March 25, 1909] 



NATURE 



99 



As before, I £;:ive a selection from previous results, 

 showini,'- that tlie aligriments we are now dealing with 

 have become familiar by reason of their occurrence 

 at the Cornish monuments investigated earlier (table 

 IV.). 



From the results given above it is evident that in 

 this "curious cluster " of circles at Botallek we have 

 an epitome of the chief sight-lines used in Cornwall. 

 May-year sun, clock-star, warning-star, and solstitial 

 sun are all represented. 



The May-year group was the first, by something 

 like 300 years, to be erected, and it should be noted 

 that the dale for the Pleiades circle E is coincident, 

 within our probable error, with the date of the clock- 

 star alignment H — I. 



Borlase's plan (Fig. i) alTords us evidence on this 

 point, for it shows that the circles F, H, and I are 

 associated by being made up of two concentric rings 

 •of stones. Norman Lockyer. 



WESTERN TEACHING FOR CHINA. 



'T'HF meeting which was held in the Mansion 

 -*■ House last week, and presided over bv the Lord 

 Mayor, shows that at last an interest is being taken 

 in this country in the education of China in Western 

 science and literature. Further proofs of the same 

 interest are given by the movement promoted by Sir 

 Frederick Lugard, the Governor of Hong Kong, for 

 the foundation of a university in that colony, and of 

 another by the German authorities in the province of 

 Shantung. The larger question of Chinese universitv 

 education, already undertaken by the Chinese au- 

 thorities, is at present under the consideration of a 

 joint committee of members of the universities of 

 Oxford and Cambridge, so that it looks as if the 

 Chinese are not likely to want for advice and assist- 

 ance in carrying out the educational development of 

 their country. 



The four schemes which have been mentioned in 

 no way conflict with each other, and if there are 

 sufficient means there are no reasons why they should 

 not all be carried out. Their success and usefulness 

 will depend, in great part, on the spirit which ani- 

 mates the work which they do. The interests of 

 China must always be the chief object in view. If 

 the proposed university at Hong Kong be looked 

 upon simply as a means of advancing British interests, 

 and that at Shantung of advancing German interests, 

 they may at first have a certain amount of success, 

 but they would be doomed to failure before long, as 

 nothing touches the spirit of Eastern people so much 

 as any attempt to thwart their legitimate national 

 aspirations. The success of the Japanese has been 

 in great part due to the fact that while they have 

 taken advantage of Western assistance, all their in- 

 stitutions have been moulded according to Japanese 

 ideas, and with the object of enabling Japan to take 

 her due place among the nations of the world. Other 

 causes have been added as things developed, but this 

 has been the fundamental one. No attempt must be 

 made to mould the Chinese into Eastern Britons or 

 Germans. . 



The medical colleges proposed bv the China Emer- 

 gency Committee are very much needed, as was fully 

 shown at the Mansion House meeting by the present 

 writer's fellow-student of forty years ago. Dr. J. 

 Campbell Gibson, of Swatow, who was supported by 

 Dr. J. B. Paton, of Nottingham. They pointed out ' 



" that the importance of the steps suggested was not 

 measured by the possibilities of the four colleges which 

 were proposed, for the time will come — let us hope speedily 



NO. 2056, VOL. 80] 



— when the Chinese Government must itself take up 

 medical education ; and the presence, as models, of institu- 

 tions on Western lines will then be decisive as to the 

 scientific principles on which the State action must pro- 

 ceed. The cry in China of ' China for the Chinese ' will 

 rhus be satisfied in the best possible way." 



The proposed university at Hong Kong is intended 

 — at least, to begin with — chiefly to train medical men 

 and engineers. .-Xlready useful work in the way of 

 training medical men has been done bv the Hong 

 Kong Medical College, founded in 1S87, and a begin- 

 ning has been made in technical education in the 

 so-called "Technical Institute," which gives oppor- 

 tunities for instruction in various subjects, but especi- 

 ally engineering and its allied subjects. The proposed 

 university would therefore be a development of existing 

 institutions, and there can be no doubt that Hong 

 Kong would offer many facilities for the practical 

 sides of the studies. Sir Frederick Lugard has 

 pointed out that 



" Its dockyards and electrical and other works will afford 

 practical instruction which can hardly be rivalled in China 

 for very many years ; while the location of the university 

 in a British colony will, on the one hand, form an attrac- 

 tion to students who desire to obtain opportunities for 

 colloquial English and to acquire something of the 

 Western atmosphere as well as the mere dry bones of 

 knowledge, and, on the other hand, to professors who 

 might less willingly accept an exile in China. In the 

 medical faculty more especially. Hong Kong can offer 

 facilities for practical anatomy in the dissecting-room which 

 Chinese prejudice, at present at any rate, precludes in 

 China." 



Of course, other subjects and degrees would be 

 added as circumstances permit, notably an arts 

 degree. The preparation for that, however, should 

 not proceed strictlv on the lines of British colleges, but 

 should comprise international law and treaties, geo- 

 graphy, comparative history, and, not least, Chinese 

 literature and classics, so that there may be no re- 

 proach of dissociating Chinese students from their 

 national sympathies and language. 



The colony of Hong Kong will soon be connected 

 with the main railway system of China, so that the 

 university would appeal to a very large area, as the 

 Chinese will not be slow to recognise that here are 

 to be obtained the advantages of Western education 

 at a smaller cost, and under more desirable conditions 

 in various ways, than by sending their sons to the 

 West. More than thirtv years ago, when I was in 

 Japan, as principal of the Imperial College of Engin- 

 eering, Tokyo, I very often discussed projects of this 

 kind with the first Chinese Minister to Japan, and 

 when I suggested a duplicate of our college in China, 

 he said that " the streets of Peking were too narrow 

 for such an institution." This, of course, was simply 

 his way of saying that he did not think China 

 was yet ripe for a fully developed scheme of technical 

 education. 



Much has happened since then, and the students 

 of the Imperial College of Engineering have been 

 important factors in the making of New Japan, a fact 

 which has been recognised by the Chinese, and now 

 there are large numbers of Chinese students in Japan 

 and considerable numbers in Europe and America. In 

 Glasgow, for instance, they are almost as numerous 

 as the Japanese students, but, of course, there is 

 not the same necessity for the latter coming here as- 

 formerly, as they have such good facilities for study 

 in their own country. 



My Chinese friend was a philosopher in his wav, 

 and was not unacquainted with the very difficult poii- 



