body in the adult stage is associated with various diseases of the
lymphatics, the most pronounced of which is the terrible elephantiasis,
is due to more than one species of gnat or mosquito. It is true that no
one has ever seen the actual transference of the _Filaria_ from the
biting organs of the _Culex_, _Anopheles_, _Panoplites_, or _Stegomyia_
into the human body, but the circumstantial evidence is so strong that
on it any jury would convict. Noè and Grassi have demonstrated a similar
mode of infection for the _Filaria immitis_, which exists in the adult
stage in such incredible numbers in the cavity of the right side of the
heart of dogs, especially in tropical and in sub-tropical countries,
that it is difficult to see how the circulation can be maintained at
all. It is therefore interesting to note that the proboscis of our
common house-fly frequently harbours a larval nematode which has been
described by Carter[12] under the name of _Habronema muscæ_; and again
(if it be the same species) by Generali[13] under the name _Nematodum
sp._ (?), and again by Piana,[14] who is inclined to think it is the
larval form of _Dispharagus nasutus_ (Rud.). What the further history of
this parasite is we do not conclusively know, but, judging by
analogy--and in the case of the grosser parasites it is not always wise
to do that--the nematode probably develops in some higher animal which
eats the fly. Piana brings forward a good deal of evidence that this is
the domestic fowl.
Another parasite which attacks flies is the fungus or mould _Empusa
muscæ_, whose growth is fatal to the insect. The hyphæ penetrate into
the body, and as they grow weaken the fly until it is unable to lift a
leg, but remains glued by its viscid feet to the object upon which it
rests. The fungus spreads and radiates out in all directions, covering
the fly as with a velvety pile, and giving off countless minute spores,
which are blown away, to alight, if they are lucky, on a further victim.
I think enough has been said to prove that flies are a very real danger
to our community. I have refrained from giving the appalling statistics
of our infant mortality, partly because of the difficulty of
discriminating between the claims of the flies and those of other
agencies which affect the lives of our babies--_e.g._, the insurance
companies which do a large trade in insuring infants. Legislation has
not attempted to control the latter. Sanitation might do much to destroy
the former. In well-administered towns slaughterhouses no longer ‘fill
our butchers’ shops with large blue flies’; they have been replaced by
abattoirs, under proper inspection. Stables should also be segregated or
controlled. The practice of backing the mansions of Berkeley Square by
stable yards should either be given up, or the manure-heaps in which the
flies breed should be under cover so close as to prevent the access of
the fly. A layer of lime spread over the manure effectively prevents
the fly laying. Creolin, in its cheap commercial form, is also
recommended, sprayed over the manure-heaps every two or three days. It
not only deters flies from ovipositing, but should they succeed in doing
so it kills the resulting larvæ.[15]
Ross has shown us how to clear Ismailia of malaria; the Americans have
rid Havana, for the first time in a century, of yellow fever; the same
could be done with flies, if only the people liked to have it so. The
motorcar, with all its destruction of nervous tissue, its prevention of
sleep, its danger to life and to limb, has one great merit--it affords
no nidus for flies.
CAMBRIDGE
‘_Our dear Cambridge._’
COWLEY:
‘On the Death of Mr. William Hervey.’
The grant of a charter to the Victoria University in 1880 marked the
beginning of a new era in English education. Not to speak of Scotland
and Wales, there are in England to-day six Universities which bring the
new learning and the old to the very doors of the vast populations which
surround their seats. Birmingham claims the Midlands; Manchester,
Liverpool, Leeds, and Sheffield instruct the manufacturing and
commercial centres of the North; while the University of London, full of
new aspirations, does its best for the huge and somewhat apathetic
population of the capital. The calculated prodigality of the State
endowments of Germany, the individual generosity of the citizens of the
United States, the vigour of the young Universities of Canada, have
smitten the national conscience, if not with shame, at least with fear.
But, while so powerful a lever as the dread of industrial decay may have
been necessary to overcome the intellectual inertia of the country, the
consequent impetus given to the study of science and (it may be hoped)
of letters is not dying away, but rather taking permanent shape; and it
is now impossible to say, as was said in 1903 by one of the members of
the Mosely Educational Commission, that ‘in this country ... we seem to
be doing nothing for its own sake, and least of all in education.’
