Notes

Abstract

WE learn from a paragraph in the Times of September 19 that the question of abandoning honorary degrees received from English universities, and distinctions from learned societies, is being discussed by some German professors. Prof. V. Förster, professor of astronomy in the University of Berlin, who holds a doctor's degree at Oxford, takes objection to the movement in a letter to the Berliner Tageblatt, on the ground that it is unwise to proclaim a divorce from the “learned world” of England because of England's “wicked policy.” It would be better for the German professors to make a strong appeal to their English friends for “a more effective loyalty to the intellectual community.” Protests against Prof. Förster's views promptly came from Prof s. Eucken and J. Kohler, who hold chairs of philosophy and law respectively. In connection with this question we are glad to print elsewhere in this issue a letter from Dr. J. P. Lotsy asking scientific men who have received honours from universities, or other learned institutions of nations with which their own countries are at war, not to commit the act of renunciation advocated by certain representatives of German learning.