4SO 



NATURE 



[C^CTOBI.R 13, 1 9 10 



(Ifpcirtmenls of biological science with which il was 

 intimately connected, the foundations on which it rested, 

 chemistry, anatomy, physiology, . and pathology. The 

 difficulty which the student experienced was to keep pace 

 with his subjects. With the average man the whole busi- 

 ness had, from the first, been hopeless. He thought that 

 a conference of those interested in medical education might 

 be useful. 



THE BERLIN UNIVERSITY CENTENARY. 

 'PHE celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the 

 foundation of the University of Berlin began on Mon- 

 day with a reception of the representatives of universities 

 and other bodies and a torchlight procession of students. The 

 principal ceremony was held on Tuesday in the new Great 

 Hall of the University. The Emperor and Empress, with 

 the Prussian Princes and a brilliant retinue, attended, and 

 his Majesty delivered an address. The festivities will be 

 continued until Thursday night. A Reuter message from 

 Berlin states that all the German and the principal foreign 

 universities of the world are represented by special dele- 

 gates. The representatives appointed by British universi- 

 ties are (in alphabetical order) : — Aberdeen, Principal 

 G. A. Smith; Cambridge, Sir J. J. Thomson; Cape Town, 

 Prof. Marais; Dublin, Prof. .Mahaffy ; Durham, Vice- 

 Chancellor Dr. Jevons ; Edinburgh, Prof. H. J. Eggeling 

 and Sir W. Turner ; Glasgow, Principal Macalister ; 

 London, Sir H. E. Roscoe and Sir \V. Ramsay ; Mel- 

 bourne. Prof. Masson ; Montreal, Lord Strathcona ; 

 Oxford, Mr. R. W. Macan, the Master of University ; 

 Toronto, Prof. McCurdy. The British Academy is repre- 

 sented by Lord Reay ; the Royal Society by Sir Joseph 

 Larmor ; and the University of Paris by M. Henri 

 Poincare. 



Reuter 's correspondent remarked on Monday: — "The 

 patriotic aspect of the fetes will be more strongly marked 

 than is usual in the case of academic celebrations. The 

 decision to found a university in Berlin was taken while 

 the capital was still in the occupation of French troops, 

 when Prussia's national fortunes were at their lowest ebb. 

 It is now a matter of justifiable pride to the Germans 

 that in those disastrous days there was still courage and 

 energy enough in Prussia to set coolly about the task of 

 rebuilding the intellectual and educational life of the 

 country and giving it a national centre. Since then Berlin 

 University has grown with the growth of Prussia and 

 Germany, and a glance at its records from the handful 

 of professors and the few scores of students who attended 

 the opening winter term of 1810 to the 500 professors and 

 lecturers and the 12,000 students who now throng the 

 University buildings, provides no bad barometer by which 

 to gauge the marvellous progress of Prussia and Germany 

 during the past century." 



We hope to give in a later issue an account of the 

 celebration, by one of the delegates attending it. The 

 issues of the Morning Post for October 11 and 12 contain 

 particulars of the opening functions, and two valuable 

 leading articles in which German thoroughness and 

 system in educational and scientific work are described. 

 From the latter issue we reprint some interesting extracts 

 from the German Emperor's address. 



The German Emperor on Kno;vledge and Research. 

 Since the day of its foundation, the destiny of the 

 Friedrich Wilhelm University has been most intimatelv 

 bound up with that of the Prussian and German Father- 

 land. When my forefather King Frederick William the 

 1 bird summoned it into existence, now a hundred years 

 ago, his object was to restore to the State with intel- 

 lectual what it had lost in physical forces. The Uni- 

 versity of Berlin w-as thus born of the same creative spirit 

 from which Prussia's regeneration sprang. This spirit, 

 which raised up Prussia and Germany, and which lived 

 in Fichte, Schleiermacher, Savigny, and their friends, 

 m.ide the University in the course of years the centre of 

 intellectual and scientific life in the Fatherland. The 

 University of Berlin was at first, it is true, far from 

 being a Universitas Liierarum as conceived by Wilhelm 

 yon Humboldt, but it has approached ever nearer to this 

 idial. .\ stronghold of the sciences, it has to-day an 

 international importance reaching far beyond the frontiers 

 NO. 2137, VOL. 84] 



of Prussia and Germany. This is manifested outwardly 

 in the interchange of teachers and auditors. Working in 

 common with the other universities of the country, it con- 

 stitutes now the general teaching establishment which it 

 was intended to be by its founders. 



