January 13, 19 16] 



NATURE 



555 



I any lads show an extraorclinary aptitude for physics; 

 ere is always a boy Pascal in a big scho^J, and 

 ' subject is so suited to arouse a fervid devotion to 

 ience. It would do the nation great good to have 

 tch generation, at the sixteenth or seventeenth year, 

 pass automatically through a laboratory of physics. 



I have spoken of the doubts expressed whether 

 chemistry in the public schools can be taught at a 

 college level. Of. course it cannot if as a subsidiary 

 subject, to which only a few hours a week are devoted, 

 but in a course extending over two years, as a major 

 subject, with laboratory work four or five mornings 

 a week, surely a youth in his sixteenth and seven- 

 teenth years should be able to put in the foundation- 

 stones, and in individual cases it is done already. As 

 a mental discipline chemistry almost rivals physics ; 

 indeed, the new physical chemistry is a blend which 

 appeals with magic potency to all science students. 



But no subject attracts the young mind so strongly 

 as biology, in its varied aspects. Elementary teaching 

 is now admirably arranged, and in a two-year curri- 

 culum it should be an easy matter to cover much more 

 ground than in the preliminaries demanded for medi- 

 cine. Field classes in botany, gardens, museum work, 

 should all be utilised. I would like to see at every 

 school that excellent plan adopted by the late Sir 

 Jonathan Hutchinson at his village museum, Hasle- 

 mere — nature lectures on Sunday afternoons, with ex- 

 hibition of the flowering plants of the season, with 

 any other specimens of interest. The biology class 

 gives an opportunity of a clear statement of the facts 

 of sex, always so hard to discuss with boys. 



There are objections, of course, to extensive and 

 intensive teaching of science in schools. It is the 

 business of the college, not of the school, to prepare 

 boys for technical studies; but if it is the business 

 of the school to teach science at all, why not teach 

 it thoroughly? The general influence of the school 

 may be trusted to counteract the evil possible in a too 

 early concentration upon special subjects. Nature is 

 never special, and a knowledge of her laws may form 

 a sound Grecian foundation upon which to build the 

 superstructure of a life as useful to the State, and as 

 satisfying to the innner needs of a man, as if the 

 groundwork were classics and literature. The two, 

 indeed, cannot be separated. What naturalist is un- 

 influenced by Aristotle, what physician worthy of the 

 name, whether he knows it or not, is without the 

 spirit of Hippocrates? It has been well said that in- 

 struction is the least part of education. Upon the 

 life, not the lips, of the master is the character of the 

 boy moulded: and doubtless the great master of 

 masters had this in mind when he said : " It may be, 

 in short, that the possession of all the sciences, if 

 unaccompanied by knowledge of the best, will more 

 often than not injure the possessor." (Plato, "Alci- 

 biades," ii.) 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



London-.— Dr. H. M. Woodcock, assistant to the 

 late Prof. E. A. Minchin, has been appointed acting 

 head of the department of protozoology at the Lister 

 Institute. 



Applications for the Gilchrist studentship for women 

 must be received by the Academic Registrar not later 

 than February 2g. ' The studentship is of the value of 

 lool., and is tenable for one year by a graduate in 

 honours of the University of' not more than three 

 years' standing who is prepared to take a course of 

 study in an approved institution for some profession. 



A course of six lectures on the " Electrical Produc- 

 NO. 241 T, VOL. 96] 



tion of Nitrates for Fertilisers and Explosives " will be 

 delivered this term, at University College, by Mr. E. 

 Kilburn/ Scott. The first lecture, which is open to the 

 public without fee or ticket, will be given on Wednes- 

 day, January 26, at 5.30 p.m. At the same college 

 Dr. Marie Stopes will give a course of free public lec- 

 tures on "Coal " on Tuesdays, at 5 p.m., beginning on 

 January 18. These lectures are intended for advanced 

 students in botany and geology, and for persons in- 

 terested in mining. 



Four lectures on " Dietetics " will be dejivcred on 

 January 1&-21, by Dr. H. Campbell, at Gresham Col- 

 lego, Basinghall Street, London, E.C. The lectures 

 are free to the public, and will begin each evening at 

 six o'clock. 



It is announced in the issue of Science for 

 December 17 last that a gift of 30,000^ to Harvard 

 University with which to found a profess6rship in 

 archeeology is contained in the will of the late Mrs. 

 E. M. Hudson, widow of a former president of the 

 American Bell Telephone Company. 



It was stated in the issue of the Times of January 8 

 that the Maharani of Baroda has given lo.ooo^ for 

 the permanent endowment of scholarships for deserv- 

 ing Hindu girls. Twenty-nine scholarships are pro- 

 vided for, and the remainder of the income will be 

 devoted to a studentship for Hindu womdn who desire 

 to study out of India. 



The annual meeting of the Geographical Association 

 was held at University College on January 6. In the 

 course of his presidential address, Mr. H. J. Mackinder 

 laid great stress on the value and importance of maps 

 in relation to the present crisis. He pointed out that a 

 misrepresentation of ideas on a map was now a serious 

 matter, not only to geographers, but also to the masses 

 of the people; that, after the war, methods and sub- 

 jects in education would have to be re-valued; that 

 while scientific analysis in human geography could 

 give assistance, every human distribution could not be 

 explained by purely scientific reasoning ; that the Ger- 

 man idea of a road to the East vid Bagdad was a 

 magnificent one (and it could" be represented on a map), 

 but the idea required valuing as well as perceiving, 

 and in that case the ocean route from Hamburg to 

 India might prove to be equally important, even if less 

 attractive at the moment; that one result of the war 

 had been to make people think in maps and in con- 

 tinents in order to gain a proper perspective and right 

 judgment of the course of events, hence the construc- 

 tion of maps and the cultivation of the map habit of 

 thought should not form the end, but only the begin- 

 ning of geographical studies. In a lecture on the 

 geographical study of rivers. Dr. Marion Newbigiri 

 suggested that as geographers and geologists study 

 the world from widely different points oif view the 

 geographer should lay stress on what most concerns 

 his own subject, and should not accept materials chosen 

 by the geologist. With regard to a river, the geologist 

 describes it as a tool for modelling the land; hence 

 the upper course is of the greatest interest to him, 

 and he pays particular attention to abnormal features, 

 such as the Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon. To 

 the geographer, however, the river provides lines of 

 communication, suitable homes for man, and an outlet 

 to the ocean ; hence the middle and lower courses are 

 mainly important to him. 



The statistics of public education in England and 

 Wales for the year 1913-14 have been issued as a 

 Blue-book [Cd. 8097]. I" previous 5-ears the volume 

 has been published in two parts, one of which dealt 

 with financial statistics only, and this is not to appear 

 this year. Nor is it intended to publish the usual 



