May 5, 1887] 



NATURE 



21 



of a rudimentary intelligence. These experiments consisted in 

 placing the animals in various unnatural circumstances, and 

 observing the means which they adopted in order to extricate 

 themselves. For instance, a piece of narrow tube was pushed 

 over one of the rays of a brittle-star, so as to tightly inclose that 

 ray from its base to within art* inch or two of its apex. In order 

 to get rid of such an obstruction the star-fish did not always 

 adopt the same method, as we should have expected if the 

 adaptive actions were of a purely reflex kind. Sometimes they 

 rubbed the tube off by friction on the ground ; but if the tube 

 were too closely fitting to admit of this mode of removing it, 

 they would adopt sundry other devices — such as holding the tube 

 firmly down by the other rays while drawing the imprisoned ray 

 through its cavity ; or by means of the serrated edges of the two 

 adjacent rays progressively pushing the tube upwards over the 

 end of the imprisoned ray ; or, lastly, failing every other means, 

 by amputating the imprisoned arm. Various other experiments 

 were tried in the way of pinning down the star-fish in unnatural 

 positions, and the expedients to which they resorted in order to 

 regain their liberty appeared to Prof. Preyer amply to prove 

 the presence in them of psychical as distinguished from merely 

 physiological functions. 



Although these are the results of most importance, many 

 others are full of interest to the working physiologist. To me 

 individually this is especially the case, seeing that the research 

 has everywhere proceeded upon the same lines as those which 

 Prof. Ewart and myself adopted while working out the physio- 

 logical part of our inquiry concerning the locomotor system of 

 Echinodermata. It is satisfactory to note that in almost every 

 particular Prof. Preyer has corroborated our results. There are, 

 however, four or five points — mostly of subordinate importance 

 — with regard to which he expresses disagreement with these 

 results. I have, therefore, carefully considered these points, and 

 have come to the conclusion that the discrepancies admit of 

 being explained, either (i) by our not having worked with the 

 same species of star-fish ; (2) where we did work with the same 

 species, by our not having employed precisely the same methods 

 of stimulation ; or (3) by the temperature of the water at 

 Naples being higher than that with which we worked in the 

 north of Scotland. This explanation refers to the few, and 

 comparatively unimportant, disagreements upon matters of fact. 

 But Prof. Preyer's principal disagreement with us is upon a 

 matter of inference. He objects to our over-caution in expressly 

 refusing to credit the Echinodermata with any psychical faculties, 

 remarking that many of our own results are sufficient to show 

 that there must be something more than simple reflex mechanism 

 concerned in the adaptive movements of these animals. Here, 

 however. Prof. Preyer has misunderstood our meaning. We did 

 not "expressly declare" that the star- fish are destitute of any 

 psychical faculty : we merely excluded the question from our 

 paper as one very difficult to answer, and as not strictly apper- 

 taining to a physiological research. But if Prof. Preyer will 

 turn to a subsequent publication of my own, where this question 

 does require to be considered, he will find that my views upon 

 the subject are in very much closer agreement with his than 

 he at present supposes.^ Indeed, although I am perhaps less 

 confident in attributing to them any psychical faculties other 

 than that of a short-lived memory (which I argue admits of being 

 proved), I think that the level in the psychological scale to which 

 I do assign them in my book is just about the level to which, in 

 his opinion, they ought to be assigned. 



It only remains to add that for my own part I hope Prof. 

 Preyer will next extend his researches to the Echini, which pre- 

 sent even more abundant material for physiological investigation 

 than the star-fish, and out of which, therefore, his observant 

 mind may be expected to evolve even^more interesting results. 



* George J. Romanes. 



THE REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE 

 ON ENDOWED SCHOOLS. 



Tr\URING the present week the Report of the Committee, to 

 •*-^ the main results of which we were able to refer in our last 

 issue, has been printed. It is a document of first-rate import- 

 ance. Reserving a more detailed examination of some parts of 

 it for a future occasion, we give this week an extract from the 



' " Mental Evolution in Animals," pp. 76, 342, 348-49. 



general conclusion of the Report, and also a summary of some 

 of the opinions formed, and recommendations made. 



