54 



NA TURE 



{Nov. 15, 1888 



But is it true? Brilliance of parts is not always, I am almost 

 inclined to a<sert not commonly, accompanied by a disinterested 

 love of knowledge, though often enough by ambition, which is a 

 very different thing ; nor, unfortunately, is a love of knowledge 

 always associated with the capacity to gratify it. To many 

 men, again, opportunities fail, or health, or energy of character, 

 or perseverance, or the means enabling them to wait for success 

 in the career chosen, or, lastly, circumstances may have com- 

 pelled them to adopt an unsuitable career, and so their intellectual 

 lives are wrecked. It is only in respect of the residue remaining 

 after elimination of these cases that the reproaches addressed to 

 the examinational system are capable of being justified. What pro- 

 portion that residue may bear to the totality of brilliant failures it 

 may be^ difficult to determine. My impression is that it is a very 

 small one. At. any rate, it is so in the University to which I 

 btlong — the University of London. So large a proportion of 

 the men who have taken high degrees at that University have 

 in after life fully maintained, to say the least, the distincti )n of 

 their University record, that the failure of the residue — if such 

 failure there be — may be justly ascribed to causes of the nature 

 above indicated rather than to any ill effect of the examinational 

 system. The assertion may easily be verified by reference to 

 the Honours Lists, more especially in the Faculties of Science and 

 Medicine. I mention these Faculties because it is much easier 

 to trace the after life of graduates in them than in the other 

 Faculties. But on looking over the list of M. A. medallists, I do 

 not find a single name which suggests any lajk of after-life 

 response to earlier promise. 



Finally, on turning to the University record of many, probably 

 of mo-t, of the eminent men of the day, the very reverse of the 

 alleged disparity between promise and performance upon which 

 the protest is based will be found to exist. 



I am, for my part, fully convinced after several years' daily 

 familiarity with the working of a purely exaoiinational system, 

 that in examinations we have the best means yet devised of test- 

 ing the general ability and attainments of young men and 

 women. And I have shown above that competition does not 

 produce any of the evil results complained of in the protest. On 

 the contrary, I believe it to be in most cases — but certainly not 

 in all — a most useful discipline. 



But I have no faith whatever either in piecemeal examinations, 

 or in examinations in technical or special subject'^, or in mere mani- 

 pulative matters. I admit, too, that nothing like sufficient atten- 

 tion is paid to the progressive improvement of examinations in 

 accordance with the advance and increasing volume of know- 

 ledge. In particular, the range of optional subjects at higher 

 examinations should be greatly extended, that the test applied to 

 each candidate may better correspond with his opportunities 

 and with his mental structure. Above all, the tendency which 

 unfortunately exists to increase beyond measure the difficulty 

 of examinations requires to be carefully guarded against. Too 

 highly pitched syllabuses necessarily involve a low standard of 

 performance, with the result that the successful candidate and 

 the public are equally deceived. F. Victor Dickins. 



Burlington Gardens, November 6. 



Gresham College. 



The communication of Mr. R. D. Roberts states that the 

 article of Prof. Ray Lankester "is based entirely upon a mis- 

 apprehension as to the purpose and function of the London 

 Society for the Extension of University Teaching and its position 

 with regard to Gresham College." 



I beg to be allowed to state that I can indorse Prof. Ray 

 Lankester's statements with regard to the London Colleges. It 

 is nine years since my connection with King's College ceased, 

 but for nine years I was a lecturer in the Evening Class Depart- 

 ment of the College. I know that the College staff, often at 

 great personal sacrifice on the part of some of its members, threw 

 such energy into the teaching of evening classes that their efforts 

 can best be described as thoroughly educational in the highest 

 sense. The number of lectures in the winter courses were 

 twenty-five to thirty, in the summer ten. They were, as a rule, 

 as complete and advanced as similar courses in the Universities, 

 some of them more complete than such courses elsewhere. 



