354 



NATURE 



[January 12, 191 i 



to its predominant cultivation of the lower kinds and to 

 its showering its rewards and honours upon the pupils 

 endowed with these. But, on the other hand, there are 

 also most important resemblances between the two kinds ; 

 the fundamental laws of mind have the same form in both 

 cases, and the study of the simpler and more accessible 

 kind seems an indispensable preliminary to obtaining any 

 really scientific and effective grasp of the higher ones. 

 Various instances were given to illustrate the light shed 

 in this manner on many of the most difficult problems in 

 the education of the will, such as the encouragement of 

 good impulses and the repression of bad ones ; the fallacies 

 were exposed which underlie the present harmful emphasis 

 laid on game contests between schools, and the pernicious 

 exaggeration of examinations. 



The Teaching of Geography. 



Mr. B. C. Wallis gave an account of the five years' 

 course adopted in the County Secondary School, Holloway. 

 The first stage dealt with the globe as a model of the 

 earth, and was mainly observational and descriptive. The 

 second stage occupied three years, and was largely 

 heuristic in character, involving quantitative work relating 

 to the world, the North Atlantic shore lands, and the 

 British Isles. In the third stage an attempt was made 

 to apply methods of investigation used in the previous 

 stage to the original authorities, chiefly Government 

 publications. 



Mr. C. J. Rose dealt wYth " Open-air Teaching of Geo- 

 graphy," and the vfinancial difficulties in the poorer dis- 

 tricts received attention. Mr. C. J. Fairgrieve discussed 

 the problem of the ideal room for indoor teaching of the 

 subject, a problem which certainly needs more attention 

 than it has received hitherto. Mr. Alford Smith opened 

 a useful discussion, and it appears that the revolution in 

 the treatment of geography which has already been accom- 

 plished in most secondary schools is making headway in 

 elementary schools, in spite of defective maps and atlases. 

 A great amount of energy, ingenuity, and knowledge is 

 being shown by the most progressive teachers of all classes 

 of schools in the construction of home-made apparatus of 

 a teaching power far surpassing the products of the trade. 



Educational Experiments in Schools. 



Mr. B. Lewis described the combined scheme of history 

 and geography adopted at the Old Castle Street School. 

 Compared with the sciences, history was apparently 

 amorphous, and clear ideas were best obtained by focussing 

 many converging lines of association on events of world- 

 wide import. He adopted the chronological method ; the 

 concentric method failed to emphasise growth and develop- 

 ment. He contrasted present with past, and thus tried 

 to cultivate historical feeling. The physical geography of 

 Britain was studied with special reference to the Saxon 

 invasion, that of each European country was associated 

 with that period of its history when it most closely in- 

 fluenced England. For similar reasons the geography of 

 America and India was treated in connection with the 

 events of the eighteenth century, that of the China Seas 

 studied when the Russo-Japanese war was the historical 

 topic, viz. at the end of the course. At the same time 

 the geography of. Britain and Europe was distributed over 

 all the standards, as appeared from the details given of 

 one section of the course. The manner in which the 

 scheme was worked out led the chairman, Sir Alfred 

 Keogh, to declare that it was the finest piece of short 

 historical description ever delivered. The Rector of the 

 Imperial College also warmly endorsed the plea, put for- 

 ward in a paper by Mr. A. G. Gawler, for individual 

 work even in large classes. Mr. Gawler 's opinion is that 

 in teaching the path of individuality is the path of least 

 resistance, and the boy who journeyed along it lifted him- 

 self to a higher plane. In the concluding meeting papers 

 were read on " Number Teaching," " Stencilling," and 

 "Animals in Infant Schools." Prof. M. J. M. Hill pre- 

 sided, and dwelt upon the association of the University 

 of London with the County Council in promoting educa- 

 tional efficiency. 



G. F. D. 



NO. 2150, VOL. 85] 



THE MAKING OF A DARWIN.' 

