April 12, 1877] 



NATURE 



519 



Applied Art (Modelling, Designing, Enamelling, Repousse 

 work, Wood Carving, &c.). 

 As the teaching would be specially directed to the industriil 

 applications of science it is needless to say that considerable sub- 

 division would be required in the subjects named. . . . 



. ,, It is of great importance that the professors should be not 

 only teachers, but investigators, constantly endeavouring to en- 

 large the field of accurate knowledge, and scientific procedure, 

 in oar industries. To appreciate how much may be effected in 

 this way we have only to consider the millions saved to France 

 by Pasteur's researches on the disease of the silkworm, or the 

 knowledge obtained by his inquiry on fermentation. 



. . . The time of the professors may be much economised by 

 making it no part of their duty to commence their courses with the 

 elements of general science. It is quite unnecessary that they 

 should do so. This teaching may be obtained at other places, 

 with which the Industrial University would be only needlessly 

 interfering if it gave elementary instruction. It should, on the 

 contrary, be its object to supplement and specialise the know- 

 ledge obtainable in ordinary sc'ence classes from which the 

 students should be drawn ; and they should be expected to have 

 acquired sufficient general knowledge of science before entering 

 the classes and laboratories of the University to be able to follow 

 its courses with advantage. 



A leading feature of the University should be evening courses 

 — not meiely popular lectures — for the use of those whose cir- 

 cumstances in life have rendered it necessary that they should 

 commence the practical work of life early. By circumstances in 

 life I do not refer solely to poverty. There are many occupa- 

 tions that it is advisable, if rot necessary, to enter upon early. 

 For instance, it ib of the utmost importance f < r a mechanical 

 engineer to be a good practical woikman. To do this he must 

 join the workshop when young. And the lad who enters when 

 he is thirteen has an advantage which m'ght not be expected. 

 Mr. Phythian, the Master of the Oldham School of Science and 

 Art tstablished by the Messrs. Piatt, informs me that to the lads 

 who come into the workshop at this age the evening intellectual 

 work is no effort ; it is a relaxation and recreation. To the 

 apprentices who enter at eighteen it is almost an impossibility. 

 They are so exhausted by their day's labour that they cannot pay 

 attention. 



It is agreed on all hands that if the teaching of science is to be 

 of any use it must be essentially practical — that is to say, the 

 teaching of the laboratory. And no pains should be spared to 

 make the laboratories perfect and readily available. By them 

 the University may supply a great want. 



It is perhaps necessary to guard against the idea that the 

 University is to teach any trade or business. There could be no 

 greater mistake than for it to attempt to do so. The purely 

 technical knowledge of a trade must be learnt by practising it. 

 The teaching of a public institution can with advantage only 

 extend as far as the special application of various branches of 

 abstract science to the different arts. It is no doubt difficult to 

 define how far the teaching of applied science may go without 

 trenching on the workshop. But in practice the limits are 

 readily found. This difficulty will be still less felt in an institu- 

 tion drawing its pupils from among those actually engaged in 

 trade, who will know what they can acquire in the University, 

 and what they can better learn directly in business. The pro- 

 gramme of examinations in technology by the Society of Arts 

 will give many suggestions on this subject. 



I have no doubt that the Society of Arts would be willing to 

 transfer the whole or a part of their system of examinations in 

 technology to such a body as the City Guilds, who, with far 

 larger funds at their disposal, may give it a development which 

 the Society of Arts can never obtain for it. By employing local 

 agencies and taking advantage of the machinery of the Science 

 and Art Department, these examinations are held throughout the 

 country. And by availing itself of this and similar organisa- 

 tions, the Central University might be brought en rapport with 

 every part of England, Scotland, and Ireland. 



