic guild; there were societies of masters, as there 
were societies of students, and each of these was called a 
university. There were two places where these guilds 
grew into greater importance than elsewhere at the close of 
the twelfth century ; one was Paris, mainly a university of 
masters, the other was Bologna, mainly a university of 
students. Indeed, so supremely important were these two 
universities, even while they were so distinctively different 
in character, that most of the older European universities 
have conformed to one or other of these types in many (if 
not in most) essential features. Thus Oxford and Cam- 
bridge are modelled on the master university of Paris; it 
is the graduates who have the power of electing the acting 
chief of the university. On the other hand, the ancient 
Scottish universities are modelled on the student university 
of Bologna; it is the undergraduates who have the power 
of electing the acting chief of the university. There 
have been variations in the detailed developments of the 
different universities. Most of them had several faculties, 
though not all of them had the same faculties. Thus 
Salerno, at the zenith of its fame towards the end of the 
eleventh century, was simply a medical school (having, it 
may be mentioned, several women among its teachers and 
writers). Bologna had a faculty of law only; Paris had 
faculties of theology and arts; Saragossa had one of 
arts only. The notion that a university was a school in 
which all branches of knowledge are represented was one 
that sprang up later, and had a considerable vogue; this 
Literary Society will readily recall Dr. Johnson’s description 
of a university as ‘‘a school where everything may be 
learnt.’’ The conception of a university as a centre for the 
cultivation of universal knowledge and the teaching of 
universal knowledge undoubtedly propounds a stimulating 
ideal, and the realisation of the ideal is as nearly imperative 
in modern times as anything almost impossible can be. At 
any rate, I know of no instance in which that conception 
of a university is justified by actual facts; and there is 
on record one instance in which the conception was com- 
pletely falsified by actual facts, in that no teaching of any 
kind of knowledge whatever was done—the old university 
of London, now modified into a university that not merely 
examines, but also teaches. 
CHARACTERISTICS. 
What, then, should be taken as the working conception 
of an ideal university? To my mind, it is a corporation 
of teachers and students, banded together for the pursuit of 
learning and the increase of knowledge, duly housed, and 
fitly endowed to meet. the demands raised in the achieve- 
ment of its purposes. In the prosecution of its academic 
Eee 
