INTERNATIONAL ILLITERACY.

While deeply interested in discussing the illiteracy of our own country, it may be of profit to examine some of the facts concerning this vital topic abroad. The Boston Advertiser of last week says that the latest Austrian census throws some light on the illiteracy of the cis-Leithan monarchy; but no country in Europe attends to this topic as does our census. From an abstract, it appears that out of every one hundred male adults in Austria, excluding Hungary, but 56.8 per cent. can read or write. This goes below the standard of South Carolina and Alabama, where the census shows nearly one-half of all persons over ten years old as unable to read, while one-half could not write. In the Bukovina, which is inhabited chiefly by Ruthenian Slavs and Latin Roumanians, but 13 per cent. of the adult males could read or write; of one hundred children having the legal school-age, but thirty-six nominally attended school; of one thousand inhabitants, but ten had deposits in savings banks; and the average deposits per head were a trifle above two dollars. In Dalmatia, which is inhabited by Servians, the savings record is even worse. Carinthia presents the average of illiteracy and savings in the Austrian monarchy. It is inhabited chiefly by Germans, while Bohemia, mainly a Slav country, is very far above the average, and is one of the best appointed provinces in all Europe.

It will not do, therefore, to charge illiteracy and lack of thrift to national characteristics, or to religion. Some of the most prosperous countries and districts in Europe are Roman Catholic in re igion,-at least, nominally. But in Austria illiteracy and lack of thrift go together, as they do in this country, and probably also in England, where information on illiteracy is very imperfect, except that illiteracy among the laborers is a matter of notoriety. In 1877, the Registrar-general of England and Wales concluded, if schools would increase in the future as they had since the elementaryeducation act of 1870, and from 1841 to 1875, that in the year 1915 all Englishmen, and in 1908 all English women, would be able to write their names. In 1877, 17 per cent. of the men and 23 per cent. of the women signed the marriage-registers with "marks," and Staffordshire, Suffolk, and Norfolk presented a specially bad record.

That there is relatively less illiteracy in this country than in England and Wales is fairly certain, although our census reports 13.4 per cent. of our population above ten years of age as unable to read. We are superior also to France, where about 10 per cent. can read only, while 50 per cent. can read and write, and the remainder of about 40 per cent. is illiterate. Germany certainly, and Scotland probably, present a better record than ours; so do the Scandinavian countries, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland. But with these rather trifling exceptions, Europe surpasses our record of illiteracy, and we have a smaller percentage of illiterates than has Europe.

EDITORIAL Notes.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE COLERIDGE, on the eve of his departure for England, gives excellent testimony to the value of the classics, and replies most conclusively, to Mr. Adams' address on the "College Fetich." Lord Coleridge is reported as saying, at New Haven: "I learned to-day, for the first time, that a very distinguished man in another part of the United States has committed himself to an attack upon the classical curriculum, and has rather suggested that it has interfered with possible success in professional life. Now, without any desire or purpose of entering into a controversy, but merely to repeat here what I have said in public, over and over again, in my own country, I venture to say to you as a lawyer, with some practice, as a Judge of some position, and as a public man of some experience, that which I have said there. I have done many foolish things in my life, and wasted many hours of precious time; but one thing I have done which I would do over again, and the hours I spent at it are the hours which I have spent most profitably, and the knowledge I have thus gained. I have found the most useful and practically useful. From the time I left Oxford I have made it a religion, so far as I could, never to let a day pass without reading some Latin and Greek ; and I can tell you that, so far as my course may be a successful one, I deliberately assert, maintain, and believe that what little success has been granted me in life has been materially aided by the constant study of the classics, which it has been my delight and privilege all my life to persevere in. This is not said for the sake of controversy; still less is it said to an audience of American University young men for the purpose of appearing eccentric; but it is said because I believe it to be true, and I will tell you why. Statement, thought, arrangement, however men may struggle against them, have an influence upon. them, and public men, however they may dislike it, are forced to admit that, conditions being equal, the man who can state anything best, who can pursue argument more closely, who can give the richest and most felicitous illustrations, and who can command some kind of beauty of diction, will have the advantage over his contemporaries; and if at the bar or in the Senate anything has been done which has been conspicuously better than the work of other men, it has, in almost every case, been the result of high education. I say high education,-not necessarily classical, because every man cannot have that. The greatest orator of my country at this moment, as he himself has often said, has only a smack of it.' But he takes no credit to himself for that. On the contrary, he declares it like a man and honestly, and he has striven to make up for what he has lost, and what he cannot learn, because he is so advanced in age, by doing the next best thing to studying classics, studying the best, the highest, and the finest writers in the English language. And so it is in my judgment in almost

