476



NA TURE



but this truth can now be enforced by very definite
examples.  King's College, Cambridge, has a revenue
from endowvmcnt of S 1,)Oo/., and has from 2o to 30 under-
gri aduates; E xeter ( ollege, Oxford ,has an endowment of less
than 6,oo( ., and educates i So undergraduates, from wvhose
l)ayments a profit is derived which exceeds the external
income by nearly 6,oool. A comparison also betwcn
Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where the sum of 9751. in
the year is actually drawn from the endowments to pay
the balance of the kitchen and buttery accounts, and
Keble College, which has absolutely no endowment and
yet exhibits a profit of 500/. on the year's account, equally
teaches the lesson that out of tutorial and other fees, and
fair boarding charges, an unendowved institution is capable
of paying its own way, even in the face of competition
with extravagant endowments. It appears, then, that by
far the larger portion of the University endowments are
not applied to educational purposes proper, nor apparently
is it desirable that more should be devoted to that object,
so that those are proved to be not far wrong wvho have
urged that all this wealth is in the main wasted upon
sinecures, and is readily available for the direct advance-
ment of science and pure learning. At Oxford, the Heads
of Houses and Fellows, more than twvo-thirds of whom
are non-resident, receive yearly I3,I000/., and the re
mainder of the revenue is expended upon various minor
charges which are probably inseparable from the posses-
sion of large landed estates and considerable buildings
and grounds. It is then to this I31,oool. that the atten-
tion of reformers must be directed, and the question of
its proper uses becomes the more important when it is
added that the Commissioners anticipate that in the next
fifteen years the Colleges v ill receive an increase, due to
the falling in of beneficial leases, of 123,0004. It is pro-
bable, nay, almost certain, that this total wsill be consider-
ably increased, partly by a general rise in the value of
land, and partly through building leases, so that by the
end of this century Oxford will have a yearly sum of
260,c00/. upon which there is no present claim of more
importance than those of Headships and Fellowvships.
If the revenues of Cambridge are treated according to the
same principle of calculation, the amount paid to scholars
and expended in general purposes being, knocked off and
the probable increase being included, the Colleges of that
University will have at the same dlate about i6o,oool., so
ha.t Oxford will then appear even more than now the
richer of the two. In out next article we shall point out
how this l;Lre Cumn m1,iglht be )et further increased, if the
connection %%ith thc ( hurch of EnIgl. nd, which has always
hampered to so great all exitnt the usefilness of the
(olleges, were finally severed, and if all the acadermical
ciidowicnts twere to be stnictly applied to acadctucil



ltirposei ; but even % ithinomt suchl sc erance a stltlicient
surp'lus is Sshw  to IduLe the imuch-delsired .I, Iellt
ais to its lI)n/ie4)er applichtioi1 so that it 111id)' not continue
to be wasted, nor divcrtted, .', soime have il:gct ' 1, to thite
-' it towns  a 10(12 a  c1(t Ii hodde(hich will induce all townS
I)( do  (inIt(I in t1ide' tIt.it tIIe   iuiveSiI't irs  Iyt eve n. II)tull
'
I('ei) themn, and moeC thivia \'(' jtustity time Itlenth Criti-
u1'1i1 that (lir Ijt  sIitim's arc imothuiig iiuc'te thn.1i 1/4111 (
/.i'c {~'a ili't('d (f being, .s they should hec the active
i zlitr  of Ilerning .111(1 1( , 'aI( cl.  It is to a  . iher.ih
MiiiitAy that WU* OCilt' the .I onimmu1c i which hIS  jWdLe'd



[Oct. 15, 1874



this valuable Report, but according to all ;ppearanccs it
willI be a Conservative (;overnmcnt that must undcrtake
the more important task of inaugurating the wvork of
fu ndamcntal I niversity Reform.


                M~ir(~RJJ)(;z(All R/ORJ[
W    L would invite our rcaders' attention to an aiticle
        which appears in this numnbcr of N.\luiIK oil thi(
necessity for placing Physical Meteorology on a rational
basis.
  It forms the substance of a paper brought before the
recent meeting of the British Association by Col. Strange,
who has taken, as our readers well know, a very promi-
nent part in the reconstruction of British Science, and to
whom we are indebted for the present very earnest and
lucidly argued protest in favour of a more rational way
of treating; meteorology.
  He begins by dividing meteorology into two branches-
one of these relating to weather and climate and their
effects on organised life ; while the other deals with the
great physical motions of the atmosphere and with their
causes.
  To know beforehand the climatic peculiarities of a
watering-place or country seat is no doubt of much im-
portance, especially for an invalid who is in search of a
healthy locality, but this does not constitute physical
meteorology. It forms, we venture to think, a more im-
portant and certainly a more difficult branch of inquiry
to study the earth's envelope as a whole, to ascertain the
nature of the movements to which the moveable parts of
it are subject, and finally to investigate the physical
causes of these. It is in this latter aspect that the me-
teorology of the day is so lamentably deficient.  The
great fault in the present system has been well put by
Col. Strange.
  Two things have been taken for granted by meteoro-
logists. In the first -place, it has been imagined that the
sun affects the earth in only one way, namely, by means of
its radiation; and secondly, they appear to have takec
for granted that this radiant influence is a constant
quantity. So much indeed have these most importa, t
factors been overlooked, that we believe no systematic
effort has yet been made to measure the sun's radiant
influence, and indeed no proper instrument has ve t
been devised by which this can be done in a satisfactovy
manner. \Without doubt the great question for metQ: or-
logists is that put by Col. Strange  Is the sun a con>;ta:.;
quantity ?
  Now, if the evidlence in favour of the sun s constancy
were absolutely (uvcrwhelminlg,1, eVen then the presort
*; L III> w*' JLI  ho U a t  sa I i.nL cAIa3LI.'nh  1 n L'. .no   cxln.l'''



attelmlpts have bt'el male to measure the strength of the
solar lntlu. nee : but how muich more is the system deficient
wAhel it refuie s to in\vestigate an influence which is certainiv
predominant atr d most probaibly inconstant. To give kvir
c.ider s some ideAi of the c% idence in favour of this latt'r
as sertion, let uis (Itiot the following words from  a lette-
contained ill al repilt presented to the British Associat]ion
bI   a commlilittee .apointed to consider the question of
en1t1,tic (0, nitioi n :--



l ectnt invcstigatiofls have increased the probabilty