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NA TURE 



[January 14, 1909 



taught in varying amounts, and in the second cycle 

 science is included in each of the four different courses 

 open to pupils. 



The University of London has arranged several series 

 of advanced lectures in science for the spring term. The 

 lectures are addressed to advanced students of the Uni- 

 versity and to others interested in the subject dealt with. 

 Admission is free, without ticket. A course of eight lec- 

 tures on " Physical Chemistry, and its Bearing on 

 Biology," will be given by Dr. J. C. Philip at the Imperial 

 College of Science and Technology, S.VV., on Mondays 

 at 5 p.m., from January 25 to March 15. Four lectures 

 on " The Use of Vertebrate Fossils in Stratigraphical 

 Geology " will be given by Dr. A. Smith Woodward, 

 F.R.S., at the Imperial College of Science and Technology 

 on Mondays at 5 p.m., beginning on February i. The 

 reader in meteorology, Dr. \V. N. Shaw, F.R.S., will 

 give ten lectures on " The Climates of the British 

 Possessions " at the London School of Economics on 

 Fridays at J p.m., beginning on January 22. Three 

 lectures on "The Anatomy and Zoological Relationships 

 of the Anthropoid Apes," by Prof. Arthur Keith, will be 

 given at the Royal College of Surgeons, Lincoln's Inn 

 Fields, on Friday, January 15, Thursday, January 21, and 

 Friday, January 29, at 5 p.m. Three Chadwick lectures 

 on " The Medical Aspects of Recent Advances in Hygiene 

 as connected with Sewering " will be delivered at the 

 University by Dr. Louis C. Parkes on Tuesdays at 4 p.m., 

 beginning on February 2. 



The Governor of Bombay recently addressed a long 

 letter to the registrar of the Bombay University propound- 

 ing a new scheme of science teaching. According to the 

 Pioneer Mail, the letter concludes : — The Governor in 

 Council is well aware of the difficulties which must attend 

 so drastic a revision of the University curriculum as in 

 his opinion is urgently required, and he fully recognises 

 that the essential reforms must be gradually carried out. 

 He is confident, however, that the Senate will approach 

 with a single eye to the eflficiency of higher education in 

 the Presidency, the proposals which in reply to the request 

 contained in their letter of August 8 last he now lays 

 before them, and will share with him the earnest desire 

 that the University of Bombay should be brought into 

 line with the great developments in educational methods 

 which have assumed practical form in recent years, and 

 they will not fail to realise the bearing of these develop- 

 ments upon national advancement. The recent splendid 

 benefactions towards the improvement of science teaching 

 have removed some of the obstacles to the movement in 

 the required direction. The most pressing questions, 

 therefore, to which the Senate will doubtless give the 

 earliest consideration are those relating to the proposed 

 changes in the science courses. So soon as an agreement 

 has been reached on the principles involved, it will be 

 possible to take the initial steps for starting an institute 

 m which the teaching of science can eventually be con- 

 centrated and rendered worthy of the Presidency of 

 Bombay. 



liNTERESTiNG Statistics concerning the registration of 

 students in American universities last October are given 

 by Prof. Rudolf Tombo, jun., in Science of December 25, 

 1908. Comparing the figures for 1908 with those of the 

 previous year, Prof. Tombo shows that, in spite of the 

 prevailmg economic depression, only two American 

 universities. Harvard and Stanford, show a slight loss 

 in enrolment, whereas two years ago five universities 

 suffered a decrease. Taking the total attendance into 

 consideration, i.e. including the summer session, the 

 greatest gains of students have been made by the universi- 

 ties of Chicago, Columbia, Wisconsin, Indiana, Pennsyl- 

 vania, Cornell, California, and Minnesota, each one of these 

 having gained more than four hundred students ; omitting 

 the summer session attendance, the largest increases have 

 been registered by the universities of Columbia, Minne- 

 sota, Cornell, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and 

 Ohio, in the order given, the growth in each case being 

 one_ of more than three hundred students. The only 

 institutions that have registered a decrease in the number 

 of students studying science are Harvard, Kansas. 

