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'NA TURE 



[October 15, 1908 



minds. The standard of quantity in learning, lil<e tlie 

 price of food, seems to be perpetually rising, and as the 

 human mind shows no very lively signs of expanding in 

 direct proportion, but, on the contrary, shows some 

 tendency to collapse, it would seem to be well to think 

 more of quality in work and less of quantity. We must 

 remember that forced growth in plant or man is in the 

 end destructive. The day of the grammarian, celebrated 

 by the poet, is perhaps gone, and it is more than doubtful 

 if we want to read his whole book ; but we should do well 

 to take at least a page out of it, and allow our ideals to 

 be, not shaped, but modified by the splendid sentiment, 

 " Leave no'isj for dogs and apes, man has forever." 



If, then, we could plan our curriculum with more pro- 

 vision for this training of the powers, as apart from actual 

 professional work, and with at least a tacit recognition 

 of the fact that rest and recreation must follow mental 

 e.Kertion, and pruccde more exertion if that " more " is to 

 be effective, I think it would be possible to require a much 

 higher quality of work and make up for omissions in detail 

 of direct training, which, after all, if one knows how, can 

 be learned in the first stages of practice which follow 

 college life. This little phrase, " if one knows how," 

 should really indicate the difference between the man who 

 enters shops direct and the man who enters them after 

 college work. Our results in practical work should, if we 

 are on the right track, prove, what is not questioned any 

 longer in many places, that the college graduate is the 

 man who is w^anted in business life. 



As to those higher elements of character, without which 

 no education is of much avail, in these especially the 

 training must be indirect, but never neglected. In every 

 college there are endless opportunities for self-knowledge, 

 self-control, and, if a man so choose, for self-sacrifice. 

 In a scientific college there are special influences making 

 for the development of character. The constant effort to 

 eliminate error tends towards the development of truth 

 and accuracy. The cultivation of the will in overcoming 

 obstacles should produce the sturdier manly virtues ; the 

 patient waiting on nature's working encourages the gain- 

 ing of a wise self-restraint, which we may hope to see 

 employed in the directing of life ; and the emphasis laid 

 on the pursuit of truth for its own sake should help to 

 overcome the spirit of commercialism — that caring for 

 scientific success mainly for what it will bring in financial 

 success — which is an ever-present danger of the applica- 

 tion of science to life. 



We see then, in general, that we should like to make 

 it our aim in the Imperial College to develop scientific 

 education both on the imaginative and on the practical 

 side by, on the one hand, bringing our men into some- 

 what closer touch with the noblest thoughts of the past 

 and with the world-wide strivings after truth which 

 characterise our present age ; on the other hand, by inviting 

 the advice and cooperation of men of business and of pro- 

 fessional men in actual practice, so as to keep our courses 

 in accord with their methods, and, if possible, to earn the 

 reputation of being the place where an employer must 

 easily find the man he requires. 



Finally, we consider that if we can succeed in training 

 men to be at once good scientific men and good citizens, 

 we shall have done the best that is possible to serve our 

 country by giving to it a class of workers who can be 

 trusted to put the true service of man above their personal 

 success, who are willing patiently to search for truth in 

 hidden and dangerous places, who will be able to follow 

 true laws of economy, and to prevent some of that waste 

 which we now see going on in painful contrast to the 

 destitution which runs parallel with it. Such men often 

 show a capacity for leadership through individual force 

 of character, and are no less ready to follow with unselfish 

 devotion the path of common duty. 



With grateful pride we may say that, to a high degree, 

 these things have been already achieved by the associates 

 of the several institutions now uniting in the Imperial 

 College. We recall the eagerness with which some of 

 our students went to serve their country in South -Africa. 

 A tablet has recently been set up in the Roval College of 

 Science to keep their memory before us. We believe that 

 of_ very many, had they found a chronicler, similar things 

 might have been written as were actually penned by a 

 NO. 2033, VOL. -(S] 



western poet about one of the .\ssociates of the School of 

 Mines : — 



The men he worked or 

 Say judging as best they can, 

 That in lands which try mannood hardest 

 He was tested and proved a man. 



In conclusion, I am permitted to make some very 

 pleasant announcements. The Bessemer committee has 

 provided, as most of you are aware, for the equipment of 

 the mining and metallurgical laboratories in the new build- 

 ing, of which the first plans have already been prepared by 

 Sir Astun Webb, and the erection of which is to be com- 

 menced in the near future. 



Again, a gentleman [Mr. C. Hawksley], who I am glad 

 to see is with us to-day, has very generously consented to 

 equip and endow a hydraulic laboratory, which, we hope 

 and believe, will render it possible to investigate many 

 problems of flow which have not heretofore been attempted. 



1 am sure, too, that it will be no small satisfaction to 

 all those present that, with His Majesty the King's 

 hearty approval, steps are being taken to equip and endow t 

 certain other important laboratories. 



Many and valuable donations, too numerous to mention 

 in detail, have also been received from Canada and the 

 United States, for which we are most grateful. 



Lastly, the roll of honour of those who have occupied 

 the chairs in the different sections of the Imperial College 

 is a very long one, and includes many names which have 

 made England famous in the world of science. I cannot 

 but think that many would like to have a permanent 

 memorial to the names of such men in the form of chairs, 

 laboratories, scholarships, or library endowments. In 

 this matter of giving I should especially wish to enlist 

 the sympathy of the -Associates who leave these halls year 

 after year. None have contributed more to the success 

 and advancement of the universities of .America than their 

 own graduates. Every college of importance has an 

 alumni association. The class sent out each year appoints 

 its own secretary, who is expected to keep in touch with 

 all its members, each of whom contributes a small sum 

 annually to a special fund intended to help his alma 

 mater. Most excellent has been the result of the scheme. 

 Thus, at one of the great universities, a sum of 10,000/. 

 is annually given for general purposes, while a large 

 reserve is always available for any special need. A further 

 advantage is found in the fact that the alumni are always 

 kept in close touch with their college, are imbued with 

 a rear esprit dc corps, and consider it not only a duty but 

 a pleasure to help the institution which has prepared them 

 for their life's work. 



There is a grand opportunity for benefactions in the 

 Imperial College if progress is to be maintained and if, a; 

 we hope and expect, we are to become the central, the 

 Imperial Scientific School, imperial in conception, imperial 

 in our sphere of work. 



GEOGRAPHY AT THE BRITISH 

 ASSOCIATION. 



'T'HE geographical section of the British Association this 

 year was particularly fortunate in the meeting place 

 allotted to it, for better accommodation could not be 

 desired than that afforded by the theatre in the Royal 

 Dublin Society's building in Kildare Street. 



Opening the sectional meeting on Thursday, September 3, 

 the presitient. Major E. H. Hills, took as his subject the 

 survey of the British Empire. His address amounted to 

 a plea for the more thorough organisation of the Imperial 

 survey, and he dealt with the work, not only retrospec- 

 tively, but prospectively, analysing present methods, dis- 

 cussing their shortcomings where such exist, and suggest- 

 ing plans for the future. One of his most notable recom- 

 mendations was that the re-measurement of the two 

 principal arcs, meridional and longitudinal, should be 

 undertaken by the British Ordnance Survey, and this re- 

 commendation was afterwards embodied in a resolution 

 forwarded by the sectional committee to the council of the 

 association, suggesting that the Board of .Agriculture and 

 Fisheries (which controls the Ordnance Survey department) 

 should be memorialised to this effect, and the committee 



