November i8, 19 15] 



NATURE 



315 



It will be noted that the phenomenon as witnessed 

 was more or less a repetition on a minor scale of what 

 ^is usually seen in the Arctic circle. We might assume 

 that on the date in question the aurora possessed 

 abnormal brilliance, and it was easy to imagine the 

 )olar landscape illuminated thereby. 



.SCRIVKN BOI.TON". 



Bramley, Yorkshire, November 9. 



Science in National Affairs. 



In your article on "Science in National Affairs" 



)ctober 21) the subject of school science was referred 



in such a manner as to awaken the interest of all 



:ience teachers, who will generally endorse the opinion 

 )f Mr. Buckmaster and of the writer of the article 

 that the present position of science in our schools is 

 inferior and unsatisfactory. The status of science in 

 our secondary schools, in particular, must have an 

 important bearing on its status in our national life, 

 and now that the pressure of circumstances has caused 

 a wave of national introspection, science teachers 

 expect, and will welcome, any investigations which 

 would lead to a more extended recognition of their 

 claims. Though there may be much still capable of 

 betterment in the practice of science teaching, it will be 

 generally admitted that the comparative neglect and 

 consequent want of success of school science are trace- 

 able to unfavourable external conditions, viz., the in- 

 difference of the general public, the conservatism of 

 universities which control the curricula through their 

 examination systems, and, connected therewith, the 

 overwhelming preponderance of non-scientific head- 

 masters. 



The general question of the national neglect of 

 science has been mooted so fully in the scientific Press 

 that amongst scientific men there can scarcely be a 

 doubter left. What is now required is some concen- 

 trated, organised effort to reach the general public and 

 their representatives. Failing the Royal Society, the 

 matter is essentially one for a body like the British 

 Science Guild. Is it not time for isolated efforts to 

 be co-ordinated, and for a definite, organised plan of 

 campaign to be entered upon with the prime object of 

 getting into touch with the general public, and of 

 ])ressing the claims of science, nrhi ct orbi? The 

 obstacles may be great, the prejudices many, but is it 

 too much to ask that our scientific leaders should 

 ♦ •merge from their seclusion, enter the arena, and show 

 that touch of character which alone can siipply the 

 driving power for the realisation of reforms? Oh, for 

 half an hour of Huxley ! E. H. Tripp. 



3 Milton Road, Bedford, November 5. 



The subject of this letter was suggested to me on 

 reading the recent leading articles in Nature, in 

 which it is pointed out that the present lamentable 

 lack of knowledge of scientific methods and activities 

 on the part of our political leaders is due largely to 

 the neglect of science in our schools. 



I have taken the trouble to find out (from the 

 • Schoolmaster's Yearbook, 1914 ") how many of the 

 headmasters of our public schools hold academic 

 qualifications testifying to their having received any 

 kind of scientific training. Out of a total of 113 

 public schools — the number of schools represented last 

 year on the Headmasters' Conference — there are 82 

 headmasters whose sole qualifications are in classics 

 or theology (about half of these are in holy orders), 

 13 whose main qualifications are in mathematics, 

 while the total number of entries showing any 

 qualifications at all in science is 10. Of course, I 

 do not wish to draw the conclusion from these figures 

 that science teaching is neglected in the great majority 



NO. 2403, VOL. 96] 



of our public schools. On the contrary, I know well 

 that excellent work is being done in niost nt them; 

 but I do think that oncj may safely argue that under 

 this state of affairs the spirit of respect for scientific 

 knowledge is bound to suffer. How can that spirit 

 of reVerence and respect for science which is so lacking 

 in our leaders be cultivated in the classical atmo- 

 sphere of our schools where for so long science has 

 been regarded as a subject on a slightly higher level 

 than, say, book-keeping, and tolerated purelv for its 

 utilitarian value? In the school in which "l myself 

 teach, which is certainly, as regards laboratory ac- 

 commodation, one of the' best equipped schools in the 

 country, and in the fourth forms which I take as 

 most typical of the whole, a boy gives six periods a 

 week to experimental science, including both phvsics 

 and chemistry. The same boy gives no fewer than 

 eight periods to Latin (or German as an alternative), 

 while on the classical side of the school a bov may 

 "complete" his school education without so much as 

 ever hearing the names of Newton, Lavoisier, or 

 Faraday. 



Surely science will come to its own onlv when it is 

 generally recognised and taught that the great natural 

 truths and systems contain as much of what is noble, 

 beautiful, and uplifting as anything vet revealed by 

 the purely humanitarian studies. Moreover, if the 

 true scientific spirit is not inculcated in our public 

 schools, how can it ever reach the countrv as a whole 

 whde our political leaders and even our journalists 

 are for the most part recruited almost direct from 

 the public schools? G. N. P 



Chemistry at the British Association. 



With reference to the closing remark of the article 

 with the above title in Nature of November 4, "To 

 the chemist this is perhaps more convincing than a 

 volume of deductions by a physicist," the " this " 

 being Dr. Whytelaw Gray's contributions to our know- 

 ledge of isotopes, I think it only fair to other chemists 

 to point out that Dr. Gray is 'by no means the first 

 or only chemist to study isotopes. Putting aside the 

 numerous recent atomic" weight determinations, which 

 scarcely come under the category of volumes of deduc- 

 tions by a physicist, the beautiful researches of von 

 Hevesy and Paneth had previously .proved rigorously 

 the chemical and electrochemical identity of lead and 

 radium-D, which Dr. Gray has so far d'one onlv very 

 roughly, though in his choice of some of the proper- 

 ties studied he broke fresh and interesting ground, 

 and much is to be hoped from the continuation of the 

 work. But even von Hevesy and Paneth only con- 

 firmed rigorously in this and a few selected easel what 

 had been abundantly and comprehensivelv established 

 by Fleck in this country, as they would be the first 

 to point out. The benediction of other chemists on 

 fundamental advances in their science is pleasant to 

 have, no doubt, but if anything could be done to 

 shorten the initial^ period of scepticism, which the 

 history of this subject seems to show is necessary, it 

 would be even more welcome. F. S. 



I ANr much obliged to the Editor for giving me an 

 opportunity of answering the letter from " F. S.," as 

 I should not like him to think that the writer was 

 oblivious to the work of e.xperimenters other than Dr. 

 Gray. Far from it : it is the very recognition of the 

 work of the numerous physical chemists, in whose 

 number (if I guess aright) " F. S." should be counted, 

 that prompted the final remark. The whole difficulty 

 appears to turn on the word "this." It was intended 

 to mean experimental observation as opposed to 

 theoretical deduction. 



The Writer of tiik Akik i.k. 



