XLIV THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
minimum age. In the United States the percentage is 7-7, varying 
from 1-7 in Iowa to 29 in Louisiana. In Australia the percentage is 
1-8, where, however, the basis is inability to read. 
Much good might be done by extending .the influence of our 
educational institutions beyond their immediate environment to a 
greater extent than is attained at present. Every lecturer in a uni- 
versity is not capable of popularising his subject, not is every subject 
in a university curriculum capable of popularisation. Some univer- 
sity lecturers, however, have so much native strength and individuality 
as not to become waterlogged with their subject. They perceive 
instinctively the essentials for popular presentation, and in voice 
and manner are fitted for delivering public addresses. Not only 
is a vast body of literature, history and philosophy suitable for con- 
version into the small change of public courses, but a great deal of 
science can also be offered in the same form. I have already referred 
to the presence in our communities of intellectual people without 
intellectual tastes and unintellectual people with intellectual tastes. 
They are of more frequent occurrence than is generally supposed. 
The former class cah have their tastes transmuted, the latter theirs 
stimulated. For all such university extension lectures have a special 
mission. The university extension movement has received in Canada 
but little attention, and what attention it has received has been 
of the most sporadic character. In England it has been energetically 
pushed and with good results. Several of the universities of the 
United States have been radiant points for this form of intellectual 
energy; and special lecturers have devoted their entire attention to 
extension work. Surely the universities of Canada might enlarge 
their area of usefulness in a similar way. 
But this work need not be confined to universities. Amongst 
the specialists in our collegiate institutes and other homes of secondary 
education we have many accomplished and scholarly men. It would 
be of advantage not only to the communities in which they dwell 
but also to themselves if their accomplishments and scholarly attain- 
ments were displayed beyond the walls of the school room. Many 
centres for so-called extension lectures could thus be created, and the 
intellectual life of Canada would be widely stimulated. Central 
committées in each province, putting themselves in touch with uni- 
versities, colleges, and collegiate institutes, could create an organization 
that would assist in arresting the mental declension that so often 
begins with school-leaving or graduation from a university. 
A Plea for the Increased Study of French. A short time since 
when examining the notice of a certain university professor in Morgan’s 
“Canadian Men and Women of the Time,” I found ascribed to him 
