NA TURE 



625 



SATURDAY, NOVEMBER II, 1922. 



CONTENTS. 



University Representation in Parliament . 

 Encephalitis Lethargica .... 

 The Telescope. By Dr James Weir French 

 An Elementary Work on Coal-Mining 

 Essays on French Science .... 

 Graphical Methods in Crystallography 



Our Bookshelf 



Letters to the Editor : — 



The Structure of the Red Lithium Line. — Prof T. R 

 Merton, F.R.S 



The Mechanism of the Cochlea. — Sir W. M 

 Bayliss, F. R. S. ; Dr. W. Perrett . 



An Empire Patent. — E. W. Hulme 



Transcription of Russian Names. — Major-Gen. Lord 

 Edward Gleichen ; John H Reynolds 



Volcanic Shower in the N. Atlantic. —Prof. Gren 

 ville A. J. Cole, F.R.S. . 



Orientation of Molecules in a Magnetic Field 



Marshall Holmes 



The Ramsay Memorial in Westminster Abbey 



(Illustrated.) By I. M - . 



S. P. Langley's Pioneer Work in Aviation 



Prof. L. Bairstow, C. B.E., F R.S. 

 The Early History of the Land Flora. — II. By Dr 



D. H. Scott, F.R.S 



Obituary : — 



Dr. C. G Knott, F.R.S. By J. A. E. 

 Current Topics and Events .... 



Our Astronomical Column ..... 



Research Items . 



The Peril of Milk. By Prof. Henry E. Armstrong 

 Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 

 Psycho-Analysis and Education 



Corrosion and Colloids 



Vitamins 



British and American Fine Chemicals 

 University and Educational Intelligence 

 Calendar of Industrial Pioneers .... 



Societies and Academies 



Official Publications Received .... 

 Diary of Societies 



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University Representation in Parliament. 



Till-", last General Election was held in December 

 1918 under conditions entirely unfavourable for 

 testing thi- revised system of university representation 

 introduced by the Representation of the People Act 

 of that year. Many thousands of the graduates of 

 our universities were, figuratively or literally, re- 

 moving from their minds and their habiliments the 

 accumulated mud of four years' warfare. Women 

 graduates, enfranchised for the first time both for 

 university and for local constituencies, had been too 

 much occupied with the problems, national as well 

 as domestic, arising from the war, to explore the new 

 opportunities of social and political service which the 

 hardly-won privilege of the vote had gained for them. 

 We need not attempt to examine in detail the political 

 conditions which faced the nation at the conclusion 

 of the war. Personalities and powers chose to act in 

 accord with the transient temperament of a dazed and 

 somewhat irresponsible people, a temperament which 

 we now recognise, after four sobering years, was based 

 on unsound economics and impracticable idealism. 



If the lessons of the post-war period have been 

 taken to heart, it is our duty in the present General 

 Election to ensure so far as possible the return of 

 members qualified by natural gifts, by training. In- 

 experience, to give to parliament expert and dis- 

 interested counsel and to press for measures of re- 

 construction exhibiting sound and lasting principles. 

 It is from this point of view that we propose to discuss 

 the question of university representation. An old and 

 peculiar element in our electoral system, the principle 

 of university representation was, before the war, the 

 subject of acute political controversy. Threatened 

 with extinction, it has survived powerful and persistent 

 attacks and, for reasons to some extent extraneous to 

 the abstract merits of the case, has emerged from the 

 war with enhanced prestige and extended application. 



What then is the history and significance of uni- 

 versity representation in parliament ? Its originator, 

 James I., was friendly-disposed towards the ancient 

 universities of Oxford and Cambridge and indeed to 

 universities in general, for he confessed that if he were 

 not a king he would wish to be a university man. By 

 latters patent under the Great Seal of England he 

 commanded that two grave and learned men professing 

 the civil law should be chosen by each university to 

 serve as members of the House of Commons. In 

 those days parliamentary representatives were usually 

 chosen in pairs, possibly for mutual succour, and tin- 

 representation of the ancient universities by two 

 members each has remained undisturbed since the 

 beginning of the seventeenth century. Originally the 



NO. 2767, VOL. I IO] 



