NA TURE 



[November 30, 1905 



An Untried Method of Determining the Refraction 

 Constant. — In No. 8, vol. xiii., of Popular Astronomy, Mr. 

 Geo. A. Hill, of Washington, describes a new and, as he 

 believes, an untried method for determining the constant 

 of refraction. 



Briefly, the method consists in observing the times at 

 which two stars, separated by about twelve hours in right 

 ascension, and both of nearly the same declination, transit 

 across a horizontal wire in the prime vertical. In each 

 case the refraction decreases the hour angle, and the arith- 

 metical sum of the hour angles of the two stars will differ 

 from the difference between their right ascensions by twice 

 the refraction, expressed in time, at the zenith distance at 

 which they were observed. 



To make this observation Mr. Hill proposes the employ- 

 ment of an instrument similar in form and in the rigidity 

 of its parts to the modern zenith telescope. The telescope 

 is to be established in the prime vertical, and mounted so 

 that it is capable of rotation about a rigid vertical axis. 

 Two stops fixed to the base of the instrument would ensure 

 that when the telescope was rotated in azimuth about the 

 vertical axis its line of collimation would still be in the 

 prime vertical. Obviously the ideal position for the making 

 of the observations would be at or near to the earth's 

 equator. Many other details of the proposed plan of 

 observations are given at length in Mr. Hill's paper. 



Spectra of Bright Southern Stars. — An appendix to 

 vol xxviii. of the Annals — the volume in which appeared 

 the " Catalogue of the Spectra of Bright Southern Stars " 

 — has just been published by the Harvard College Observ- 

 atory. It contains two tables, in the first of which there 

 are given the particulars of sixty-nine stars which were 

 accidentally omitted from Table I. in the original volume, 

 and in the second the corrected classification of the spectra 

 of thirty stars which were previously wrongly described. 



A Catalogue of 4280 Stars. — No. 15 of the Publications 

 of the Cincinnati Observatory is devoted to a catalogue of 

 the positions and precessional constants of 4280 of the stars 

 given in Piazzi's catalogue. 



All the stars given by Piazzi that were north of the 

 equator in 1800, except those included in the Berlin 

 " Jahrbuch " and eighteen of the Pleiades group, are in- 

 cluded in the catalogue, and the Piazzi number, the position 

 for 1900, the precession, the proper name, and the magni- 

 tude are given for each. An appendix contains the proper 

 motions of 35 stars which were placed on the observing 

 list, mostly taken from the Cambridge A.G. Catalogue. 



HIGHER EDUCATION AT THE CAPE. 

 LJIGHER education in Cape Colony is at the present 

 time in a very interesting and perhaps critical con- 

 dition. It is indeed characteristic of the tardiness of 

 progress in that colony (the eternal motto is " Wacht een 

 beetje ") that the crisis should not have arrived until 

 nearly eighty years after the foundation of the first institu- 

 tion designed to promote advanced studies — the South 

 African College in Cape Town. The causes of this retard- 

 ation are to be found partly in dissipation of effort, partly 

 in the mischievous influence of an iron system of external 

 examinations. The South African College was started on 

 a small scale in 1829 through the liberality of a number 

 of citizens of Cape Town, who became " shareholders " 

 in the venture; but though after a few years it was 

 recognised as a public institution and received support 

 from the public treasury, it did not at first develop with 

 much rapidity ; and in 1849 Bishop Gray, after an un- 

 successful attempt to buy out the majority of the " share- 

 holders," founded the Diocesan College as a rival institu- 

 tion in the suburbs, thus inaugurating the unhappy policy 

 of multiplying colleges from which the colony still suffers. 

