De 
NATURE 
[May 22, 1902 
The Coorgs and the Yeruvas belong to two distinct ethnic 
types. The latter tribe falls into a group with the Kurumbas, 
Trulas, Paniyans and Kadirs, who have been so ably studied by 
Mr. Thurston and are the South Indian cousins of the Kols and 
Gonds living on the central highlands. In all their physical 
characters the Coorgs differ from the Yeruvas, and, indeed, they 
possess more of the superior characteristics which are supposed to 
indicate an Aryan origin than do many of the South Indian tribes 
who claim a higher caste position, and fewer signs of aboriginal 
blood than even the Brahmans of the Madras Presidency. Their 
almost brachycephalic index of 79°9, however, leaves the 
question of their ethnic relationship an unsolved problem. 
‘A; Ge 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
OxrorD.—The Rolleston memorial prize for original 
research in morphology has been awarded to Mr. Francis J. 
Cole, Jesus College. 
CAMBRIDGE.—The Balfour managers have made grants for 
zoological research in Africa to Mr. C. Crossland and Mr. J. S. 
Budgett. 
An exhibition of astronomical photographs from the Yerkes 
and Lick Observatories will be given at the Cavendish Laboratory 
on May 29 by Sir Robert Ball. 
Applications for tables at the Naples and at the Plymouth 
zoological stations should be addressed to Prof. A. Newton by 
June 5 next. 
The complete degree of M.A. honorés causa is to be conferred 
on Mr. T. H. Middleton, the new professor of agriculture. 
Mr. W. B. Hardy and Mr. F. G. Hopkins have been 
appointed examiners for the Gedge prize in physiology. 
The Thurston prize for original research in physiology, 
pathology or practical medicine, open to members of Gonville 
and Caius College of not more than fifteen years’ standing from 
matriculation, will be awarded this year. The prize is triennial 
and amounts to about 54/7. Applications are to be addressed to 
the master on or before September 30. 
A CONVERSAZIONE will be held at University College, 
London, on Thursday, June 19. A large number of friends and 
old students will be present, and exhibits will be arranged in 
connection with the various departments, to illustrate the 
work being carried on at the College. 
THERE is every likelihood that another University will soon 
be added to the large number of such institutions at present 
existing in the German Empire. Frankfort a. M. is the city 
which is thus to be enriched. It already possesses the Senck- 
enberg’s Institute for natural sciences and medicine, and also an 
academy for the study of social and commercial science. To 
the former—at which, it may be mentioned, important scientific 
work is carried on—there has recently been added a laboratory 
specially constructed for the investigation of cancer. This de- 
partment is richly endowed, partly, it is said, by the Emperor 
William, and is placed in the care of an eminent bacteriologist. 
The academy is very largely attended by foreign as well as 
German students, America in particular being well repre- 
sented. And now it is announced that the trustees of the Karl 
Juegel’s bequest have decided to devote the interest on the 
capital sum of 2,000,000 marks (100,000/.) to the erection in 
Frankfort a. M. of an academy for the study of history, law, 
philosophy and allied subjects. When this third institution is 
established, Frankfort will possess practically all the faculties, 
with the exception of theology, which go to form an University ; 
and therefore the authorities have decided to draw up a Bill 
which, if passed by Parliament, will unite the three institutes of 
learning into one University. There is strong reason to suppose 
that no particular difficulty will be encountered in carrying out 
this plan, for Frankfort is in many ways eminently suitable 
for the position of being an University city. 
Now that the second reading of the Education Bill has been 
passed, efforts should be made in Committee to remove the 
permissive clause, especially in so far as it affects higher educa- 
tion. At present, as Mr. Henry Hobhouse points out in a letter 
to the 7zmes, there is little more than a framework for legisla- 
tion. ‘‘ No statutory duty is laid on the local authority to aid 
NO. 1699, VOL. 66] 
' and other kindred societies. 
education ‘other than elementary,’ and no permanent fund is 
appropriated for this object. The ‘whisky money’ is not safe- 
guarded, despite the obvious danger that the ratepayers in 
certain localities will press for compensation out of this fund for 
the additional burdens necessitated for the purposes of elementary 
education. Nor are the objects of higher education in any way 
defined. The intention of the Government apparently is (though 
it is not expressed in the Bill) to impose on the new authority 
the provision of evening continuation schools, pupil teachers’ 
centres, and even training colleges. The restrictions of the 
Technical Instruction Acts on aiding private profit schocls and 
on teaching trades are swept away. In a word, under part ii., 
as it now stands, it would seem that a local authority may do 
anything and need do nothing. Surely Parliament ought to 
give more guidance than this to the new authorities, or there 
will be great danger that in certain localities most important 
developments of educational work will be wholly or partially 
neglected.” As the Bill at present stands, there is a danger 
that the last case of higher education will be worse than the 
first. 
AT the presentation day of the University of London, on May 
14, Lord Rosebery was welcomed as the new Chancellor. 
Principal Riicker read his report upon the work of the University 
during the past year, and referred to the following points among 
others. The organisation of the University has been com- 
pleted by the addition of a new department for University ex- 
tension and the inspection of schools. Regulations have been 
passed for the admission of post-graduate students from other 
Universities to study for the doctorate in London, and it is satis- 
factory to be able to record that a considerable number of such 
students are, or are about to be, placed upon the books of the 
University. Two chairs of chemistry are to be established at 
University College, one for general chemistry, which will be 
filled by Prof. Ramsay, the other for organic chemistry. In no 
subject has the difference between the completeness of English 
and foreign educational equipment been more marked than in 
chemistry. Only two or three educational institutions in this 
country have more than one professor of chemistry, while in 
Germany even a University of the second-class usually has 
several professors in that department. It is hoped that the 
chairs now founded in University College will be the beginning 
of a great chemical department worthy of London, A very 
large scheme, which will have an important bearing on the 
future organisation of the University, has been set on foot in 
_consequence of the munificent offer of the Drapers’ Company 
to give 30,000/. in aid of the incorporation of University College 
in the University. The authorities, both of the University and 
of the College, have agreed in principle to the main outlines of 
a plan for incorporation, provided that an initial sum of 110,000/. 
can be raised. There is every reason to hope that this con- 
dition will before long be fulfilled. While the University has 
been engaged in entering into closer relations with the various 
schools, and in negotiations for the complete absorption of one 
of them, it has also been undertaking teaching on its own 
account. All the leading physiologists in London have banded 
themselves together to give courses of lectures on that subject 
for advanced and post-graduate students, and Mr. Walter Palmer 
has generously given a sum of 2000/. to enable the experiment 
to be tried as to whether such lectures would attract an adequate 
number of students. The University has contributed another 
4oo/., and has also placed a suite of rooms in the University 
buildings at the disposal of the teachers as laboratories and 
lecture rooms. To obtain an idea of the research work being 
done in London, recognised teachers of the University were 
asked to supply a short statement as to the publications of them- 
selves, their assistants and students during the past twelve 
months. Nearly six hundred memoirs, papers and minor com- 
munications to scientific and literary journals have been reported. 
As might have heen expected from the large number of its 
members, the medical faculty takes the lead in the number of 
its publications, somewhat less than half the above total being 
communications to professional medical societies and journals. 
Teachers of the University, their assistants and students have 
made about 220 additions to general scientific literature. They 
have been the authors, or joint authors, of eleven papers in the 
Transactions of the Royal Society, or of about eighty papers 
which have appeared in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, 
and in the journals of the Chemical, Linnean, Physiological 
University College heads the list 