The new edition of the ‘Endowments of the University of Cambridge’
suggests other, though kindred, reflections. The book has for its basis
a series of documents, beginning with the year 1293, and ending with the
year 1904. The learned Registrary has prefaced the account of each
bequest with an explanation, and, by his discriminating comment, has
invested his material with something of that charm which characterizes
all his work. In one aspect his book serves, and is intended to serve,
as a history of the progress of education in Cambridge; and the large
amount of new matter which has been incorporated since the previous
edition of the ‘Endowments’ in 1876 is, in this aspect, highly
satisfactory. Yet, though it is a mistake to suppose that the flow of
benefactions to the ancient Universities has entirely ceased, the fact
remains that Cambridge has twice appealed--once in 1898, and once again
in the spring of 1904--for help, without which she cannot meet her
national responsibilities. Oxford has at last been constrained to
confess that she is in a similar, if not yet so dire, a strait; and it
is easy to understand the effort which it has cost her, as well as her
sister University, to sue _in formâ pauperis_.
In truth, the neglect, almost absolute, of Oxford and Cambridge, while
the new Universities are finding generous benefactors, either leads to
the conclusion that the old Universities are condemned and found
wanting, or has its origin in a profound misconception of their efforts
and resources. It may be urged that neither alternative is true; that
the needs of the new Universities are more urgent, and that the needs of
Oxford and Cambridge will in turn receive attention. But a delay of a
few years may in these days involve damage which will not be repaired
for more than one generation. Of Cambridge, at any rate, it is asserted
that she is at the end of her means, that in the last forty years she
has, in her efforts at development, strained her resources to the
utmost, and that without assistance, which, to be effectual, must be
both prompt and generous, no further advance is possible. Science has
emptied the University chest, yet, as the late master of Trinity Hall
said, ‘Science is still hungry and aggressive.’ As the result of her
straitened resources Cambridge can no longer satisfy the just demands
either of science or of letters. When we compare this state of things
with that in Germany, where the University of Berlin enjoys a State
endowment of £170,000 per annum, or in the United States, whose
Universities have received from private benefactors alone £42,000,000
sterling in the last thirty years, apart from large funds provided by
the State, we are forced to recognize that much yet remains to be done
in England.
It is not difficult to suggest some reasons for the comparative neglect
of the older Universities in the matter of benefactions. In the first
place, neither of them can appeal to local patriotism; and an appeal on
the wider ground of national efficiency is not so easily nor so
effectively pushed home. Next, it is hard to imagine that a University
whose colleges enjoy a corporate income of something like £300,000 a
year can be in serious want of funds. Moreover, if this deficiency
really exists, it is generally regarded as the result of the squandering
of revenue on an extravagant system of ‘prize fellowships’--that is,
fellowships given as the reward merely for a high place in examination,
and held by barristers, doctors, and civil servants, professors and
lecturers in other Universities, and even successful men of
business--persons who do not contribute in any way to the efficiency of
the University as a teaching or as an investigating body.
* * * * *
We propose briefly to examine the University balance-sheet, the college
system, and the question of the fellowships, and to endeavour to give
the candid inquirer some ground for a judgment on the claims of
Cambridge. But we must first discuss what is perhaps the most serious
obstacle to the satisfaction of her needs. This obstacle is the belief,
apparently ineradicable, that the older Universities teach and care for
nothing but the ancient languages, theology, and mathematics. For the
persistence of this belief the daily press and public speakers are in a
great measure to blame. Scarcely a week passes without an allusion which
betrays, if not a culpable levity, a most unfortunate ignorance.
