The educational work of a university is twofold: the actual teaching of its undergraduate students and the spread of culture among the people as a whole. The University of the Witwatersrand is still very young and with the limited resources at its disposal it has been compelled to restrict itself until recently to the first aspect of its work.

But the marked sympathy displayed towards the University as a result of the disastrous fire in the Central Block at the end of 1931 indicated that the citizens of the Rand were not unmindful of the value of the work which has so far been accomplished, and encouraged Professor Hoernlé to make a move in the development of the second aspect. The result has been the delivery of the public lectures printed in the following pages.

In offering the thanks of the University to the lecturers, I feel that I must single out for special mention the two who are not members of the staff. General Smuts and Dr. Broom are known the world over for their interest in the development of science and philosophy, but that they should have consented to spare the time which they must have spent on the preparation of their lectures indicates a very real sympathy with the aspirations of the University towards the development of a wider culture in South Africa.

It is also a pleasure to thank all those, many of them quite unconnected with the University, who presided at the lectures and proposed votes of thanks. More especially I wish to express the appreciation of the University to the Minister of Education, the Hon. Dr. D. F. Malan, who showed his interest in the University and in the Course by coming across from Pretoria to preside at the last lecture, and who encouraged us by the suggestion that similar courses of public lectures should be arranged in future years.

The order of the lectures, as published in this volume, differs in one respect from the order of delivery. Dr. Broom's lecture, although actually delivered sixth, now occupies its logical place as the third.