JULY 13, I 905 J 



NA TURE 



251 



one or two of its conclusions cannot be insisted upon 

 too earnestly or too often. 



The new institution must be in no sense parochial, 

 nor must it be allowed to become merely metro- 

 politan. From the beginnings the design must be to 

 ^ive the college an Imperial character, and every 

 means must be taken to encourage young men pos- 

 sessed of the necessary qualifications, in whatever 

 part of the Empire they may be, to attend its courses 

 and avail themselves of the means offered by it of 

 becoming familiar with recent advances in technology 

 and with any branch of applied science in its highest 

 form. 



The new institution must not be allowed to become 

 merely another technical college on a larger scale — of 

 technical institutes we have many already. The " duly 

 qualified students " referred to by the committee 

 should have already received collegiate training, 

 and have taken a degree. To quote the report : — 

 " Admission to 'these higher courses should be re- 

 stricted to duly qualified students who, it is hoped, 

 would be attracted from all parts of the Empire." 

 The public must be taught to estimate the success 

 of the new institution, not by the number of its 

 roll-call, but by the number of expert engineers of 

 all kinds, of original technical chemists, of machine 

 designers, and so on, who are trained within its 

 portals. 



But besides being able to supply the future manu- 

 facturer with the very latest results from the research 

 laboratories of workers outside its walls, the new in- 

 stitution, if it is to be really successful, must itself be 

 an active centre of research. As the report says : — " It 

 is of the first importance that there should be no 

 divorce between teaching and research in technology 

 on the one hand and in pure science on the other," and 

 the new college must be as notable for its success in 

 research in technology as for the ability possessed by 

 its staff to acquaint the student with the findings of 

 recent scientific work. Unless from the beginning 

 the student feels he is under the influence of professors 

 who are not only familiar with all the conditions of 

 actual manufacture in its most successful form, but 

 who are responsible also for the improvements in 

 technical processes which win success, the institution 

 ■will neither do the work expected of it nor win the 

 confidence of our manufacturing magnates and mer- 

 chant princes. Only that science — whether pure or 

 applied — really lives which grows continually, and 

 such growth without patient research is impossible. 

 The new institution must above all things be the 

 growing point of our national system of technical 

 instruction. 



To fulfil these two functions — on which the report 

 rightly lays very great emphasis — the staff of the 

 Imperial college must be both numerous and the best 

 available. In other words, the institution must of 

 necessity be a costly one, judged, that is, from the 

 standard adopted previously in this country for estim- 

 ating educational expenses. But if properly selected 

 such a staff will very soon show, by the results accom- 

 plished, that generous expenditure on higher educa- 

 tion is a remunerative form of national expenditure. 

 It is gratifying to find from the report that there is 

 every prospect that a sufficient revenue will be eventu- 

 ally forthcoming, in the provision of which funds the 

 State will take its part. We learn from the Times 

 that the Government has decided to allocate 20,000!. a 

 year to the college out of the Treasury subsidy for the 

 maintenance of the Royal College of Science and the 

 Royal School of Mines, and that an intimation to this 

 effect has been made by the Chancellor of the Ex- 

 chequer to Mr. Haldane, the chairman of the Depart- 

 mental Committee. 



There is everv reason to hope that London will ere 

 NO. 1863, VOL. 72] 



long have at South Kensington a college of applied 

 science which will be as much admired as the similar 

 institution at Charlottenburg, and prove as useful to 

 the industries of this country as the Berlin college has 

 to those of Germany. 



NOTES. 



As the new buildings of the University of Sheffield 

 were opened by the King at the time the present issue 

 of Nature was being prepared for press, we cannot do 

 more than record the fact, reserving a description of the 

 buildings and an account of the opening ceremony for a 

 subsequent number. 



The annual meeting of the Imperial Cancer Research 

 Fund was held on July 5 at Marlborough House, the 

 Prince of Wales presiding. Sir William Church moved 

 the adoption of the secretary's, superintendent's, and 

 treasurer's reports, which was seconded by Mr. Tweedy. 

 Mr. Henry Morris moved that the best thanks of the 

 meeting be given to His Royal Highness for presiding, 

 which was carried with acclamation. The Prince of 

 Wales in reply alluded to the researches which had been 

 carried out in the laboratories of the fund, and expressed 

 his satisfaction that the committee had again secured the 

 services of Sir William Church as chairman of the 

 executive committee. 



The summer show of the Royal Horticultural Society 

 was opened on Tuesday last, and will remain open until this 

 evening. It is being held for the first time in the grounds 

 of Chelsea Hospital. The society appears to be in a very 

 flourishing condition, more than 1000 new fellows having 

 been added within the last few months. 



The Albert medal of the Society of Arts for 1905 was, 

 on Wednesday, July 5, at Marlborough House, presented by 

 the Prince of Wales, as president of the society, to Lord 

 Rayleigh " in recognition of the influence which his re- 

 searches, directed to the increase of scientific knowledge, 

 have had upon industrial progress, by facilitating, amongst 

 other scientific applications, the provision of accurate 

 electrical standards, the production of improved lenses, and 

 the development of apparatus for sound signalling at sea." 



The French Association for the Advancement of Science 

 will this year meet at Cherbourg. The session will extend 

 from August 3 to lo. 



The summer meeting of the Institution of Naval Archi- 

 tects will take place on July 19, 20, and 21 in the hall 

 of the Society of Arts. The following papers will be 

 read and discussed : — " Tactics and Strategy at the Time 

 of Trafalgar," by Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge, G.C.B. ; 

 " The Ships of the Royal Navy as they Existed at the 

 Time of Trafalgar," by Sir Philip Watts, K.C.B., F.R.S., 

 vice-president; "The Classification of Merchant Shipping, 

 illustrated by a Short History of Lloyd's Register," by 

 H. J. Cornish ; " Experiments with Models of Constant 

 Length and Form of Cross Sections, but with varying 

 Breadths and Draughts," by Lieut. -Col. B. Rota; "Ex- 

 periments on the Effect of Depth of Water on Speed, 

 having Special Reference to Destroyers recently Built," 

 by H. Yarrow ; " Deductions from Recent and Former 

 Experiments on the Influence of the Depth of Water on 

 Speed," by W. W. Marriner ; " The Failure of some large 

 Boiler Plates," by J. T. Milton; and "A Comparison of 

 I the Performances of Turbines and Reciprocating Engines 

 j in the Midland Railway Company's Steamers," by W. 

 I Gray. 



