90 



NATURE 



[November 17, 1910 



in Certain forms. In every case the correlation coefficient 

 was high. 



Miss Katharine L. Johnson read an interesting paper on 

 ihe results of the application of Binet's tests to 200 school- 

 i^irls in Sheffield. In her experience one of the chief 

 difficulties was the personal equation of the experimenter. 

 It is impossible to maintain the same tone and expression 

 throughout, and children are very susceptible to sugges- 

 tion. It is also difficult, sometimes, to estimate the results. 

 She had found cases in which girls failed in the tests for 

 their own age or for the age preceding, and yet satisfied 

 the tests for a superior age. 



Dr. E. Neumann's paper was summarised by Dr. Lucy 

 Iloesch Ernst. He cast a doubt upon the possibility of 

 determining a normal standard of intelligence for each 

 year of school life which would be of general validity 

 because of the difficulty of excluding acquired knowledge. 



Dr. C. S. Myers entered a caveat against the collection 

 of masses of psychological data by untrained observers. 

 He was of opinion that the personal equation of the 

 observer could not be got rid of, and that therefore com- 

 parison of results was only possible within very narrow 

 limits. Racial differences in correlation are bound to 

 vitiate the results of the examination of a sample of a 

 heterogeneous people. But the main source of error lies 

 in the neglect of the introspective element. A test of 

 mental fatigue may in different subjects involve the play 

 of such complicating factors as boredom, duty, ambition. 

 It is only by individual introspection that we can deter- 

 mine exactly what factors an experiment involves. The 

 result derived from the wholesale collections made by un- 

 trained observers can be nothing but a blur in the psycho- 

 logical aspect, though a sort of standard of productiveness 

 may be obtained from them whereb}' we can measure the 

 individual. 



Dr. \V. H. R. Rivers summed up the long discussion. 

 In his opinion the work done was well worth doing, and 

 marked a great advance regarded from the point of view 

 of the scientific psychologist. But an enormous amount 

 would still have to be done before the results could be 

 applied practically in education. The work, so far, had 

 been work with mass results, whereas the teacher wanted 

 to test the individual. In spite of what had been said of 

 the need for training in the investigators, it was all to 

 the good that teachers were beginning to take up psycho- 

 pedagogy. 



On the third day of the meeting there was a series of 

 papers on practical work in schools. The Board of Educa- 

 tion's recent Memorandum on Manual Instruction came in 

 for a good deal of praise. Sir Philip Magnus, as an old 

 fighter in the cause of handicraft, urged that we should 

 not fold our hands until the Board's four principles were 

 everywhere observed, that handwork should be taught to 

 all intending teachers, and that there should be a con- 

 tinuous course of it in every school taken by the ordinary 

 teachers of the school. The president of the association 

 spoke of the value of handwork as fostering self-help and 

 initiative. Mr. J. G. Legge suggested the establishment 

 of a type of school for boys from twelve to fourteen in 

 which half the curriculum should be given to constructive 

 work, and half the day should be spent in the workshop. 

 Such a school would lead directly to technical training as 

 the next stage in the education of the pupils. Mr. James 

 Tipping described the vacation courses of the Educational 

 Handwork Association, in which many teachers have 

 acquired the manipulative skill, and at the same time the 

 pedagogical knowledge, needed by teachers of handicraft ; 

 and Dr. G. H. Woollatt outlined a hundred-hour course 

 for teachers in the making of scientific apparatus. Miss 

 Cleghorn, in closing the discussion, warned the audience 

 that enthusiasm in the teacher was a sine qua non, and 

 hinted, at the same time, that it was difficult to be 

 enthusiastic over the introduction of more subjects into 

 the too short school life of the ordinary child. 



