December 2, 1922] 



NA TURE 



schemes of work in physics and nature study by Miss 

 Lees and Mr. Latter respectively. The duty of the 

 school to instruct future citizens regarding the 

 functions of their own bodies was raised by several 

 speakers. During the day, through the kindness of 

 the college authorities, there was an opportunity to 

 visit the laboratories, which was greatly appreciated 

 by the members of the well-attended conference. 



The Chemiker Zeitung of September 28 publishes 

 particulars as to the number of students in German 

 universities. The total number had increased from 

 40,000 to 60,000 at the outbreak of war. At the end 

 of the war the number was 90,000, and in the summer 

 of 1921 it was 87,147. At present it is 82,668. The 

 Technischen Hochschulen had 12,000 students before 

 the war, in 1920 they had 22,976, and last winter 

 2 5.556- The division into faculties has undergone 

 changes ; the warnings of overcrowding in some 

 faculties have had some effect but the stream of 

 superfluous students has mainly been diverted into 

 other faculties, which are also now hopelessly over- 

 crowded. The following comparison is given with 

 pre-war conditions : 



Faculty. 1914. 1922. 



Evangelical Theology .... 4,370 2,974 



Catholic Theology .... 2,050 1,795 



Legal Science 9,840 16,834 



Medicine 16,048 15.no 



Dentistry 976 4,167 



Philosophy and Philology . . . 14,400 12,823 



Mathematics and Natural Sciences . 8,132 9,257 



Pharmacy i.roo 1,112 



National Economy .... 3,836 17,714 



Forestry . 490 



The following refer to technical students : 



Faculty. 1914. 1922. 



Architecture 2,r93 1,811 



Constructional Engineering . . 2,767 3,311 



Mechanical Engineering . . . 3,118 8,306 



Electrotechnics 1,307 5.129 



Mathematics and Natural Sciences . 1,544 3.735 



Mining and Metallurgy . . . 576 1,234 



Naval Engineering .... 234 365 



General 493 1,483 



It is further stated that the present-day student 

 does not tend to the same extent as before the war to 

 study in the large cities. 



Life in the universities of Russia to-day is de- 

 scribed by Harold Gibson, Chief Administrator, 

 International University Relief in Russia, in a brief 

 note circulated for the purpose of obtaining further 

 help for their professors and teachers. While 

 conditions in Moscow and Petrograd are said to have 

 improved materially during the past year, they are 

 still deplorable in the provinces. Professors and 

 teachers have been receiving from the Government 

 food packets (academical pyok), but it is doubtful 

 whether this supply, inadequate and irregular during 

 the summer, will not cease altogether during the 

 winter. In addition they receive, but not regularly, 

 pay on a scale sufficient to provide food (millet 

 gruel with sunflower oil, soup made from salt fish, 

 and potatoes fried in oil) for about one week per 

 month. All clothing the}- could possibly do without 

 during the summer is said to have been sold. As 

 for housing, it is seldom that a professor's family 

 has more than two rooms to live in and very frequently 

 they have only one, while in some universities the 

 professors live in their lecture-rooms or laboratories. 

 It is astonishing that under such conditions work 



NO. 2770, VOL. I IO] 



of any value can be done, but we are assured that 

 not merely is a respectable standard of instruction 

 maintained but valuable research work has been 

 done. An appeal by the Universities Committee of 

 the Imperial War Relief Fund issued in September 

 last met with an immediate and generous response, 

 but much more is needed urgently — money, gifts in 

 kind of food, clothing, and clothing material, books, 

 scientific journals, and laboratory equipment. Full 

 particulars can be obtained from Miss Iredale, 

 Organising Secretary of the Committee, General 

 Buildings, Aldwych, London, to whom cheques 

 made payable to the Hon. Cecil Baring should also 

 be sent. 



The Council of the League of Nations has approved 

 and published a report on " The condition of in- 

 tellectual life in Austria," specially prepared by Prof, 

 de Reynold, of the University of Berne, during the 

 month of August. It describes a struggle for exist- 

 ence carried on in circumstances of increasing difficulty 

 which threaten to overwhelm completely Austrians 

 who are dependent for their means of livelihood on 

 intellectual work. " The winter of 1922-1923 will 

 without a doubt be decisive." The University of 

 Vienna is at present saved from having to close its 

 doors by a Government subsidy of 1000 million 

 crowns (the purchasing power of which is about one- 

 twentieth part of the subsidy it was receiving before 

 the war), but all practical scientific work has become 

 impossible owing to lack of funds for the purchase 

 of essential requisites. The Universities of Graz and 

 Innsbruck and other institutions of higher education 

 are in a similar or wwse plight. Innsbruck formerly 

 attracted many foreign students, but last year none 

 except Austrians attended, and there is talk of closing, 

 if not the whole university, at least the school of 

 medicine. Academies and scientific societies con- 

 tinue to meet but are unable to publish reports except 

 when, as occasionally happens, a foreign patron pro- 

 vides funds for the purpose. The monthly salary of 

 a university professor is on an average about enough 

 to live on for twenty days, and he may receive students' 

 fees up to a sixth of his salary. Lectures go on in 

 Vienna up to 10 p.m. to enable students to earn 

 money by manual work (the only kind that is well 

 paid) during the day. In the circumstances it is 

 surprising that last year the University of Vienna still 

 had nearly 10,000 students. 



In " Home Economics in Rural Schools " and 

 " Modern Equipment for One-Teacher Schools " 

 (Home Economics circular 13 and Rural School 

 leaflet 3, 1922, of the Bureau of Education, Wash- 

 ington) a prominent place is given to the provision 

 of hot lunch for the pupils. It has been found that 

 in such schools the most satisfactory method of 

 imparting a knowledge of foods and household 

 sanitation and inculcating right health habits is in 

 connexion with the preparation and service by groups 

 of children of a hot lunch for the whole school. It 

 is claimed that the time taken from the regular 

 school work is not more than ten minutes daily, and 

 that the beneficial physical effects of the hot food 

 itself, and the moral effect of the co-operative social 

 activity involved, have been very marked. It is 

 recommended that the instruction in home economics 

 should be related to the geography, arithmetic, and 

 physiology lessons. In " Reorganization of Home 

 Economics in Secondary Schools" (Bulletin 5, imjji 

 it is stated that the most satisfactory and economical 

 management of the school lunch in any school, large 

 or small, is attained by placing it under the direction 

 of the head of the home economics department. 



