jfuly 9, 1874I 



NATURE 



183 



sity teaching lie so deep down that an external event like 

 the inauguration of new buildings scarcely influences 

 them. 



The success which the Owens College has thus attained 

 in a quarter of a century is due to much hard work— to 

 careful and deliberate adaptation not merely to the wants 

 of the time, but to the claims of real culture — and above 

 all of course to the fact, which that success proves, that 

 in Lancashire, or that portion of it of which Manchester 

 is the capital, there is a real demand that the higher edu- 

 cation may be brought home even to the doors. This 

 book serves as a record of much of the work done — and 

 an expression of the ideas of the teachers whose spirit has 

 made and still makes the Owens College. No one who 

 glances at the titles of the fourteen essays and addresses 

 of which it consists can fail to be struck with the variety 

 of the teaching. It accomplishes the task laid upon it by 

 its founder, by teaching nearly everything commonly 

 taught in the English Universities. We find two Pro- 

 fessors of Classics, one of Oriental Languages and one of 

 Modern Languages, two of Natural Philosophy, a Pro- 

 fessor of Natural History, and a teacher of Geology, ,t. 

 Professor of Chemistry, a Professor of Engineering, a 

 Professor of Jurisprudence and Law, a Professor of 

 Physiology, and two gentlemen who seem to be three or 

 four Professors rolled into one, the accomplished incum- 

 bents of the chairs of " English and History," and of 

 " Logic, and Mental and Moral Philosophy, and Poli- 

 tical Economy." Besides these, there are at least 

 half a dozen more, the Professors of Mathematics, the 

 Professors of three or four Medical subjects, the additional 

 lecturers on Law, on Organic Chemistry, and so on, who 

 put in no appearance in the volume. The College is in 

 fact equipped with a staff of teachers which bears favour- 

 able comparison with that which is usually found in older 

 Universities. The Medical department has been added 

 only this session ; the Law and Jurisprudence department 

 has recently made a considerable step in advance. 

 Except that several of its members are evidently over- 

 burdened with subjects too large for any single man, the 

 staff of the College is reasonably complete, and most 

 things can be learned in it which are taught elsewhere. 



We turn with interest to the volume before us to dis- 

 cover, in the choice of their subjects and in the manner of 

 treating them, the aims and tendencies of the professors and 

 lecturers. What is most noticeable, and it cannot fail to strike 

 even the casual reader, is the caution, the moderation, we 

 had almost said the conservatism which is characteristic of 

 most of them. People are still tempted to associate the name of 

 Manchesterwith everything that is "advanced," andwelook 

 in such a book as this for a daring championship of educa- 

 tional and scientific novelties. From the first words of the 

 President's opening address to the last words of the essay 

 which closes it, the tone of responsible thoughtful- 

 ness, of the wish to be just and true more than to be 

 vigorous or startling, is never to be mistaken. The Duke 

 of Devonshire the President, and Dr. Greenwood the 

 Principal, unite in urging that the older class studies — 

 those connected with literature — should not be pushed 

 aside and comparatively disregarded, and that the newer 

 studies should be taken up in their full depth and breadth, 

 not in a fragmentary or superficial manner or with any 

 supposed reference to their immediate application. These 



cautions are supplemented, indeed, but they are not con- 

 tradicted, by Prof. Roscoe and Balfour Stewart, who urge, 

 the one that original research is a powerful means of edu^ 

 cation, and that original research should be organised, as 

 it has already been to some extent, especially in his own 

 department ; the other that we should set about great 

 national studies, establishing a watch, for instance, on the 

 sun, "a creator of disturbances on the greatest possible 

 scale, who is ever ready to afford us information about him- 

 self at the smallest possible cost." Mr. Reynolds follows 

 them with a demand for a national commission to experi- 

 ment on heat engines, and the conditions under which 

 they could be practically worked, economically, or effi- 

 ciently, or both, to higher pressures than we now attempt 

 to use, so as to get more work out of our coal and our 

 machinery, and perhaps some day to enable a light- 

 weight jockey to fly at the rate of 200 miles an hour. 

 After these speculations and demands, which are certainly 

 significant of the modern age, follows Prof. W. C. 

 Williamson's cautious and copious discussion of the 

 theories of natural selection and evolution, as tested by 

 primeval vegetation. We call it a conservative paper be- 

 cause the conclusion of the writer is that among the in- 

 numerable facts known and co-ordinated about the prime- 

 val vegetation, there is little sign that the laws of natural 

 selection and evolution have operated to a large extent in 

 transforming the vegetable species of the pre-carboni- 

 ferous strata to those with which we are now familiar. 

 But Prof. Williamson is absolutely frank in his admission 

 of the new laws, and singularly candid in accepting any ex- 

 planations which they seem to offer. He admits " that by 

 the help of natural selection man has brought into existence 

 many newvarietiesof pre-existing plants and animals, most, 

 if not all of which, were his protecting hand withdrawn, 

 would soon revert to their primal forms. We have no evi- 

 dence that unaided nature has produced a single new type 

 during the Historic period. We can only conclude that the 

 wonderful outburst of genetic activity which characterised 

 the Tertiary age was due to some unknown factor, which 

 then operated with an energy to which the earth was a 

 stranger, both previously and subsequently." It is in a 

 bolder spirit that Prof. Bryce speaks of the new Judi- 

 cature Act, a measure which throws us back in principles 

 and in practice many centuries, and which is, in his 

 view, " a reform in English law greater in some points of 

 view than we have had since English law itself began to 

 exist." The note of conservative caution returns on our 

 ears in the two last essays on the Relation of the Rail- 

 ways to the State, by Prof. Jevons, and on the Peace of 

 Europe, by Prof Ward. The conclusion of the former 

 is emphatic, and altogether hostile to the movement party 

 who advocate the State purchase of our railway system. 

 There are few questions deserving to be more seriously 

 studied by politicians or likely to need more serious study, 

 for in the changesand chances which affect ourgovernments, 

 some new men may some day drift with us into schemes 

 which would be in themselves imprudent, and which would 

 be foolish except by way of preface to a more comprehensive 

 measure. We could not take the railways over. Prof. 

 Jevons thinks, for less than a thousand million sterling, 

 which is about double their commercial value. The at- 

 tempt might be all but ruinous to the nation, and the 

 results would be altogether disappointing. But among 



