April 2, 1908] 



NATURE 



525 



EXTENSIONS AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, 

 LONDON. 

 C\ N Thursday last, March 26, the Chancellor of the 

 ^^ University of London, the Earl of Rosebery, visited 

 University College, the occasion being the opening of the 

 new libraries and the south wing after the changes made 

 tonsequent upon the removal of the boys' school to Hamp- 

 stead. 



The Chancellor on his arrival was met by the Vice- 

 Chancellor (Sir William Collins), Sir Philip Magnus, Lord 

 Reay, Sir Edward Busk, Sir Felix Schuster, Sir Arthur 

 Riicker, Dr. T. Gregory Foster, Dr. Bourne Benson, the 

 deans of the college faculties, and other members of the 

 college committee. After an inspection of the alterations, 

 the Chancellor proceeded to the botanical theatre and gave 

 an address, formally declaring the new libraries and south 

 wing open. 



In his address Lord Rosebery said they met on a very 

 interesting occasion, because they met to celebrate the fact 

 that, owing to the removal of University College School, 

 ihe accommodation of University College itself had been 

 increased by fully one-third, and that therefore it had 

 taken one more gigantic stride onward in its progress as 

 a great centre of university life. To achieve this result 

 great exertions had been made. No less than 276,000/. 

 had been raised by the magnificent bounty of various 

 donors. As a result of these donations there had been 

 found room for scientific departments hitherto inadequately 

 housed. There had been found room for an adequate 

 museum and class-rooms for geology ; a biometrical labora- 

 tory for research, which enabled Prof. Karl Pearson to 

 continue his experiments in much more advantageous 

 circumstances ; a laboratory had been added of national 

 eugenics (owing to the bounty of Mr. Francis Galton) 

 which could not but be of great advantage to that portion 

 of the curriculum. In the school of engineering a museum 

 had been added, and a hydraulic laboratory. In the school 

 of electrical engineering the accommodation had been 

 doubled. The research laboratory of experimental psycho- 

 logy had been lodged in entirely new quarters. The 

 department of hygiene had been greatly enlarged and 

 largely equipped mainly by the generosity of the Chad- 

 wick trustees. In the faculty of arts eleven new lecture- 

 rooms had been added. But perhaps the library was the 

 most remarkable feature of the new enlargement. The 

 method of arrangement required notice by everyone who 

 was interested in that subject — a large general library and 

 a series of specialised libraries in enclosed subdivisions 

 which served as conference rooms for teachers and pupils. 



I^ast, but not least, Lord Rosebery alluded to the extra 

 accommodation for the students of the union. He honestly 

 thought that no wiser thing could have been done by the 

 authorities than to make their students feel it not merely 

 a class-room, but a home, and to give them accommodation 

 where they could spend their leisure hours as their elders 

 did in clubs. He had reason to believe that the University 

 College Debating Society was one of the most formidable 

 of those academic parliaments which sometimes invited 

 their seniors to address them on the principle, he thought, 

 on which the Spartans were wont to place a drunken helot 

 in their midst to serve as a melancholy example of what 

 might happen to them if they did not stop in time. He 

 also directed attention to the new recreation grounds and 

 the residential hall at Ealing, which will be ready next 

 October. 



This was a record of manifold activities and of splendid 

 beneficence. It inspired certain expectations in those who 

 were interested in the work of University College and of 

 the University of London. There they had a college which 

 yielded to few colleges in the world in its appliances, 

 situated in the midst of the greatest metropolis in the 

 world, educating and rearing hundreds and hundreds of 

 students, the centre of one form of university life in the 

 metropolis. What a long way they were from the old 

 .Stinkumalee, as it was derisively called by Theodore Hook. 

 Stinkumalee, he told his young hearers, w-as the atrocious 

 name that was applied to I'niversity College in the days 

 of its vouth. Did it not show what an enormous march 

 had been made by that college since the time when it was 

 kn"wn bv such a nickname as that? 