At the time when the Society for the Extension of University 

 Teaching was first established, it appeared to me to be a super- 

 fluous and mischievous institution. The leading idea which it 

 communicated to the public by very extensive advertisements and 

 reports of meetings was, that there was no such form of educa- 



tion in London, and that the teachers subsidized by the Society 

 were bringing enlightenment from the Universities of Oxford 

 and Cambridge. For several years there were courses consisting 

 of only three or four lectures, delivered in districts widely 

 separated, as, for instance, in Mile End, Kensington, and 

 Didwich, while a long course consisted of only ten lectures. 

 There was no curriculum in any one centre in either arts 

 or science. The courses of lectures were not even grouped 

 into Departments or Faculties, such as modern languages and 

 literature, I-atin and Greek, ancient history an 1 archaeologv, pure 

 and applied mathematics, experimental science, or biological 

 science. Desidtory instruction, not education, appeared to be 

 the object of the Society. The lecturers were, as a rule, qualified 

 for the duties they undertook ; some were eminent men, even of 

 the highest eminence ; but I do know that others from the 

 Universities should certainly not have been intrusted with the 

 duty of public lecturers until they had undergone an additional 

 term of instruction and training of at least three to five years as 

 assistants to Professors. The Society provided employment for 

 a number of unemployed graduates from Oxford and Cambridge ; 

 and at the time, no doubt, it was considered politic and conciliatory 

 to make an assumption of carrying culture to the masses. The 

 young men were willing to take up such "duties, for they gained 

 opportunities for practice in the art of teaching which led to 

 possibilities in the way of promotion. There is little doubt that 

 the Society has improved latterly, and it mayor may not deserve 

 to be supported by public subscriptions ; but it would be a 

 monstrous injustice to King's and University Colleges to place 

 the funds of Gresham College in the hands of this Society. The 

 inju'^tice would be the greater in the case of King's College, 

 because, as I understand. University College has discon- 

 tinued its Evening Class Department ; but for at least twenty 

 years before this London Society for the Extension of Uni- 

 versity Teaching was in existence or thought of, the staff' 

 of King's College, without endowment, were teaching by night as 

 well as by day, and with inadequate remuneration doing more- 

 than fulfilling the intentions of .Sir Thomas Gresham. The City 

 clerks, engineers, and manufacturers left their places of business 

 to attend these lectures, and obtained sound theoretical and 

 practical instruction in art and science, ancient and modern 

 literature and languages. I have in mind many who have risen 

 to distinction ; and there are, no doubt, thousands who are ready 

 to acknowledge the benefit they derived from the evening 

 classes of King's College. 



I doubt whether these facts were placed before Mr. Goschen 

 on the occasion when he made his speech on the subject of this 

 Society and Gresham College. It seems to me that the matter 

 should be put before him and all others concerned in a true and 

 proper light, and without partiality. 



In conclusion, I will state it as my carefully-considered and 

 deliberate opinion that the Lecture Society called the London ' 

 Society for the Extension of UniversityTeaching has done no edu- 

 cational work which for extent or solidity is worth consideration 

 in comparison with that of King's and University Colleges. 



\V. N. Hartley. 

 Royal College of Science, Dublin, November 9. 



Divergent Evolution. 



Some of your readers may possibly remember a paper of mine 

 on " The Variation of Species as related to their Geographical 

 Distribution," which appeared in Nature, vol. vi. p. 222. 

 About the same time I prepared a paper on "Diversity of 

 Evolution under One Set of External Conditions," which was 

 published in the Linnean Society's Journal^Zoology, vol. xi. 

 pp. 496-505. I refer to these papers simply to say that the 

 problems there discussed have occupied my attention more or 

 less ever since. 



Part of my paper relates to the subject discussed by Mr. 

 Romanes in his paper on "Physiological Selection" ; but as it 

 has been independently worked out, I believe it will be of in- 

 terest to all who have followed the discussion on the " Origin of 

 Species." The abstract of Mr. Romanes's paper given in 

 Nature, vol. xxxiv. pp. 314, 336, 362, did not come into my 

 hands till the following January, when my theory of " Divergent 

 Evolution through Cumulative Segregation " was, for the most 

 part, written out in its present form. Since then, and with 

 reference to the discussion on "Physiological Selection," I have 

 worked out the algebraic formulce given in the fifth chapter, and 

 have introduced exi lanations of the same. 