Conclusion. 



A pressing need now seems to be that we should not forget, 

 in the search for more immediate advantages of an obvious 

 nature, the importance of preserving, even at some cost, a high 

 ideal of secondary education, both on its own account and in its 

 connexions either with the Universities or with the excellent 

 Colleges which have been recently established in our large towns 

 with the special object of education in relation to the needs of 

 manufacturing and commercial communities. Your Committee 

 find that the work done by the Charity Commissioners under 

 the Endowed Schools Acts, while it has not lost sight of this 

 ideal, has done much to bring higher instruction, in popular and 

 necessary forms, within the reach of classes which otherwise 

 would have been shut out from it. It has thus fulfilled a double 

 function : to promote in all classes the creation of trained intelli- 

 gence, and to build up a system under which, when created, it 

 may find a free and prosperous scope. With such improvements 

 as your Committee have recommended in future schemes, it is 

 to be hoped that the intelligence of the working-classes will be 

 trained in a direction which, while it develops their intellectual 

 faculties, will at the same time enable these faculties to be more 

 readily applied to the needs of productive industry. 



Summar}'. 



The great extension in elementary education under the Edu- 

 cation Acts having, to a certain extent, altered the position and 

 objects of elementary endowed schools, in any scheme for re- 

 modelling them, special attention should be directed to provid- 

 ing, as far as possible, for the children of the working-classes a 

 practical instruction suitable to their wants in the particular 

 circumstances of each locality. 



The policy of the Commissioners has been to establish scholar- 

 ships in elementary schools and exhibitions from them to schools 

 of secondary education. On the whole these have worked well 

 in large towns, but they are less adapted to the circumstances of 

 a scattered rural population ; and in any case scrupulous care 

 should be taken where endowments have been appropriated to 

 the poor, that the paramount interests of the poor should be 

 secured in the application of scholarships or exhibitions provided 

 out of the trust funds. 



The abolition of gratuitous education in elementary endowed 

 schools is generally opposed to the wishes of the poorer classes 

 in the localities. It is only justifiable when the imposition of 

 fees gives a higher and more useful character of education to the 

 working-classes than they formerly enjoyed, and after provision 

 made for payment of school fees of children whose parents 

 stand specially in need of such assistance. 



The application of non-educational endowments to educa- 

 tional purposes under Section 30 of the Act of 1869 has been 

 beneficial, but the veto now possessed by the trustees of such 

 endowments is, in some cases, a hindrance to reforms and an 

 inadequate protection for the poor. It would be expedient to 

 substitute, for the consent of the trustees, the concurrence of 

 some local representative body. 



The diversion of educational endowments from one locality, 

 decreasing in population, to a neighbouring populous locality, is 

 sometimes necessary, but should only take place after the 

 requirements of the locality have been met. 



The diversion of an endowment, partially or entirely, from 

 the education of boys to that of girls, has been successful in 

 numerous instances, but when opposed by the localities it 

 requires discretion in its exercise. 



The extension of technical and higher commercial education 

 has risen to much importance since the Act of 1869, and should 

 be carefully kept in view by the Commissioners in framing their 

 schemes. When the value of the endowment is too small to 

 provide laboratories and workshops for technical or scientific 

 teaching, the local authorities might be empowered to initiate 

 and aid them by local rates. But before applying local rates in 

 aid of technical or scientific teaching, endowments, the purposes 

 of which have failed, should, as far as practicable, be utilised. 



The examination of endowed schools and inspection of the 

 state of the buildings and apparatus, and of the discipline and 

 general working, are subjects of urgent importance. Reports 

 upon the actual condition of the schools should be periodically 

 laid before Parliament. Those reports should be published in 

 the locality in a cheap and convenient form. 