every case that I can think of. The man who has influenced his contemporaries the most is, generally speaking, the man of highest education, and I do not hesitate to say that the highest education, if you can get it, is the education to be found in those magnificent writers who, as writers, as masters of style, as conveyers of thought, have never been equaled in the world."

A LATE number of the Nation gives an able resumé of Prof. Lankester's interesting paper before the British Association, on Sept. 20. The Professor's essay contains a great deal of interesting information regarding the present state of scientific research at German, French, and English universities. It advocates the claim of biological science in England to a far greater measure of support than it receives at present from the public funds. The condition of biological research is far below that of France and Germany, and even Holland, Belgium, Italy, and Prussia, and is discreditable to England in proportion as she is richer than other States. "We know," he continues, "that knowledge is languishing, and able men are drawn off from scientific research into other careers; that important discoveries are approached and their final grasp relinquished; that great men depart and leave no disciples or successors, simply for want of that which is largely given in other countries, of that which is most abundant in this country, and is so lavishly expended on armies and navies, on the development of commercial resources, on a hundred injurious or meaningless charities, — viz., money." He lays down the general proposition that scientific discovery has only been made by those whose time could be devoted to it, (1) in virtue of their possessing inherited fortunes; or (2) in virtue of their possessing a stipend or endowment especially assigned to them for that purpose. It is to German sources that the zoologist, the botanist, the physiologist, and the anthropologist look for new information. It is in German laboratories that discoveries, each small in itself, but leading up to great conclusions, are dailymade. "To a very large extent the business of those who are occupied with teaching or supplying biological science in this country consists in making known what has been done in German laboratories. Our English students flock to Germany to learn the methods of scientific research; and to such a state of weakness is English science reduced for want of proper nurture and support that, even on some of the rare occasions when a capable investigator of biological problems has been required for the public service, it has been necessary to obtain the assistance of a foreigner trained in the laboratories of Germany"

Germany, he continues, with a population of 45,000,000, has 21 universi ties, and about 80 more institutes, at which biological discoveries are prosecuted under the most favorable conditions. England, with 25,000,000 inhabitants, has only four universities which possess endowments and professoriates,-Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, and the Victoria (Owens College), at all of which, as well as at the London colleges, there is an extraordinary small amount of provisior. for biological research. In proportion to its

population, England has only one-fourth of Germany's provision for the advancement of biological science, 38 instructorships as against 300 in Germany; and while Germany spends $4,000,000 a year on her universities, the £27,000 spent on the Nottingham College of Science was in England regarded as something extraordinary. Professor Lankester demands, in order that England shall be approximately on a level with Germany, 40 new biological institutes, at an annual cost of £60,000. He refers to the outrageous conduct of Parliament in deliberately appropriating to other uses the property left by Sir Thomas Gresham for scientific research 250 years ago, and which is now estimated to be worth £3,000,000 sterling. Schoolmasterships are too often confounded with professorships. The best teachers, it is true, are those who have engaged in original research, and have, therefore, thoroughly grasped their subject; but time and money are necessary if the teacher is to add to the stock of knowledge.

