August 2, 1888] 



NATURE 



325 



no good reason to dispute, the field experience of those 

 who have had the best opportunities of forming an 

 opinion on the subject would tend to support the proba- 

 bility that his conclusions are in the main correct. 



Walsingham. 



NOTES. 



Men of science will be glad to learn that, at a meeting recently 

 held at Dr. George Johnson's house, it was proposed to make 

 Sir William Bowman some acknowledgment of the appreciation 

 in which he is held on account of his high character, and pro- 

 fessional and scientific attainments. A portrait of himself was 

 suggested, and also, possibly, a reprint of some of his publica- 

 tions. Dr. George Johnson, Mr. J. W. Hulke, and Prof. 

 Burdon Sanderson undertook to see Sir William Bowman, and 

 ask his acceptance of the proposal. This consent having been 

 received, a Provisional Committee was at once constituted, at 

 whose invitation a number of eminent men of science formed 

 themselves into the first list of the "Committee of the Bowman 

 Testimonial Fund." As this body is already large and widely 

 scattered, the practical carrying out of the scheme has been 

 relegated to a Sub-Committee, consisting of the Treasurer (Dr. 

 George Johnson), the Secretaries (Dr. W. A. Brailey and Dr. 

 W. H. Jessop), Mr. Power, and Prof. Klein. It is not pro- 

 posed to place any limit in either direction to the amounts of 

 individual subscriptions, though the Committee are generally of 

 opinion that large subscriptions will be found unnecessary, and 

 that the compliment is a greater one when paid by a longer list 

 of comparatively small subscriptions. They also hope that the 

 funds will allow the distribution of a good reproduction of the 

 portrait to subscribers of at least two guineas. Mr. Frank Holl, 

 whose sudden death is deeply deplored by all who interest 

 themselves in English art, had undertaken to paint the portrait. 



In the House of Commons on Tuesday Sir H. Roscoe asked 

 the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the astronomical 

 instruments for the international photographic survey of the 

 heavens, recommended by the Royal Societies of London and 

 Edinburgh and the Board of Visitors of the Greenwich Observa- 

 tory, the estimates for which had been forwarded from the 

 Admiralty some months since to the Treasury, were yet ordered ; 

 and, if not, whether, in view of the fact that all the thirteen 

 •other sets of instruments were ordered by foreign and colonial 

 Governments last year, and consequently the British Observa- 

 tories would be placed at a serious disadvantage, Her Majesty's 

 Government would be prepared to put the necessary amount on 

 the Estimates in order to avoid further delay. To these ques- 

 tions the Chancellor of the Exchequer returned the following 

 answer: — "The astronomical instruments required for the 

 international photographic survey of the heavens have not yet 

 been ordered, and the House will soon be asked to vote the 

 necessary funds. It is, I believe, the case that thirteen instru- 

 ments have been already ordered by different Powers and public 

 bodies, but the hon. member is mistaken in supposing that all 

 the Powers whose co-operation is contemplated have as yet 

 ordered their instruments. On the contrary, two of the Great 

 Powers, so far from ordering their instruments, have not yet 

 definitely declared their intention to take part in the work. I 

 do not think there is any cause to fear that Great Britain will be 

 behindhand in the matter." 



Among the Civil List pensions granted during the year ended 

 June 20, 1888, were the following : — To the Rev. F. O. Morris, 

 in recognition of his merits as a naturalist, ;£ioo ; to Mr. 

 William Kitchen Parker, F.R.S., in recognition of his services 

 to science as an investigator, .£100 ; to Mrs. Balfour Stewart, 

 in recognition of the services rendered to science by her late 

 husband, £$0. 



The summer meeting of the Institution of Mechanical 

 Engineers was opened at Dublin on Tuesday. In his Presi- 

 dential address, Mr. Carbutt did not confine his remarks to 

 purely mechanical subjects, but drew the attention of the 

 members to some statistics relating to the population of Ireland 

 and to Irish agriculture and industries. Mr. Carbutt expressed 

 a decided opinion to the effect that more money should be spent 

 in Ireland on education, and especially on technical education. 

 "What I mean by technical training," he said, "is teaching 

 children to use their hands and eyes, and also giving them such 

 practical acquaintance with the applied sciences as may bear 

 upon the industrial employments in their district. I hope the 

 valuable speech on the need of technical education, made by the 

 Marquess of Hartington at our annual dinner in May, will be 

 widely read. I may refer to the work done in the agricultural 

 school at Glasnevin, three miles out of Dublin, of which Mr. 

 Carrol is the head. To this school is attached a farm of 180 

 acres for teaching practical farming. The Munster dairy school, 

 started in 1880 with a farm of 126 acres, is quite full, and 

 frequently has to refuse pupils. The Government grant to these 

 two schools is ^2671. The Baltimore industrial school, the 

 Public Works Commissioners state, will practically be a technical 

 school of fishing. The Belfast technical school is very successful 

 in training pupils in flax cultivation and spinning. Dairy schools 

 have been established twenty years in Denmark, Sweden, 

 Germany, and Normandy. Let me give an example of what the 

 result has been in Denmark. A Report on agricultural dairy 

 schools has been lately presented to Parliament from a Depart- 

 mental Commission presided over by Sir R. H. Paget, M.P., 

 which states that in i860 the British Vice-Consul at Copenhagen 

 reported that the butter made in that country was execrably bad. 

 What has happened ? Denmark has now ten State-aided dairy 

 schools, with the result that her exports of butter to the United 

 Kingdom have increased as follows : — 



1867 80,000 cwts., value ^422,479 



1^77 210,322 „ ,, i,347.79i 



1887 487,603 „ ,, 2,669,123 



In France theoretical and practical lessons in agriculture are now 

 given every week in the primary schools ; and a circular has 

 been issued inviting the municipalities to provide for every dis- 

 trict a demonstration plot of not less than half an acre for the 

 purpose of applying the principles taught in the school." 



Two rather striking speeches on education were delivered at 

 the Sorbonne on Monday at the distribution of prizes to the suc- 

 cessful students of the great secondary schools of Paris. M. 

 Blanchet, Professor of History at the Lycee Charlemagne, while 

 expressing a high opinion of the value of the ancient classics in 

 education, urged that methods of instruction should be adapted 

 to the actual wants of the present day. He quoted the follow- 

 ing passage written by Fleury at the end of the seventeenth 

 century : "It seems to me that we ought to accommodate our 

 studies to the present state of our manners, and to study those 

 things which are of use in the world, as we cannot change this 

 use so as to accommodate it to the order of our studies." 

 "Truly," said M. Blanchet, "these old pedagogues were great 

 revolutionists. What is new in the history of French pedagogism 

 is not the spirit of innovation and progress but that of routine." 

 M. Lockroy, the Minister of Public Instruction, spoke in a 

 similar tone. It was essential, M. Lockroy pointed out, that 

 Frenchmen should know what was said and written beyond their 

 frontiers. Science was progressing everywhere, and they should 

 be able to follow its progress abroad, especially in Germany and 

 England. That was one reason why the modern languages had 

 such a strong claim on the young of this generation. M. Lock- 

 roy protested against the notion that anyone thought of destroy- 

 ing Greek and Latin studies. But these studies were not the 

 only solution of the very complicated problem of modern educa- 



