January 2, 1902] 



NA TURE 



varied assortment of iron objects, such as knives, chisels, axes 

 with flanges on one or both sides, axe-hammers with transverse 

 sockets, scythes and sickles very similar to those from Oppi- 

 dum La Tene, buckles, shears, shovels, ploughshares and 

 coulters, the central portion of a bridle-bit, &c. 



A bronze staiuet/e. — One of the late Hallstatt graves contained 

 a bronze figure of a beardless man, 12 centimetres in height. 

 The body is clad in a closely-fitting tunic with a prominent 

 girdle, leaving the neck, forearms and legs exposed. On the 

 left arm is an armlet, on the left leg an anklet, and on the head 

 a helmet. The bare feet rest on a small round pedestal. The 

 gaze is directed to the palm of the upraised right hand, while 

 the left arm is bent sidewards as if the half-closed fist were 

 grasping the handle of an upright spear. 



One of the most novel features of the cemetery was the 

 proportionately large number of agricultural and domestic 

 implements which it contained. While analogous cemeteries in 

 other localities, such as the neighbouring necropolis of Santa 

 Lucia, have yielded an endless array of objects of personal 

 adornment, as well as others intended exclusively for votive 

 purposes, here at Idtia the grave-goods consisted of utensils, 

 implements, weapons, tools and ornaments actually used in 

 everyday life. Mr. Szombathy, however, observes that this 

 peculiarity was more noticeable in the interments of the later 

 half of the period during which the cemetery was in use. 



Another equally noteworthy feature was that objects of 

 different periods were not unfrequently found in the same grave 

 — a fact accounted for by the tendency to continue old customs 

 in secluded mountain valleys, such as that of Idria. This 

 overlapping of different culture periods complicates, to some 

 extent, the task of delineating the successive phases of the early 

 Iron Age civilisation. 



As to the racial question, Mr. Szombathy speaks by no means 

 dogmatically. The earlier grave-goods indicate a civilisation so 

 like that of Santa Lucia that its founders were probably of the 

 Illyrian stock ; but whether the same people continued in the 

 Idria valley during the intrusion into it of the later Celtic and 

 Roman culture-elements there is no evidence to show. Possibly 

 the deciphering of the inscriptions on the bronzes, of which 

 there are three or four, may help to solve the problem. 



The frequency with which the generic expressions " Hall- 

 statt " and " La Tene " are now used in the archreological 

 literature of Europe renders it essential for British antiquaries 

 to acquire precise ideas of the culture-elements represented by 

 them. For the origin of the word " Hallstatt " we have to go 

 back to the inve.^tigalion of a cemetery in a small valley of the 

 Noric Alps in the vicinity of Lake Hallstatt, and for that of " La 

 Tene " to the well-known station of that name at the north end 

 of Lake Neuchatel. Subsequently these terms were used to de- 

 signate similar remains found in widely-separated districts, just in 

 the same way as the term ' ' Mycenxan " is no longer restricted to 

 the discoveries at Mycense. Practical researches have now greatly 

 extended the culture-elements, both in number and types, 

 which have to be classified under Hallstatt and La Tene, and it 

 has often been mooted whether a better nomenclature could not 

 be devised. I do not think it would now be advisable to make 

 any change in this respect. What, however, is urgently required 

 with regard to these terminal links in the development of the 

 Iron Age in Europe is an authoritative work dealing with the 

 essential characteristics of the relics discovered within their 

 respective archaeological areas. P"or records of the rich finds 

 made in Central Europe since the appearance of " Das Grabfeld 

 vDn Hallstatt" by v. Sacken, and in the cemeteries of Glasinac 

 and Jezerine in Bosnia, as well as in those of the Istrian 

 peninsula and the valley of the Po, we have to hunt in the 

 Traiuaclions of so many societies that they are, practically, 

 inaccessible to all but a few specialists. Knowing the compe- 

 tency of Austrian archajologists for executing such a work, and 

 the ample resources, by way of illustrations, at their command, 

 I trust this suggestion will not remain fruitless. 



Robert Munro. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



The difficulty in connection with Mr. Carnegie's offer to 

 found a National University (see p. 164) has been solved by the 

 donor's arranging to convert into Government bonds the ten 

 million dollars' worth of United States Steel Corporation bonds. 



NO. 1679, VOL. 65] 



the acceptance of which was an obstacle to the adoption of 

 the scheme. 



Our national deficiencies in regard to provision for higher 

 scientific and technical education are obvious to all who take the 

 trouble to inquire into the matter. For many years men of 

 science have been watching with a feeling akin to envy the op- 

 portunities provided for scientific instruction and investigation 

 by foreign nations, and comparing them with the elementary 

 efforts at technical education here. The facts which have been 

 given in these columns week after week hive made our readers 

 familiar with existing conditions of technical education ; and 

 it is impossible not to be dismayed at the country's prospects in 

 the industrial wars of the future when the inadequate way in 

 which our industrial leaders are trained is understood. .-V pam- 

 phlet just published by the Association of Technical Institutions, 

 giving a comparison of technical education at home and abroad, 

 again brings the subject before the attention of the public. In 

 the matter of buildings and equipment for the highest kinds of 

 technical work we are still tar behind Germany, Switzerland 

 and America. Two diagrams published in Nature in 1898 (vol. 

 Iviii. p. 54) show clearly how Continental institutions for instruc- 

 tion and research work in technical or applied science are pro- 

 vided on a scale which vastly exceeds ours both as regards areas 

 of sites and areas of buildings. Both these diagrams are repro- 

 duced in the pamphlet just mentioned, and also those which 



Fic. 2. 



Fig. I. — Diagram comparing approximately the number of Students above 

 15 years of age taking complete Day Technological Courses in the 

 whole United Kingdom, with the numbers of sinTilar Students above 

 18 in single Institutions in Germany and America. 



Fig. 2. — Diagram comparing approximately the number of third and fourth 

 year Students above 17 years of age taking complete Day Courses in 

 Engineering in the United Kingdom, with the number of similar 

 Students above 20 in a single German Institution. 



accompany this note. In these diagrams we have some results 

 of an inquiry made by the association as to the number of day 

 students fifteen years of age or more who are taking complete 

 regular day technological courses of not less than twenty hours 

 a week. Statistics were obtained from Universities, University 

 Colleges, technical schools and all similar institutions where day 

 technological courses are given. The results of the inquiry 

 show that in comparison with other countries our attempts at 

 technical education are utterly futile. In the whole country 

 there are only 555 third-year students of technology satisfying 

 the conditions described, and 113 fourth-year students. The 

 total number of third-year students in engineering is only 347, 

 and of fourth-year students 52, and this number is only obtained 

 by counting students who begin their studies at the immature age 

 of fifteen. As the accompanying diagram (Fig. i) shows, there 

 are more than two-thirds as many regular day students above 

 eighteen years of age at the Charlottenburg Technical High 

 School, Berlin, as there are iabove fifteen years of age taking 



