Aprils, 1876] 



NA TURE 



455 



satisfied with one's work, however, is one thing ; how to 



make it better is quite another. In chemistry we have 

 perhaps all the means commonly employed. In physio- 

 logy we can get objective illustrations brought into the 

 class-room, and can use the microscope and diagrams. 

 In mechanics our workshops supply practical work, but 

 for the class-room we have only the most homely practical 

 examples, and I know of no apparatus that is not cum- 

 brous, needlessly costly, or ineffectual. Johnstone's ad- 

 mirable illustrations ard the black-board are our chief 

 agents. I would travel far to get a practical knowledge 

 of means and methods by which we could improve our 

 cwn, in teaching this subject. 



I believe that such knowledge as I have indicated may 

 be profitably given even to very young boys. They learn 

 thereby to distinguish the precise features and qualities 

 of natural objects, and the conditions of ordinary phe- 

 nomena ; and such teaching undoubtedly exercises in the 

 best way the observing powers which develop much 

 earlier than the reflective faculty. I am inclined to say 

 that teaching elementary science to boys from ten to 

 thirteen is a greater success than teaching grammar, i.e., 

 that the principles involved are more easily seen, excite 

 more interest, and become therefore a better mental dis- 

 cipline. We rarely have boys come to us with any know- 

 ledge of science, and when they have, it has generally 

 been acquired from lectures, and is worthless as a means 

 of education. We do not lecture, but do real hard class- 

 work, and take periodical examinations on this work, 

 giving it equal value in these and our grade examinations 

 with language and mathematics. We have no reason to 

 believe that this work interferes with or deteriorates the 

 work in language and mathematics, in which subjects we 

 find our boys quite equal, and, except in very rare cases, 

 I may say, superior to incomers of like power, and who 

 have had no science teaching. 



The great number of men eminent for their vast scien- 

 tifi: attainments, who have achieved this eminence in 

 spite of our non-scientific, I may almost say anti-scien- 

 tific system of education, clearly indicates that many of 

 us have an inherent scientific power or genius surpassing 

 our power in any other direction. I plead for such that 

 they have the same chance of being floated on their 

 scientific voyage as the linguist and the mathematician 

 have on theirs : and I have seen no satisfactory plea why 

 they should not. Value for value I claim for the science 

 man a higher status in our present social life than is due 

 to either linguist or mathematician. 



My experience as a schoolmaster has revealed to me 

 many cases where the talent for language or mathematics 

 has been so low that the education effected by these has 

 been of the meanest kind ; or where the incessant failure 

 has produced a stolid ignorance, a kind of mental paraly- 

 sis, most disheartening to all concerned. Such cases 

 have come into my hands, and I have seen intelligence 

 rekindled, and mental power aroused by simple science 

 teaching, and the power even for other subjects enhanced 

 thereby. I plead for these feeble ones. Is it not a crime 

 to them to keep the mind fixed on what to them is ab- 

 struse and unintelligible, and to shut against them the 

 inspiring book of nature, which may contain the only in- 

 tellectual sunshine of which their being is susceptible? 



Allesley Park College, Coventry T. Wyles 



I shall be obliged if you will permit me to remind Mr. 

 Wilson of certain passages in his article contained in 

 " Essays on a Liberal Education." 



In his letter (Nature, vol. xiii. p. 373) Mr. Wilson 

 writes : — 



" I maintain, after trial, that it is unwise, and unscien- 

 tific from an educational point of view, to attempt to 

 teach science at schools to boys till they have attained a 

 certain standard of knowledge in arithmetic, and a certain 

 power of reasoning and laiiguage as shown by their 



attainments in geometry and Latin. Let science be held 

 before them as a thing to be enjoyed when they are older 

 and more advanced. It is spoiled for them, and they are 

 spoiled for it by its being taught them too soon. The 

 dicta of men like Faraday and Sir John Lubbock and 

 Roscoe are misleading opinion on this point, and I wish 

 to record my protest against them." 



But in " Essays," &c., Mr. Wilson wrote :— " Moreover, 

 the kind of knowledge that science offers is not only 

 wide and interesting and elevating, but it is also exact ; 

 and this exactness is a very great merit. It is a know- 

 ledge of things and not of words. In the education of 

 the upper classes there is too little of positive and exact 

 knowledge. . . . And natural science supplies this want 

 of clearness and certitude better than arithmetic or geo- 

 metry." And again : — 



" But here is even a stronger ground for advocating the 

 introduction of science as an element in all liberal educa- 

 tion, and that is its peculiar merit as a means of educating 

 the mind. . . . All that can be said on this point has been 

 said over and over again, and I can contribute nothing 

 except my daily experience that what is said is true. . . . 

 Science is the best teacher of accurate, acute, and exhaust- 

 ive observation of what is. . . . And of all processes of 

 reasoning it stands alone as the exhaustive illustration." 



Giggleswick, April 4 W. Marshall Watts 



NOTES 



The date now finally fixed for the opening of the Scientific Loan 

 Exhibition is the ist of May. This delay is entirely owing to 

 the unexpected richness and variety of the collection. Germany 

 alone sends upwards of 2,500 objects, many of them of the 

 greatest value. Although France has sent some very fine objects 

 for exhibition, she will, on the whole, be rather poorly repre- 

 sented. The Italians are sending all the riches of their store- 

 house at Florence, including Galileo's telescopes. 



On the 31st ult. a meeting, at which several well-known Eng- 

 lish biologists were present, took place at the house of Dr. 

 Burdon-Sanderson, at ;which the advisability of establishing a 

 society or association for the purpose of promoting the progress 

 of physiological research in England, was considered and dis- 

 cussed. Eventually the matter was referred to a committee, who 

 will report to a future meeting ; after which some conversation 

 followed as to the question of legislation, the general feeling of 

 those present being that no opposition ought to be made on the 

 part of scientific men to any measure framed in accordance 

 with the recommendations of the Royal Commission. 



A MOVE MENT has been organised for erecting a monument to 

 the late Jean Baptiite Domad. The idea originated with the 

 professors of the Physical and Natural History Museum of 

 Florence, and it is proposed to erect the monument in the new 

 observatory of Arcetri, which was in a manner Donati's work. 

 We are sure there are many admirers of Donati ia this country 

 who wdl gladly subscribe to such a monument. The foreign Lega- 

 tions and Consids of , Italy are authorised to receive and transmit 

 subscriptions to the Committee for Donati's monument, to whom 

 they may be sent durect, at the Natural History Museum, 

 Florence. 



It is proposed to raise by subscription a fund for the purpose 

 of establishing a Memorial in honour of the late Daniel Han- 

 bury ; the amount of each contribution not to exceed one 

 giunea. The form suggested for the memorial is that of x 

 medal to be called the " Hanbury " medal, to be awarded for 

 original research in the Chemistry and Natural History of Drugs 

 by investigators m any part of the worU. Dr. Hooker, Sir 

 George ^jurows. Sir James Paget, Sir Robert Christison, Dr. 

 Alhnan, Dr. Warren de la Rue, Pro£ Abel, and Mr. T. Hyde 



