l3o 



J^ATURE 



{Feb. 24, 1876 



it, and it was introduced into public schools, and pro- 

 tected, and nursed, and encouraged by scholarships at 

 the Universities, &c. On the whole it got quite as fair 

 play and more favour than could have been expected. 

 Now it is no longer nursed ; it is left to find its level. It 

 is protected by regulations against the extinctive power 

 of headmasters, and that is all. Meantime, the methods 

 of teaching it are improving ; the supply of teachers is 

 increasing ; the number of scholarships at the Universi- 

 ties is quite adequate to the demand for them ; and the 

 examinations for them are very good. With these favour- 

 able circumstances, and a slowly maturing opinion in the 

 minds of most people that education in science is valuable 

 as a part of training, I think we can afiford not to be very 

 impatient at the Regulations of the Universities Board, 

 or at the strict neutrality of headmasters when the inte- 

 rests of science are concerned. 



James M. Wilson 



May I be allowed a few words with reference to some 

 criticisms passed in last week's Nature on the Regula- 

 tions adopted by the " Oxford and Cambridge Schools 

 Examination Board " in regard to science ? 



I fully concur with the writer (Mr. N. M. Watts) that 

 these Regulations and the two papers printed point to a 

 low standard of scientific knowledge in our great schools. 

 It must be borne in mind, however, that the Board does 

 not issue these Regulations as an ideal scheme of school 

 work, but merely intend them to answer the existing state 

 of the case. With the curriculum of any school they 

 have nothing to do, their function being to appoint 

 examiners to such schools as apply for them, leaving 

 the schools free, within reasonable limits, to choose their 

 subjects. 



Now granting Mr. Watts' premises that certificates can 

 be obtained very cheaply by taking up two sciences 

 instead of Latin and Greek, this would give an impetus 

 to the study of those subjects in schools, resulting in a 

 large flock of scientific candidates. 



Whether this has been the case, the following abstract 

 from the examiner's report of last July shows : — 



These results show that the number of candidates 

 offering any branch of science is comparatively very 

 small, only seventy out of a total of 461, of whom only 

 thirty-seven succeeded in satisfying the examiners out of 

 a total of 232 ; and of these thirty-seven only six suc- 

 ceeded in gaining distinction. These figures show, I 

 think, that in proportion to the time and attention given 

 to science in the schools examined last July, the papers 

 set were neither unreasonably easy nor difficult. I wish 

 especially to point out that increasing the difficulty of 

 obtaining certificates by help of science would tend as far 

 as possible to exclude science from the school curriculum, 

 while retaining a low standard encourages boys who have 



gained a certain crude scientific culture in the lower forms, 

 not, as is so often the case, to let it drop entirely on 

 reaching the sixth. 



It does seem to me therefore wiser to commend the 

 wisdom than to deplore the ignorance of the compilers of 

 these Regulations, who aimed at testing the soundness of 

 the small modicum of existing knowledge, rather than 

 fixing a standard which would have practically acted as a 

 prohibition of science. 



In considering the amount of knowledge to be expected 

 from boys of eighteen, we must remember the time usually 

 devoted to science work. The following will, as far as 

 my experience goes, be not an unfair statement of the 

 case. A boy commences Latin and French at about 

 eight years of age, at the same time imbibing the first 

 ideas of Mathematics in Elementary Arithmetic ; Greek 

 (or German when it is substituted) at twelve or thirteen, 

 and probably Euclid about the same age ; Science seldom, 

 if ever, before fourteen or fifteen. Thus the candidate 

 offering himself for examination at eighteen has given 

 ten years to Latin, six to Greek, and about three to 

 Science, the number of hours in those three years given 

 to Science being certainly less than that given to Greek. 

 This programme would be true of certainly nine-tenths of 

 our public school-boys who offer themselves for the exa- 

 mination, the remaining tenth consisting of boys who at 

 seventeen show a distinct aptitude for Science or Mathe- 

 matics, and who then drop a large proportion of their 

 classical work and are enabled to devote one-half of their 

 time, or thereabouts, to their special subjects. The com- 

 plaint might with more reason be urged by the classical 

 boys proper against these specialised boys, who are 

 allowed to gain their certificates too easily. When the 

 necessity arises, the standard will doubtless be raised, 

 perhaps, by a division (similar to that made in the Ma- 

 thematical Group) into Elementary and Advanced Science, 

 with a provision that only one elementary science can be 

 taken up. 



Mr. Watts, in the article referred to, asks, rather con- 

 temptuously, whether " the knowledge of the composition 

 of the air, the reasons for belief in the rotundity of the earth, 

 the meaning of the words watershed, dip, &c., is the ut- 

 most that can be demanded of a boy of eighteen who has 

 studied science instead of the older well-established sub- 

 jects of classics and mathematics." I hope I have shown 

 that the standard of the examination papers was not too 

 low for the candidates who offered themselves. With 

 reference to the desirabiUty of the change in our whole 

 system of education to which Mr. Watts refers, I may be 

 allowed to say that there is by no means at present an 

 agreement even amongst science teachers that such a 

 change is desirable. I refrain from opening up this very 

 wide subject, because I feel that the experiment has not 

 yet had a fair trial. 



Rugby LiNNiEUS Gumming 



THE ORGANIC IMPURITIES OF DRINKING 

 WATER 



ON Thursday last Prof. Frankland delivered a dis- 

 course to the Fellows of the Chemical Society at 

 Burlington House on the detection and analytical deter- 

 mination of the organic impurities in potable waters. He 

 said that the more his inquiries into the influence of water 

 upon the public health had extended themselves the more 

 had he become convinced of the great importance of this 

 application of chemical analysis to the community at 

 large, contending that, in the interests of the public 

 health, the bringing to perfection of this branch ot 

 analysis was worthy of the greatest eff^orts of chemists. 



The two chief objects to be kept in view m the analysis 

 of potable water are, firstly, the discovery of the evidence 

 of past pollution by organic matter ; and secondly, the 