Cambridge men have listened with amazement to the covert attacks on
Cambridge science, and have wondered how long it may be before Cambridge
letters are also disparaged. Of late, too, another note has been heard;
and, notwithstanding the just aspiration of the new Universities to a
many-sided activity, alike in the literary and scientific fields, an
attempt, which must be stigmatized as ungenerous and illiberal, has been
made in the press and on the public platform to limit the functions of
the ancient Universities, and to drive them back into the grooves of the
thirties and forties, from which Cambridge, to say nothing of Oxford,
has so completely escaped. Whatever the reason may be, it is at least
certain that Cambridge is frequently written and spoken of as if she
were still the Cambridge of 1850.
It has been suggested, even in responsible journals, that Oxford and
Cambridge would do well to keep to the older lines of education, and to
leave newer studies to their younger rivals. The obsession of men’s
minds by an ideal which passed away half a century ago can alone account
for the impression that the policy of restriction to the ancient
learning is in any way possible, or has been possible for these fifty
years. Those who know Cambridge may well be astonished that responsible
persons should gravely speak of the University of Newton and Charles
Darwin, of Maxwell and Rayleigh, as still shrouded in medieval shadow.
It cannot be too often repeated that since the Commission of 1850, or
rather since the promulgation of the new statutes in 1856, the
University has advanced without pause to claim as her own the whole
field of modern knowledge; and that it is the rapidity of her advance
which has depleted her treasury. The state of things before 1850 need
here be referred to only for purposes of contrast. The only avenue to an
honours degree was then the Mathematical Tripos, or, for students of
classics, the Mathematical combined with the Classical Tripos. Science
formed no part of the regular course of instruction. Adam Sedgwick
himself, pre-eminent geologist as he afterwards became, knew nothing of
geology when admitted to his professorship. When he was appointed to his
chair, classics, mathematics, and, in a less degree, theology and law,
were well endowed; but effective provision for modern studies or for
science there was none. In 1851 was founded the Disney professorship of
archæology, and the creation of this chair may fairly be considered to
be the first step towards the recognition of the sciences of ethnology
and anthropology. The imperial value of ethnological and anthropological
research is incontestable, and to this research no more important
contribution has been made than by the bands of Cambridge travellers and
students.
Mention has been made in the first place of the studies more closely
related to the ‘humanities,’ because it does not seem generally to be
realized how thoroughly even the ancient learning is to-day imbued by
the scientific spirit. But, so early as the year 1851,[16] new avenues
to an honours degree were opened by way of the Moral Sciences Tripos
(embracing at present psychology, logic and methodology, political
economy, ethics, metaphysical and moral philosophy and psychophysics),
and the Natural Sciences Tripos (embracing chemistry, physics,
mineralogy, geology, botany, zoology, human anatomy, and physiology). In
1857 the Sadlerian professorship of pure mathematics was founded by the
consolidation of an old endowment; and Cayley was the first occupant of
the chair. In 1863 the block of buildings known as ‘The Museums’ was
commenced, with a view to providing accommodation for the professors of
the natural sciences; additions were made to the original buildings in
1877, 1880, 1882, 1884, and 1890, as new branches of science became
important. In 1858 the ‘Civil Law Classes’ were replaced by the Law
Tripos; the professor of civil law and the Downing professor of the laws
of England were given a colleague by the creation of the Whewell
professorship of international law in 1867; and the Law School has since
1904 possessed a worthy habitation, built partly at the expense of the
University, partly by the help of eminent Cambridge lawyers, and
completed by the generous donation of the law library by Miss Squire. In
1866 the professorship of zoology was founded.
The School of Medicine has grown continuously; and its progress is
associated with the great names, to mention no others, of Sir George
Humphry, Sir George Paget, and Sir Michael Foster. In 1883 were founded
the professorships of surgery, physiology, and pathology. The diploma of
public health was instituted in 1875, and the diploma in tropical
medicine--the first of its kind in the kingdom--in 1904. The latter
diploma is destined to a brilliant future in Cambridge; and the
University, together with the schools of tropical medicine in London and
Liverpool, is doing much to raise the scientific standard of research
in a study so vitally important to the teeming populations of our
tropical possessions. The students attending the School of Medicine in
Cambridge number nearly four hundred, despite the high standard of the
attainments necessary for qualification. In 1904 important new
buildings, with provision for bacteriology, pathology, and public
health, were opened by the King.
