November ii, 1897] 



NATURE 



41 



to the suggestions of the organising secretarfes of those com- 

 mittees. 



In London, through its representation on the Technical Edu- 

 cation Board of the London County Council and on the London 

 Polytechnic Council, the Institute has taken a large share in the 

 direction and organisation of the educational work of the Poly- 

 technic Institutions ; and in accordance with the original scheme 

 of the Charity Commissioners for the administration of those 

 bodies, the examinations of the Institute have been generally 

 adopted, and the instruction given in those Institutions, although 

 in no way unduly subordinated to examination influences, has 

 been legitimately, and, it is believed, usefully, directed by the 

 Institute's requirements. 



During the session under review the number of students in 

 attendance at the classes registered by the Institute was 32,566, 

 as against 29,494 in the previous year, and the number of candi- 

 dates' papers examined was 12,868, as against 12,099. 



To enable the Institute to adapt its schemes of instruction to 

 local needs and to the changing requirements of different trades, 

 and to make its examinations a true test of the technical know- 

 ledge and ability of the artisan students who have been trained 

 in its registered classes, frequent changes are made in its syllabuses 

 of instruction, and tests of workmanship, wherever practicable, 

 are made a part of the examination. Several alterations have 

 been made in the programme of instruction and examination for 

 the session 1897-98, to some of vvhich we draw attention. Thus, 

 in the syllabuses of textile subjects, important changes have been 

 introduced. 



Reference was made in last year's report to a discussion by a 

 committee of experts in Lancashire of the conditions of examin- 

 ation in cotton weaving. The report of that committee was 

 received by the Institute early in the session, and subsequently a 

 conference was held in London of representatives of the In- 

 stitute, the Institute's examiners and inspector, and delegates 

 from the Technical Instruction Committee of the Manchester 

 County Council. As a result of that conference, it was proposed 

 that a new syllabus should be prepared in several of the weaving 

 subjects to cover a period of three years, and that the full cer- 

 tificate should be granted to those students only who complete 

 the three years' course of study. It was also considered advisable 

 that candidates, before entering upon their first year's course of 

 technical instruction, should pass a preliminary examination in 

 the subjects of arithmetic, drawing, and elementary physics, in 

 their special application to the technology of spinning and 

 weaving. The representatives of the Union of Lancashire and 

 Cheshire Institutes, having undertaken to prepare and submit 

 for approval to the Committee of the Institute a syllabus of in- 

 struction for this preliminary examination, the Institute decided, 

 after carefully considering the syllabus, to accept the certificate 

 of the Union in lieu of the certificates of the Science and Art 

 Department, previously required to qualify for a full technological 

 certificate. New syllabuses were accordingly prepared in cotton 

 spinning and weaving, in wool and worsted spinning and weav- 

 ing, and also in jute spinning and weaving ; and these syllabuses, 

 after being modified by different experts to whom they were 

 submitted, were finally adopted by the Institute, and hkve been 

 inserted in the Programme. To obtain a certificate in the 

 ordinary grade of either branch of calico or cloth manufacture, 

 it will now be necessary that the student, unless specially 

 exempted, should go through a two years' course of study and 

 pass an examination at the end of each year's work. 



In the subject of iron and steel manufacture, a new syllabus 

 has been written ; and with the view of adapting the examin- 

 ation to the requirements of students working in different parts 

 of the country, a large number of questions will be given, cover- 

 ing the different sections into which the syllabus has been 

 divided, and candidates will be at liberty to select those questions 

 bearing upon the practice of the trade in the district in which 

 they work. 



It has been thought desirable to limit the scope of the ex- 

 amination in the electro-metallurgy to the principles underlying 

 the electro- deposition of metals, and in order to bring the in- 

 struction into closer touch with the requirements of students 

 engaged in the manufacture of electro-plated goods, the .syllabus 

 of examination has been modified, and the title of the sub- 

 ject has been changed into that of " Electro- Plating and 

 Deposition." 



