NA TURE 



385 



THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, \\ 



PHYSICAL SCIENCE AND THE WOOLWICH 

 EXAMINA TIONS. 



SINCE the appearance of our article of January 26 con- 

 siderable interest has been manifested in this ques- 

 tion, and during the past week important communications 

 on the subject have come from the Secretary of State for 

 War, and from the head master of Clifton College. We 

 learn from Mr. Wilson's letter to the Times that the 

 new regulations are not only calculated to do harm by 

 the discouragement of science, but that they are also 

 retrograde in another very important particular. By 

 increasing the range of the obligatory examination in 

 mathematics, though they will not very greatly affect the 

 selection of candidates, yet, in the case of very many of 

 them, by compelling wider and less thorough study, they 

 will damage the training in that subject. 



In answer to a question put by Mr. Howorth, in the 

 House of Commons on February '15, the Secretary of 

 State for War is reported to have said that the new 

 regulations are intended to encourage those subjects 

 which it is believed can be least easily crammed ; to give 

 a preponderance to those subjects which are to the ma- 

 jority of officers of greatest practical importance ; and that 

 the new regulations are to be of permanent application. 



Are the regulations calculated to achieve these pur- 

 poses ? We think it can be shown very clearly that they 

 are not. It is therefore with renewed hope that dis- 

 cussion will lead to their amendment that we enter upon 

 the following examination of them. 



(i) The new regulations are intended to encourage 

 subjects which it is believed can be least easily crammed. 

 Mr. Wilson, as we have already pointed out, has indicated 

 that in the case of mathematics they will distinctly tend to 

 encourage quantity at the expense of quality. With regard 

 to science subjects, the examination statistics which 

 we published in 1884 clearly proved that experimental 

 science was not then chosen by candidates on account 

 of susceptibility to cram, for it was at that time less 

 frequently selected than any other subject by successful 

 candidates. During the three or four years that pre- 

 ceded 1884, a branch of experimental science was offered 

 by only 22 per cent, of the successful candidates ; 

 since that date the numbers have risen, notwithstanding 

 the increased thoroughness of some parts of the examina- 

 tion ; and in 1887 about 38 per cent, of the successful 

 candidates offered a branch of experimental science. 

 This development is noteworthy, and may be con- 

 sidered to indicate an increased appreciation of the 

 value of such work by teachers and students, since it 

 has taken place in spite of the subject being rather a 

 bad than a good one from the mark-winning point of 

 view, and also during a period notable for improvement 

 in some parts of the examination. Geography and 

 geology, which may be, as some hold, more susceptible of 

 cramming than chemistry and physics, show no cor- 

 responding tendency. In 1887 this subject was taken up 

 by a distinctly smaller proportion of successful candidates 

 than in the years that preceded 1884. 



There does not appear, then, to be any justification for 

 treating science as a subject more easy to cram than 

 Vol XXXVII — No. 956. 



others that are more favourably treated. Had it beea 

 true that it is so, it would have been selected by a greater 

 proportion of candidates formerly, and it would certainly 

 have been discouraged by the nature of the examination 

 during the last few years. 



(2) Are the subjects selected those most calculated to 

 be of practical importance to a majority of officers in the 

 Engineers and Artillery ? A flood of light is thrown 

 upon this point by the course of instruction given to the 

 cadets in the Royal Military Academy. 



During the first year of training at Woolwich, cadets will 

 study in the compulsory courses the following subjects: — 



Mathematics, for which 3000 marks are given. 



Field Fortification, ,, 2000 ,, ,, 



Military Topography, ,, 2000 ,, ,, 



French or German, ,, io_;o ,, ,, 



Chemistry and Physics, ,, 1000 ,, ,, 



Model Drawing, ,, 300 ,, ,, 



During the second year of training, the cadets are 

 divided into two classes. Those who are selected for the 

 Engineers will then study, in addition to purely profes- 

 sional subjects — 



Mathematics, for which 2000 marks are given. 



Chemistry and Physics, ,, 1000 ,, ,, 



Freehand Drawing, ,, 1000 ,, ,, 



In the case of the Artillery cadets during their second 

 year, chemistry and physics alone of the ten or eleven 

 subjects examined in the entrance competition are con- 

 sidered to be of sufficient practical importance to be 

 retained. 



Thus it stands admitted by the military authorities, 

 according to their own regulations for the education of 

 cadets, that, of the subjects examined in the competition 

 for Woolwich, experimental science stands next to mathe- 

 matics as a subject of practical importance in the train- 

 ing of officers for the scientific branches of the army. 



That very great weight should be given to mathematics 

 and modern languages in the examinations for Woolwich 

 cadetships is obviously proper ; but since it is admitted, by 

 the courses of instruction in the Royal Military Academy, 

 that capacity for and extensive training in experimental 

 science form part of the necessary equipment of an officer 

 of Engineers or Artillery, a system of selection which in- 

 cludes no means whatever of securing youths capable of 

 such studies in the preliminary examination, and which 

 places youths of scientific power at such considerable 

 disadvantages in the competitive part of the examina- 

 tion, plainly needs to be amended, in the interest both 

 of the service and of the candidates. We do not doubt 

 that those who get into the Academy will be excellently 

 taught there, but under these regulations many will be 

 rejected who are eminently fitted to do well, in favour 

 of others who are less gifted with the qualities that are 

 admittedly most valuable. 



The Committee who framed these regulations has, 

 we fear, forgotten that the Professors at Woolwich will 

 not create a capacity for science work by the mere 

 teaching of science to the successful cadets, and that 

 the utmost they can do in the case of those whose 

 talents are linguistic rather than scientific,^ will be to 

 compel them to acquire by hard, uncongenial labour 

 the necessary minimum of knowledge that is required 

 in the subsequent examinations. It is abundantly 



* The enormous value to be given to mo.^ern languages is liicely to 

 result in many such winninjj admission to Woolwich in future. 



