January 9, 1902 J 



NA TURE 



237 



inquiry, of the science becoming buried in its own literature 

 will he rendered unavoidable. Ol the other papers which fill the 

 remaining 61 pp. of the issue before us there are four. One by Dr 

 Preston Kyes, of Chicago, on " The Intralobular Framework of 

 the Human Spleen," contains little that is new, and is chiefly 

 noteworthy for the introduction of a method. Then follows a 

 paper entitled " Studies on the Neuroglia," by Dr. Carl Huber, 

 of Michigan, which embodies a useful n'siinu' of the conflicting 

 results of the observations of previous investigators. The 

 author has adopted the comparative method of inquiry, and has 

 done good service in relation to technique ; and among his 

 chief results is the conclusion that certain of the neuroglia fibres 

 are not simply processes of the cells, or, as von Kolliker believed, 

 of a differentiated cell-plate, but that they are to be regarded as 

 intercellular. 



The fourth paper is welcome, as dealing, in an up-to-date 

 manner, with the modern topic of "The Normal Histology of 

 the Human H.Tjmolymph Glands." Its author. Dr. A. S. 

 Warthin, also of Michigan, gives it as his opinion that our 

 conceptions of lymphoidal tissues are greatly broadened by the 

 study of these glands. He distinguishes between " spleeno- 

 lymph " and *' marrowlymph '' glands, on a basis of structural 

 and functional differentiation. He defines the latter as retro- 

 peritoneal, and in many observed cases most prominent when 

 associated with pathological conditions. He admits the e.xist- 

 ence of transitional types of gland, and suggests that the ordinary 

 lymphatic gland is the most highly developed, and that the 

 spleen stands in similar relationship to it through the spleeno- 

 lymph gland as does the lymphoid marrow through the marrow- 

 lymph gland. He further regards the red marrow as " the most 

 primitive type of lymphuid structure." 



The fifth and last paper is by Prof. C. S. Minot, of Harvard 

 Medical School, who needs no introduction to English 

 anatomists. It is " On the Morphology of the Pineal Region, 

 based upon its Development in Acanthias," and is a very careful 

 study, mainly of the paraphysis and velum. Six " funda- 

 mental morphological divisions" are recognised " in the median 

 line of the diencephalic roof," and for some of these new terms 

 are proposed. It is pointed out, on a delimitation of that which 

 the author terms the " paraphysial arch," as distinct from the 

 " post velar," that the posterior commissure belongs morpho- 

 logically to the mid brain. The paraphysis is regarded as in all 

 probability a true gland, akin to the infundibular gland and the 

 glandular epiphysis of birds ; and it is suggested that these are 

 severally comparable to ductless glands, and that they " supply 

 some substances which are useful to the nervous system." 



The journal is well supported, and its get-up is deserving of 

 the highest praise. Its collaborators include the names of more 

 than sixty persons, most of whom are either leaders in human 

 and comparative anatomy in the United States or otherwise well 

 known, and its editorial board is composed of eight of their 

 number who are sufficiently representative. On the whole, we 

 would congratulate our friends upon their venture ; and if they 

 will only see to it that, whenever possible, they rest content to 

 work upon a basis of the bare record of facts hitherto unobserved, 

 whereby they will not burden an already overcrowded literature, 

 we can at least assure them of our sympathy and good wishes, 

 if not our actual support. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Lord Strathcona, the Lord Rector of the University of Aber- 

 deen, has sent a cheque for 25,000/. towards the Aberdeen 

 University building scheme, the public having subscribed 30,000/. 

 and thereby more than fulfilled the condition under which Lord 

 Strathcona promised his gift. 



The Prince of Wales has consented to visit Manchester on 

 March 12 to open the Whitworth Hall at the Owens College. 

 At a meeting of the Court of Governors of the College on 

 Tuesday, the following motion was passed: — "That the time 

 has arrived when steps should be taken to secure that there 

 should be, as originally ]>roposed by the Owens College, an 

 independent University in .Manchester." 



