Marcu 3, 1904] 
421 
NOTES. 
Tue instructive article on Japanese education, in another 
part of this issue, serves admirably to show the importance 
of education, especially higher education, as the chief factor 
of national progress. In a period shorter than that which 
has elapsed since the passing of our Elementary Education 
Act in 1870, Japan has introduced and perfected a properly 
coordinated system of education extending from the primary 
school to the university. More than this, Japan has put 
into practice the policy which has always been urged in 
these columns, that higher education is a State charge 
which ought not to depend upon private benefaction for its 
endowment. Reversing the order of this country, the uni- 
versities of Japan rely financially upon the national ex- 
chequer, while the elementary schools, though assisted by 
the State, are considered primarily a local charge. The 
national bureau of education has no responsibility for the 
support of elementary or secondary schools, which derive 
the greater part of their funds directly from local sources. 
The department is, however, responsible for all higher 
education. 
which universities can exert upon a nation’s development 
Japan’s rapid advancement is perhaps unique, and it is to 
be hoped that the same enlightened views which have during 
the past thirty years dominated the rulers of that country 
may soon direct the educational policy of British statesmen. 
IN connection with the King’s visit to Cambridge to open 
As an object lesson of the profound influence } 
NATORE 
| size of small marbles, which, however, 
the new buildings, a descriptive account of which is given | 
in another part of this issue, the Times has published a 
series of three articles entitled “‘The New Buildings at | 
” 
Cambridge.”’ The first article details the steps taken to 
put into practice the recommendations contained in a letter | 
—accompanied by a detailed statement concerning the 
financial condition and requirements of the university—from, 
the Duke of Devonshire, the Chancellor of the university, | 
to the Times in 1897. The second article describes the 
buildings already provided at Cambridge, and the third 
institutes a comparison between what has been accomplished 
by the Cambridge University Association, fostered by the 
Chancellor, and what there is yet to be done so that Cam- 
bridge may be fully equipped in the modern sense. We 
are glad to notice in the concluding article of the series 
that the special correspondent to the Times follows the lead 
given by the president of the British Association in his 
Southport address, and quotes the comparison made by him 
between what our Government does for higher education 
and the amount of the State aid for universities in Germany 
and in the United States. The article is strengthened 
further by several of the quotations which Sir Norman 
Lockyer made from public speeches of leading British 
statesmen showing that they were learning to appreciate 
the intimate connection between the supply of higher educa- 
tion and national prosperity. 
Tue Paris correspondent of the Daily Chronicle announces 
the death of M. Henry Perrotin, the eminent French 
astronomer, and director of the Nice Observatory, at the 
age of fifty-eight. 
ArT a meeting of the Bath Town Council on Tuesday the 
Mayor announced that, as the result of further investi- 
gations, the Hon. R. J. Strutt has come to the definite 
conclusion that there are traces of radium in the Bath 
mineral water. 
As announced last week, a Bill for rendering compulsory 
the use of the metric system of weights and measures was 
read a second time in the House of Lords on February 23. 
NO. 1792, VOL. 69] 
In connection with this subject the historical documents 
brought together in a contribution which appears elsewhere 
in this number are of great interest. From these records 
it appears that toward the end of the eighteenth century a 
decree of the French National Assembly suggesting the 
universal adoption of natural units of weights and measures 
was communicated to our Government. In the year 1790 
the confused condition of our weights and measures was 
brought before the House of Commons, and decimal 
standards were suggested. A committee was appointed to 
consider the matter, and the action taken by the House of 
Commons was one of the reasons urged in favour of the 
proposition which led ultimately to the adoption of metric 
weights and measures by France. 
In the course of the debate in the House of Lords last 
week on the Metric Weights and Measures Bill, Lord Kelvin 
gave an amusing illustration of the confusion arising 
from the use of different systems of weights, for in some 
experiments with a rifle he had put in a charge which 
might have caused a disastrous accident if the mistake had 
not been found out in time. The Marquess of Lansdowne 
also gave an instance of the confusion arising from the use 
of different weights in this country and on the Continent. 
A friend of his travelling abroad sent an English prescrip- 
tion to a local practitioner and received a box of pills of the 
he did not take. 
The chemist came and said that his assistant did not know 
the difference between a grain and a drachm, and had put 
30 grains of calomel into each pill. The illustrations given 
by Lord Kelvin and the Marquess of Lansdowne of the 
misadventures that may arise from the simultaneous use of 
two different systems of weights and measures show the 
advisability of there being only one international -system. 
A CIRCULAR was sent from the Colonial Office to the 
Cclonial Governors in December, 1902, asking what action 
was likely to be taken in their respective colonies with 
regard to the resolution adopted at the conference of 
Colonial Premiers in London in favour of the adoption of 
a metric system of weights and measures. The replies 
received have now been published in a Parliamentary 
paper (Cd. 1940), and are thus summarised. The metric 
system is already used in Mauritius and Seychelles. The 
following are favourable to its adoption :—Australia, New 
Zealand, Cape of Good Hope, Transvaal, Orange River 
Colony, Southern Rhodesia, Gambia, Northern Nigeria, 
Gibraltar, British Guiana, Trinidad, Leeward Islands, 
Windward Islands. Also, with a reservation that it must 
also be adopted in the United Kingdom or in the Empire 
generally, Sierra Leone, Southern Nigeria, Ceylon, and 
Falklands. Hong Kong would take common action with 
other colonies. The States of New South Wales, Victoria, 
and Western Australia are also favourable, but, together 
with South Australia and Tasmania, consider that the matter 
is one for the Commonwealth Government. Fiji is 
deubtful, but must follow Australia and New Zealand. 
British New Guinea would go with Australia. Jamaica and 
British Honduras need the adoption of the system in the 
United States of America. The practice of India is im- 
pcrtant to the Straits Settlements, which would be followed 
by Labuan; and the Bechuanaland Protectorate would 
follow the rest of South Africa. St. Helena, Cyprus, Lagos, 
| Wei-hai-wei, Barbados, and Bahamas are on the whole un- 
| favourable. 
The Gold Coast Colony and the State of 
Queensland are prepared to adopt, but consider that incon- 
venience would occur. Natal cannot consider the matter 
until some general lines of legislation have been agreed 