"Those Englishmen who take an interest in the progress of science are apt to suppose that, in some way which they have never clearly understood, the pursuit of scientific truth is not only its own reward, but also a sufficient source of food, drink, and clothing. While they are interested and amused by the remarkable discoveries of scientific men, they are astonished whenever a proposal is mentioned to assign salaries to a few such persons, sufficient to enable them to live decently while devoting their time and strength to investigation. The public are becoming more and more anxious to have the opinion or report of scientific men upon matters of commercial importance, or in relation to the public health; and yet in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred they expect to have that opinion for the asking, although accustomed to pay other professional men handsomely for similar service. Such mistaken views ought to be dispelled."

A CONTEMPORARY states that Mr. Reginald Stuart Poole has attempted to trace an historical connection between the ancient Egyptian schools and library at Heliopolis, and the Alexandrian Library and University, and even the present Moslem University at Cairo. The sources of information respecting the ancient schools are chiefly old hieratic papyri, some of which were actually exercise-books of students, and they tell us of temples attached to colleges in various large towns. At Heliopolis, where were the most famous schools, religion, law, mathematics, medicine, and language were taught. Primary schools were provided for all classes, and libraries were attached to the temples. The old methods were adopted in the institutions founded at Alexandria by the Ptolemies, but, as these were intended for a mixed population of Egyptians, Greeks, and Hebrews, law and religion were excluded to avoid controversy. Learned men were maintained by the State to prosecute research, and a botanical garden and a menagerie were added. The first Alexandrian Library was burned when Julius Cæsar captured the place. The second disappeared at the time of the Arabian conquest. The niversity was restored by one of the caliphs two centuries after the con

quest. The great University of Cairo, which has 5,000 students, and practically includes all the Alexandrian faculties except medicine, was founded by a Greek officer of the Fatimite caliphate, A. D. 969–970.

FOREIGN NOTES.

RUSSIA. The Russische Revue gives the following statistics of the univer sities in Russia: As regards students, Moscow stands first with 2,430; then St. Petersburg, 2,052; Kiev, 1,475; Dorpat, 1,426; Warsaw, 1,003. Kazan, however, has the greatest number of teachers,-viz., 109; and Warsaw the largest library, 362,000 volumes; Dorpat coming next with 219,000 volumes.

SCOTLAND.-The University of Edinburgh completed 300 years of existence, Oct. 24. The celebration of the event has been postponed till next April, possibly with the hope that in anticipation of the occasion Scotchmen will be found to make up the funds required to complete the new Medical School. The sum of £200,000 has already been expended upon the buildings, of which £100,000 were voted by Parliament, and the other £100,000 subscribed by the people. The Medical School is represented to be the grandest single erection ever undertaken by a university.

ENGLAND. The sixth annual meeting of the Library Association of the United Kingdom was held at Liverpool in September. Among the papers read and discussed was one by Mr. T. E. Stephens upon "The Rise and Growth of Public Libraries in America." The relation between the libraries and the public-school system of the United States was very clearly brought out in the paper. This is a point of special interest to the English at the present time on account of its bearing upon the projected Free Public Libraries bill, which, it is hoped, will be brought before Parliament during the next session. The number of free public libraries in England has increased from 36, where it stood in 1871, to 113.

SCHOOLS OF FORESTRY.-The number of forestry schools in each of the principal countries of Europe is reported as follows, as the result of a recent inquiry: Austria, 9; Prussia, 3; Saxony, 1; Bavaria, 1; Saxe-Weimar, 1; Prussia, 4; Italy, 1; Spain, 1; Denmark, 1; Sweden, 1. In Wurtemburg, instruction is given at the Royal Agricultural Academy at Hohenheim, and at the University of Tubingen. Baden has a forestry department. HesseDarmstadt has a forestry institution attached to the University Giessen. In Switzerland the department of forestry forms the fifth division of the Federal Polytechnic School at Zurich. France possesses a school of forestry at Nancy, and one of forest guards at Barres, in addition to several agricultural schools and agronomic industrial schools, in which forestry is taught.