176 



NA TURE 



[April 8, 19C9 



slowlj' and uniformly at 530°. It is l<no\vn that many sub- 

 stances will, when heated, ionise gases. Lime' is' fairly 

 effective in this respect, thoria to a much greater extent, 

 and radium bromide is the most effective of all. Accord- 

 ingly, tubes ' containing the • mixture of not very dry 

 hydrogen and nitrous oxide were prepared. One contained 

 a little lime, a second some thoria, and a third some radium 

 bromide. These tubes were heated in an- electric resist- 

 ance furnace side by side with' comparative tubes contain- 

 ing the same gases in which was a small quantity of 

 powdered Jena glass to make the conditions as similar as 

 possible. It was found that the rate of combination was 

 much quickened by the presence of lime, much more by 

 the presence of thoria, while the gases in contact with 

 radium bromide, directly the combining temperature was 

 reached, combined with explosion. 



When a tube containing thoria and the same mixture 

 ■was dried for ten days by phosphorus pentoxide, the gases 

 showed no measurable combination when heated for ■ five 

 minutes to 530°. 



Hence increasing the ionisation in presence of moisture 

 increases the rate of chemical change, while in absence 

 of moisture it apparently has no effect. 



An experiment of rather different type was shown which 

 illustrates the way in which the ionisation of gases may 

 exert its influence. A mixture of sulphur dioxide and 

 sulphuretted hydrogen can be kept unchanged although 

 water vapour is present in some quantity. If, however, 

 liquid water is introduced, separation of sulphur is 

 immediate. .A small open tube of radium bromide was 

 placed in such a mixture, and after standing some time 

 the whole of the gases condensed in the small tube of 

 radium bromide in the form of sulphur and water. There 

 is little doubt as to what happens in this case ; the water 

 vapour condenses in liquid drops on the ionised particles 

 in the radium tube, and in these drops the reaction between 

 the two gases is completed.' In the other chemical changes 

 at high temperatures it is conceivable that condensation 

 to some form approaching the liquid state might take 

 place, in which case Sir J. J. Thomson's theory would 

 apply. 



In support of this view must be mentioned .some very 

 recent experiments of Prof. J. S. Townsend, which show 

 that a very great diminution in mobility of negative ions 

 is produced when a mere trace of water vapour is added 

 to a dried gas ionised by Rontgen rays. If there is any 

 truth in this provisional working hypothesis, it should be 

 found that ions and water vapour (or some similar sub- 

 stance) must both be present in a mixture of gases if 

 action is to take place. Experiments already in progress 

 seem to show that this is the case, but they have not been 

 sufficiently often repeated for it to be desirable to publish 

 the results at this stage. 



The lecture was illustrated by experiments showing the 

 influence of small quantities of moisture on chemical 

 actions. 



FUNCTIONS OF A UNIVERSITY.'' 

 T -AM often asked. What will the University of Bristol 

 be, and what will it do? The obvious, if not very 

 enlightening answer is. It will, in large measure, be and 

 do that which the citizens of Bristol shall, in their wisdom, 

 determine that it shall be and do. Bristol will have to 

 show the educational stuff of which it is made. It must 

 rise to the great occasion, and prove itself equal to the 

 responsibilities of a city of the first rank. 



A university is not primarily a place, or a group of 

 buildings, or a board of examiners. A university is first 

 of all a corporate body of men, and with us of women 

 too, associated together for a definite purpose, and united 

 by a common aim. A university is, or should be, I take 

 it, a guild of learners. Mark you, I do not say a guild 

 of so-called learned folk. I trust there will be learned 

 folk in our guild, and I trust there will be those rarer 



■^ Since the phenomenon in gaRes is admittedly different from that in elec- 

 Irolysii, it is much to be regretted that the same term, ionisation. is retained 

 for both. 



