NA TURE 



261 



THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1876 



THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON AND 

 SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS 



EXAMINATIONS, like fire and many other useful 

 things within their proper limits, are good servants, 

 but very tyrannous masters. It is excellent that knowledge 

 should be tested ; that men — and shall we say women — 

 shall be found out for their souls' good if they innocently 

 deceive themselves as to their acquirements, for the sake 

 of the community if they assume knowledge they really 

 do not possess. Unfortunately, what was once a means 

 bids fair to become an end ; and it is quite certain that 

 a great deal of knowledge is acquired nowadays which 

 finds its only use within the walls of the examination 

 room. It is perhaps a law of human nature that those 

 who have bitterly endured the harrow — not to suggest 

 metaphorically another implement — are ever afterwards 

 eager that all mankind should endure the same process 

 with no feature of its asperity mitigated. In the Report 

 of the Sub-committee of the Annual Committee of the 

 Convocation of the University of London on the Exami- 

 nation and Inspection of Schools, this feeling makes itself 

 curiously apparent : — 



" The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge having 

 for many years held local examinations, and having 

 recently initiated a jomt scheme, in accordance with 

 which they have examined a progressively increasing 

 number of schools, your Sub-committee fear, that unless 

 this University is prepared to undertake a share in this 

 great work, many schools, which have hitherto acted as 

 feeders to this University, will grow into organic relation 

 with the older Universities, and that, consequently, the 

 number 0/ candidates for the London examitiattons will 

 sensibly decrease" 



The two ancient Universities having, it will be seen, 



started a system which has affected, most beneficially, 



the middle-class education of the country, and this 



1 system having worked successfully for many years, are 



, now practically extending it to the higher grade schools. 



; The Annual Committee have not a word to say as to the 



i efficiency of the work, although, as we have frequently 



! said in these columns, much is to be objected as to the 



i position given to science in it. It might, then, be con- 



: ceived, that there was no need for the modern Univer- 



'' sity to do more than to wish the older ones God- speed. 



But no ; there is no salvation in Oxford and little in 



Cambridge, and that students should from their youth 



upwards lean to these alince viatres and turn away from 



the sicca nutrix of the metropolis — the examining board 



with all its sternest features unmitigated by the prestige 



of a professoriate, or the ameliorations of a traditional 



culture— was a thing not to be endured. The Univer- 



! sity must be at least true to its principles. When on 



the eve of the elections of the present Parliament, 



people were dimly suspecting the beginning of the 



I end of the Liberal administration, Mr. Lowe, addressing his 



constituents in Convocation, devoted all his powers to 



the task of portraying the terrible things that must 



[happen if the Conservatives ever came to power. He 



jpassed lightly over the disappearance of a surplus — that 



jwas too normal a phenomenon with Tories. But he 



touched a chord on which he knew the response would 



Vol, XIII.— No. 327 



not be doubtful, when he hinted that possibly the Conser- 

 vatives might tamper with the principle of competitive 

 examinations ; with almost painful earnestness he pleaded 

 hard for mercy as regards that cherished institution. He 

 knew his audience well, and felt that they at least would 

 never neglect the sacred charge, or forget that the true 

 destiny of the human animal, from its youth upwards, is 

 the examination room 



It will perhaps be thought that in this matter we 

 have spoken with undue irony, even it may be thought 

 with undue levity. But is it easy to speak with reason- 

 able seriousness of an attitude like that which the Annual 

 Committee has adopted ? Surely if the school-examina- 

 tions were ill-conducted by Oxford and Cambridge the 

 nation would owe the University of London a debt of 

 gratitude if it undertook in good faith to do them better. 

 But there is no evidence that they are ill-done ; indeed, 

 there has not been sufficient time to express any com- 

 prehensive opinion about them. A good deal is no doubt 

 to be said as to the inadequate place which science holds 

 in these examinations. But for the present the more 

 dignified course for the University of London to adopt — 

 and one which its actual rulers, the Senate, will, it is to 

 be hoped, take into consideration — is to defer any action 

 in this matter till the Oxford and Cambridge system has 

 at least been tried. It is not by entangling schoolboys in 

 its meshes, but by the high standing which is maintained 

 for its superior degrees, that the prestige of Burlington 

 Gardens will be sustained ; and in the interests of learn- 

 ing, rather than of examinations, it is to be hoped that 

 grounds of action so cynical will not be again put 

 forward. 



GUTHRIE'S 



"MAGNETISM 

 TRICITY " 



AND ELEC- 



Magnetism and Electricity. By F. Guthrie, Professor of 

 Physics at the Royal School of Mines. (London and 

 Glasgow : W, Collins, Sons, and Co., 1876.) 



DR. GUTHRIE has evidently devoted considerable 

 time and care to the preparation of this text-book. 

 It has undoubtedly a freshness and originality of treat- 

 ment which, though apt to shock electricians in parts, 

 yet places this treatise in striking contrast to some science 

 class-books of mushroom growth, that bear the mark of 

 scissors and paste on every page. In such books the 

 text too often seems written to illustrate the threadbare 

 woodcuts ; here, however, the illustrations are original, 

 and usefully aid the author's meaning. It is true in some 

 cases the cuts are rough and poorly engraved, e.g. Figs. 

 90, 105, 107, 112, 123, 183, and 274, and it is to be re- 

 gretted that, in the case of instruments at any rate, the 

 illustrations are not drawn to scale but often greatly out 

 of proportion, the reason for which, the author states, is 

 better to show principles ; but this hardly apphes to appa- 

 ratus which the student or instrument maker may have 

 to construct from the figures. We like, however, the 

 quaintness seen in many of the terms employed ; such 

 as the use of " tandem " to describe cells grouped in 

 simple circuit by "joining the family of zincs to the 

 family of carbons" (p. 183), and the term "abreast," 

 employed to indicate the compound circuit ; a source of 

 voltaic electricity is called an " electrogen," and the tran- 

 sport of the products of electrolysis is termed " migration 



V 



