34<^ 



NATURE 



[November 21, 191 2 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — Mr. N. Cunliffe, of Trinity College, 

 has been appointed to the office of assistant to the 

 superintendent of the museum of zoology for one year 

 as from October i. 



The Board of Agricultural Studies reports that the 

 number of students receiving instruction in the School 

 of Agriculture continues to increase. This term 117 

 names are on the books, as compared with 106, 100, 

 and Si in the corresponding terms of the last three 

 years. It is hoped that the new building will be 

 ready for occupation in October, 1913. The rooms 

 lately vacated by the Forestry Department are now 

 used for the advisory work subsidised by the Develop- 

 ment Commissioners. In addition to the University 

 farm, possession of How House Farm for the purposes 

 of the Plant Breeding Institute was taken on Sep- 

 tember 30. The farm belongs to Trinity College, and 

 consists of 146 acres of arable land and 67 of pasture. 

 The soil survey of the eastern counties is in active 

 progress. The analytical work on the soils of Nor- 

 folk, Cambridgeshire, Isle of Ely, and Huntingdon- 

 shire is completed, and that of Bedfordshire, Suffolk, 

 and Northamptonshire is well in hand. 



Oxford. — On November 19 the decree assigning a 

 plot of land on the south side of the University park 

 for an extension of the chemical department was pro- 

 posed bv the president of Magdalen, opposed by Prof. 

 Oman, and carried in Convocation by 175 to 106. In 

 the same Convocation, a decree assigning a plot at 

 the north-west corner of the park for the erection of 

 an engineering laboratory, also proposed by the presi- 

 dent of Magdalen, was supported by Prof. Jenkin, 

 opposed by the rector of Exeter, and rejected by 234 

 tn 81. The vote mav be taken, not as showing any 

 ill-will on the part of the University to the subject of 

 engineering, but as the expression of a pretty general 

 opinion that a more suitable site than that suggested 

 could be found for the proposed laboratory. 



TnK Right Hon. Sir Albert Soicer, Bart., M.P., will 

 distribute the prizes and certificates at the Borough 

 Polytechnic Institute, Borough Road, London, S.E., 

 on Monday, December 2, at 8 p.m. 



It is proposed to establish at the Huddersfield Tech- 

 nical College a library' relating to the woollen and 

 worsted industries, to include (i) pamphlets, books, 

 and printed matter of all kinds, and (2) pictures and 

 other illustrations dealing with the rise and growth of 

 the industries, their present position and possible 

 further developments. An appeal is made, therefore, 

 for gifts of books, &c., and for donations of money 

 with which to purchase necessary additions to the 

 library not otherwise obtainable. Any contributions 

 may be sent to the secretary. Technical College, 

 Huddersfield. 



In her lecture on November 15 to the London Child 

 Study Society on Maria Montessori's method and self- 

 education, Madame Pujol-S^galas urged that from 

 different points of view Froebel and Montessori per- 

 ceive the same necessity for taking "nature as a 

 guide " in the endeavour to create conditions favour- 

 able to the child's development. Attempts, she said, 

 have been made in Europe and America to apply 

 natural and rational methods in practical teaching, but 

 the teachers experience difficulties from a deformation 

 of the child's mind which has previously taken place. 

 Such deformation does not take place in the houses 

 administered under the Montessori system, because the 

 training is as a rule individual instead of being con- 



NO. 2247, VOL. 90] 



stantly collective, and because it leaves room for the 

 free expansion of the growing life. The aim of the 

 system is to show how it is possible to stop making 

 slaves of our pupils, intellectually and morally. Mon- 

 tessori schools are laboratories of experimental psycho- 

 logy in the truest sense. Practical difficulties in the 

 application of the method vary together with qualities 

 of races, classes, persons, and age. In order to serve 

 the children we must have faith in human nature, and 

 give it an opportunity of rising up to its highest 

 present ideal, so that realising it, it may conceive 

 new ones, higher still, ever progressing, and thus f-ul- 

 filling its destiny. 



An interesting point made in the preface to the 

 recently published calendar of the University College 

 of North Wales for the session 1912-13 is that to the 

 establishment of the college all classes of the com- 

 munity contributed their aid with remarkable 

 unanimity. Never before, in so short a period, had so 

 many persons, either in England or in Wales, sub- 

 scribed towards a movement for the promotion of 

 higher education. The subscription list was opened at 

 a meeting held in Chester on January 23, 1883, when 

 seven gentlemen subscribed 1000/. each. In twelve 

 months the list had risen to upwards of 30,000!., the 

 total number of subscribers being nearly 8000. A 

 large proportion of this amount was given in small 

 sums, much of it as the result of a house-to-house 

 canvass in the rural parts of North Wales. More than 

 1250/. was contributed by the quarrymen of the Pen- 

 rhyn and Dinorwic Quarries, who undertook the 

 entire work of collection, appointing collectors for each 

 ■■gallery" in the quarry and contributing each monthly 

 pay-dav a fixed sum out of their earnings. In view 

 of this local enthusiasm for higher education, it is not 

 surprising that there should have been a progressive 

 increase in th" number of students year by year. At 

 the beginning of the session 1SS4-3, the total number 

 of students was fifty-eight, while the session 1911-12 

 opened with 33S students, three-quarters of whom were 

 from North Wales. 



In the issue of Science for October 25 last, Prof. 

 Rudolf Tombo, Junior, of Columbia University, con- 

 tributes an article on the geographical distribution of 

 the student body of a number of American universi- 

 ties and colleges, .^mong other matters of interest. 

 Prof. Tombo deals with the number of foreign students 

 at American institutions of higher learning. Thirt)"- 

 seven American universities and colleges together 

 attracted no fewer than 17S2 foreigners during the 

 academic year 1910-11, exclusive of the attendance at 

 summer courses. Of these students from other coun- 

 tries, Canada sent 344, China 330, Japan 197, Mexico 

 193, Turkey (in Europe and Asia) 84, India 73, British 

 Isles 72, Cuba 62, Germany 48, Russia 48, and Aus- 

 tralia 47. When the foreign clientele of twenty-one 

 of the leading American universities is compared with 

 that of the twenty-one German universities, America 

 is seen to be far behind Germany in attracting foreign 

 students to its institutions of higher learning. During 

 the winter session of 1910-11 the German universities 

 were attended by no fewer than 4672 foreign students, 

 as against 1576 foreigners at the American universities 

 mentioned. The German universities draw 4046 

 students from other European countries, 39S from 

 North and South .'\merica, 203 from Asia, 20 from 

 Africa, and 5 from .^ustralasia, while the .American 

 universities attract 47S students from North .American 

 countries outside of the United States, 112 from South 

 America, 318 from Europe, 587 from Asia, 32 from 

 Africa, and 40 from Australasia ; in other words, the 

 American universities lead in every continent with the 

 exception of Europe. 



