164 
NATURE 
[JUNE 22, 1902 
The honorary degree of Doctor of Science has been conferred 
upon Principal Riicker, F,R.S., and Sir H. H. Johnston. 
SOME remarks upon the subject of medical education were 
made on June 5 by Mr. Asquith, M.P., at the festival dinner of 
the London Medical Graduates’ College and Polyclinic. He 
expressed the opinion that in all the professions England com- 
pares most unfavourably with America, Germany and most other 
countries in the lack of provision for the continuation of educa- 
tion in its technical and applied forms after the ordinary term of 
academic life has been reached. Medicine, which is at the same 
time a science and an art, is every year receiving vast accumula- 
tions of new observations and new experiments which must 
profoundly modify the conception of both the theory and the 
treatment of disease. Adequate provision must therefore be 
made for post-graduate research if scientific knowledge of disease 
is to be increased. 
THE thirty-seventh annuel programme just received from the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology contains a full statement 
of the courses of instruction at this well-known institution and 
a register of the alumni, the whole publication forming a pros- 
pectus of more than four hundred pages. The Institute offers 
thirteen separate courses in applied science, each of four years’ 
duration. The laboratories of the Institute are numerous and 
extensive; their equipment is correspondingly ample, and is 
kept well up to the rapid advances in technical practice. Pro- 
vision is made for exact general training in the problems of | 
physics and chemistry for highly specialised work in these and | 
other sciences, and for engineering tests and processes on a 
practical scale. The large number of students at the Institute, 
no less than the increasing demands of modern scientific 
education, have made necessary new laboratories for the depart- 
ments of electrical engineering and physics. Buildings of a 
most complete kind have been designed for these purposes, and 
their erection will be begun early in the spring of 1902. They 
will cost, with their equipment, between 400,000 dollars and 
500,000 dollars. 
THE second volume of the report of the United States 
Commissioner of Education for the year 1899-1900 is a closely 
printed book of 1368 pages. The serics to which it is the 
latest addition does for educationists what the annual reports 
of the Smithsonian Institution do for men of science. There is 
to be found brought together in these portly volumes everything 
of importance which has taken place, not only in American 
education, but in that of all the great countries of the world. 
The plan adopted in the Smithsonian reports, of reprinting 
valuable contributions collected from various sources, is followed 
in the volume before us, with the result that many of the 
addresses and essays by English educational authorities, to 
which attention has been directed from time to time in these 
columns, are here to be found printed in full. The prominence 
given to the higher grades of education shows very clearly that, 
while making strenuous efforts to perfect their systems of 
primary and secondary education, the authorities in the States | 
are not losing sight of the paramount importance of technical 
and university work. Chapters are given to ‘‘ Institutions for 
Higher Education,” ‘‘ Professional Schools,” ‘* Agricultural 
and Mechanical Colleges,” and ‘‘Commercial and Business 
Schools.” Though few teachers can find time to study the 
reports brought out from year to year, much of the information 
contained in the volumes is of permanent value and will often 
be referred to by students of education. 
SEVERAL points in the revised regulations for matriculation at 
the University of London are worthy of notice. The list of 
subjects has already been given (p. 69). There are only two obli- 
gatory subjects—English and elementary mathematics. Latin is 
optional with one of several sciences ; and two other subjects have 
to be selected from a list of twenty branches of knowledge. Under 
the new regulations, therefore, it will be possible to matriculate 
at the University of London, and to proceed to a degree, without 
taking any science subject. The short syllabus of mathematics 
shows the influence of the reformer. 
is made of the metric system, contracted methods, approxima- 
tions to a specified degree of accuracy, and practical applications. 
