November 6, 19 19] 



NATURE 



257 



from flowers and filling his notebook with floral 

 diagrams ; attending demonstrations in the 

 physical laboratory ; dissecting, when it came to 

 his turn, a rabbit to be inspected by the class, 

 whilst Prof. Grant, in the dress-coat, brocaded 

 vest, and white cravat of the Georgian period, 

 discoursed philosophy, with occasional reference 

 to the rabbit. In the chemical laboratory students 

 worked in relays, but so limited was its space 

 that the lecture-theatre had to be fitted for the 

 examination in practical chemistry by clamping 

 a tray for each student on to the sloping board 

 on which, during lectures, the notebooks rested. 

 A similar description would apply to the labora- 

 tories at Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin. 



Provision for teaching and research has kept 

 step with the uses to which scientific knowledge 

 has been turned. The distinction drawn between 

 pure science and applied science is essentially 

 unsound and wholly mischievous, as if the purity of 



science were sullied whenever the problem to be 

 I solved is suggested by an immediate human need. 

 The discoveries made by an investigator who has 

 a practical application in view are as truly addi- 

 tions to the sum of human knowledge as those 

 which reward a worker who is following a 

 I line of research which can never, so far as he is 

 I aware, contribute to man's comfort. In most 

 cases the practical man also advances the grasp 

 ; of pure science by directing attention to gaps in 

 theory, and by asking the professors ques- 

 tions which they cannot answer. The universities 

 have been slow in realising their duty to the 

 crafts and manufactures. It is greatly to be 

 hoped that, in the near future, we shall cease to 

 hear of independent bodies set up for the purpose 

 of carrying out either " scientific " or " industrial " 

 research. There is but one Science, and the 

 universities are the instruments for extending its 

 range. 



FIFTY YEARS OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 

 By J. H. Reynolds, M.Sc. 



JUST fifty years ago there appeared a remark- 

 able book, the fruit of much thought, experi- 

 ence, and wide travel, entitled " Systematic Tech- 

 nical Education for the English People." Its 

 author was Mr. J. Scott Russell, F.R.S., the 

 designer of the Great Eastern, the largest vessel 

 of that time, which rendered singular service in 

 the laying of the first Atlantic cable. The volume 

 was dedicated to the Queen, and the purpose of 

 the dedication was declared to be "to entreat 

 her Majesty graciously to consider the case of 

 the uneducated English folk who are now suffer- 

 ing great misfortune in their trade, commerce, 

 and manufactures, as well as in their social, 

 moral, and intellectual condition, through having 

 been neglected and allowed to fall behind other 

 nations better cared 'for by the men whose duty 

 it was to lead as well as to govern the people." 

 The Queen was urged " to issue her Most 

 Gracious Majesty's commands to her Majesty's 

 Ministers to see to it that for the future the dex- 

 terous, energetic, willing working people of 

 England receive at the hands of the Government 

 a practical education for useful life as thorough 

 and systematic as the best-educated nation in 

 Europe." 



Mr. Scott Russell declared that the condition of 

 English education, both general and scientific, 

 compared very unfavourably with that prevailing 

 in Continental countries, notably in Prussia, 

 Saxony, Wiirttemberg, and Switzerland, whilst 

 no provision worthy of the name existed for tech- 

 nical education and training, which were abun- 

 dantly provided for all grades of workers in 

 industry and commerce in all the countries named. 

 He called in evidence the lessons taught by the 

 Great Exhibition of 185 1, which owed its origin 

 to the enlightened views of the Prince Consort, 

 NO. 2610, VOL. 104] 



and in which the civilised nations of Europe 

 received their first lessons in technical educa- 

 tion. Our superiority in machinery and its 

 products was manifest, whilst in articles demand- 

 ing beauty and grace of design we were plainly 

 lamentably far behind some Continental nations. 

 Mr. J. Scott Russell concludes his book by 

 pleading for the appointment "of a powerful 

 statesman to be Minister of Public Education with 

 a strong will ; a complete organised plan of a 

 people's teaching; a determination that, at what- 

 ever cost, the English people shall become in one 

 generation the best-educated nation in Europe — 

 and it will be done." We have at last such a man 

 in the present President of the Board of Educa- 

 tion, and it is to be hoped that he may so remain 

 and be given the means to carry out the essential 

 reforms embodied in the great Act of 1918. 



The enormous progress made by the several 

 important nations as a result of the object-lesson 

 of 1 85 1 was made clearly evident at the exhibition 

 held at Paris in 1855. England was no longer, 

 in consequence of the establishment of schools of 

 design and the circulation of the best models in 

 the areas affected, outstripped in pottery and 

 glass, whilst, on the other hand, foreign nations, 

 such as France and Germany, recognising the 

 advantage which England enjoyed in the pos- 

 session of abundant raw material, such as coal, 

 iron, and steel, together with skill in adapting 

 them to the purposes of industry, and realising 

 that the only effective way of meeting it was to 

 apply higher science and research in their treat- 

 ment and application, had already, with this aim 

 in view, established schools for the education and 

 training of both masters and workmen, with the 

 result that their engineering exhibits made a 

 remarkable display. 