 Four years later Sir George Grey's administration instituted 

 a public board of examiners with power to grant certifi- 

 cates in various subjects, another fateful step, for from 

 that board there sprang in 1873 the University of the Cape 

 of Good Hope, the only body in South Africa which has 

 the right to confer degrees. The character of this so-called 

 university deserves notice. It was modelled on the old 

 University of London, the example of which it follows only 

 too faithfully. It is managed by a council, half the 



NO. 1883, VOL. JT,} 



members of which are appointed by Government, the 

 other half elected by the convocation of graduates. It 

 exercises the two functions of examining and granting 

 degrees, but it does not teach. So abhorrent to it, indeed, 

 is any connection with teaching that it does not allow 

 teachers of candidates to take part in the examinations, 

 a most deleterious prohibition, since in many subjects the 

 only experts belong to the staffs of the colleges. Dis- 

 satisfaction with this examining university is the chief 

 cause of the present crisis. Meantime the multiplication of 

 colleges and the wasteful reiteration of similar work in 

 a number of centres has gone on apace. Some of the 

 smaller colleges have, it is true, died out ; but there still 

 remain, in addition to the two already mentioned, the 

 Victoria College at Stellenbosch, which was incorporated 

 in 1881, the Huguenot College for Women at Wellington 

 (189S), and the Rhodes University College, which in 1904 

 took the place of St. Andrew's College at Grahamstown. 

 The western province, therefore, has four colleges, all 

 within forty miles of Cape Town, and the eastern pro- 

 vince has one. They are bound hand and foot by the 

 syllabuses and regulations of the university, for the 

 examinations of which they prepare. Alike in strength, 

 and in character, however, they vary greatly. The South 

 African College has in recent years developed with 

 wonderful rapidity. It now supports seventeen chairs and 

 has about 200 students, whom it draws in approximately 

 equal numbers from the British and from the Dutch, and 

 in thus bringing the two races together exercises a most 

 beneficent influence, which it rightly regards as one of its 

 chief claims to support. Its arts buildings are old and 

 need reconstruction, but blocks of science buildings have 

 lately been erected which would do credit to any unversity 

 in the Empire, and the intention is to house the arts 

 also on a similar scale. The only other college approach- 

 ing it in strength is that of Stellenbosch, which 

 has also developed recently, though it remains somewhat 

 smaller and is less well equipped for the teaching of 

 science. That the two strongest colleges should be in such 

 close proximity is a particularly unfortunate result of the 

 short-sighted policy (or lack of policy) which has been 

 characteristic of the educational administration of the 

 colony in the past. On purely educational grounds this 

 duplication cannot be justified. But it is to be feared 

 that racial rather than properly educational motives have 

 led to the development of a second large college so near 

 to Cape Town, and this may be said without any reflection 

 upon the instruction given at it. For the Victoria College 

 is almost completely under the influence of the neighbour- 

 ing theological seminary of the Dutch Reformed Church ; 

 its students are almost entirely Dutch ; it is in sentiment 

 and in popular estimation the Dutch College. Even were 

 the instruction provided the best in the world, it would be 

 still altogether deplorable that this tendency to racial 

 separatism in education should have gained recognition and 

 support. Of the remaining colleges, that at Grahamstown 

 has a fairly large staff, but as yet few students and no 

 buildings, and in view of the backward state of education 

 in the east its position seems a little precarious, but if it 

 can encourage the schools in that part to improve it should 

 prosper. The Diocesan College and the Huguenot College 

 are both small, and probably they will in the end have to. 

 unite with their more powerful neighbours. 



The education provided by the colleges is not so good 

 as it might be under more favourable conditions. One at 

 least of them, the South African College, is in every way 

 competent to give as advanced instruction as most colonial 

 universities, and equally with them to promote research ; 

 but it is hampered at once by the schools below it and 

 by the university above it. In mathematics, indeed, the 

 general standard of the schools is remarkably high ; a few 

 schools maintain a fair standard in science as well, but in 

 literary subjects they are all miserably weak. This is 

 partly due to the absence of any proper system of secondary 

 or of intermediate education. The Education Department 

 is frequently accused of an undue affection for red tape, 

 with which it is said to strangle the more advanced and 

 ambitious schools in the interests of weaker country 

 schools, that have to be kept up to the mark by strict 

 regulations. However that may be, there is no advanced 

 secondary education in the colony. The schools do not 



