314 



NA TURE 



[February 3, 1898 



is enriched by many examples of the experimental 

 method, and by many illustrations of laboratory appa- 

 ratus. Readers of Prof. Perry's " Practical Mechanics," 

 of which this book may be regarded as an extension, 

 do not need to be told that in the development of the 

 mechanical laboratory he has done pioneer work of 

 the most important kind. In his preface he refers 

 very properly to the initiative taken by Sir Robert Ball 

 in the teaching of mechanics by quantitative experi- 

 ments, and he also speaks in altogether too generous 

 terms of work in this direction recently done in the 

 Engineering Laboratory at Cambridge. But it is to 

 Prof. Perry himself that we owe in great measure the 

 idea of a laboratory in which the students themselves 

 carry out such experiments in applied mechanics, and 

 the idea is one for which students, if not teachers, can- 

 not be sufficiently grateful. Nothing contributes so 

 much toward giving men a real and useful grasp of a 

 mechanical principle than they should themselves make 

 quantitative experiments with a piece of apparatus 

 designed to exemplify the principle. But there must 

 of course be some prehminary training in theory, and 

 the work of the laboratory must be in close touch with 

 that of the lecture-room. 



In the history of Nicholas Nickleby we are told how 

 Mr. Squeers claimed to " go upon the practical mode of 

 teaching, the regular education system," He taught his 

 boys to spell "winder" and then go and clean it, to 

 spell "bottiney" and then weed the garden. This early 

 and crude example of the laboratory method had two 

 grave defects. The book-work was badly done ; and 

 there was no sufficient connection between it and the 

 practical work, for it must be admitted that weeding 

 does not help to spell, nor spelling to clean windows. 

 Add to this that Mr. Squeers quarrelled with his demon- 

 strator, which was impolitic, and that his boys were, in 

 Prof Perry's words, "too much spoon-fed," and it is not 

 strange that the laboratory method did not commend 

 itself in his hands. 



We have changed all that, and as things are now 

 there is perhaps a little danger of the practical work 

 receiving even more than its due share of attention. 

 Valuable as it undoubtedly is, the value of lectures and 

 reading and " paper " work generally is not to be under- 

 rated. Prof. Perry does well to insist that the student 

 shall " work many numerical and graphical exercises," 

 as well as " make a great many quantitative laboratory 

 experiments." 



By the publication of his " Applied Mechanics " Prof. 

 Perry has made a large addition to the debt which 

 teachers and students of the subject already owe him. 



J. A. EWING. 



CHARLES CARD ALE BABLNGTON. 

 Memorials, Journal, and Botanical Correspondence of 

 Charles Cardale Babingion. Pp. xciv -V 475. (Cam- 

 bridge : Macmillan and Bowes, 1897.) 

 /^"^HAPTERS in the history of the teaching of botany 

 ^^-' have i)ow been written in the biographies of four 

 Cambridge professors. In 1830 was published Gorham's 

 " Memoirs of John and of Thomas Martyn," a book of 

 small size; and in 1862 Jenyn's " Memoir of the Rev. 

 NO. 1475. VOL. 57] 



J. S. Henslow," containing 278 pages. The last of this 

 series, the volume under review, far exceeds the others 

 in size, and contains 570 pages. 



The plan of the book divides it sharply into three 

 sections. The first of these sections is occupied by 

 notices from various sources, mostly reprinted from other 

 publications, and diverse in the points from which the 

 views of the different writers are taken. We find Prof. 

 Babington in the light of a college friend from the pen 

 of Prof. J. E. B. Mayor, as a fellow-teacher of science 

 from that of Prof. G. D. Liveing, as a fellow botanist by 

 Mr. James Britten, as an archaeologist, and as a philan- 

 thropist. The second section (270 pages) consists of 

 the journal kept by him throughout his long life, and the 

 third section of letters written by him to various botanists. 

 The book closes with a list of his publications, and a 

 very complete index in two parts. 



Undoubtedly the greatest interest in the volume lies 

 in the scattered sentences, which refer to the struggle 

 for the recognition of science as an educational subject, 

 in which struggle Babington played no small part. F>om 

 1826 until his death in 1895 he resided in Cambridge ; 

 and one may remitid the reader what an immense 

 change has taken place since the first date, when the 

 Elizabethan statutes were still in force. The early teach- 

 ing of botany in Cambridge was intermittent. Richard 

 Bradley, professor from 1724 to 1733, seems never to 

 have lectured ; John Martyn, his successor, lectured 

 from 1727 to 1734, and Thomas Martyn, who became 

 professor in 1762, lectured for thirty years. In 1825 J. S. 

 Henslow's teaching commenced, and we are told that for 

 seven years his class numbered sixty to eighty. The 

 clearness and charm of Henslow's lectures attracted 

 many of the older members of the University to listen 

 to him, and among these sat for six nearly consecutive 

 years young Babington. After this we learn that the 

 numbers attending the class fell. In 1861 there were 

 no lectures. Babington, meanwhile being elected pro- 

 fessor, begins to lecture in 1862, and in 1864 (p. 359) has 

 a class of thirty-five to forty-five students, in 1865 (p. 

 362) of forty, in 1866 (p. 205) of about forty-five. Such 

 references as these, scattered sometimes in letters, some- 

 times in his journal, will serve as grist to the mill of 

 a historian wishing to write an account of science in 

 England. The story of Babington's influence for the 

 promotion of natural history, especially in the years 

 before he became professor, is admirably told in Prof. 

 Liveing's memoir on p. Ivii. 



A regular attendant at the meetings of the British 

 Association, he was one of the founders of the Red Lion 

 Club, a club formed by a little knot of kindred spirits 

 who dined together during the meeting. On p. 85, the 

 founding is thus noticed : " 1839. Aug. 29. Yesterday 

 and to-day we formed a private dinner-party at the 

 ' Red Lion ' inn (Birmingham), with Dr. Macartney in 

 the chair." Frequent mention of the " Red Lions " occurs 

 in the following pages. 



In his letters to J. H. Balfour, A. G. More, and others 

 upon scientific publications, we find him (p. 302) ill- 

 satisfied with the Phytologist, and (pp. 288, 291, 306, 312, 

 &c.) very solicitous for the good of Henfrey's Botanical 

 Gazette and the Transactions of the Edinburgh Botanical 

 Society. 



