April 13, 1876J 



NATURE 



473 



is a valuable one. But it must be remembered that it is 

 not a personal question, which admits of the simple solu- 

 tion that Mr. Tuckwell can teach science and that Mr. 

 Wilson cannot, but a general one : can science be taught to 

 young boys by the rank and file of science teachers, who 

 are, or will be when they are numerous, neither more nor 

 less able and enthusiastic than the rank and file of classical 

 teachers, very average sort of people ? I do not doubt 

 for a moment that my old pupil West can teach little 

 boys science with great advantage, but I doubt very 

 much whether there exist fifty Wests as schoolmasters at 

 any one time in England ; and to justify making his 

 practice universal we want to be certain of finding five 

 thousand or fifty thousand such men as teachers. Let it 

 be remembered that very dry and dull men teach classics, 

 and not very badly, while the same men would teach a 

 science class nothing, or worse than nothing. 



I wish Dr. Farrar, of Marlborough, would give us his 

 opinion on this whole question. He has had unusual 

 opportunities for forming an opinion and has, no doubt, 

 used them ; and I do not knov/ to what conclusions he 

 has arrived. 



Mr. Gerstl's proposal to teach facts oxAy^'acts in 

 italics — is truly fearful to me. I fancy an honest stupid 

 man, like some I know, teaching conscientiously what he 

 considers \^q facts of chemistry or botany, or mechanics ; 

 and selecting a book the counterpart of Page's " Advanced 

 l^ext-book of Geology," or Nicolay's " Physical Geo- 

 ;.;raphy," bristling with facts. The facts of botany, in the 

 hands of most teachers, would be a dreary list I suspect. 

 Mr. Gerstl may teach facts alone successfully, but could 

 the rank and file of our profession do the same 1 



I will most willingly admit, on the contrary, and main- 

 tain, that there exists an early science teaching that is at 

 once useful and well-timed : the excitement and gratifica- 

 tion of disinterested curiosity about nature ; it is to do 

 for a class, if possible, what an intelligent and encyclo- 

 paedic father would do for an intelligent child. But how 

 difficult this is for bored and weary schoolmasters ! It 

 is so much easier to tell them to get up up pp. x X.o y 

 in Oliver or Ansted. 



One and only one English book do I know that might 

 almost make a stupid man teach one science well ; and 

 that is Mrs. Kitchener's "A Year's Botany" (Rivington's). 

 That happily does not teach facts only ; but is the ex- 

 pression of the method of a first-rate teacher in such a 

 form as to enable any one to follow it. And yet I tremble 

 as I mention it, for fear some class of tinies shall be 

 ordered to get it and learn the first six pages for their first 

 lesson in botany. 



To conclude, therefore, for I will write no more on this 

 matter, what I advise is to interest young boys in science 

 by conversation, by informal teaching, by Natural History 

 Societies, by encouraging collections, aquariums, &c., 

 but not, except in the case of having that rare thing, a 

 genius for the science master (by which I mean a genius 

 for being a master, not a genius for science), to make 

 science a regular subject of class teaching in the lower 

 forms ; but to teach the other subjects luell. Then to 

 bring in science as compulsory on all, first as Physical 

 Geography and Astronomy or Botany, then as Chemistry 

 with laboratory work, and Physics ; and after two or three 

 years to let boys choose their own Imes. Some will drop 

 it, others will pursue it further. This is one opinion, in 

 brief, on the right place of science in liberal education. 

 Now let us hear what others have to say. 

 Rugby, April 8 James M. Wilson 



NOTES 



As might have been expected, Lieut. Cameron" met with an 



enthusiastic reception from a large and distinguished audience at 



the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society in St. James's 



Hall on Tuesday night. The hall was crowded, and the Duke 



of Edinburgh occupied the chair, surrounded by many eminent 

 geographers. His Royal Highness introduced Lieut. Cameron 

 in a few appropriate and appreciative words. The distinguished 

 explorer gave a narrative of his journey from Zanzibar to the 

 West Coast of Africa, going over ground which is no doubt 

 already pretty familiar to our readers. Sir Henry Rawlinson 

 gave a very clear summary of the work which Lieut. Cameron 

 has accomplished. " He has not been a mere explorer," Sir 

 Henry said, "one of those travellers who carry their eyes in 

 their pockets. He always kept his eyes well about him, and the 

 observations which he made, both of an astronomical and of a 

 physical character, are of extraordinary value. The register of 

 observations which he has brought home, and which are now 

 being computed at the Observatory at Greenwich, promise to be 

 of a most important character. They are astonishingly numerous, 

 elaborate, and accurate, and I have great expectation that one 

 consequence of computing those observations will be that we 

 shall have a definite line laid down from one sea to the other 

 across 20 degrees of longitude, which will serve as a fixed 

 mathematical basis of all future geographical explorations of 

 Equatorial Africa. Among the minor objects achieved by 

 Lieutenant Cameron must be noticed his circumnavigation of 

 the great lake Tanganyika and his discovery of the outlet 

 whereby that lake discharges its waters into the great river 

 Lualaba. Another very important matter is the identification 

 as nearly as possible, not absolutely proved by mathematical 

 demonstration, tliat the Lualaba is the Congo. One of the main 

 objects of the expedition was to fellow down the course of that 

 river so as to prove or disprove the identity of the Lualaba and the 

 Congo, Lieut. Cameron was not able, as he explamed to you, 

 to carry out that scheme in its entirety, but he collected sufficient 

 information on the spot to render it a matter, not of positive 

 certainty, but in the highest degree of probability, that the tv/o 

 rivers are one and the same. Another great discovery of his is 

 the determination of a new river system between the valley 

 which he followed of the Lolame, and the scene of Dr. Living- 

 stone's discoveries. This valley, which consists of a large rivtr 

 running through a series of lakes, forms, as he fully believe;;, 

 and as I also believe, the course of the true Lualaba. The 

 observations which he has furnished respecting latitude, longi- 

 tude, and elevation, amount to the extraordinary number of 

 nearly 5,000 ; and he took as many as 130 or 140 lunar observa- 

 tions on one single spot." The Geographical Society has only 

 done its duty in awarding to Lieut. Cameron " the blue riband 

 of scientific geography," its principal gold medal of the year. 



The rules of the French Geographical Society strictly forbid 

 the presentation of a prize to any explorer who has not pub- 

 hshed the narrative of his discoveries. For this reason the 

 motion for granting a medal to Lieut. Cameron at the anniver- 

 sary meeting this year, was lost. But in the report and the 

 addresses delivered on that occasion, the admiration of the 

 Society was emphatically expressed. The great medal for 

 1877 will be granted to Lieut. Cameron, we believe, if the 

 necessary condition of publication shall have been complied 

 with. 



There was a large gathering last Wednesday evening at tlse 

 Royal Society Conversazione, which passed off very successfully. 

 One of the most attractive features of these meetings is the instru- 

 ments and apparatus exhibited ; in this respect last Wednesday's 

 meeting was quite equal to any former one. A large proportion 

 of the objects exhibited were connected with Mr. Crookes's 

 recent experiments on light. Among these were the follow- 

 ing : — (i) The Torsion Balance. (2) The Turbine Radiometer : 

 (3) Radiometer with the vanes blacked on both sides, show- 

 ing rotaUon in either direction according to the way the 

 light falls on them. (4) Radiometer showing the very small 

 amount of residual air which is present. (5) Radiometer show- 