... Through the action of the Government, stimulating local 

 effort, the country is being rapidly covered by a network of Science 

 and Art schools and classe?, where the working classes — whose 

 interests and advances the City Guilds are, I understand, espe- 

 cially anxious to promote by the Industrial University— have 

 opportunities of obtainint^ that elementary instruction in Science 



Iind in Att which must be the basis of any sound technical edu- 

 ction. There are now 1,750 separate schools or classes in the 

 country in connection with and receiving aid through the Science 

 md Art Department. 



It is therefore unnecessary to consider the question of the 

 creation of any organisation for giving instruction in elementary 

 general science or art. What are wanted are a stimulus to 

 increase the number of students, the development of systematic 

 courses of instruction onwards and upwards from the elementary 

 school, and me^ins to enable poor, but clever and industrious, 

 youths to pursue such courses. The award of small scholarships 

 or bursaries in competition which would support the holders 

 while carrying forward their studies in a higher school — the 

 retention of the bursary being contingent on a defmite course of 

 instruction being pursued satisfactorily — is therefore, I believe, 

 the most effective means the Guilds can adopt to aid technical 

 instruction. 



... It is very necessary to bear clearly in mind in what direc- 

 tions the University must look for its pupils. Broadly speaking, 

 these will I believe be : — 



1. The holders of Bursaries and Scholarships. 



2. Young men whose means enable them to carry on their 

 education beyond the school age, and who can attend an insti- 

 tution in London more conveniently than elsewhere. 



3. A limited number of students of the same class who are 

 attracted by the goodness of the instruction and its appropriate- 

 ness to their future pursuits. I say a limited number, because, 

 however good the instruction, it will take years to divert the 

 class of students from the channels which time has consecrated. 



4. Evening students — men who are engaged during the day. 

 It would be useless to expect many students from classes 2 and 



3 at first. . . . 



The real point seems to me to make a beginning. Get a good 

 site — by a J good site I mean a site in an accessible position, 

 SLifiiciently large to allow of expansion as the University grows — 

 build chemical and physical laboratories, and lectu re rooms, and 

 some mathematical class rooms, on a portion of the site. If 

 these are well managed, and are in a prominent position, such as 

 that suggested on the Embankment, where they cannot but be 

 seen — it is difficult to make anything known in London — surely 

 there must be many rich men in the city besides the city com- 

 panies who will seize the opportunity, by adding to the endow- 

 ment or the buildings, of perpetuating their memories as 

 munificent patrons of what will eventually be a credit to the 

 country. 



... It always seems to be forgotten that the population of 

 London is as large as that of Scotland ; and that if its provision for 

 instruction were tenfold what it is, it would not be proportion- 

 ately larger than that of the Canton of Zurich. 



Any plan you commence upon must be much modified as the 

 institution is expanded and developed. To succeed, the Uni- 

 versify must be built up by slow degrees and adapted, with the 

 experience you gain from day to day, to meet the wants and cir- 

 cumstances of the time. That it will be a success, and a great 

 success, if taken heartily in hand by the City of London, there 

 can be no doubt, 



Believe me. 



Yours very faithfully, 

 J. F. D. Donnelly 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 

 The Opposition of Mars in 1892. — Early in August, 1892, 

 the planet Mars will come into opposition at a distance sensibly 

 the same as in September of the present year, when it is pro- 

 posed to make a serious attempt to determine the solar parallax 

 by observations of this planet, a method which has not hitherto 

 been applied under such advantageous circumstances as are now 

 possible, but which is calculated to furnish the sun's distance 

 from the earth with a degree of precision comparable with that 

 to be attained by the observation of a transit of Venus, and with 

 far less trouble an4 expense. It will not perhaps be without 

 interest ^t the present momept, when the attention of astronomers 

 is particularly directed to the efficient observation of Mars near 

 the opposition in September next, if we present an ephemeris for 

 the opposition of 1892, the only one of the present century yet 

 to come, which can be to all intents and purposes as favourable 

 as that of 1877. The ephemeris is founded upon the tables of 

 M. Leverrier, which have been applied with sufficient accuracy 

 for the object in view. The positions are for mean noon at 

 Paris. 



