146 



NA TURE 



[Dec. 18, 1884 



to believe thai the creation of a new university with full 

 powers in the metropolis is ever likely to come within the 

 bounds of political possibility. It is not that the Govern- 

 ment will be inaccessible, but that it will be difficult to 

 persuade general public opinion of the necessity of such a 

 course. We believe that it will in the end be necessary 

 eventually to come to terms with the existing university. 

 The fact that eleven members of its Senate have joined 

 the movement, shows that that body at any rate contains 

 a powerful element discontented with its present asphyxia 

 Hon by red tape. What, however, we do hope to see is 

 the federation of our scattered educational bodies in Lon- 

 don into Faculties, which would be practically universities 

 in all but the name, and the representatives of which 

 should have a leading voice in the management of the 

 Central University. The only speakers who really evinced 

 at the meeting a clear idea of their own policy, were the 

 representatives of the Medical profession. Prof. Marshall 

 showed with singular lucidity that the altered character of 

 medical education has made the continued isolation of the 

 smaller medical schools a practical impossibility. Not 

 merely has technical instruction gone beyond the capacity 

 of the junior members of the medical staff who are usually 

 told off for it, but the appliances required are too costly 

 for all but the wealthier schools to provide efficiently, and 

 the teachers are themselves wanted for the more minute 

 and careful clinical instruction which is now everywhere 

 demanded. 



The Medical Schools will therefore combine, perhaps, 

 into some four great groups, for purposes of education and 

 the organisation of laboratories, just as the small colleges 

 .1; I ford and Cambridge have combined for purposes of 

 intra -collegiate lecturing. Once federation has begun, the 

 foundation of a medical faculty for London is only a 

 question of time. This will come about, probably, what- 

 ever the fate of the more general movement. But such a 

 faculty would undoubtedly be found to be politically a 

 body to whose just claims in direct medical education the 

 University of London would find il impossible to lend a 

 deaf ear. 



The faculty of law may also shape itself into existence, 

 though, it must be admitted, the elements of its form are, 

 at present, very dim and shadowy. 



To balance these we want a faculty of literature and 

 science, and the materials for these are to be found in a 

 federation of University and King's Colleges, as sug- 

 gested by Pi of. Lankcster. If the representatives of such 

 a faculty were allowed a proper share in the councils of 

 the existing University, it is not obvious why such a 

 federation should be intrusted with a separate degree- 

 giving power. 



We now come to what appears to us the weak point in 

 the scheme. A university may impart knowledge ; it may 

 test its quality when imparted : lint that which has ever 

 been the peculiar glory of university life, is to enlarge its 

 bounds. But except a few well-expiessed sentences which 

 fell from Lord Reay, and a sentence put into the con- 

 clusion of the report very much with the air of an after- 

 thought, this very important matter does not seem to have 

 received very much attention. Now the most melancholy 

 feature about such elements of university organisation as 

 already exist in London, is its displayed incapacity to 

 retain its best men. There is an obvious dearth of such 



posts as would satisfy their legitimate ambition. No 

 sooner amongst us does a man rise to the first rank at 

 any seat of education, than sooner or later he is drafted 

 off to one of the universities in the provinces. To take 

 the first instances that come to hand : Cambridge has 

 robbed us of Michael Foster, and Oxford of Burdon 

 Sanderson, while the greatest biological teacher of 

 the day is driven from England by ill-health after 

 a life toilsomely spent in the lowest order of teaching — 

 drudgery. What is absolutely essential to add lustre and 

 distinction to the work of a Metropolitan University is a 

 body of University Professors who would take charge of 

 the higher studies, which never can be properly cared for 

 by bodies sedulously occupied with the very serious 

 business of the higher education. What we hope then 

 some day to see is the University of London equipped 

 with a proper staff of Regius Professors, who themselves 

 would be at the least an invaluable bond of union between 

 its own too abstract isolation and the living reality of the 

 actual teaching bodies. 



Although we could have wished for greater insistence on 

 this — as it seems to us — most vital point, we cannot but 

 entertain the highest hopes of the usefulness of the pre- 

 sent movement. It has some of the notes of healthy- 

 organic development ; it has at least spontaneity and 

 individual activity, which have always been the founda- 

 tions of political achievement amongst us. At the worst, 

 mere effervescence is better than stagnation, and we 

 think there is more in this movement than effervescence. 

 In any case we cannot too warmly tender our expression 

 of acknowledgment to public men like Lord Reay and 

 Sir George Young, who have spared neither pains nor 

 labour in the purely patriotic labour of giving our own 

 too inarticulate murmurings definite form and expression. 



THE POL YZOA OF THE " CHALLENGER " 

 EXPEDITION 

 The Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. "Challenger? 

 Part XXX. " Report on the Polyzoa— the Cheilo- 

 stomata." By George Busk, F.R.S., V.P.L.S., &c. 

 (Published by Order of Her Majesty's Government, 

 18S4.) 



THE description of the Polyzoa collected during the 

 expedition of the Challenger was undertaken by 

 Mr. Busk, and the first part of his Report, comprising the 

 Cheilostomatous forms, or those in which the mouth of 

 the zocecium or cell is provided with a movable lid which 

 shuts down over the polypide when retracted, has just 

 been published. 



The investigation of this important part of the Chal- 

 lenger collections could not have been placed in better 

 hands. As an authority on the zoology of the Polyzoa, 

 Mr. Busk stands pre-eminent ; and the present admirable 

 Report of 216 pages and 36 plates bears testimony to a 

 laborious and conscientious investigation, the value of 

 which as a contribution to our knowledge of the multitude 

 of forms associated under the name of Polyzoa cannot be 

 over-estimated. 



The number of species of Cheilostomatous Polyzoa in 

 the Challenger collection is 286, and when these came 

 into Mr. Busk's hands he found no less than 180 of them 