Mr. Blair's paper on the relations of science with com- 

 merce and industry has already appeared in Nature 

 (September 15). The subject is usually treated on both 

 sides in a spirit of vague vituperation which profits 

 nothing. Mr. Blair's skilful marshalling of a mass of 

 ■evidence from university graduates, professors, business 

 men, and manufacturers all the world over will be of 

 • service to combatants on both sides who desire composi- 



NO. 2142, VOL. 85] 



tion and not strife. In the short discussion which followed 

 Principal E. H. Griffiths advocated bringing home to the 

 lay mind the value of such work as Earaday's and 

 Lister's. We should then hear less of the disinclination to 

 believe in the application of science to business life and 

 industry. He also advised scientific men to leave the 

 language of the laboratory behind them when they came 

 into the market-place, recalling Sir George Reid's words 

 in the tests of intelligence discussion : — " It will be a 

 grand thing when our men of science really do know every- 

 thing they talk about, because when they do they will be 

 able to tell us what it all means in plain English." 



Dr. Beilby thought that things were improving ; the 

 great need was more cooperation between the two parties. 

 The difficulty was to get the scientific man and the men 

 of the markets together. In joint committees of professors 

 and business men each side educated the others 



Sir William White also thought that there was no reason 

 for alarm. We did not compare so badly with other 

 countries. True, our rivals were better organised, but 

 then organisation may paralyse effort. The young trained 

 graduate of the technical college would not straightway 

 apply his knowledge in industry ; he had not the knowledge 

 of practical business conditions. Such men should go 

 through post-graduate courses, if possible, in works' 

 laboratories. We must be content to train many mediocri- 

 ties in order to catch the man of brilliant ability, and 

 fortunatelv it takes all sorts to make the worlds of com- 

 merce and of industry. 



Dr. Stead said that in the steel industry the value of 

 research was recognised. The manufacturers had reached 

 the point of wanting a little too much from research, and 

 in too short a time. 



Dr. H. E. Armstrong also advocated a two or three 

 years' course in a work's laboratory for the technical- 

 school graduate, and quoted the example of Sir Lothian 

 Bell. Our organisation was at fault ; when that defect 

 was remedied the nation would soon regain its former 

 commanding position in manufacture and commerce. 



On the last day of the meeting an interesting series of 

 papers was read on outdoor studies in schools of norma! 

 type. Prof. Mark R. Wright described the summer camp 

 of the Durham Training College, Mr. G. G. Lewis showed 

 what could be done by means of school iournevs for 

 London elementary-school children, and Mr. J. E. Feasey 

 explained how much the interest and practicability of 

 ordinary school work could be heightened by adapting it 

 to the conditions of the open air. 



In the afternoon there was a livelv. though inconclusive, 

 debate on voic^ production, in which Dr. Grav, Prof. 

 Wesley Mills, Dr. Hulbert, Mr. W. H. Griffiths, Miss 

 Ormay, Dr. Chichele Nourse, Prof. Silvanus Thompson, 

 and others took part. 



THE PRODUCTION AND USE OF ELECTRIC 



POWER} 

 HTHERE are few subjects more important to the people 

 -'- of this country than the question of the rapid and 

 ever-growing rate at which we are using up our coal 

 supplies. Many writers have dealt with this subject, .and 

 have suggested various remedies. 



It may be said that the rate at which we can use coal 

 is a measure of our industrial activity and prosperity. 

 This would be true, perhaps, if we were using our coal 

 without waste, or at least with reasonable economy, but 

 it is certainly not true of what we are at present doing. 



Taking all the uses for coal into consideration, I believe 

 that we are getting back an amount represented by useful 

 work of one kind or another of much less than 10 per 

 cent, of the energy in the coal. We can never, of course, 

 hope to get anything like the full value of the energy in 

 the coal, but, on the other hand, throwing away more 

 than 90 per cent, of the value of our coal in the process 

 of conversion is of the greatest possible concern to the 

 country. Moreover, there is a further waste involved in 

 our present methods of using coal which is only second in 

 importance to the one I have spoken of. We now dis- 

 sipate nearly the whole of the valuable by-products con- 



1 From the Inaugural Ad'^re"; delivpr -d a' the Institution of ELctrical 

 Engineers on November 10 by Mr. S. Z. de Ferrant'. 