The whole of London at this moment was teeming with 



NO. 2005, VOL. 77] 



university life. All this life irresistibly was drawn to the 

 University of London. He was sometimes tempted to ask 

 himself if the machinery of their university was adequate 

 to the great strain that was being put upon it by the 

 multiplications of the institutions that were under its foster- 

 ing care. He sometimes doubted, if they were to under- 

 take new tasks and burdens, whether their constitution 

 was sufficiently elastic to undertake them. They had not 

 all the power that tradition gave of the splendour of 

 antiquity, but they had the advantage of the vigour, the 

 adaptability of extreme youth. They were a new bottle into 

 which new wine could be abundantly poured without risk. 

 He pleaded that University College might not forget its 

 youth, because its youth was its strength, and he thought 

 it well that he should put this consideration before them, 

 because the occasion was not a light one, either in the 

 history of the University or of the College, because the 

 visit of the symbolic head of the University to Uni- 

 versity College on that occasion emphasised and embodied 

 the alliance between the University and a college which 

 had so lately taken place, and from which he and they 

 all augured such immense advantage in the future. 



The thanks of the meeting to the Chancellor were 

 accorded on the -motion of the Vice-Chancellor, seconded 

 by Lord Reay (the chairman o"f the college committee), 

 aiid supported by the Provost, Dr. T. Gregory Foster. 

 On leaving. Lord Rosebery shortly addressed the students 

 in the cloisters, declaring that they had had good advice 

 poured, over them like pots of ointment, like spikenards 

 of eloquence. He would only detain them then to point 

 out that the University in the last resort depended upon 

 the men it turned out. He asked them, and it was his only 

 message for the day, to turn out ladies and gentlemen 

 worthy of the University of London. 



In addition to the outline given by Lord Rosebery, we 

 may signalise more in detail the changes in the engineer- 

 ing departments. In general engineering the drawing office 

 has been enlarged and arranged so as to provide separate 

 junior and senior offices controllable from the same 

 demonstrators' bo.xes. There is accommodation now for 

 100 students working at the same time. Space has been 

 provided for an engineering museum, the equipment of 

 which has already begun. A small engineering demonstra- 

 tion room has been added. In the electrical department 

 the lecture theatre has been removed to a quieter position, 

 and is now a more commodious room. An excellent re- 

 search laboratory has been provided, where the professor 

 and his students are continuing their researches on wireless 

 telegraphy. These include the design and insertion of 

 instruments for measuring electrical waves used in wire- 

 less telegraphy, dielectrics, and the photometry of electric 

 lamps. \ private room, a small demonstration room, and 

 an adequate apparatus room have been added. 



In the department of applied mathematics the extensions 

 include a general research laboratory. ^X the present time 

 an elaborate research in craniology is being carried out. 

 There are 2500 crania in store, of which 1600 are Egyptian 

 of about 1500 13. c. and qoo Egyptian of about 7000 B.C., 

 sent at various times by Prof. Petrie from Egypt. 



The department of experimental psychology has two 

 new rooms w-ith adjoining dark-room accommodation 

 allotted to it. The experimental methods now deal with 

 all the higher intellectual processes, including attention, 

 memory, association of ideas, judgment, apperception, the 

 emotions, and will. 



In general, we may say that the alterations enable large 

 portions of the w^ork of the college to be carried out in 

 greatly more favourable circumstances than hitherto. The 

 rooms' are provided and the workers also. Much, however, 

 is still required in the way of equipment and of endow- 

 ment of research, so as to' enable this to be carried out 

 in a thoroughly efficient manner. 



VKlV^liSnV AND EDUCATIONAL 



INTELLIGENCE. 



Manchester. — By the death of the Duke of Devonshire 



the University has lost its Chancellor, and although it is 



only a few rrionths ago that the late Duke was elected to 



this office, he had as president, first of the Owens College 



