NOTES 673 



trying to run the gold of science exclusively into the mould of industry. The 

 whole article is well worth reading — together with "The Historical Continuity of 

 Science" by the same author (Scientific Monthly, October 191 6). Science speaks 

 a useful word in its issue of January 19, 1917, when it says that "Specialists 

 themselves go wrong if they never fully realise the broad foundation of their 

 specialities. A narrow specialist is a bad specialist." Specialists of the future 

 should " have a broader foundation for their work through a better realisation of 

 the dependence of one branch of science upon the others." It is to meet just 

 this need that we publish every quarter our section on " Recent Advances in 

 Science." 



The Aurora under the command of Capt. J. K. Davis, with Sir Ernest 

 Shackleton on board, arrived at Wellington, N.Z., February 9, bringing the 

 survivors of the Ross Sea party of the Imperial Antarctic Expedition. According 

 to Nature no new geographical discoveries were made, but the meteorological 

 records are of value. 



The Imperial College of Science and Technology, acting on the instruction of 

 the Ministry of Munitions of War, has published a valuable Memoir on British 

 Resources of Sand Suitable for Glass- Making, with Notes on Certain Crushed 

 Rocks and Refractory Materials, by P. G. H. Boswell (Longmans, Green). 



The utilitarian factor of education advocated by Dr. Garnett {Vocational 

 Education, page 666) is upheld in the Hindustan Review (December 1916) by 

 Miss E. H. White in her article " Education — to what End?" She urges the 

 unifying of aim in our different educational bodies and expresses the hope that 

 India may be to the fore in the matter of reform. This idea of unity is also 

 emphasised by Sir Napier Shaw, Sc.D., F.R.S., in his pamphlet The Lack of 

 Science in Modern Education (Lamley & Co.), in which he recommends the 

 Chancellors of our Universities to sink their rivalries and to meet in order to 

 define their educational aims and to construct a framework into which the requisite 

 detail might be fitted. His pamphlet is also remarkable for the view he takes 

 that Government is not the only culprit in the failure of science to reach the 

 public, and he shifts part of the blame on to the body of scientists of which he 

 himself is a distinguished member. Hs considers that " when science entered 

 upon its greatest development we began the degeneration by borrowing from the 

 older studies the practice of controlling education by examinations with a limited 

 time, admirable for Latin prose or arithmetic or elementary algebra, but ruinous 

 for natural sciences." Those who favour the opinion that the cause of science 

 might be furthered by an expansion of the method of popular lectures will like to 

 read a small publication of the British Association of what occurred under this 

 head in Section L (Educational Science) at its meeting in 1916. " More about 

 Science in our Schools " (Australian Ma?iufacturer, November 25, 1916) is a 

 welcome proof that the educational reform now going on in England is not 

 confined to these shores but is spreading throughout the Empire. And this 

 world-wide wave of educational reform has touched not only our own Empire, 

 but also that of Russia, where "The Ministry of Education," says the Times 

 (Russian Section, January 27) "is at the present time engaged in drafting 

 programmes for lower elementary schools," and is endeavouring " to create 

 conditions under which pupils of elementary schools may really understand the 

 living nature that surrounds them." According to this article ("Educational 

 Reform in Russia ") the chief difficulty at present seems to lie in the formation 

 of a really adequate teaching staff, but appears to be in the process of being 

 overcome. 



44 