Algebra includes: graphs of simple rational integral algebraic 
functions. In geometry the subjects of Euclid I.-1V. will be 
taken, but Euclid’s proof will not be insisted upon. The short 
syllabuses of optional sciences are prefaced by the remark ‘‘ The 
examinations in science shall aim at ascertaining whether candi 
NO. 1702, VOL. 66] 
Under arithmetic mention | 
dates possess a knowledge of fundamental scientific methods, 
acquired by observation of nature or by a simple course of 
experiment in physical measurement, or by the investigation of 
simple problems and commonly occurring phenomena illustrating 
natural laws.” In all the science subjects the questions set will 
have regard to the conditions under which these subjects may 
best be experimentally taught in schools. 
A SERIES of resolutions in regard to the Government Educa- 
tion Bill were adopted at a special general meeting of the Associt- 
tion of Technical Institutions on May 29 The resolutions are 
to the following effect :—(1) That the Association approves the 
general principles upon which the Government Education Bill 
is based, and strongly urges the Government to pass the Bill 
in the present session of Parliament. (2) That the new local 
authorities should be responsible for all grades of education in 
their districts, and that proper educational coordination would 
be seriously and unnecessarily hindered if this principle were 
not adopted ; the Government is therefore urged to amend the 
Bill by deleting the clauses making it optional for t he County 
and Borough Councils to undertake the supervision of elementary 
education. (3) That the Government should make compulsory 
the application to the purposes of higher education of the 
residue under the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act, 
1890. (4) That, insomuch as the Local Authorities constituted 
by the Bill will have to make good the deficiencies in 
elementary and general secondary education, as well as to 
support and improve technical education, and will be obliged to 
raise increased rates in order to do this efficiently, it is feared 
that in many cases these authorities will shrink from the 
necessary expenditure unless encouraged by increased aid from 
the national exchequer. The Government is therefore asked 
to promise to provide larger sums for educational purposes. 
(5) That there should be no statutory limit to the amount to be 
expended on higher education. (6) That the majority of the 
Education Committee should be appointed by and from the 
council of the County Council or County Borough Council. (7) 
That any attempt to alter the provisions of the first two sections 
of clause 18 of the Education Bill will be resisted. (8) That 
London may receive attention early next year, and that it 
would be unwise to depart from the general principles of the 
present Bill in the case of the metropolis. 
Tue ideal University for London, described by Prof. E. H. 
Starling, F.R.S., in the Foundation Day oration delivered at 
University College, London, on June 5, was much the same as 
that advocated in these columns on several occasions. Prof. 
Starling said that in the University there would be a centre in 
each of the four quarters of London. Each of those centres 
would be in so far a complete University in that it would be a 
place for study and research in all branches of knowledge and 
would be a community of teachers and scholars. The local 
business affairs of each centre would be under the control of a 
committee or council appointed by the senate of the University, 
but containing representatives of the local body of professors. 
All those centres would be but parts of this University, with 
common aims, with similar curricula, and the same standard of 
examination. The senate of the University, which would 
contain representatives from all centres, would be responsible 
for the appointment of the local governing bodies and would 
keep in its own hands the power of appointing and dismissing 
proiessors. It would be possible in that way to provide for the 
training of 10,000 students within the University of London, 
and to ensure the freedom of teaching and research and the 
living contact of each student with men of different ideals and 
modes of thought, which were the most valuable factors in a 
University training. Such a University could not be founded 
without the possession of adequate means. Each centre would 
necessitate the erection of buildings at a cost of about 500,000/. 
on ground covering from five to ten acres. For a moderate 
endowment of its professorships and the maintenance of its 
laboratories a yearly income of 50,000/. should be provided in 
addition to the income from students’ fees, which might amount 
to another 30,000/. These might seem large sums to those 
who were ignorant of the money spent abroad by the State on 
_ Universities or of the income which was available from ancient 
| 50,000/. 
endowments at Oxford and Cambridge. The united income of 
of the colleges at Oxford was 330,000/. a year, and at Cam- 
bridge nearly 300,000/. a year. The yeuly Government grant 
to the University of Strasburg, with only 1000 students, was 
He was convinced that there would be no difficulty 
: 
q 
p 
} 
a 
