August i, 1907J 



NA TURE 



the ordinary measuring macliine, it was found that the 

 results were in good agreement, and that the actual 

 operations occupied the same amount of time, thus saving, 

 with the former, the time taken by the computations from 

 the polar coordinates in the latter. 



Searcii-ephemerides for Comet 1894 IV. (E. Swift). 

 — Owing to the possibility of its identity with the lost 

 comet of De Vico, Swift's comet of 1894 is of particular 

 interest. 



During its return of February, 1901, it was very un- 

 favourably placed for re-discovery, and was not seen, but 

 in the hope that it may be re-discovered during its present 

 return. Prof. Scares publishes two search-ephemerides 

 in Bulletin No. 12 of the Laws Observatory, University 

 of Missouri. The former is based on elements indicating 

 July Q as the time of perihelion passage, whereas the 

 second takes July 25 ; both show that the comet will 

 attain its maximum brightness, as seen from the earth, 

 about the beginning of October. It is of interest to note 

 that the present position of this comet is near to that 

 of comet 1907^ (Daniel), although there is no possibility 

 of the identity of the two objects. 



.■\ccording to the ephemerides, the position of Swift's 

 comet on .August 1-5 (Berlin M.T.) will be (i) 2h. 25.7m., 

 -*- 12° 31', or (2) ih. 51-701., -1-8° 31'. 



\ Quickly Ch.vnx.ing Wariaule Star. — S. star liaving 

 the position a = qh. 45m. 39-85., 5=4-12° 2o'.3 (19000), 

 and situated -|-I2.is.. in R..\. and I'-g in dec. from 

 B.D.4- I2°.2i05, has been found by Mr. Metcalf, of 

 Taunton (Mass.), to change its magnitude from 13.5 to 

 11-5 in four days. The range of variability is confirmed 

 by the H.'irvard plates of this region, but the exact period 

 has not yet been ascertained. The designation of this 

 object is 66.1907 Leonis. {Astronomhciie Nachrichten, 

 No. 4191, p. 260, July 23). 



The \'ariation of the Pole. — The provisory results 

 obtained by the International Latitude Service during the 

 year 1906-0-1907.0 are published by Prof. Th. .Albrecht in 

 No. 4187 of the Astronomische Nachrichtcn (p. 177, 

 June 29). The diagram giving the projected path of the 

 pole from 1899.9 to 1907-0 shows that during the year 

 1906 a further diminution of the amplitude of the variation 

 from the mean pole took place. 



UNIVERSITY REFORM. 



'X'HE discussion in the House of Lords on July 24 con- 

 cerning the present state of the Universities of Oxford 

 and Cambridge serves again to bring prominently before 

 the public the importance of well-equipped universities to 

 the nation. The Bishop of Birmingham asked the Govern- 

 ment to appoint a Royal Commission " to inquire into the 

 endowment, government, administration, and teaching of 

 the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and their con- 

 stituent colleges, in order to secure the best use of their 

 resources for all classes of the community." The Earl of 

 Crewe announced at the end of the discussion that the 

 Government requires time to consider the question, and 

 that for the present a Commission will not be appointed. 

 The Bishop of Birmingham unerringly exposed many of 

 the weak points in the older universities as they are 

 administered to-day. " The system of prize fellowships as 

 it was established by the last Commission is," he remarked, 

 " a mistake — post-graduate endowments should be used to 

 subsidise either those who are to be teachers or those 

 who are engaged in researches such as are worthy of 

 advanced students." There were, of course, many 

 champions to defend the present condition of things, 

 but both sides expressed themselves as appreciative of the 

 value to the community of higher learning in all depart- 

 ments of knowledge. > 



It was not sufficiently realised, however, that the exist- 

 ence of generc^sly staffed and handsomely housed universi- 

 ties is ultimately a question of funds. In directing 

 attention in these columns to the recent appeals made by 

 both Oxford and Cambridge for funds, it was pointed out 

 that, until as a nation we are prepared to make sacrifices 



NO. 1970 VOL. 76] 



comparable with those undertaken in Germany, the United 

 States, and other countries, our older universities will con- 

 tinue to be a " playground for the sons of the wealthier 

 classes " in order to secure money which is elsewhere 

 provided by the State. There are many inquiries awaiting 

 a Commission when it is appointed, and among them may 

 well be a comparison of the amounts provided by the State 

 for university work in the great countries of the world. 

 The subjoined summary of the Times report of the debate 

 in the House of Lords contains the substance of the Bishop 

 of Birmingham's plea for a Royal Commission, the Bishop 

 of Bristol's remarks relating to it, and the reply made 

 bv the Earl of Crewe on behalf of the Government. 



The Bishop of Birmingham said, in the course of his 

 remarks, that undoubtedly within the last thirty years 

 immense changes had taken place in the higher education 

 of the country — changes so immense thiil, unless the Uni- 

 versity was to fall out of the relation which it ought to 

 hold to the whole education of the country, it was inevitable 

 that reforms should be required. To an even greater 

 extent, a fundamental change in the balance of power in 

 the classes which formed the English nation had taken 

 place. It had always been the honour and the pride of 

 the old universities that they trained the governing classes 

 of the country. 'Jhe term " governing classes of the 

 country " had, however, received a very wide extension. 

 For example, it included now the working classes. There 

 was a very real desire for the diffusion of higher education, 

 and it was hardly possible to exaggerate the need for per- 

 meating those classes which were playing, and were 

 destined to play, so increasingly an important part in the 

 government of the country with the best education which 

 we had to offer. Could not the university be brought into 

 more immediate, direct, and effective relations to all those 

 who really desired to be students and to profit by the best 

 education the country could afford? 



There could be no reasonable doubt that at present our 

 ancient universities were allowed to become to an extent 

 altogether beyond what ought to be tolerated a playground 

 for the sons of the wealthier classes, .^s at present con- 

 stituted, the universities were to a very large extent not 

 in any serious sense places of study at all. There were 

 a vast number of young men who never in any kind of 

 way attained to the position of students — they never 

 acquired the instinct or the power of getting knowledge 

 out of books. The universities should have far more 

 stringent and effective machinery for getting rid of those 

 who had neither the ability nor the intention of becoming 

 students. If those who had no real intention of becoming 

 students were got rid of, the teachers would have more 

 time for study and for the teaching which more properly 

 belonged to a university ; and a great deal more teaching 

 power would be liberated for the system of university 

 extension in the real sense — namely, for the purpose of 

 teaching, not popular audiences, but trained and sifted 

 students in different parts of the country, so that the 

 influence of the university might be extended to those who 

 were hungering and thirsting for that sort of knowledge 

 and training which a university was able to supply. 



He supposed it would not be denied that a very large 

 part of the endowments of scholars and exhibitioners at 

 the present time went to those who could in any case be 

 at Oxford or Cambridge. It had been calculated recently 

 that two in five of the scholars of the colleges did not, in 

 fact, need the endowment in order to enable them to go 

 there. He did not think it could be denied that the un- 

 limited belief in open competitive examinations which 

 characterised the last Commission had had effects which 

 the reformers of those days never contemplated. Open 

 competition had not really proved to be competition open 

 to all classes ; it had given an immense advantage to those 

 whose parents were in a position to supply them with 

 education of the more exuensive kind. .As a matter of fact, 

 he expected it would be found that the universities did less 

 now than they did generations ago to provide the crown 

 of the educational ladder of the country. If the universities 

 could get rid of the great body of those who had not the 

 slightest intention of using the university as a place of 

 study, there wbuld be room for the employment of the 



