February 24, 19 16] 



NATURE 



■05 



very much the same as those in the carUer period. 

 ' school science masters claim that they have 

 ■pted new methods of teaching. Secondly, as to 



supply of candidates, I feel sure if consideration is 

 < \\ of all classes of schools in the country it 

 1 be found that there is a very large number of 

 > keenly interested in science. 

 I will submit two suggestions. First, that closer 



li with the local education authorities is neces- 

 \ . Each local authority has a director or secretary- 



looks after the progress of the boys in his dis- 

 i. The directors arc acquainted with the best boys 

 ough their local scholarship schemes, and should 

 able to point out at once the boys likely to make 

 :;ress. Selection might in certain cases be made 

 ilicir recommendation only, I will not go further 



1 this means of connecting the universities and the 

 aols, beyond saying that something of the kind 



^rs in certain districts. 



' Ijelieve that the present form of scholarship docs 



recommend itself to the less wealthy, and mv 



>nd suggestion is that some scholarships might 



■ the form of free places, to include education, 



id and lodging, and a small money grant. I find 



! the fear of unforeseen incidentals deters many 



n the thought of a career at Cambridge. The free 



should remove this fear. 



My experience leads me to think that a Cambridge 



i.iieer under such conditions would appeal to a very 



much wider field than at present. 



Sidney Skinner. 



Science in the Civil Service. 



I HAVE read with sustained interest your leading 

 ;ile on science in the public schools and the Civil 

 ^^Avice. The preference given to classical subjects in 

 ^^^faoompetitive examinations for higher appointments 

 HUpie Civil Service is patent. This might be reme- 

 i^Bed, as you appear to suggest, by a different alloca- 

 tion of marks to the various subjects of the examina- 

 tion. But are there not serious objections to the whole 

 em of competitive examinations as applied to these 

 ointments? I venture to suggest tJiat the system 

 Miuuld be ended rather than mended— "off with his 

 head," as the Red Queen would say, with admirable 

 directness. 



With your permission, I will briefly recapitulate the 

 uments for such drastic treatment, which I dis- 

 ..-■^ed in detail in a paper read at the Teachers' Guild 

 annual conference in January, 1913. The system tends 

 to impose upon universities and colleges an official or 

 laucratic curriculum. In so far as it fails to do 

 -, it divides the attention of the student between 

 -^ university and an external authority. The result 

 may be illustrated from the subjects selected at the 

 competitive examination by the first successful candi- 

 date in 1911, representing a course of studj^ which 

 no university in the world would willingly impose 

 upon its students :— English composition, French, 

 mathematics, physics, logic and ps\'choIogy, moral and 

 j metaphysical philosophy, political economy and 

 economic history, and political science. The allocation 

 of marks to various subjects and the arrangement of 

 candidates in an order of merit on an aggregate of 

 marks in a wide variety of subjects must be arbitrary 

 and unscientific. No credit can be given for original 

 literary or scientific work, and no provision is made 

 for the specialisation of study which, within limits, 

 may be desirable for the future work of the success- 

 ful candidates. There can be no guarantee that 

 various types of training are fairly represented among 

 the ':iicce«!sfi!l candidates. Aptitude for administrative 

 •work is in no way specifically tested. The top candi- 

 date who, from the point of view of scholarship, may 



NO. 2417, VOL. 96! 



be too good, and the last successful candidate, who 

 may not be good enough, are equally accepted. 

 Restricted age limits are a necessary condition of 

 the system. It does not provide fairly for the promo- 

 tion of men already in the Service. It is unsuitable 

 for women, to whom the privilege of admission to 

 lligher appointments in the Civil Service will, without 

 doubt, be more generally conceded in the near future. 

 Indeed, the physical and piental strain which the 

 system entails must be harmful to men in many cases. 

 The need for expensive special preparation handicajjs 

 the poorer student. In practice, the system works 

 unfairly as between the students of the old and the 

 modern universities. This is notorious, but the 

 figures for the five years 1906-10 may be quoted. Out 

 of 473 successful candidates, 247 (more than half) 

 came from Oxford, and 142 from Cambridge ; only 

 five came from London, two from Manchester, and 

 one from .Leeds. 



A system of selection on record by a properly con- 

 stituted board would meet all these criticisms, and 

 might be applied also to the numerous professional 

 appointments now made departmentally. Owing to 

 the war, such a system is already in operation for a 

 certain proportion of the appointments to the Indian 

 Civil Service. I have not much doubt that if the 

 public, as represented by the universities and the 

 learned societies, were to ask for this reform 

 it would be granted. There would not be much official 

 opposition, for Mr. Leathes, the First Civil Service 

 Commissioner, when asked by the Royal Commission 

 on the Civil Service if, supposing all ideas of the 

 misuse of patronage were excluded, the best way of 

 appointment would not be by selection and nomina- 

 tion, answered in the affirmative, provided that you 

 could trust your nominating authority to be not oniy 

 absolutely honest, but also always industrious, and 

 to have a highly developed judgment. He thought 

 that then, ideally, selection would undoubtedly be 

 superior, but feared that both history and experience 

 had proved that it was an impossible way. The war 

 has intervened since the pronouncement, and we are 

 now, I hope, more disposed to suppress fears and 

 prejudices in face of facts and arguments. 



T. Ll, Humberstonk. 



21 Gower Street, W.C, February 20. 



The Place of Science in Education. 



Sir Edward Schafer will doubtless carry many with 

 him in advocating a revolution in our educational 

 system in favour of making science the foundation of 

 the education given in our secondary schools. But 

 the difficult question remains as to how that can be 

 done. In the memorandum he refers to. a definite stejj 

 was proposed towards the desired end. Sir Edward 

 Schafer considers it a halting step, but he does not 

 suggest any alternative course whereby the public can 

 be led to demand that its educational house should be 

 put in order. As one who had some small share in 

 drawing up the memorandum, may I ask Sir Edward 

 Schafer what course he would like to see adoptc<l in 

 place of the one already indicated? D. Hill. 



II Airlie Gardens, Campden Hill, W, 



Latin as a Universal Language. 



I HAVE read with interest the letter of Sir Lauder 

 Brunton on Latin as a universal language. I sin- 

 cerely hope the matter will not be allowed to drop. 

 .'\s a contribution, may I say that we have taught 

 Latin here as a sp>oken language for fourteen years 

 past, just as French and German are taught, and the 



