oe) 
to 
Finally, the author is driven to the conclusion that the 
undiscovered cause of disturbance is traceable to a great 
invisible chain of excessive density, traversing India 
from Balasore, near the mouth of the Hooghly, to 
Jodhpur in Rajputana, and underlying Mandla and 
Bhopal, or roughly running parallel with the Himalayan 
chain. This hypothesis is supported by the observation 
or detection of the opposite effects on either side of the 
hidden chain. Between the parallels 24° and 26°, the 
plumb-lines are deflected southwards, while between the 
parallels 21° and 18°, the deflections are north and large. 
This view is further confirmed by the arc of longitude 
between Amritsur and Mooltan, for the plumb-line at 
these stations is deflected inwards towards the low-lying 
alluvium and away from the mountain masses. 
The author givesa table in which is shown the amount 
of deflection due to the Himalayas, to the Tibetan 
plateau and to the underground chain, and the alge- 
braical sum of these three effects agrees very closely 
with the observed discrepancies throughout the whole 
range of latitude, from 30° 19’ in the north to 8° 9’ at the 
southern end ofthe arc. It is assumed in this calculation 
that the northern and southern slopes of the under- 
ground chain are inclined at the same angle to the 
vertical—a somewhat improbable hypothesis, as the 
author is aware—but it seems not unlikely that further 
discussion will disclose the contour of this subterranean 
chain. The particular claim that Major Burrard has on 
our gratitude is that he sweeps away the accidental and 
local attractions that have too frequently been put forward 
to explain isolated discordant instances, and substitutes 
one general central cause, which can be confirmed or 
‘displaced by further investigation. 
SCHOOLS AND SCHOLARSAIPS. 
“ye receipt of a copy of the new issue of “The 
School Calendar” (London: Whittaker and Co.) 
suggested the idea that it would be useful and interesting 
to extract some information from its pages as to the 
present position of science at the older universities in 
regard to the awards of scholarships. And it seemed 
all the better worth while to attempt this because such 
Statistics as have previously come under our notice dis- 
tinctly suggest that science is now doing a good deal 
more for the colleges as a whole by helping to maintain 
their overflowing numbers, than the colleges do for 
science in distributing their scholarship funds. 
Everyone who is interested in this subject knows very 
well that a generation or so ago the colleges at Oxford 
and Cambridge did much to promote the teaching of 
science in schools, and especially in certain schools, by 
offering science scholarships in numbers that, for the 
time being, were not only sufficient, but liberal, and that 
the results of this policy have been ‘beneficial alike to the 
colleges and to the students of science who were thus 
attracted to the universities. This action has, in fact, 
been so successful that at Cambridge the science 
tripos is, if not the largest, at any rate substantially equal 
to its older rivals in numbers, and also in the quality of 
its members, as is shown by the army of able teachers 
and investigators which the university has produced 
during the last thirty years or so. 
The experiment made in the nineteenth century then 
has certainly been a considerable success; it has en- 
couraged many able students, stimulated the science 
work of schools, and extended the field of usefulness of 
the universities., But it is along while since the experi- 
ment was begun, and perhaps the time has come to ask 
whether all is now well ; whether the niethods of selecting 
science scholars are satisfactory to the colleges and fair 
to the candidates, whether the examinations secure a 
sufficiently good standard in science without tempting 
NO. 1699, VOL. 66] 
NATURE 
| May 22, 1902 
the candidates to specialise unduly ; whether this work, 
which was, we believe, initiated by some of the colleges 
only, is now being helped on by all ; and, finally, whether 
the scholarships offered to those who desire to read in 
science at the universities are reasonably equal to those 
offered to students in classics and mathematics. 
The little book before us does not afford answers 
to all these questions, but it contaims a great mass of 
useful information, and within its pages will be found 
full details concerning the various scholarships that are 
to be awarded at Oxford and Cambridge during the 
current year. These, however, we are sorry to add, do 
not afford very encouraging reading. 
Thus we find from the “School Calendar” that at 
Oxford no less than ten colleges out of twenty offer no 
scholarships or exhibitions for science at all, and that of 
the other ten, one important college, which disposes about 
twenty-eight scholarships and exhibitions, without count- 
ing those reserved for students of divinity, only encour- 
ages science to the very modest extent of dividing two 
scholarships between candidates in classics, mathematics, 
history and science, whilst the remainder are re- 
served for classics and mathematics. Some of these 
scholarships, doubtless, are on special foundations, but 
there are twelve which appear to be under the free 
control of the college, and all these are allotted to the 
older branches. At this college about 1700/. are to be 
distributed between classics and mathematics, while 
classics, mathematics, history and science will have 
equal chances, may be, in the distribution of 160/. 
Again, fourteen Oxford colleges offer their scholarships 
for definite subjects in advance. These offer fifty-nine 
scholarships or exhibitions valued at 4217/. for classics, 
ten of the total value of 790/. for mathematics, eight of 
the value of 585/. for science, and ten of the value of © 
670/. for history. Whilst if we take the grand total for 
the twenty colleges, and assume that Magdalen, Jesus 
and Corpus Christi will together devote as many as four 
scholarships or exhibitions to science, we find that out of 
one hundred and forty, or more, scholarships, &c., which 
have a total value above 10,000/., only twelve, having a 
value of rather less than 850/., are offered for science sub- 
jects. These numbers, it should be added, though near to 
the truth, are only approximations, as in certain cases the 
number and value of the scholarships offered are subject 
to modification. The former figure, however, is below 
and the latter above the actual result of our computation, 
and the latter would be smaller did we not make the 
liberal assumption that Magdalen, Jesus and Corpus 
Christi will give half as many science scholarships as all 
the remaining seventeen colleges taken together. 
It may be added that several colleges, e.g. Lincoln, 
Keble, Oriel and Pembroke, unless our authority misleads 
us, offer no encouragement to mathematics, but one of 
these, Keble, offers a science scholarship. 
Turning to Cambridge, we find, as was to be expected, 
that most of the colleges offer awards for science ; still, 
even at Cambridge four colleges out of seventeen, or 
nearly 25 per cent., viz. Corpus Christi, Magdalene, 
Queens’ and St. Catherine’s, exclude this branch. Owing 
to the Cambridge custom not to allot scholarships to 
definite subjects in advance, it is impossible to put forward 
such particulars as are given above for the sister university. 
But it may be taken that at Cambridge, as a rule, science 
receives more favourable treatment than at Oxford. Still, 
even at Cambridge in certain years not long past, as has 
previously been shown in these columns, the treatment 
acces to science has seemed wanting in liberality, 
for example, in December 1898, when, out of one 
nengred and one scholarships (value 5150/.) given by 
ten colleges, only sixteen (value 745/.) were awarded to 
science candidates. 
Returning now for a moment to the “ School Calendar,” 
which has afforded us the above information, it seems, so 
