March 30, 191 1] 



NATURE 



163 



important link is thus formed between the elementary 

 schools and the technical institutions, which link cannot 

 be so efficiently provided by the evening continuation 

 schools. 



Such trade preparatory schools in no way interfere with 

 the secondary schools. They simply provide for the further 

 lucation of those boys who would not, in any event, go 

 rward to the secondary schools. It is, however, obvious 

 lat the secondary schools must constitute the main feeder 

 I the higher day technical courses, and it is this aspect 

 i the general question with which we are chiefly con- 

 rned this afternoon. 



With regard to the relationship between the secondary 

 and technical schools, difiicult and thorny questions at 

 once crowd into the mind. At what age should the student 

 pass from the secondary to the technical school? Should 

 ihis age be the same, whatever-the student's future career 

 is likely to be? Should the secondary-school curriculum 

 the same for students who are going forward to a 

 clinical school as for those who are going into commerce 

 Mr into one of the professions? If not, when should 

 differentiation begin? Should any definite technical train- 

 ing (using the expression in the narrow sense of special 

 ■ lining for industrial life) be given in the secondary 

 hool? 



To not one of these inquiries can a categorical reply be 

 .,:ven. 



I am not at the present moment at all concerned with 



'jovernment regulations as to age or curricula, but, look- 



:ig at the age question purely from the point of view of 



1' student's benefit, one cannot lose sight of the fact that 



le age at which the student should finally complete his 



hool career depends on the nature of his future occupa- 



on ; and this fact, coupled with the different require- 



1 "nts of various groups of students, in my opinion points 



rongh' to the desirability, wherever numbers render it 



• acticable, of differentiation in the secondary schools. 



This raises the important question as to whether 



tterent groups of subjects may be made to yield similar 



lucational results. If this is not so, differentiation must 



qise; but many will probably agree that a study of science 



lay be made as useful in developing intellectual capacity 



id character as an exclusive study of the humanities, 



id that as liberal an education may be got from litera- 



ire and science as from entire devotion to languages, 



iving or dead. 



While speaking on this matter, I should further like to 



urge that education and culture, in the truest sense, may 



acquired during the study of the processes involved in 



:'^ transformation of raw materials into useful articles, 



which is the special business of the technical schools. 



The fact that present-day factory conditions are not per- 



'laps conducive to the development of culture does not 



cessarily imply that educational ideals are inherently 



npossible in a technical school, but, on the other hand, 



nphasises the necessity of their development. 



I argue, therefore, that a student's education, in the 



rictest sense of the word, is continued during a properly 



i;anised technical course, and must entirely dissent from 



..i.' view that technical instruction is purely utilitarian. 



We now come to close quarters with the question of the 



previous training desirable for students who will enter a 



hnical college after passing through a secondary school. 



May I point out in this connection that the value of the 



lining in many secondary schools — speaking now of the 



formation gained rather than the intellectual training — 



nies greatly according to the students' future work? If 



lad is going to be a clerk, it so happens that most of 



'■ ordinary school subjects are such as will eventually 



im his tools in his trade of clerking. Of course, for 



t^her commercial work he requires special instruction, 



Uit up to a certain point he receives his technical training 



iiuidentally along with the ordinary school training. 



In the case of students who will enter the industries 

 tills does not hold good to anything approaching the same 

 >!• gree, and if it is possible to place these students on an 

 luality in this respect by modifying the secondary-school 

 irriculum, the gain to the technical schools will be 

 lormous. 



What, then, are the possibilities in this direction? 

 With regard to the specialised technical work, I think 



NO. 2 161, VOL. 86] 



nothing can be done. The importance of technical instruc- 

 tion being given by men having an intimate knowledge of 

 the particular branch of industry concerned cannot be over- 

 rated, and such men are not likely to be found on the 

 staffs of secondary schools, where, in fact, they would be 

 out of place. 



Manufacturing operations, and the technical instruction 

 dealing with them, are, however, based on scientific fact, 

 and mainly upon physical, mechanical, and chemical 

 science, and a knowledge of these underlying sciences 

 should precede the technical study of materials and pro- 

 cesses. Men highly qualified to teach these sciences are, 

 moreover, normally found on the staffs of secondary 

 schools, and the teaching of physics, mechanics and 

 chemistry, and of mathematics and art, might well be 

 carried much further than is usually the case if it ll done 

 by the right men in the right way. 



This, in my opinion, is the direction for advance. 

 What we really need in the technical colleges are students 

 with as much sound scientific training as possible — students 

 trained to think for themselves and with the work habit 

 highly developed. By economising time, this would enable 

 us to carry students further forward, to the ukimate benefit 

 of the industries of the country. 



The whole matter is one which requires sympathetic 

 consideration from both sides, and only in this way can 

 any real advance be made. The teachers in the secondary 

 and technical schools should be brought closer together, 

 should have a more intimate knowledge of each other's 

 work, and wherever practicable, as in a large city, the 

 curriculum of at least one of the secondary schools should 

 be so arranged as to offer to industrial students the same 

 advantages as are now given in such generous measure 

 to those who are training for commercial life or for the 

 teaching and other professions. 



CRYSTALLINE ' STRUCTURE, MINERAL, 

 CHEMICAL, AND LIQUIDS 

 'T^HE importance of crystallography has been growing so 

 -*■ rapidly during recent years that the subject is no 

 longer to be regarded merely as a branch of geology and 

 mineralogy, but has now become a wide and far-reaching 

 subject on its own account, embracing its former parent 

 mineralogy, almost the whole of solid optics, the structure 

 and physical properties, both mechanical and thermal, of 

 solid matter, the structure and character of metals, with 

 most important reference to their preparation for industrial 

 application, and the fundamental groundwork of chemistry. 

 Such a subject can no longer with impunity be relegated 

 to a subsidiary part of a course in geology and mineralogy, 

 but must in future be treated, studied, and taught as a 

 specific branch of natural science. It is of the utmost 

 urgency that all students of chemistry, physics, mineralogy, 

 and metallurgy should be made acquainted with the main 

 facts of the science in order that they rnay understand 

 their own subjects with clear and broad insight. 



It is a remarkable fact that no definition of life hasyet 

 been given which will not include a crystal. The virility 

 and longevity of seeds and spores are often found to be 

 quite extraordinary ; but the power of crystalline growth 

 goes even further, for it is everlasting. An instance was 

 taken in the first lecture from common sand grains, which, 

 originally quartz crystals in a granitic rock, after passing 

 through every variety of vicissitude for thousands of 

 years, when eventually they come in contact with water 

 containing a little of their' substance, silica, in solution, 

 begin to grow again as crystals of quartz. A slide of 

 such sand grains was shown on the screen, having perfect 

 little quartz prisms and pyramids growing out from them. 



Some fine examples of the growth of crystals were pro- 

 jected on the screen in polarised and ordinary light, 

 notably of benzoic acid crystallising from the melted 

 condition, of white arsenic crystals growing from the 

 vaporous state, and of potassium bichromate and 

 ammonium chloride growing from solutions of different 

 degrees of supersaturation. Especial emphasis was laid 

 on the fact that slow growth from the slightly super- 

 saturated condition, that which has been so clearly defined 



' Summary of three Ifciures tlelivered at the Roy.il Institution on 

 February 28, March 7, and March 14, by Dr. A. E. H. Tutton, F.R.S. 