2 From a speech on the TIniversity of Bristol delivered hv Prof. C. Lloyd 

 Morgan, F.R.S., at the tenth annual dinner of the University College 

 Colston Society, Bristol, Janu.ary 14, 



NO. 2058, VOL. 80] 



folk, men of wisdom and character ;. but ■ thojjgh 'learned 

 men, and wise men, and men of j;haracter, , help to make 

 a university, they do not constitute the .university which, 

 as a guild of learners, is founded. on ^a; broader basis. , Nor 

 do the teachers constitute a university, .though, they, too 

 help to make a university of the first. rank. , The learners 

 constitute the university, and. when' the teachers cease. to 

 be learners they ought also to cease, to be teachers. If 

 then the university, as a corpoi:ate body, . is .a guild of 

 learners, and its buildings a temple of. learning, all should 

 be welcome in the university who desire to learn, and who 

 have given evidence of adequate breadth of- previous educa- 

 tion, and the requisite ability to learn at .the relatively 

 high level which ought to characterise university work. 

 That is the real and only value of. the. matriculation test. 

 Each stage of a degree should guarantee not only a higher 

 level of attainment, but. also a further ability to learn, and 

 to utilise what has already been learnt. 



A university, then, is a guild of learners united together 

 in a corporation in- which, as Huxley' put it, "thought 

 is free from all fetters, and in which all sources of know- 

 ledge, and all aids to learning, should be accessible to all 

 comers without distinction of creed or country, riches or 

 poverty." . ■. 



The university is not, and cannot be,' a place for all ; 

 it inust be a place for the selected few, .those only who 

 are capable and willing to do university work. What we 

 have to secure is that there shall be equal opportunities 

 for all, without distinction of riches or poverty.' :Like thp 

 polishing of gems, the higher education is a costly and a 

 lengthy process. It is worth while to spend two years in 

 fashioning a CuUinan diamond, and its value is thus 

 enormously enhanced. To expend this tiine and labour on 

 mere glass or paste would be a grave economic blunder. 

 In the university we must select the material on which the 

 tirne and labour of our educational lapidaries is to be 

 bestowed ; and it is- worth -while to take the most anxious 

 care to find vour precious stones if only they are true gems. 

 If, say, within the next ten years the University of Bristol 

 can find and fashion but one lad of real genius, who would 

 otherwise be cut off from the highest training, Mr. Wills's 

 investment of 100,000/. in the University will be economic- 

 ally justified. That is not merely an Opinion of mine. 

 Some of you may remember what Huxley said : — " I weigh 

 my words when I say that if the riation could purchase 

 a potential Watt, or Davy, or Faraday - at the cost of a 

 hundred thousand pounds down,' he would be dirt cheap 

 at the money. It is a mere commonplace and everyday 

 piece of knowledge that what these three men did has pro- 

 duced untold millions of wealth, ■ in the narrowest 

 economical sense of the word." This is a' point on which 

 I feel stronelv. As a matter of economic policy,: from the 

 -national standpoint, I am convinced that loob/. spent by a 

 local education authority on the highest training 'of- the 

 best student will bear far higher interest to the community 

 than the same sum spent in giving a smattering of educa- 

 tion to a thousand evening students. Do not, however, 

 misunderstand me. I am not denying that the latter ex- 

 penditure is of value to the community. All I say is, this 

 ought ye to dn, and not to leave the other undone ; but I 

 do venture to add that we are not wise in the way in 

 which we manage our national investment in education. 

 As a nation we invest annually between thirteen and four- 

 teen millions in elementary and secondary education ir> 

 England and Wales. What is the amount of the Treasury 

 grant to university education? About 142,000/., a little 

 more than i per cent. 



The chief thing that should be learnt in a university 

 is how the problems which arise in all serious work are 

 to be approached, to be grappled with, and, if possible, to 

 be solved. That is really the first and foremost thing to- 

 be learnt. A leading man of business, whom I met some 

 years ago in the United States, told me that inost of the 

 younger men employed in responsible positions in his 

 office held a university degree.' I asked wherein lay the 

 practical value of the degree for his purposes. He replieiJ 

 that such men had been trained to face and tackle problems, 

 and he added that it did not much matter in what faculty 

 they had been trained, or, in other words, what line of 

 investigation they had followed during their university 

 career. He contended that the university degree was the 



