January 30, 19 13] 



NATURE 



595 



.4 UNIVERSITY IN THE TROPICS. 

 y^HE TIMES of January 23 devotes one of its 

 leading articles to the important question 

 of the need of establishing' a university in the 

 tropics for the study of tropical agriculture. The 

 subject is dealt with in a very interesting and 

 forcible manner, and it is to be hoped that it may 

 not be long before the proposal is realised. 



At present, beyond the few facilities which exist 

 at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, 

 there is no place within the British Dominions 

 where men who aspire to a tropical post, or 

 have to deal with tropical estates, can learn more 

 than a smattering of either the nature or magni- 

 tude of the problems which await solution. Yet 

 men are constantly being sent out as agricultural 

 officers to fill highly important and responsible 

 posts, and they are expected to be able at once to 

 cope with the difficulties which are presented from 

 all sides. 



Did we but stop to count the cost of our want 

 of foresight in this matter we should realise that 

 the expenditure in establishing a proper training 

 centre in the tropics would long ago have been 

 repaid by the increase of efficiency in the officers 

 and the resultant improvement in agricultural 

 operations. 



The paramount advantage of a university or 

 college of science established in some tropical 

 colony would be that it would provide a centre 

 where questions relating to soil, plant and animal 

 breeding, plant and animal pathology, economic 

 zoology, and various chemical and other questions 

 could be investigated under tropical conditions b)' 

 a highly competent professorial body, and where 

 advanced instruction could be given to students — 

 whose preliminary training had been received else- 

 where — destined to fill agricultural posts in one or 

 other of our tropical colonies. If the need of such 

 an institution be admitted the question then arises, 

 Where should such a university be stationed ? 

 Before suggesting an answer to this question it is 

 necessary to point out that in view of the two-fold 

 nature of the proposed institution, three points 

 must be kept in mind. In the first place it should 

 be situated in a colony offering the greatest pos- 

 sible scope for diverse agricultural pursuits ; 

 secondly, the healthiness of the colony should, so 

 far as possible, be beyond reproach ; and thirdly, 

 the spot chosen for the university should be within 

 easy access of the British Isles. 



This last point is perhaps the most important 

 one of all, since not only is it desirable on behalf 

 of the students from home that the expenditure of 

 time and monej' should not be unduly large, but 

 also it is of paramount importance that the pro- 

 fessors and lecturers should be able to have the 

 opportunity of frequent intercourse with home, and 

 so reduce to a minimum the possibility of stagna- 

 tion and loss of vigour which might be liable to 

 occur if personal intercourse with fellow-workers 

 at home were rendered difficult by distance and 

 expense. 



This danger of stagnation would also tend very 

 effectively to be obviated if the tropical university 

 NO. 2257, VOL. 90] 



or college of science could be definitely linked 

 with an institution at home. Such an institution 

 should be either a university especially interested 

 in agricultural matters or an institution of univer- 

 sity standing, such as the Imperial College of 

 Science and Technology. 



If then it be agreed that the points which have 

 been urged, in considering the requirements of an 

 agricultural institution in the tropics, must be re- 

 garded as conditions essential to its success, it 

 would seem clear that the site for the institution 

 must be sought in the Antilles. Nowhere among 

 these islands do we find all the requisite conditions 

 so fully met as in the easily accessible and beau- 

 tiful island of Trinidad. 



THE NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS 

 OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM.^ 



TO those familiar with the natural history 

 collections in the old British Museum in 

 Bloomsbury the work of Dr. Giinther must revive 

 many pleasant associations of the 'fifties and 

 'sixties of last century — when the insect room was 

 frequented by naturalists of note in various depart- 

 ments. Thus, besides the staff of the museum, 

 which then included the brothers J. E. and R. 

 Gray, Dr. Giinther himself, F. Smith, and 

 foreign naturalists, one met such men as Dr. 

 Bowerbank, Mr. Busk, Dr. Carpenter, Mr. John 

 Gould, and such ladies as the charming Mrs. 

 Alfred Gatty — all eager to absorb as well as impart 

 information. No marine laboratories then existed, 

 so that marine, as well as terrestrial, natural 

 history centred in the great museum. In the 

 historical treatise heading the list, which no 

 one could write so well as Dr. Giinther, we are 

 brought face to face with all the conspicuous addi- 

 tions to the vast collections, which in 1868 were 

 close on a million and in 1895 two millions, the 

 changes in the staff, the nature of their work, 

 the financial allowances, and, more than all, the 

 remarkable task of transporting the collections 

 from the old museum to the new quarters in 

 Cromwell Road. 



Few have any notion of the vast stores in every 

 department of zoology which have been assidu- 

 ously collected in one way or another by the 

 trustees, or of the labour entailed on the staff, 

 for instance, by the receipt of 63,000 specimens 

 of a particular group at once, especially if they 

 were not carefully named and labelled. Besides 

 the task of incorporating the rare or new species, 

 duplicates have to be selected and treated differ- 



1 "The History of the Collections contained in the Natural History 

 Departments of the British Museum." Vol. ii. Appendix. General 

 History of the Department of Zoology from 1856 to 1895. By Dr. .Mbert 

 G\inther, F.R.S. Pp. ix-t-105. (London: British Museum (Natural 

 His'.ory): Longmans and Co. . 1912.) Price 5*-. 



CataloKue of the Mammals of Western Europe (Europe exclusive of 

 Russia) in the Collection of the British Museum. By Gerrit S. -Miller. 

 Pp. xv-f-toig. (London: British Museum (Natural History): Longmans 

 and Co.. 1912.) Price 26s. 



Catalogue of the Collection of Birds' Eggs in the British Museum 

 (Natural History). Vol. v. Carinat;e (P.-wseriformes completed). By 

 W. R. Ogilvic-Grant. Pp. xxii+547+22 pLates. (London : British Museum 

 (Natural History): Longmans and Co., 1Q12.) Pricti jC^ -js, 61/. 



Cat.-ilogue of the Chastopoda in the British Museum (Natural History). 

 A. Polychacta : Part L Arenicolidae. By Dr. J. H. Ashworth. Pp. xii-i- 

 175-f XV plates. (London: British Museum (Natural History); Longmans 

 and Co., J912.) Price 27s. 6(/. 