The syllabus in mine surveying has been re-written with the 

 view of making the instruction and examination more distinctly 

 technical than hitherto. Questions will be set involving a knosv- 



ledge of logarithms and trigonometry, and of the application of 

 trigonometry to problems in mine surveying ; but the questions 

 in pure mathematics, which previously formed a part of the 

 examination, will be omitted. 



The report, in addition to giving particulars as to the various 

 examinations which took place in connection with tlie session, 

 contains extracts from statements made by the examiners con- 

 cerning the general character of the work examined, which 

 should prove useful to both teachers and students. 



EXPERIMENTAL MORPHOLOGY} 



T N looking at the progress which has been made in the study 

 -*■ of plant morphology, I have been as much impressed with 

 the different attitudes of mind toward the subject during the 

 past 150 years as by the advance which has taken place in 

 methods of study, as well as the important acquisitions to 

 botanical science. These different view points have coincided 

 to some extent with distinct periods of time. What Sachs in 

 his "History of Botany" calls the "new morphology" was 

 ushered in near the middle of the present century by von Mohl's 

 researches in anatomy, by Naegeli's investigations of the cell, 

 and Schleiden's history of the development of the flower. The 

 leading idea in the study of morphology during this period was 

 the inductive method for the purpose of discerning fundamental 

 principles and laws, not simply the establishment of individual 

 facts, which was especially characteristic of the earlier period 

 when the dogma of the constancy of species prevailed. 



The work of the "herbalists" had paved the way for the 

 more logical study of plant members by increasing a knowledge 

 of species, though their work speedily degenerated into mere 

 collections of material and tabulations of species with inadequate 

 descriptions. Later the advocates of metamorphosis and spiral 

 growth had given an impetus more to the study of nature, 

 though diluted with much poetr>' and too largely subservient to 

 the imagination, and to preconceived or idealistic notions. 



But it was reserved for Hoffmeister (1859), whose work 

 followed within three decades of the beginnings of this period, 

 to add to the inductive method of research, as now laid down, 

 the comparative method ; and extending his researches down 

 into the Pteridophyta and Bryophyta, he not only established 

 for these groups facts in sexuality which Camerarius and Robert 

 Brown had done for the Spermatophyta, but he did it in a far 

 superior manner. He thus laid the foundation for our present 

 conceptions of the comparative morphology of plants. Naegeli's 

 investigations of the cell had emphasi.sed the importance of its 

 study in development, and now the relation of cell growth to 

 the form of plant members was carried to a high degree, and it 

 was shown how dependent the form of the plant was on the 

 growth of the apical cell in the Pteridophyta and Bryophyta, 

 though later researches have modified this view ; and how 

 necessary a knowledge of the sequence of cell division was to 

 an understanding of homologies and relationships. Thus in 

 developmental and comparative studies, morphology has been 

 placed on a broader and more natural basis, and the homologies 

 and relationships of organs between the lower and higher plants 

 are better understood. 



But the growth of comparative morphology has been accom- 

 panied by the interpretation of structures usually from a teleo- 

 logical standpoint, and in many cases with the innate propensity 

 of the mind to look at nature in the light of the old idealistic 

 theories of metamorphosis. 



I wish now to inquire if we have not recently entered upon a 

 new period in our study of comparative morphology. There 

 are many important questions which comparative studies 

 of development under natural or normal conditions alone, 

 cannot afford a sufficient number of data. We are constantly 

 confronted with the problems of the interpretation of structure 

 and form, not only as to how it stands in relation to structures 

 in other plants, which we deal with in comparative morphology, 

 but the meaning of the structure or form itself, and in relation 

 to the other structures of the organism, in relation to the 

 environment, and in relation to the past. This must be met by 

 an inquiry on our part as to why the structure or form is what it 

 is, and what are the conditions which influence it. This we are 



1 .\ddiess delivered before Section G (Botany) of tl>e American As.socia- 

 tion f r the Adv.-xncement of Science, at Detroit, by Prof. G. F. Atkinson. 

 (Numerous bibliographical references were given in the course of ihe 

 address, but these have been omitted.) 



NO. 1463, VOL. 57] 