The year 1869 was marked by the foundation of the Slade professorship of
fine art, and the professorship of Latin. The endowment of the latter
chair is but £300 a year, half provided by the University and half by
the friends of the late Dr. Kennedy, the famous headmaster of Shrewsbury
School. That the University should have had to wait till 1869 for the
foundation of a chair of Latin, and that the parsimonious contribution
of £150 a year was all that could be spared towards the stipend of the
professor, scarcely lends colour to the prevailing belief that the
University, kindly and naturally as she may be disposed towards the old
learning, squanders on the teaching of ancient languages resources which
ought to be otherwise employed. In 1875 the Historical Tripos was
founded; and the School of History, starting under the influence of
Seeley, has become one of the most popular avenues to an honours degree.
A professorship of ancient history was founded in 1898.
The Historical Tripos already provided in some measure for the study of
political science and political economy as component parts of a liberal
education. But latterly the need for a more thorough study of economic
conditions has been felt to be imperative for those who look forward to
a career in the higher branches of business or in public life; while, as
regards the professional economist, it has been realized that his work
as a student must be carried much farther than has hitherto been
customary, if he is to attack with success those problems which bring
his science close to reality and to the needs of the practical man. A
Tripos in Economics has therefore been established, the first
examination for which was held in 1905. The advanced portion of it
includes such subjects as modern methods of production, transport and
marketing, trusts, the recent development of joint-stock companies,
railway and shipping organization and rates, banking systems, stock
exchanges, investment markets, international aspects of credit and
currency, tariffs and bounties; and it is expected that, as in the
second parts of most other triposes, a mass of new work, the result of
current research, not yet available in text-books, will be placed before
the students.
The Medieval and Modern Languages Tripos dates from 1886. It provides
for the study of English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Russian.
A colloquial test has recently been added. The Semitic Languages Tripos
was established in 1878; the Indian Languages Tripos was founded in
1879, and merged in the Oriental Languages Tripos in 1895. The
University founded a professorship of Sanskrit in 1867; and a chair of
Chinese has existed since 1888. The University possesses the finest
Chinese library in the world outside of China, the gift of Sir Thomas
Wade. Provision is made for the teaching of Arabic, Persian, Turkish,
Hausa, Burmese, and the Indian vernaculars of Bengali, Hindustani,
Marathi, and Tamil. The teaching of living Oriental languages for the
benefit of practical students is carefully co-ordinated under a recently
appointed director of studies; and not only are the most necessary
languages taught in their living forms by competent scholars, but these
latter are assisted by a staff of carefully selected native
_répétiteurs_. Towards the expenses of this work the University
contributes about £2,800 a year. A professorship of Anglo-Saxon was
founded in 1878.
In 1871 the chair of experimental physics was founded, a chair held in
succession by Clerk Maxwell, Lord Rayleigh, and J. J. Thomson; and in
1874 the famous Cavendish laboratory, the munificent gift of its late
chancellor to the University, was opened. The laboratory was designed by
Maxwell; and the chancellor himself, soon after its completion, provided
all the instruments which were immediately required. In 1894 the area of
the laboratory was increased, the cost being defrayed, in part, by a sum
of £2,000 saved by Professor Thomson out of fees received from students;
but the constant pressure on the available space by research students
coming from all quarters of the globe rendered further extension
urgently necessary, an extension which Lord Rayleigh’s generous gift of
the Nobel Prize has now enabled the University to undertake. Astronomy
has a traditional home in Cambridge; and the observatory, which in 1706
found a strange temporary site over the gateway of Trinity College,
began to be built on its present site in 1822. The observatory, which
takes its regular share of the work mapped out for the observatories of
Europe, has received important additions in the shape of both building
and equipment in recent years.