The annual meeting of the Geographical Association will 

 be held at the College of Preceptors on Wednesday, January 

 15. Mr. Douglas \V. Freshfield, president of the Association, 



NO. 1680, VOL. 65] 



will occupy the chair, and an address will be delivered by the 

 Right Hon. James Biyce, M.P., on "The Importance of 

 Geography in Education." Tickets may be had on application 

 to the hon. sec. Dr. A. J. Herbertson, 9, Staverton Road, 

 Oxford, or to the hon. treas. , Mr. J. .S. Masterman, St. 

 Margaret's, Dorking. 



The system of teaching by correspondence is not one which 

 has attained to very great favour in this country, except, per- 

 haps, as a means of preparing for examinations, and it would be 

 considered by most especially unsuitable for studying such 

 preeminently practical pmfessions as civil, mechanical and 

 electrical engineering, mining, tVc. Yet it appears from an 

 article in a recent number of the New York Electrical Renicw 

 that this system has a considerable vogue in America. The 

 International Correspondence Schools, in spite of the fact that 

 they were only inaugurated ten years ago, now number more 

 than 350,000 students, amongst whom a large proportion are 

 following courses in engineering, and it is not the only institu- 

 tion of the kind in the States. A decidedly valuable feature of 

 the system in the case of the electrical courses is that students 

 are supplied with sufficient apparatus to carry out most of the 

 fundamental experiments. No doubt this method of teaching 

 can be of great benefit to those who are actually employed in 

 engineering works and are thus more or less conversant with 

 the practical side of the subject, and in consequence can be of 

 considerable help in raising the efficiency of the country, which 

 must ultimately depend on the efficiency of its workers. 



A PAPER on German Technical Schools by Prof. V. C. 

 Alderson, Dean of the Armour Institute of Technology, pub- 

 lished in the Chicago Inter Ocean, contains some points which 

 serve to accentuate the account given in last week's notes 

 (p. 213) of the little that is being done for higher technical 

 education in Great Britain. Prof. Alderson describes briefly 

 the Technical High Schools at Charloltenburg, Karlsruhe, 

 Munich, Hanover, Darmstadt and other German cities, and 

 compares the work carried on in them with that of the techni- 

 cal schools in the United States and Great Britain. He points 

 out as a lamentable fact that the provision for engineering edu- 

 cation in London is totally inadequate. " In this great city of 

 6,000,000 people barely 6co students a year are provided with 

 engineering instruction of an advanced character. In this 

 great metropolis, which contains more engineers of every class 

 than any other city in the world, and where there is the greatest 

 demand for their services, not only at home, but in foreign enter- 

 prises financed in London, the provision for their education is 

 comparatively nothing. Any one of the German Technische 

 Hochschulen which I have described, with far less reason for 

 existence, has a larger equipment, is more expensive to main- 

 tain, covets a broader field of work, and is better fitted to exert 

 a powerful influence upon the profession and the industries 

 than the best technical school in London. Not only are 

 the few schools now in the field inadequate for the purpose, 

 but many fields of engineering education are entirely bare. 

 Absolutely no provision is made for teaching marine 

 engineering, naval architecture, railway engineering, munici- 

 pal engineering, or architecture. These are departments 

 of the utmost consequence for the continued prosperity of 

 London, yet she allows her young men to pick up their training 

 in the old-fashioned way, and if she needs a really capable man 

 she must import him from Germany, Switzerland or America. 

 London has received no greater shock recently than to wake up 

 and find that the equipment of (he new ' twopenny tube,' as the 

 Electric Railway is called, was almost entirely American. 

 The error which Englishmen make in this whole field of technical 

 education is a failure to recognise the difference between the 

 skilled workman and the professional engineer. She has been 

 endeavouring to compete with the highly trained scientific 

 experts of Germany and America by simply educating the hand, 

 training arti.sans in the belief that she was making professional 

 engineers. Not until England is dotted with large and flourish- 

 ing schools like the Central Technical College of London, not 

 until the English realise the necessity of training both the hand 

 and the head, and not until she perceives the full value of high- 

 grade engineering education will she be safe from the intrusion 

 of German and .American engineers who have had a thorough 

 engineering training." This view from outside confirms that 

 which can be seen when our educational structure is examined 

 from within, and supplies a further reason for increased scientific 

 training for leaders of industry. 



