550 



NATURE 



[January 14, 19 15 



see how this aid was appreciated. During the first 

 half of the time 1868-1884 the grants paid amounted 

 to 4,862i. 155., representing about 39,000 sq. ft. of 

 f?oor space; during the second half of the term 1885- 

 1902 the grants paid amounted to 43,183/. 15s., repre- 

 senting 345,470 sq. ft. of floor space, or more than 

 eight times as much as in the earlier period. In fact, 

 before the edict went forth withdrawing this help the 

 annual expenditure had crept up to nearly 4000/. a 

 year, representing at least eight additional technical 

 schools per annum. The remarkable increase during 

 the latter half is due partly to the stimulus afforded 

 to local authorities by the various Technical Instruc- 

 tion Acts, but public subscription provided no incon- 

 siderable portion of the total, and it must be remem- 

 bered that the State aid was only a small fraction of 

 the total cost. It would be no exaggeration to say 

 that this expenditure of public money of 48,000/. 

 represented half a million of local funds devoted to 

 building and equipping science and technical schools 

 and institutes. 



In addition to the aid given to science teaching by 

 the payment made to teachers or to local committees 

 on examination results, the science and art depart- 

 ment promoted science instruction in a number of 

 ways, which, without much expenditure of State 

 funds, stimulated local interest and encouraged local 

 expenditure for science purposes. 



Among these minor influences the chief place must 

 be given to the Royal Exhibitions and National and 

 Local Scholarships, and with these should be coupled 

 the Whitworth Scholarship and Exhibitions founded 

 in 1867, which the department administered under Sir 

 Joseph Whitworth 's trust. These, fortunately — with 

 the exception of the Local Scholarships — still continue, 

 but it is doubtful if under present regulations they 

 give the same opportunity to the working artisan as 

 in the early days of their first establishment. 



Grants towards the provision of laboratory fittings 

 and toward the purchase of apparatus also served to 

 encourage proper provision for experimental teaching 

 at better total cost to the State. These also have 

 disappeared, although it is still possible in certain 

 circumstances to get aid toward the purchase of 

 museum objects. 



Prizes and medals were also in the early days found 

 useful in encouraging students and incidentally in 

 distributing among the successful competitors books 

 which were of use in further prosecution of their 

 science work. 



These rewards, like the fittings, the apparatus, and 

 the building grants, have now disappeared, and the 

 amounts spent on them no longer appear separately 

 in the estimates. It is doubtful, however, if the 

 country has been saved the expenditure ; like the recent 

 savings resulting from the partial abolition of the May 

 examinations, it may possibly reappear in the guise 

 of an increase in the number of officials. 



Science in Elementary Schools. 



In the earlv years of State aid to elementary educa- 

 tion no attention was paid to the claims of science 

 bevond a pathetic desire that budding teachers should 

 be encouraered to come forward for examination in 

 land-surveying. 



But with the rise of class subjects and the addition 

 of "specific subjects" to the code in 1867, science 

 teaching in elementary schools awoke. Special 

 grants were made both for " class subjects " and for 

 " specific subjects " on each child who passed the 

 examination in the subject held annually by H.M. 

 inspector. But very few inspectors either had much 



NO. 2359, VOL. 94] 



knowledge of or much love for science. Nearly all 

 had been appointed for their literary or mathematical 

 attainments, and it is not, therefore, surprising that 

 the majority of the inspectors discouraged schools and 

 teachers from taking science among the specific 

 subjects. This was so generally evident that the 

 British Association appointed a committee in 1879 

 specially to inquire into the matter. This committee 

 was re-appointed with slightly varying functions from 

 year to year until 1904, when it was reconstructed and 

 the scope of its operations modified. Its annual 

 reports contain statistics as to the various branches 

 of science taken as specific subjects and as to the 

 number of children taught, and it added from time 

 to time some well-deserved criticisms on the general 

 system. 



In spite of general official discouragement, much 

 admirable work was done, Liverpool and Birmingham 

 being especially active in this respect. Those who 

 had the opportunity of seeing some of the science 

 teaching at these places can testify to the soundness 

 with which it was given and to the genuine interest 

 taken in it bv the children. 



By the ye'ar 1878^ there were 29,459 children 

 examined in physical geography, 20,506 in animal 

 phvsiology, 162 1 in mechanics, and 1332 in botany. 

 Ten veaVs later physical geography had disappeared, 

 apparently having 'ceased to be a "specific subject" 

 and become a "class subject" under the guise of 

 elementarv science. Animal physiology shows ^ a 

 falling off to 15,893 children examined, me^chanics 

 a big rise to 9651, botany a slight increase to 1944, 

 while chemistry was taken by 1531 pupils, sound, 

 light, and heat 'by 1076, magnetism and electricity by 

 1669, and principles of agriculture by 1199. We 

 again pass on ten years, and find that in 1898-9 the 

 numbers in animal' physiology had grown to 41,244, 

 in mechanics to 50,324, and in botany to 8833. 

 Chemistry shows almost a tenfold increase to 14,737, 

 magnetism and electricity had grown to 7697, sound, 

 light, and heat to 1943, while principles of agricul- 

 ture remains inactive at 1163. Various other branches 

 of science also appear, with among them nearly 

 10,000 more. Science teaching in the elementary 

 school seems to be flourishing, but a few years later 

 the svstem of payment is altered; "specific subjects" 

 disappear, and the teaching of science rapidly changes 

 and then dies down. 



The breaking down of the system by which the 

 grants were made to depend upon class subjects and 

 specific subjects, and the merging of these in the 

 general course of the elementary-school curriculum, 

 was no doubt educationally sound, but it certainly 

 has had one effect : the reduction in the amount and 

 the standard of science instruction ; while the policy 

 itself has not yet been effectually completed, since 

 separate grants are still obtainable for "special sub- 

 jects " such as handicraft, cookery, laundry-work, 

 gardening, and dairywork. 



There can be no doubt that there is less real 

 svstematic science teaching in our elementary schools 

 than was the case twenty years ago, and that the 

 proportion of the total expenditure on elementary 

 education which can be looked upon as spent in pro- 

 moting science instruction is decidedly less not only 

 in proportion but in amount. 



State Aid for Science in the Secondary Schools and 

 the Universities. 



State aid to secondary education grew out of the 

 grants made to science classes. These classes were 

 held at first only in the evening, but after a little 

 some began to meet in the daytime. Some of the 



