January 13, 1910] 



NA TURE 



327 



statutory cnanges seem to me to be necessary. First, it 

 should be lawful for the education authority of any county 

 or county borough to make bye-laws (subject to confirma- 

 tion by the Board of Education) for requiring the attend- 

 ance at continuation classes up to any age not exceeding 

 seventeen years of any young persons resident or worlcing 

 in their district and not otherwise receiving a suitable 

 education. Secondly, Parliament should make it the 

 statutory duty of every employer of any young person 

 under seventeen years of age (o) to enable him or her 

 to attend continuation classes for such period of time and 

 at such hours as may be required by the bye-laws of the 

 local education authority of the district in which such 

 young person either works or resides, and (b) to supply 

 the names of all such young persons to the local authority 

 on its demand ; and, in order to secure the regular attend- 

 ance of pupils at technical and other continuation classes 

 in areas where such attendance is made compulsory by 

 bye-law, all employers in such trades or parts of the 

 district as the bye-law may specify should be forbidden, 

 under penalty, to employ any young person under seventeen 

 years of age who fails periodically to produce a card 

 attesting his or her attendance at continuation classes in 

 conformity with the terms of the local bye-law. 



These are the central and fundamental recommendations 

 unanimously made by the Consultative Committee of the 

 Board of Education. They are so designed as to stimulate 

 individual energy within the necessary frameworl^ of 

 administrative unity. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



A POST-GRADUATE course of seven lectures on " Photo- 

 electricity " will be given at King's College (University 

 of London) during the Lent term, by Dr. H. Stanley Allen, 

 on Wednesdays, at 5 p.m., beginning on January 19. 

 These lectures are open without fee to internal students 

 of the University on production of a card of admission 

 from their college. 



It is stated in Science that Mr. Henry Phipps, of New 

 York, founder of the Phipps Institute in Philadelphia, has 

 presented to the University of Pennsylvania the sum of 

 100,000!., to be used in the campaign against tubercu- 

 losis. Six years ago Mr. Phipps founded the Phipps 

 Institute for Tuberculosis Research in Philadelphia, with 

 a large endowment. In 1908 he gave 100,000/. to the 

 Johns Hopkins University for the founding of a psychiatric 

 clinic. From the same source we learn that the eleventh 

 industrial fellowship at the University of Kansas has been 

 established by the Pacific Coast Borax Company, of Oak- 

 land, California, and will be known as the Borax fellow- 

 ship. The amount which this company will pay to sup- 

 port the work of its fellow is 150I. 



We learn from the Pioneer Mail that the Government 

 of Bombay, in a letter to the University Senate, says the 

 offers of contributions which have been made by the lead- 

 ing citizens render it possible to begin the establishment 

 of a central institute in Bombay for the teaching of science. 

 Such an institute is needed urgently in order that the 

 Presidency may have advantages essential to progress which 

 are now reaped by other countries. Before practical steps 

 can be taken in this direction it is necessary to consider 

 what classes of students should be provided for and how 

 the teaching of science can be blended with the system of 

 higher education under the direction of the University. 

 The Governor in Council, after considering the existing 

 curriculum, concludes that radical changes are necessary 

 if the teaching of science and higher education generally 

 are to be brought into harmony with modern requirements. 



The current issue (No. 29) of the Transvaal Agri- 

 cultural Journal contains an article on the desirability of 

 founding a national college of agriculture for the Trans- 

 vaal. A million pounds is asked for as an endowment, 

 and it is suggested that the college should be thrown open 

 to all students from the British Empire. Mr. F. B. Smith, 

 NO. 209S, YOL. 82] 



the Director of Agriculture, has repeatedly urged the 

 necessity for a well-organised scheme of agricultural 

 education in South Africa, and has, indeed, already opened 

 a college at Potchefstroom, under Mr. Holm's principal- 

 ship. A number of letters from distinguished Americans 

 are printed setting forth the great advantages that have 

 accrued in the United States from the elaborate system of 

 agricultural colleges and experiment stations established 

 there. As the Transvaal already possesses one of the best 

 agricultural departments in the British Empire, it seems 

 fitting that it should also possess the greatest agricultural 

 college. 



Much educational information of interest and import- 

 ance is to be found in the latest report of the U.S. Com- 

 missioner of Education. We notice that attention is 

 directed to the 1908 report of the Prussian Minister of 

 Public Instruction, which gives a list of twenty-six States 

 comprising the German Empire and their relative uni- 

 versity attendances. The list makes it clear that south 

 Germany supplies a relatively greater number of students 

 than Prussia and Saxony. This is noteworthy, because 

 the south has many more small shop industries and smaller 

 farms than the north. The proportion of Prussia would 

 be smaller still if Berlin were excluded. Of the thirteen 

 Prussian provinces, nine remain below the Prussian 

 average. Those districts of the north which are chiefly 

 agricultural furnish few university students, while the 

 agricultural districts of the south furnish many more than 

 the Prussian average, and more than the average of the 

 Empire. Among every 10,000 male inhabitants in east 

 and north Germany in 1905-6, 1090 were attending uni- 

 versities, in middle and west Germany 12-63, ^'^^ '" south 

 Germany 14-25. Whether analogous results would be 

 noticed if the attendance at technological institutes, agri- 

 cultural colleges, mining schools, and so on were con- 

 sidered cannot be stated with certainty. In a few years 

 the relative attendance will be greatly changed, since 

 Prussia has opened its universities to women. 



The inaugural address of Prof. H. J. Waters on the 

 occasion of his formal installation as president of the 

 Kansas State Agricultural College, Manhattan, is given in 

 a recent number of Science (December 3, 1909). Prof. 

 Waters dealt with the development of the agricultural 

 college in America, and pointed out that, as only one out 

 of every four hundred school children ultimately graduates 

 at college, steps must be taken to bring the work of the 

 colleges to the people. The farmers' institutes do splendid 

 work in this direction, bringing no fewer than one-third of 

 the farmers into personal touch with the college representa- 

 tives, while as soon as funds are forthcoming the experi- 

 mental work is to be carried into every county in the 

 State. In justification of these proposals he says, in refer- 

 ence to the past methods of management : — " Ours has 

 been a waste of the resources of soil and forest and stream 

 that is without parallel in the history of the world. This 

 waste has been largely due to improper systems of farm- 

 ing, and cannot continue another century without bringing 

 ruin to American basic industry." The new department 

 of public highways at the college will urge the importance 

 of good country roads, and supervise their construction as 

 soon as the money is forthcoming. In plant and animal 

 improvement, also, the college must lead the way, since 

 it alone can carry on a well-planned programme for an 

 indefinite time. The distinct position occupied by the 

 experiment station was well brought out. Its function 

 was to create agricultural knowledge, not simply to benefit 

 the farmer directly, but to make an exact science of agri- 

 culture and enable it to be taught successfully in the 

 colleges, schools, farmers' institutes, and on demonstration 

 farms. Lastly, the rural school problem was dealt with, 

 and this seems to be as far from a satisfactory solution 

 in America as it is here. Not only is there a lack of 

 suitably trained teachers, but, so far, no satisfactory scheme 

 of working the school has been devised. The address is 

 highly suggestive. 



The Education Department of the London County 

 Council has circulated particulars of the science and techno- 

 logy scholarships and exhibitions which are open for com- 



