THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



191 



•dents trained in the recent founda- 

 tions for technical scientific instruc- 

 tion have remained ignorant of essen- 

 tial subjects of general education. 



" The bodies which can do most to 

 promote and encourage improvement in 

 these matters are the universities, 

 through the influence which they are in 

 a position to exert on secondary edu- 

 cation. This improvement will not, 

 however, be brought about by making 

 the avenues to degrees in scientific or 

 other subjects easier than at present. 

 Rather, the test of preliminary general 

 education is too slight already, with 

 the result that a wide gap is often 

 established between scientific students 

 careless of literary form and other 

 students, ignorant of scientific method. 



" It may be suggested that the uni- 

 versities might expand and improve 

 their general tests, so as to make them 

 correspond with the education, both ! 

 literary and scientific, which a student, 

 matriculating at the age of 19 years, j 

 should be expected to have acquired; 

 and that they should themselves make 

 provision, in cases where this test is 

 not satisfied, for ensuring the comple- 

 tion of the general preliminary educa- 

 tion of their students, before close 

 specialization is allowed. 



" In particular, it appears desirable 

 that some means should be found for 

 giving a wider range of attainment to 

 students preparing for the profession 

 of teaching. The result of the existing 

 system is usually to place the supreme 

 control of a public school in the hands 

 of a headmaster who has little knowl- 

 edge of the scientific side of education; 

 while the instructors in many colleges 

 have to deal with students who have 

 had no training in the exact and or- 

 derly expression of their ideas. 



" Our main intention is not. however, 

 to offer detailed suggestions, but to ex- 

 press our belief that this question of 

 the adaptation of secondary education 

 to modern conditions involves prob- 

 lems that should not be left to indi- 

 vidual effort, or even to public legis- 

 lative control; that it is rather a 



subject in which die universities <>f the 

 I nited Kingdom might be expected to 

 lead the way and exert their powerful 



iiilliicnce fur the benefit of the nation." 



SCIENTIFIC ITEMS. 

 We regret to record the deaths of M. 

 Emile Duclaux, director of the Pasteur 

 Institute; of Sir Clement Neve Foster, 

 professor of mining in the Royal Col- 

 lege of Mining, London; of Professor 

 A. W. Williamson, the eminent British 

 chemist ; of Sir Henry Thompson, the 

 distinguished surgeon; and of Sir 

 Henry M. Stanley, the African ex- 

 plorer. 



At the recent meeting of the Na- 

 tional Academy of Sciences members 

 were elected as follows: Professor 

 William Morris Davis, Harvard Uni- 

 versity Professor William Fogg Os- 

 good, Harvard University; Professor 

 William T. Councilman, Harvard 

 Medical School; Professor John U. 

 Nef, University of Chicago. The 

 foreign associates elected were: Pro- 

 fessor Paul Ehrlich, Frankfurt; Pro- 

 fessor H. Rosenbusch, Heidelberg; 

 Professor Emil Fischer, Berlin; Sir 

 William Ramsay, London; Sir Will- 

 iam Huggins, London; Professor 

 George H. Darwin, Cambridge; Pro- 

 fessor Hugo de Vries, Amsterdam; and 

 Professor Ludwig Boltzmann. Vienna. 

 The Draper gold medal was presented 

 to Professor George E. Hale, of the 

 Yerkes Observatory, Wisconsin, for his 

 researches in astrophysics. 



The trustees of the British National 

 Portrait Gallery have received by be- 

 quest from the late Mr. Herbert 

 Spencer a portrait of himself, painted 

 by J. B. Burgess, R.A., and a marble 

 bust of himself by Sir J. E. Boehm. — 

 The certificate of incorporation has 

 been filed of the Walter Reed Memorial 

 Association for the purpose of securing 

 funds to erect a monument in Washing- 

 ton City to the memory of the late 

 Walter Reed, major and surgeon U. S. 

 Army. Dr. Daniel C. Gilman is presi- 



