Oct. 31, 1889] 



NATURE 



639 



become of the former madder-growers ? To what in- 

 dustry have they betaken themselves ? What class of 

 producers have they in turn displaced by so doing? 

 Sir Lyon Playfair docs not attempt to follow out such 

 questions as these, bnt his essay suggests them, and it 

 would be well if they received more attention than has 

 hitherto been usual among economists. 



There are several articles dealing with various phases 

 of industrial competition. They all expose the fallacies 

 of fair trade, and all lead up to a demand for technical 

 education. Sir Lyon Playfair has here used to advantage 

 the facts collected in his recent visit to America ; but when 

 so many sound arguments lay ready to his hand, where 

 was the necessity of resorting to the essentially unsound 

 reasoning that Protection is conclusively shown to have 

 lowered wages because the wages in some unprotected 

 trades (carpenters, bakers, and printers) are higher than 

 wages in some protected trades (cotton-spinners, weavers, 

 tailors, and machine-makers) ? 



The third part of the volume deals with questions of 

 education. Here Sir Lyon Playfair is more at home. 

 Long before technical education became a fashionable 

 cry, he had urged its importance upon the public, and 

 he has lived to see in some measure the fruition of 

 his endeavours, of which the speeches and lectures 

 collected in the volume before us form no unimportant 

 share. The subjects treated range from primary education 

 (on which there is a reprint of a very interesting address 

 delivered at a very interesting time, viz. immediately 

 after the passage of Mr. Forster's Act of 1870) to the 

 relations of the Universities to professional education, 

 on which, as might be expected, Sir Lyon Playfair takes a 

 strong and decided line. " Each profession," he says, " has 

 its own foundation of liberal culture. At present the 

 Universities try to build all professions on one uniform 

 foundation, though this is as foolish as it would be to build 

 a palace, a gaol, or an infirmary on a single ground plan 

 common to all. The professions have indicated by their 

 special literary examinations what their several foun- 

 dations should be ; and if the Universities know how to 

 extend their obligations to modern society, they should 

 have little difficulty in again assuring their original pur- 

 pose of affording a liberal culture to the professions. The 

 Universities would gain in strength and the professions 

 in dignity and in efficiency." This was spoken in 1873, 

 and the last sixteen years have seen a very marked 

 advance on the part of the old Universities in the direction 

 indicated by Sir Lyon Playfair, though many authorities 

 will still disagree with his general conclusion. 



An interesting address is inserted on technical educa- 

 tion, which, though delivered in 1870, contains matter 

 for thought at the present day, and reminds us how 

 long the British public have taken before awaking (if 

 indeed they can yet be said to be awake) to the im- 

 portance of doing something as a nation to raise the 

 standard of instruction in the principles of science and 

 art applicable to industries. We could wish, indeed, that 

 Sir Lyon Playfair, who so powerfully calls attention to the 

 need, had given us a little more in the way of positive 

 suggestion ; there are parts, too, of the essay which may 

 be taken to encourage the heresy that the province of 

 the technical school is to replace the custom of appren- 

 ticeship and take the place of the workshop. We are 



strongly in favour of the movement for technical edu- 

 cation, and we hailed even the Government measure lately 

 passed, halting and inadequate as it is, as being at least 

 a step forward in the right direction. But if it is to be 

 used to encourage the teaching of a smattering of a large 

 number of trades, instead of giving a thorough training 

 in scientific and artistic principles of more widespread 

 application, it may be that it will do more harm than good ; 

 and it is time, now that the measure has become law, for 

 the advocates of technical education to make themselves 

 heard with no uncertain voice upon this all important 

 point. Meanwhile, it is no small praise to say, and we 

 say it with truth, that there is no man living to whom the 

 advance of public opinion on the subject of technical 

 education in recent years is so much due as to the author 

 of " Subjects of Social Welfare." 



SERVICE CHEMISTRY. 



Service Chemistry. By Vivian B. Lewes, Professor of 

 Chemistry, Royal Naval College, Greenwich. (London : 

 Whittingham and Co., 1889.) 



IN this book Prof. Lewes treats of chemistry in its 

 relations to the subjects which are of immediate 

 interest and importance to our naval and military services. 

 Although primarily intended for the officers passing 

 through the Royal Naval College, much of the matter of 

 the book has a direct bearing on the work of the soldier. 

 The necessity for such a book is obvious. Of course, 

 as Mr. Lewes is careful to point out, there is but one 

 chemistry, and its principles and theories are the same, no 

 matter how the science is made subservient to the wants 

 and different callings of men. But it is manifestly absurd 

 to suppose that our soldiers and sailors need to be taken 

 over the whole field of chemical science in order to obtain 

 such a knowledge of those principles as will be of use to 

 them in their professions. No doubt, in the interests of 

 knowledge itself no course of instruction can be too 

 extended, but in the case of the officers of both branches 

 of the service there is the practical difficulty of time. The 

 scheme of instruction at our naval and military colleges 

 is so elaborate, and the amount of time allowed for study 

 is, comparatively speaking, so limited, that it is absolutely 

 necessary that the teachers of chemistry in such colleges 

 shall restrict themselves to the treatment of the relations 

 of chemistry to the practical work of the services. Nor 

 will the teachers have cause to complain of any lack of 

 subject-matter for their lectures. Even if the young 

 officer came to his work with a fuller knowledge of the 

 elementary principles and facts of chemical science than 

 is usually furnished to him at school, so that his teacher 

 at college could at once proceed to treat of its technical 

 bearings so far as these have reference to the work of the 

 soldier and sailor, there would still be ample matter for 

 even the most extended course of instruction that would 

 be practically possible. Of this fact Prof. Lewes's book 

 gives ample evidence. The general character of our 

 public-school education, in spite of recommendations of 

 Royal Commissions and British Association Committees, 

 and repeated warnings of men like Huxley and Spencer 

 that the conditions of modern civilization imperatively 

 require a readjustment of the curriculum of our schools, 



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