598 



Thi' Review of Reviews. 



A PLEA FOR TRAINING FINGERS. 



In Sciaia- P/ogrtss for October Mr. '!'. S. Usher- 

 wood crilicises the current tradition in education, and 

 pleads for tlie general recognition of manual instruc- 

 tion in schools. He suggests the following time- 

 table :— 



I. For boys in secondary schools frcjui llic a.i;i- nf cnliy until 

 the average age of fifteen : 



■■Knglisli Literature 



I „ liistoiy. 

 Literary \VorU.| ,, Grammar 



1 Divinity . , . , ! 



iFrencli \ 



c ■ .-c \<' 1 f.Matliemalici. . . 5? 

 Scientific NVo.k|^^p^.^i,„^.,„^,l geience 6? 



4? 



Music . . . . It, • . 

 Physical Drill . . 2/3 F"*'^' 



xper 



n, , ,,T , (Workshop . 

 Mamuil Work .<„ • , '<; i i 

 (Drawing Scliool 



I ) lo [lerioils. 



ly [icriuiK, the dis- 

 tribution of which 

 will vary slightly 

 at ililTcient ages. 



Total . ... 32 periods. 

 2. For boys in secondary schools fruin the age of liflocn 



WHEN SCOTLAND WAS MOST HERSELF. 



'• ']"he Making of .Scotland" is the suliject of an 

 interesting study by the Kev. A. J. Campbell in the 

 Quarterly Rcvinv. He sa\s :— 



It would be an exaggeration to say with son>e that, far from 

 ending, Scottish history only begins in 1707 ; but the fact is, 

 that the greater part of Scotland's contribution to human pro- 

 gress was made after that date. That contribution could not 

 have been made without the Union ; for the Union set the 

 kingdom free from the fiscal disadvantages from which it had 

 hitherto suffered, and enabled i'. to gain tiiai economic slabiliiy 

 which is the first requisite for a national fulness of life. A 

 nation which in the past was famous as the Iruitful mother of 

 wandering scholars and soldiers could now uft'cr her children a 

 career at lionie. A land whose history seemed to be closed 

 began to teach others how history might be made. How the 

 wild Scots learned to teach the world lessons in agricnlture and 

 industry, in art, in philosophy, in literature, in science ; how 

 the land which could olier no i^uture to seholar^ like .\laehaba;us 

 or Ale.sius, or to soldiers like iiuchan or raiiick Gordon, could 

 provide a worthy seed-plot and environment for such inen as 

 Hume, Adam Smith, Burns, Reid, Kaeburn, or Scott ; how 

 dirty and tinbulent Edinburgh could become one of the literary 

 capitals of Lurope ; how the dreaded Highlands could send 

 poets and publishers to l^ondon — all this is a story as woclhy of 

 narration as the story of Bannockburn or the Covenants. 



SCOTI..^ND TOKV Al' 1IK.\KI. 



The writer agrees with Mr. Mathicson lliat the 

 " carle-stalk of hemp " in Scottish history is found in 

 the temperament which reached one of its fullest and 

 most triumphant expressions in Modcratism. It is 



interesting to read that up till 1730 Scottish farming 

 was in a fearfully backward state, in spite of the 

 efforts of the landowners to introduce English 

 methods. In 1730 the tide turned, and Scotland 

 soon began to teach England. The writer boldly 

 declares that " though outwardly Whig, Scotland at 

 heart wa.s Tory." Scott and Chalmers, who both 

 represent Scottisli feeling in its most permanent form, 

 were both 'lories. " Scottish Liberalism could not 

 have reigned so long if it had not been rooted in a 

 sub-conscious Toryism," and the real sympathies of 

 Scotland are seen in' the homage which has been paid 

 to Scott and Chalmers as to no other men of the 

 nineteenth century. 



TO STOP CONSUMPTION. 



The Cost anm ihe Savini;. 



In view of the provision made in the Insurance 

 Bill for a determined attempt to' stamp out consump- 

 tion, it is worth quoting what Dr. L. Haden Guest 

 says in Nash's Magazine for September on the cost 

 of tuberculosis. He reckons that it costs annually 

 60,000 lives, which means on the average two and 

 a half years further life in each case. Reckoning 

 each year of life as worth a minimum of ;^23, 

 that loss reaches beyond two and a quarter millions 

 every year. The agencies at work to combat tuber- 

 culosis are reckoned as costing three millions a 

 year, and the reduction in earning power during the 

 process of the disease is put at two millions per 

 annum. So the writer arrives at the total of sever) 

 and a quarter millions as the annual loss owing to 

 tuberculosis. Yet this is a preventable disease. 

 Prevention would require the extinction of slums. 

 '■ Kill all the bacilli in the w'oild, but leave one slum 

 untouched, and consumption can spring up again 

 and spread over the world out of that slum." 



Phthisis and o\ercrowding advance in the same 

 ratio. 



SPEND FOUR AND A HALF TO SAVE SEVI'.N .Mil. I. IONS. 



Passing to consider necessary remedies, the writer 

 declares that milk and butter are the iriost dangerous 

 means of conveying infection. All cattle should be 

 regularly inspected, and milk from tuberculous cows 

 rigorously prohibited. The first step is to make con- 

 sumption compulsorily notifiable ; next, to establish 

 anti-tuberculous dispensaries in every congested area, 

 to visit, instruct, and report upon all cases of the 

 disease. Then sanatoria are needed. At present 

 theie is at the utmost only one-fifth of the accom- 

 modation required. The school clinic would be a 

 valuable asset. The campaign suggested costs about 

 four and a half millions a year, and would stamp out 

 tuberculosis in from twenty to thirty years' time. Is 

 it not worth while, the writer asks in conclusion, to 

 invest four and a half millions for thirty years in order 

 to .save seven millions a year for perhaps hundreds 

 of years ? 



