6i8 



NATURE 



[May 13, 1922 



for the illustration of lessons in various subjects. The 

 catalogue of slides is frequently revised and ample 

 provision is made for their distribution, of which full 

 advantage is taken by the schools. The modern school, 

 moreover, is generally equipped with a room, which is 

 in constant use, specially designed for lantern illustra- 

 tions. Thus, so far as the lantern is concerned, the 

 schools have been generously treated. 



The kinematograph film, however, is being used for 

 educational purposes far more in America than in our 

 own country. This is especially the case with adult 

 education, in which the problem is an infinitely simpler 

 matter than is that of the introduction of the kinema 

 into the school for the normal purposes of instruction, 

 in which a good case must be made for its value as 

 against its competitor, the lantern. 



There is no difficulty with propaganda films for 

 various purposes, films dealing with general questions 

 of health, those dealing with advanced science and 

 specific industries, farming operations, general travel, 

 and so on, provided always that they are prepared 

 under the supervision of experts who are responsible for 

 the sub-titles or captions. All are agreed on their value 

 and great educational possibilities. They have, more- 

 over, the advantage of being self-contained ; each 

 film tells its own, more or less complete, story. The 

 difficulty begins when the film is used for continuous 

 visual instruction in the general curriculum of the 

 school. 



The most promising feature of the situation as regards 

 America is that the whole subject is being taken up by 

 the universities, as is made abundantly clear by the 

 Bulletin. The university extension division of the 

 American university is a very important department, 

 and being so intimately concerned with the extra-mural 

 teaching of the adult, it comes into far closer personal 

 touch with the schools than our own universities. The 

 fact that in the Wisconsin experiment the majority 

 of the films on educational subjects are edited by uni- 

 versity professors is of far-reaching importance. The 

 necessity for the collaboration of the expert and the 

 film producer is emphasised in the Bulletin. 



An admirable film was recently produced on a bio- 

 logical subject which would have much greater value 

 and could be used with greater satisfaction if it were 

 free from biological errors — errors that would not have 

 crept in had its production been aided in and censored 

 by 'men from the biology department of one of our 

 universities. Illustrations could be multiplied almost 

 indefinitely of films of the highest educational value 



that could be produced in the university and with the 

 aid of the university staff. 



What is generally known in this country as the educa- 

 tional film, suffers under the grave disadvantage of 

 having to serve two purposes. It has to be of a suffi- 

 ciently popular nature to be acceptable to the normal 

 patron of the kinema theatre, and at the same time to 

 contain sufficient material of scientific interest to appeal 

 to the person who has a fair background of knowledge 

 of the subject. To serve this dual purpose many 

 beautiful films have been prepared at great cost to the 

 producer, but they have not met with sufficient popular 

 favour to stimulate the further production of this type 

 of film. During the sitting of the Cinema Commission 

 many teachers who appeared as witnesses said that the 

 kinema might be used with great advantage in teaching 

 such subjects as nature study and geography. 



The difficulty of a dual purpose to be served has also 

 been experienced in America, as is shown by the follow- 

 ing extracts from the Bulletin : 



(i) We therefore have two rather distinct classes 

 of borrowers — the schools on one hand, calling for 

 material to use in formal class-room work, and on the 

 other civic and community organisations of many 

 sorts, whose needs and desires differ from one another 

 to a greater or less degree and in particular from the 

 somewhat stereotyped needs of the schools. 



(2) The class approach to the study of a topic 

 through the aid of slides or motion-pictures should be 

 essentially the same as a laboratory exercise in science. 

 ... In other words visual instruction should be 

 reduced to a pedagogical method. 



It will be seen by the above that whereas at present 

 the ordinary educational film has only a limited useful- 

 ness in the schools in such subjects as nature study and 

 geography, the more important problem of its value 

 for normal school subjects by the production of a 

 different type of film has yet to be solved. Many ex- 

 periments are being made in the filming of well-known 

 text-books and in the production of definite kinema 

 text-books which may yield results of considerable 

 value. Meanwhile, a very important original research 

 is being carried out by distinguished experts in London, 

 the report of which will soon be published and which 

 will give much valuable information on some funda- 

 mental questions as to the relative value of the kinema 

 and the lantern for teaching purposes. 



There is, undoubtedly, in the kinema great educa- 

 tional possibilities, and the success of the important 

 developments in visual instruction at the University of 

 Wisconsin is a happy augury for the future. 



Obituary. 



Arthur Bacot. 



ARTHUR BACOT, entomologist to the Lister Insti- 

 tute, died of typhus on April 12 at Cairo, where 

 he was engaged in investigating the etiology of this 

 disease and the precise method of its transmission 

 through the agency of lice. His colleague Dr. 

 Arkwright, working in the same laboratory, con- 

 tracted the disease a few days later. His condition 

 was the cause of grave anxiety, but he is now 

 fortunately making a good recovery. 



How they became infected is uncertain. They were 

 occupied in experiments with Hce that they had fed 



NO. 2741, VOL. 109] 



upon cases of typhus some time previously and had con- 

 firmed Nicolle's statement, hitherto unsupported, that 

 the excreta of infected lice were capable of conveying 

 the disease. Possibly they acquired the infection from 

 such material. Experimental work upon typhus has 

 already proved very costly, and Bacot's name is now 

 added to the list of distinguished students, Conneff, 

 Comet, Jochmann, Luthje, v. Prowazek, Ricketts, 

 Schussler, each of whom has fallen a victim to typhus 

 while endeavouring to solve the problems of its etiology 

 and epidemiology. 



Bacot was born in 1866 and educated at Birkbeck 



