532 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Professor Huxley found one student to tackle his questions, and 

 lie failed. 



Professors Ramsay and Warington Smyth had three each, but 

 the two threes only made five; for both lists were headed by the 

 name of 



Judd, John W., 



Wesleyan Training College, 



Westminster. 



Our present dean was caught in the first haul. 



These examinations were continued till 1866, and upward of 

 six hundred teachers obtained certificates, some of them in several 

 subjects. 



Having secured the teachers, the next thing the department did 

 was to utilize them. This was done in 1859 by the establishment 

 of the science classes throughout the country, which are, I think, the 

 only part of our educational system which even the Germans envy 

 us. The teaching might go on in schools, attics or cellars, there was 

 neither age limit nor distinction of sex or creed. 



Let me insist upon the fact that from the outset practical work 

 was encouraged by payments for apparatus, and that latterly the 

 examinations themselves, in some of the subjects, have been practical. 



The number of students under instruction in science classes under 

 examined in the first year in which local examinations were held was 

 442; the number in 1897 was 202,496. The number of candidates 

 examined in the first year in which local examinations were held was 

 G50, who worked 1,000 papers; in 1897 the number was 106,185, 

 who worked 159,724 papers, chemistry alone sending in 28,891 

 papers, mathematics 24,764, and physiography 16,8'" <). 



The total number of individual students under instruction in 

 science classes under the department from 1859 to 1897 inclusive 

 has been, approximately, 2,000,000. Of these about 900,000 came 

 forward for examination, the total number of papers worked by them 

 being 3,195,170. 



Now why have I brought these statistics before you? 



Because from 1861 onward the chief rewards of the successful 

 students have been scholarships and exhibitions held in this college; 

 a system adopted in the hope that in this way the numbers of per- 

 fectly trained science teachers might be increased, so that the sci- 

 ence classes throughout the country might go on from strength to 

 strength. 



The royal exhibitions date from 1863, the national scholars from 

 1884. The free studentships were added later. 



The strict connection between the science classes throughout the 



