Mav 9, 1907] 



NA TURE 



35. 



his 

 anv 



reserves, though he would do everything in 

 power to discourage the needless killing of 

 beast, bird, reptile, or even insect that was not 

 markedly harmful to the interests of man. Creatures 

 of extraordinary beauty or interest, like the tiger, 

 lion, moose, or elephant, should be allowed consider- 

 able latitude, and the State should compensate the 

 cultivator or the passing tourist for annoyance be- 

 c;iuse of the general interest felt by the community in 

 the splendid development of these remarkable 

 mammals. 



The writer of this review deeply regrets that , no 

 efficient steps have been taken to create on a small 

 scale national parks within the limits of Great Britain 

 and Ireland for the preservation of wild life under 

 wild conditions. He pointed out several years ago 

 how admirably adapted for such a purpose is Achill 

 Island, off the west coast of Ireland, a place which 

 is fortunately still a refuge for manv of the rarer 

 and more interesting British birds. 



H. H. Johnston. 



THE INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CO- 

 OPERATION IN SOLAR RESEARCH. 



A MEETING of the International Union for Co- 

 -'*- operation in .Solar Research will be held in 

 Meudon, near Paris, during ^^'hit-week, and a pro- 

 visional programme of the proceedings has been sent 

 to those who have accepted invitations to attend. 

 The meeting will open on May 20, when formal busi- 

 ness will be transacted in the morning. In the after- 

 noon it is intended that all new proposals for joint 

 work shall be submitted to the meeting, so that 

 members will have an opportunity of privately dis- 

 cussing the desirability of adopting the proposals 

 before a final decision is taken towards the end of the 

 week. 



The mornings of Tuesday and ^^'ednesday, May 21 

 and 22, will be spent in receiving the reports of the 

 committees appointed at the Oxford meeting in 1905. 

 It is understood that Prof. Perot is readv to submit 

 his measurements of the wave-length of the red 

 cadmium line, and that his results are in such good 

 agreement with those previoush- obtained by Michel- 

 son that the meeting probablv will be able to adopt 

 finally a primary standard of wave-length- Othei 

 reports deal with the observations of sun-spot spectra 

 and the organisation of the systematic application of 

 the spectroheliograph to solar work. A question of 

 interest to which several members of the union have 

 given considerable attention consists in fixing the 

 best methods, of measuring the areas of flocculi. 

 This matter has been under consideration at some of 

 the .American observatories, as well as at the Solar 

 Physics Observatory at .South Kensington and at the 

 University Observatory, Oxford, so that an interest- 

 ing and fruit-bearing discussion may be expected. 

 On Tuesday evening. Dr. Janssen, the president of the 

 congress, will give a banquet to the members at the 

 Hotel d'Orsay, in Paris, and on Wednesday after- 

 noon Prof. Julius will demonstrate in the physical 

 laboratories of the Sorbonne some of his experiments 

 on anomalous dispersion. Arrangements have also 

 been made to visit the Observatory of Paris in the 

 same afternoon. 



It is hoped that the scientific work of the meeting 

 will be concluded on Thursday, May 23, and an ex- 

 cursion to the Chateau de Chantilly has been 

 arranged for the Friday. .\ formal business meeting 

 on Saturday, May 25,' will bring the meeting to a 

 close. 



NO. 1958. VOL. 76] 



UNIVERSITY NEEDS AM) THE DUTY OF 

 THE STATE. 



T^HE Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford 

 ■*■ University have just appealed through the 

 medium of the Press for at least 250,000/. to enable 

 our oldest university to meet the demands that are 

 made upon it by the ever-expanding requirements of 

 modern learning. This appeal, coming so soon after 

 a similar plea for a million and a half pounds, put 

 forward recently by the Duke of Devonshire on be- 

 half of the University of Cambridge, again brings 

 into prominence the general question of the place of 

 th= university in the modern State and the duty of a 

 Government in relation to the financial needs of insti- 

 tutions of higher learning. 



In both cases appeals arc made to the generosity 

 of the wealthy public, and there is no suggestion that 

 any responsibility attaches to the Government for the 

 comparative poverty of these universities, in which 

 Englishmen profess to feel great pride. The Oxford 

 Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor, indeed, say of the 

 needs of their university : — " In this country it is of 

 no avail to look to the .State for the satisfaction of 

 those requirements ; and it is to private generosity 

 that the appeal must in consequence be made." It 

 will be instructive to examine this attitude of mind 

 towards one of the gravest questions confronting the 

 nation at the beginning of the twentieth century, to 

 analyse the appeals made in the light of recent ex- 

 perience, and to compare the results obtained with 

 the experiences of university authorities in other 

 great countries of the world. 



In February last, in his letter to the public asking 

 for a million "and a half pounds for the University of 

 Cambridge, the Duke of Devonshire reviewed the 

 bequests, benefactions, and gifts received by the 

 university since 1S99, when the Cambridge University 

 .Association was formed at Devonshire House to pro- 

 mote the re-endowment of Cambridge University. 

 From the sums received from our men of wealth the 

 association was able to transfer to the university a 

 total amount of 115,000/. In other words, _ during 

 the seven years in which private generosity was 

 being trusted to provide adequate means for the 

 multifarious demands of a great university, an 

 annual sum of about 16,430/. was forthcoming. That 

 is to sav, if private generosity could be trusted to 

 display itself equally lavishly throughout so long a 

 period, it would take more than ninety yearsto collect 

 the million and a half pounds in which the University 

 of Cambridge stands in pressing need to-day. 



Similar particulars of a precise kind are not forth- 

 coming in the case of Oxford, but it is, fortunately, 

 possible to form some idea of the demands which 

 are to be made upon private generosity to meet exist- 

 ing needs as enumerated by persons in authority in 

 the university. The present appeal is for 250,000/., 

 and the letter signed by the Chancellor and Vice- 

 Chancellor states "two significant facts in connection 

 with it. First, the ordinary university accounts for 

 1905 showed a balance of 5/. lys. 6d.. and in 1906 

 there was " a further improvement, but the increased 

 revenue is already allocated or pledged, and it is 

 obvious that little more can be done in this way." 

 Secondly, the constituent colleges contribute annually 

 to university and academic purposes some 40,000/. 

 .An article was published in Nature on July 6, 1905 

 (vol. Ixxii. p. 231), in which a detailed account was 

 given of the needs of Oxford University, drawn up 

 by the professors and heads of departments,^ and in 

 the article an estimate was made of the capital out- 

 lav and the annual income required to meet the needs 