 T M.AY take my text from a recent remark of Henrv 

 ■*■ Fairfield Osborn, to the effect that a Darwin could 

 not be produced in the American university of to-dav. 

 This raises a number of questions, some of them un- 

 answerable, but all of them worthy of the attention of 

 scientific men interested in the continuance of a race of 

 investigators. 



As a starting point we mav quote Prof. Osborn 's words 

 in full :— 



If ' the poet is born, not made,' the man of science is 

 surely both born and made. Rare as was Darwin's 

 genius, it was not more rare than the wonderful succession 

 of outward events which shaped his life. It was true in 

 1817, as to-day, that few teachers teach and few educators 

 educate. It is true that those were the dull days of 

 classical and mathematical drill. Yet look at the roster 

 of Cambridge and see the men it produced. ' From 

 Darwin's regular college work he may have gained but 

 little, yet he was all the while enjoying an exceptional 

 training. Step by step he was made a strong man by a 

 mental guidance which is without parallel, by the precepts 

 and example of his father, for whom he held the greatest 

 reverence, by his. reading the poetry of .Shakspere, 

 Wordsworth, Coleridge and Milton, and the scientific 

 prose of Paley, Herschel and Humboldt, by the subtle 

 scholarly influences of c^d Cambridge, by the scientific 

 inspirations and advice of Henslow, by the masterful 

 inductive influence of the geologist Lyell, and by the 

 great nature panorama of the voyage of the Beagle. 



" The college mates of Darwin saw more truly than he 

 himself what the old University was doing for him. 

 Prof. Poulton, of Oxford, believes that the kind of life 

 which so favoured Darwin's mind has largely disappeared 

 in English universities, especially under the sharp system 

 of competitive examinations. Yet this is still more truly 

 the atmosphere of old Cambridge to-day than of any of 

 our American institutions. It would be an interestin<; 

 subject to debate whether we could nurture such a man ; 

 whether Darwin, were he entered at a Columbia, a 

 Harvard, or a Princeton, could develop mentally, as 

 Charles Darwin did at Cambridge in 1817. I believe that 

 conditions for the favourable nurture of such a mind are 

 not with us. They are repose, time for continuous 

 thought, respect for the man of brains and of individuality, 

 and of such peculiar tastes as Darwin displayed in his 

 avidity for collecting beetles, freedom from mental con- 

 vention, general sympathy for nature, and, above all, order 

 in the world of ideas. If the genial mind cannot find 

 the kindred mind, it cannot develop. Many American 

 school and college men are laughed out of the finest 

 promptings of their natures. In short, I believe our 

 intellectual environment would be distinctly against a 

 young Darwin of to-day." 



These words of Osborn hint at certain weaknesses in 

 our American educational system to which I shall refer 

 later on. Meanwhile, I do not think that it is the whole • 

 truth or wholly the truth. If a Darwin were to be 

 " laughed out " of his career, the event would have 

 occurred in the English secondary school, where he was, 

 in fact, nicknamed " Gas " on account of his interest in 

 chemistry; and it is certainly not true that in the old 

 Cambridge or the new Cambridge there is as high a 

 valuation of unexpected originality as the supposititious 

 young Darwin would find to-day in America. 



I think that the elements which make up a Darwin 

 can be reduced to three, whereof the first far overtops 

 the others, the heredity of great genius being far more 

 rare than one would infer from Osborn 's words, and far 

 more difficult to mar or- discourage. 



What, then, are the elements that we unite to make a 

 great investigator, not of Darwin's class, let us say, for 

 that comes only with many centuries, but a naturalist not 

 unworthy to come in as a footnote to a page on 

 Darwinism? The fundamental elements, as I take it, are 

 these three: first, the original material, to which we may 

 look to heredity alone ; second, meeting nature at first 



1 Presidential address delivered he'bre the American Association for tb* 

 Advancement of Science, Minneapolis, Decemb r 27, igio, by Dr. David 

 Statr Jordan. 