Humboldt's great plan demands side by side with the 

 Academy of Sciences and with the University independent 

 research institutions as integral parts of a whole scientific 

 organism. The foundation of such institutions has not 

 kept pace in Prussia with the development of the universi- 

 ties, and this deficiency, especially in our natural scientific 

 equipment, becomes ever more keenly felt in consequence 

 of the mighty advancement of the sciences. We need 

 institutions which, outside the compass of the universities, 

 shall serve solely for research. It appears to me to be 

 the sacred task of the present time to summon such 

 institutions into life at the earliest possible moment, and 

 I consider it my patriotic duty to solicit universal interest 

 in the undertaking. This great aim requires large means, 

 and can be attained only if all circles interested in the 

 progress of science and the welfare of the Fatherland are 

 ready to cooperate in fulfilling this most important task 

 and in making sacrifices for it. 



I should like, therefore, to bring before everybody's 

 eyes and lay at everybody's heart this new aim with the 

 fervent exhortation : " Tua res agitur." I hope and 

 firmly trust that the work will succeed, for, although the 

 plan has been made known only in a narrow circle, 

 enthusiastic expressions of concurrence have already 

 reached me from various parts of the country, and the 

 very considerable sum of between nine and ten million 

 marks [between 450,000^. and 500,000/.] have been placed 

 at the disposal of the enterprise. I feel it a cordial 

 necessity to express my warmest thanks from this place to 

 the self-sacrificing givers. In order to ensure the per- 

 manent furtherance of the enterprise, it is my wish to 

 found under my protectorate and name a society which 

 shall make it its task to establish and maintain research 

 institutions. To this society I will gladly transfer the 

 funds offered me. That State help will not be wanting 

 to institutions about to be established my Government 

 vv'ill take care. 



I have one other wish for the University to take with 

 it into the new century. May it in faithful remembrance 

 of the time of its origin preserve its Prussian-German 

 character. Science, it is true, is the common good of the 

 whole civilised world, and its achievements no longer halt 

 before any boundary line. .And yet — as each nation must 

 preserve its own peculiarity if it wishes to maintain an 

 independent existence, and its value for the whole — may 

 the " .\lma Mater Berolinensis " always remain conscious 

 of the fact that she is a German university. .As hereto- 

 fore, may it also be in all the future the seat of German 

 manners and customs and of the German nature. . . . 

 May, therefore, the University also henceforward hold the 

 splendid privilege of cultivating the true science which, as 

 Humboldt admirably s.nys, comes from the interior and 

 is planted in the interior which remoulds and creates the 

 character. I^t her do this with noble freedom which 

 gives laws to itself and in that intense feeling of being 

 the trustee of a treasure which is bestowed on all man- 

 kind. " Communis hominum thesaurus situs est in 

 magnis veritatibus." .Ml truth, how'ever, is from God, 

 and His spirit rests on every work that springs from 

 truth and strives after truth. May this spirit of truth 

 also fill you students ; mav it penetrate my dear University 

 in its entire efficacy. Then will its old age be as its 

 youth, and it \v\\\ continue to be the towm on a hill to 

 which the nations make pilgrimage, and the ornament 

 and safeguard of the Fatherland. 



TffE BRITISH ASSOCIA TION A T SHEFFIELD. 

 SECTION L. 



EDUCATION.'VL SCIENCE. 



Opening Address by Principal H. \. Miers, M.A., 

 D.Sc, F.R.S., President of the Section. 

 To preside over this Section is to incur a responsibility 

 which I confess somewhat alarms me; for the President 

 may, by virtue of his temporary office, be regarded as speak- 

 ing with authority on ihe subjects with which he deals. 



