666 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



solution of a series of Chinese puzzles having no relation to the 

 requirements of life, not competency and skill in doing actual 

 work. 



The Universit}' machine must be made sound in its working 

 parts, if it is to run smoothl3^ and effectively. 



" What's the good of Mercators North Poles and Equators, 

 Tropics, Zones and Meridian Lines?" 

 So the Bellman would cry ; and the crew would reply, ♦ 

 " They are merely conventional signs I " 



And so it is with the Senates, Faculties, Boards of Studies and 

 all other such institutions — for the most part, they are mere time- 

 wasting contrivances ; the Schools are the one essential feature 

 of the University organisation : if they are guided by true 

 ideals and in honest hands, they ma}^ be counted on to do effective 

 work — not otherwise : no mere ordinances can help them ; 

 suspicion of the teachers can onl}- nullify their efforts. 



To put the teaching of the preliminary medical subjects on a 

 sound basis in London, the first thing to do is to establish a 

 limited number of special Schools. Whatever the present 

 feeling of the various Institutions ma}^ be, however jealous they 

 may be of one another, this step will necessaril}' be taken at 

 no distant date. The public will demand it, as the only means 

 of securing efficient teaching. The development of a suitable 

 course of preliminar}^ studies must be a matter of experiment — 

 it must therefore be in the hands of an independent bod}' of 

 competent teachers : of a School free from interference and in- 

 dependent of external control. If University privileges are to be 

 attached to the Schools, the}' must be of a certain importance. 

 I imagine that at most three such Schools are required and can 

 be allowed in London. It is most unfortunate that a beginning 

 was not made at South Kensington. 



My own personal experience — far from being of the ante- 

 diluvian order painted b}^ Dr. Wade — enables me to speak with 

 some slight feeling on a proposition such as I advance above. 

 When Prof. Ayrton and I were appointed in 1879 by the City 

 and Guilds of London Institute for the Advancement of 

 Technical Education to start classes in temporar}' quarters at 

 the Cowper Street Schools, Finsbury, I found plans already 

 drawn for the erection of a separate chemical laboratory on an 

 adjoining site. I at once urged that these should be set aside 



