January 28, 1909] 



NA TURE 



379 



it was found possible to obtain photographs on which the 

 contrast between the echpse(i and uneclipsed parts of the 

 lunar disc was very striking ; on the photograph repro- 

 duced the latter is almost entirely obscured. 



Several other observations recorded in the January 

 Bulletin de la Societe astronomique dc France confirm 

 those made at Juvisy. 



L"AnNUAIRE ASTRONOMiniE ET MliTliOROLOGIOUE, I909.— 



Amateur astronomers and meteorologists who read French 

 will find M. Flammarion's year-book a valuable acquisi- 

 tion. The volume for 1909 contains the usual data, with 

 the calendar of events so useful to amateur observers and 

 others interested in astronomical phenomena, and some 

 useful instructions to observers ; the annual review of the 

 progress of astronomy during the past year should also 

 prove interesting. The " Annuaire " is published at 1.50 

 francs. 



T' 



THE BRITISH SCIENCE GUILD. 



'HE third annual general meeting of members of the 

 British Science Guild was hold at the Mansion House 

 on Friday last, January 22, under the presidency 

 of the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor. We give this week 

 extracts from the report of the executive committee pre- 

 sented by Sir \V. Ramsay, and adopted on the motion of 

 Sir Frederick Pollock, seconded by Sir Oliver Lodge. 



The president of the Guild, in his address at the annual 

 meeting last year, remarked : — " It is known now that 

 without skill it is impossible to hold your own in the 

 competition of the day. The change that has come over 

 things in the last fifty or si.Kty years is immense. Without 

 science no one can organise his business ; without science 

 no nation can keep its place in the van. Therefore, one of 

 the great responsibilities of the nation is, not only to keep 

 her knowledge ir. the minds of a few individuals abreast 

 of the age, not only to produce her Kelvins and her 

 Darwins, but to see that her science is disseminated and 

 that it enters the mind and actuates the endeavours of her 

 Captains of Industry generally. This is the creed of the 

 Guild, and that is the lesson w-hich we ourselves have 

 endeavoured to teach." 



During the year the Guild has steadily laboured for- 

 ward, and, in spite of the vast quantity of inertia against 

 which its missionary efforts have to contend, the nation 

 is gradually commencing to realise the importance of the 

 scientific spirit. Public speakers, particularly those who 

 have to do with educational subjects, are almost unanimous 

 in urging the importance of the inclusion of science in all 

 educational schemes. 



Dr. Warren, the Vice-Chancellor of O.xford LIniversity, 

 at the last annual meeting made the following striking re- 

 marks : — " If there is one thing about which I have been 

 persistently keen all through my academic career, it has 

 been the desire to introduce science into the regular and 

 compulsory curriculum of O.xford, to ensure that everyone 

 who takes the ordinary degree should at least know what 

 science and the scientific attitude of mind are lil<e. I hope 

 1 shall see this accomplished before my own active career 

 closes." 



Following this. Sir William Anson, the representative 

 in Parliament of the same University, has recently said : — 

 " No boy should leave school without the rudiments of one 

 branch of science and some knowledge of scientific 

 method." 



The Chancellor of the Exchequer recently affirmed at 

 Bangor that what is w'anted is not only teachers, but also 

 explorers. Science has its dark continents, unlimited 

 oceans, chartless. Germany has said, You must have a 

 university to teach and to educate and to develop the 

 German mind, and now the effect is seen in the German 

 industries. 



\'isiting recently one of the largest workshops in 

 Germany, he was taken round bv .a professor. Tn these 

 workshops the professors are the experts. The Germans 

 g'ct their ideas from their professors. We in this country 

 heave coal and blast rocks, but the great industries that 

 finish these products are elsewhere. The universities are 

 the factories where the future of the country is being 



NO. 2048, VOL. 79] 



torged. There is no investment that will produce such a 

 return, not to the investor, but to the generations to come, 

 as the endowment of higher education. 



The public Press is also becoming more constant in 

 pointing out the need of scientific education ; in urging 

 that with each year it becomes more clear that scientific 

 knowledge is the root of both social prosperity and social 

 progress ; that the real function of a university is not to 

 teach men a business, but to cultivate their intellects, to 

 make them the best possible citizens, and, humanly speak- 

 ing, the most accomplished citizens ; that a university 

 ought to be the nursery of our leaders of industry, of our 

 politicians and professional classes; of all men, in fact, 

 upon whose initiative and by ivhose counsel the great 

 affairs of the nation are carried on. 



It was mentioned in last year's report that the main 

 educational advance had been in primary education. This 

 has again been the case in the year just passed. Of 

 course it is of the utmost importance that primary educa- 

 tion should be efficient, because unless there is a sure 

 foundation the edifice can never be satisfactorily completed ; 

 but it must be remembered that secondary education is 

 also of the highest importance. Unfortunately, owing to 

 religious and denominational differences, there is much un- 

 rest in the educational world, and this most seriously 

 militates against efficiency. Until some adequate settle- 

 ment, agreeable to all parties in the controversy, is arrived 

 at, the cause of true education must inevitably suffer. 



In Scotland, where sectarian strife is happily non- 

 existent, primary and secondary education reach a much 

 higher level than in the rest of the United Kingdom. It 

 is with the sincerest pleasure that we note the passage 

 into law of the Scottish Education Bill, which deals in 

 particular with compulsory attendance at continuation 

 schools. 



In connection with the higher scientific and technical 

 education, the Imperial College of Science is now being 

 organised, and the appointment of Dr. Bovey as its prin- 

 cipal is noted with particular pleasure. As a consequence 

 of this reorganisation, the technological education of 

 London is being placed on a much firmer footing. 



The Senate of the University of Manchester, having 

 realised the necessity of the times, are fitting out new 

 laboratories, a number of them to be employed entirely for 

 chemical research in connection with commercial problems. 



In last year's report attention was directed to the very 

 meagre national endowment of the universities of Great 

 Britain and Ireland. It is much to be regretted that the 

 Government have not seen their way to increase this 

 national endowment, which, compared with what is 

 granted to universities abroad, is infinitesimal. The sight 

 of the ancient universities struggling to obtain an adequate 

 sum from private sources to enable them to carry out 

 needed reforms is one which could not be witnessed on 

 the Continent of Europe. 



It is now universally admitted that those countries which 

 most efficiently support their universities and technical 

 schools, and where education of the highest class can be 

 obtained the most readily with the lowest fees, are most 

 in a position to command the markets of the world. Surely 

 it is high time that more attention was paid by the State 

 to the needs of the universities and colleges. It should be 

 realised that there are many steps to be taken beyond 

 primary education if the nation is to be in a position to 

 compete with its rivals. Our national system of education 

 must eventuallv include the universities. 



The neglect' of higher education, and the difficulties of 

 finding ways and means which the universities have had 

 to put up with, account for the loss of many specialised 

 trades to the country. Little can be expected from a 

 university or technical institute which is always in the 

 throes of trying to make income balance expenditure. It 

 sometimes happens that a beneficent donor will give a 

 new wing or building to a university or institute, but for- 

 gets that such a building will require a staff and an income 

 to keep it up. The consequence of this is that fees are 

 often exorbitant, and students who have the ability to take 

 advantage of the instruction, but not the pecuniary means, 

 are prevented from attending. It also causes the staff to 

 be inadequate, overworked, and underpaid. An overworked 

 staff is unable to spare time for original investigation, and 



