82 THE FUTURE OF SCIENCE 



every child of the standard of intelligence admitting 

 to the university so thorough and sufficient a general 

 education that, at the university, the serious life-work 

 could be entered upon at once. A modernised school 

 curriculum, finally and completely liberated from 

 the deadening influence of the Middle Ages, would 

 bring a child up to the university with something of 

 that enthusiasm and passion for knowledge for its 

 own sake which, of yore, was the pride of Scotland's 

 poor scholars. "Cultural" subjects would remain, 

 throughout life, the natural recreation from pro- 

 fessional or highly specialised studies. The chief 

 charge against the old curricula is that they destroy 

 in youth the enthusiasm and aspiration for learning, 

 without which educational systems are but useless 

 machinery without motive power. 



In experimental science in Scotland the greatest 

 need for reform exists. The association of the 

 Honours M.A. with the B.Sc. so favours certain 

 subjects, especially mathematics and applied mathe- 

 matics, by giving two degrees for little more than 

 the work of either, that it has been a powerful factor 

 in the neglect of experimental science. It is nearly 

 incredible, but, until very recently here, and possibly 

 elsewhere still, those who took this combination and 

 were for the most part going to be science school- 

 masters, were turned out to teach chemistry in 

 schools without, of necessity, ever having worked in 

 a chemical laboratory. What sort of chemistry, I 

 wonder, is it that they hand on to their pupils. The 

 science of the mathematical arts man with M.A. 

 (Hon.), B.Sc., is too often such as is calculated to 

 bring science into disrepute. 



But it is on the financial side that this university 

 is most open to criticism in its treatment of science. 

 An investigation of the published accounts for 1913- 

 14, the year prior to the war, explained much that 