 .-Nebraska, and \ irginia, and of these the first mentioned 

 NO. 2046, VOL. 79] 



is the only one that shows a loss as compared with 1902, 

 this being due to the fact that the baccalaureate degree is 

 now required for admission to the Harvard engineering 

 schools. The gain in the number of science students since 

 1902 is in several instances remarkable, e.g. from 597 to 

 1352 at Michigan University. The largest number of 

 students of science is still found at Cornell LIniversity, 

 Michigan and Illinois being the only others that attract 

 more than one thousand students to their scientific schools ; 

 these are followed by Yale, Ohio State, Wisconsin, 

 California, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Columbia, Missouri, 

 Nebraska, and Princeton, each of these universities having 

 more than five hundred students in attendance at their 

 scientific schools. 



The report of the British Education Section of the 

 Franco-British Exhibition, 1908, has now been printed and 

 circulated. Although exhibits of our educational system 

 and its results have formed part of the several inter- 

 national exhibitions which have been held in various 

 countries during the past twenty-five years, no adequate 

 demonstration of the wide scope of the aims of British 

 educational activity, the variety of its methods, and the 

 magnitude of its results had ever been brought before the 

 public within the United Kingdom before that in connec- 

 tion with the exhibition of last year. The exhibits were 

 contributed by some 160 organisations in all parts of the 

 kingdom, and were drawn from more than 1550 schools, 

 colleges, and other educational institutions. The important 

 place in our educational system now filled by technical 

 instruction claimed for it special treatment. This was 

 secured by a large collective exhibition, representative of 

 the various types of worlc done by the respective technical 

 schools and institutes of the country, the organisation of 

 which was undertaken by the council of the Association 

 of Technical Institutions, while the City and Guilds of 

 London Institute showed, by an exhibit of the statistics of 

 its department of technology, the uninterrupted progress 

 that has been made in the organisation of practical in- 

 struction in the different branches of industrial work. 

 Large parties of teachers from Manchester, Bolton, 

 Nottingham, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Darlington, Wakefield, 

 Stockton, Middlesbrough, Rochdale, Grimsby, Barry, 

 Wimborne, and other places visited and inspected the 

 section during .August and September. Moreover, special 

 commissioners, appointed by their respective Governments 

 to study the methods and results of British education, 

 came from China, Japan, Spain, Algiers, Hungary, Cuba, 

 New South Wales, New Zealand, and other countries, 

 while amongst the most frequent visitors in the autumn 

 months were many teachers from the United States and 

 Canada. 



The annual meeting of the Geographical Association 

 was held at the London School of Economics on January 6. 

 The morning was devoted to technical papers on methods 

 of geographical instruction. The excellent work which the 

 association is doing in the direction of applying scientific 

 methods to the teaching of geography is indicative of the 

 new spirit which is inspiring schoolmasters and school- 

 mistresses. Until recently it was customary to rely wholly 

 upon the teacher's explanations, and the pupils were 

 expected to listen and remember merely ; nowadays, in the 

 best schools, the pupil is made to take an active part in 

 the work and to deduce geographical principles from prac- 

 tical exercises based on maps, the graphing of curves, the 

 reading of measuring instruments, and many other branches 

 of the subject. The character of the morning papers read 

 to a large and interested audience of teachers reflected 

 this gratifying change. The afternoon session also was 

 largely attended. It was announced that the membership 

 had increased by 250 during last year, and is now 793. 

 In his presidential address Mr. Douglas Freshfield said 

 he had brought one satisfactory item of news from the 

 Royal Geographical Society, namely, that the council of 

 the Royal Geographical Society and the University of 

 Oxford have agreed to maintain their respective contribu- 

 tions to the Oxford School of Geography for another 

 period of five years. The school grows in size and reputa- 

 tion, and it only remains for some pious benefactor, some 

 city_ company, or colonial millionaire to build himself a 

 lasting monument by providing the school with a suitable 



