January 15, 1920] 



NATURE 



51. 



Parville prize between Helois OUivier (1500 francs), 

 for his course of general physics, and Adrian Loir and 

 H. Legangneux (1500 francs), for their work entitled 

 "The Products of the Sea"; the Lonchampt prize to 

 Camille Delezenne, for his work on the presence and 

 r6le of zinc in animals ; the Henry Wilde prize be- 

 tween Jean Rev (1000 francs), for his researches on 

 projectors, and Adrien Bochet (1000 francs), for his 

 mechanical and optical inventions ; the Thorlet prize 

 to Adolphe Richard, for his catalogue of scientific 

 boolts in the libraries of Paris. 



Special Foundations. — The Lannelongue foundation 

 to Mme. Cusco and Mme. Ruck. 



The Laplace prize to Robert Henri Le Besnerais, 

 Maurice Victor Duruy, and the late Charles Marie 

 Carcopino-Tusoli ; the L. E. Rivot prize to Robert Le 

 Besnerais and Maurice Duruy (each 750 francs), Louis 

 Delmas and Henri Pagezy (each 500 francs), Joseph 

 Fontaine and .\lbert Masselin (each 750 francs), Robert 

 Besse and Henri Lang (each 5C0 francs). 



Foundations for Scientific Researches. — The Gegner 

 foundation to Rene Baire, for his work on the general 

 theory of functions ; the Charles Bouchard foundation 

 to Jean Camus, for the continuation of his work on 

 nerve reactions, the regeneration of nerves, and the 

 effect of various poisons on the nerve-centres. 



[Note. — .\s in former years, the Bonaparte and 

 Loutreuil foundations have been omitted, and will be 

 dealt with in a separate article.] 



'eDVCATIOSAL (X)KFEREN~(^S. 



THE eighth annual Conference of Educational 

 .\ssociations was held at University College, 

 London, on December 31-January 10. Three 

 tendencies could be observed in the lengthy list 

 of lectures and discussions arranged for this well- 

 attended conference : the preparation of the citizen, 

 testing for capacity, and care for the artistic side 

 of life. The Master of Balliol took "The Educa- 

 tion of the Citizen " as his topic before the Training 

 College Association, while to the Assistant Mistresses' 

 Association Mr. Evan Hughes lectured on "The 

 Importance of a Wider Knowledge of Economic 

 Principles." Under this head, too, came a discussion 

 of continuation schools and their possibilities. Sir 

 William Ashley, in presiding at a joint conference on 

 this topic, emphasised the difficulty of forecasting the 

 labour demand of different occupations, and of antici- 

 pating the place that skill would occupy within any one 

 Industry. Mr. Spurley Hey, Director of Education, 

 Manchester, found his difficulties in the provision 

 of buildings and teachers, and was critical of 

 works schools ; whilst Mr. Beresford Ingram was 

 more distressed by the problem presented by the small 

 employer. The Civic Education League also took up 

 this question in a discussion on education and 

 industry, which largely turned upon the problem of 

 the works school, and, in conjunction with the Infant 

 Welfare Association, arranged a course of twelve lec- 

 tures dealing very thoroughly with the whole question 

 of infant care and child nurture. 



Eugenics entered into this course, but was more 

 specifically treated by Dr. R. Douglas Laurie, who 

 lectured on " Eugenics Education in the Training 

 College," and at a later session on " Eugenips Educa- 

 tion in the .School," before the Eugenics Education 

 Society. He would not allow the feeble-minded 

 criminal to hand down his qualities, or the aggravated 

 pauper to pass on his inherent pauperism ; and 

 the question of deaf-mutes and epileptics should be 

 considered. The eugenic point of view should be part 

 of the mental constitution of every normal citizen, and 

 to this end he would have some measure of biological 

 training given to every boy or girl. This should l>egin 



NO. 2620. VOL. 104] 



with Nature-study, develop into physiology, and then 

 into hygiene, which should lead on to eugenics. 



.\ correlative of such teaching was to be found in 

 a brilliant lecture by Dr. Olive Wheeler to the 

 .Assistant Mistresses' Association on " N^w Views 

 of Human Personality." Dr. Wheeler contrasted 

 the mechanistic tendencies of the nineteenth 

 century with those of a more idealistic charac- 

 ter which were becoming current in the twentieth. 

 This change she traced largely to the development of 

 modern biology and psychology. The child was born 

 with certain dynamic forces : the instincts as described 

 by McDougall, the appetites as outlined by Drever. 

 These powerful impulses needed expression ; if 

 repressed, they still existed in the realm ' of the 

 unconscious, and continued to influence conduct. 

 Attention was directed to Bergson's view that the 

 essential difference between a living organism and a 

 machine was the power of creation and the import- 

 ance he attached to that modification in the "urge," 

 or dynamic flux, which caused an organism to move 

 in a specific direction. 



The problem of testing* capacity was first raised bv 

 Mr. G. F. Daniell, of the Kent Education Depart- 

 ment, in opening the discussion on "The Selection of 

 Elementary Children for Higher Forms of Education." 

 Mr. Danjell favoured a preliminary examination in the 

 elementary schools of pupils between ten and twelve 

 years of age, by which some would be selected for a 

 final examination, to consist of written tests in English 

 and arithmetic. The teacher's report and the school 

 record should be considered, and an interview arranged 

 in at least all doubtful cases. Psvchological tests he 

 held to be useful and valuable in this connection, and 

 he thought that careful inquiry did not support the view 

 that the largely written character of the examination 

 excluded from the secondary schools all who were 

 gifted in artistic work and craftsmanship, though it 

 would be well to include in the examination a test 

 of such ability, could one be devised that was both 

 satisfactory and easily applied. 



The question of psychological tests was dealt with 

 by Dr. P. B. Ballard in his lecture on "The Measure- 

 ment of Practical .Ability " before the Educational Hand- 

 work Association. Dr. Ballard's incidental exhibition 

 of the well-known tapping machine for testing innate 

 motor ability was largely reported in the Press, and 

 equally misunderstood. The whole subject was treated 

 more fully in his lecture on the following Monday to 

 the British Psychological Society on " The Develop- 

 ment of Mental Tests," one of the most successful and 

 largely attended meetings of the conference. He 

 pointed out that the history of mental testing was, in 

 the main, an attempt to introduce mathematics into 

 the solution of the problem of the selection of abilitv. 

 The earliest attempts were in the direction of findirig 

 some physical correlate of mind, as in the phrenologv 

 of Gall, the physiognomy of Lavater, and the crimino- 

 logy of Lombroso. But neither such static measure- 

 ments, nor the later applied dynamic measurements of 

 motor response to stimulus, gave results that were 

 valid beyond their own sphere. They had passed from 

 the physical to the psycho-physical, and were now 

 reaching out to the psychical tests. But success in 

 securing standardised tests and measurements de- 

 pended upon three mathematical conceptions: that of 

 a definite scale for the measurement of intelligence 

 first devised by Binet, much abused but much used ; 

 that of the law of n6rmal distribution enunciated bv 

 Quetelet, but first applied to mental traits by Galton ; 

 and that of the doctrine of correlation, suggested also 

 by Galton, but elaborated by Prof. Karl Pearson and 

 by Prof. .Spearman. The same subject received further 

 treatment by Prof. John .Adams in a lecture on "Tests 