In 1875 the professorship of mechanism and applied science was
established; and in 1878 the first engineering workshops were built in
the University, and fitted with machine tools and other necessary
equipment. In 1894 the new engineering laboratories were opened during
the tenure of the professorship by Dr. Ewing, now director of naval
education. In 1894, also, the first examination for the Mechanical
Sciences Tripos, which gives a degree in honours to students of
engineering, was held. In 1899 the generosity of Mrs. Hopkinson and her
family made possible the addition of a much needed new wing to the
laboratory. The buildings of the department now contain lecture-room
accommodation which seats about 360 students simultaneously, a
drawing-office for a class of ninety, two rooms for elementary heat and
mechanics, a boiler-room, an engine-room with ten heat-engines of
different types, arranged so that the measurement of all quantities
concerned may be systematically made by the students, a large room for
dealing with strength of materials and with hydraulics, a dynamo-room
fitted with various kinds of dynamos, a motor-room fitted with motors of
all the usual types, and several other rooms for special purposes. The
greater part of the staff have had practical engineering experience of
some kind; and it is usual during the long vacation for one or two
members of the staff, as well as a number of the students, to go into a
drawing-office or into works in order to keep in touch with practice.
The school numbers at present more than 250 students, and supplies young
engineers with a scientific training to various public services, as well
as to mechanical and electrical firms.
The University chemical laboratory was built in 1887; and, while
planning it, the professor of chemistry spent some months in visiting
the newest laboratories on the Continent and in America. The importance
of botany has of late years so greatly increased that its study is
represented in Cambridge by a professor, a reader, and two University
lecturers, besides demonstrators, assistant demonstrators, and
attendants. In 1904 botany was housed in a separate building of its own,
the finest devoted to that science in the United Kingdom, and one of the
finest in Europe. The physiology of plants, bacteriological research,
and the cultivation of hybrids and seedlings, are completely provided
for. The extensive botanic garden belonging to the Senate is at the
disposal of the staff and the students, the more distinguished of whom,
after completing their degree course in Cambridge, start on a course of
research in this country or abroad. The importance of the department as
touching agriculture on its scientific side can hardly be overestimated.
The professorship of agriculture was founded in 1899, and endowed for a
term of years by the munificence of the Worshipful Company of Drapers, a
body which, with commendable breadth of view, recognizes alike the
importance of applied scientific instruction for the artisan and of
scientific investigation in all forms of the national activity. The
department of agriculture is conducted on the most practical and
progressive lines. It provides instruction in the principles of
agriculture for the sons of landowners, farmers, and others. It conducts
experiments on crops and live stock, making every effort to secure the
intelligent co-operation of farmers. The University experimental farm,
for the use of which the department is indebted to the generosity of a
member of Clare College, has an area of 140 acres. The County Councils
of Cambridgeshire and nine neighbouring counties co-operate in the work
and assist it by subsidies. The field experiments of the department
extend over ten counties. Parties of farmers visit the experimental
plots every season in order to see the results of the experiments and to
discuss them with members of the staff; and reports which summarize
these results are widely distributed in the districts concerned. Of the
suitability of Cambridge as a site for a school of agriculture, and of
the importance of the work undertaken by the school, it may be well to
leave the late professor to speak for himself.
‘I have but recently become a member of the University, and, like a
good many others, I at one time doubted the possibility of founding
a thoroughly satisfactory school of agriculture in one of the old
English Universities. But I no longer doubt; and as one who, before
coming to Cambridge, was a teacher or student in five British
Universities, I will venture to say that nowhere else do such
opportunities exist. Apart altogether from the exceptional
facilities for the study of science possessed by the University,
and apart, too, from the exceptional practical skill of the farmers
in the surrounding counties, the old University appears to me to be
more disposed to extend a helping hand to agriculture than many of
her younger sisters; and nowhere has a more friendly reception been
given than at Cambridge to the new organization fostered by the
activity of the Board of Agriculture....
‘American experience leaves no room for doubt that modern
scientific methods are capable of greatly increasing the prosperity
of agriculture, and that the farmer has no better ally than the
laboratory worker. But, if we wish to make these benefits ours, we
must cease to be satisfied with imported information; ... we must
aim at securing for agriculture the services of British
specialists, men who will give their whole time to the study of one
subject under the conditions which prevail in our own country. To
the extent of our resources this has been the policy of our
agricultural department in Cambridge.