6oo 



NATURE 



[October 20, i! 



attributes. I think any one who knows the facts must 

 acknowledge that the organisation has justified itself not 

 only by what it has done, but also by the outside activities 

 it has set in motion. It is true that with regard to the 

 system of examining school candidates by means of 

 papers sent down from London, the Department was 

 anticipated by the College of Preceptors in 1853, and by 

 Oxford and Cambridge in 1858 ; but the action of 1861, 

 when Science Classes open to everybody, was copied 

 by Oxford and Cambridge in 1869. The Department's 

 teachers got to work in i860, but the so-called 

 " University Extension Movement " dates only from 

 1873, and only quite recently have summer courses been 

 Started at Oxford and Cambridge. 



The Chemical and Physical Laboratories, small though 

 they were in the Department's schools, were in operation 

 long before any practical work in these subjects was 

 •done either at Oxford or Cambridge. When the College 

 laboratories began about 1853, they existed practically 

 alone. From one point of view we should rejoice that 

 they are now third rate. I think it would be wrong, of 

 me not to call your attention to the tenacity, the foresight, 

 the skill, the unswerving patience, exhibited by those 

 ■upon whom has fallen the duty of sailing the good ship 

 "" Scientific Instruction," launched as I have stated, out 

 upon a sea which was certain from the history I have 

 brought before you to be full of opposing currents. 



I have had a statement prepared showing what the 

 niost distinguished of our old students and of those who 

 have succeeded in the Department's examinations are 

 now doing. The statement shows that those who have 

 been responsible for our share in the progress of scientific 

 instruction have no cause to be ashamed. 



Conclusion. 



I have referred previously to the questions of Secondary 

 Education and of a true London University, soon, let us 

 hope, to be realised. 



Our College will be the first institution to gain from 

 a proper system of Secondary Education, for the reason 

 that scientific studies gain enormously by the results of 

 literary culture, without which we can neither learn so 

 thoroughly nor teach so effectively as one could wish. 



To keep a proper mind-balance, engaged as we are 

 here continuously in scientific thought, literature is 

 ■essential, as essential as bodily exercise, and if I may be 

 permitted to give you a little advice, I should say 

 organise your athletics as students of the College, and 

 organise your literature as individuals. I do not think 

 you will gain so much by studying scientific books when 

 away from here as you will by reading English and 

 foreign classics, including a large number of works of 

 imagination ; and study French and German also in 

 your holidays by taking short trips abroad. 



With regard to the University. If it be properly organ- 

 ised, in the light of the latest German experience, with 

 •complete Science and Technical Faculties of the highest 

 order, it should certainly insist upon annexing the School 

 of Mines portion of our Institution ; the past history of 

 the School is so creditable that the new University for its 

 own sake should insist upon such a course. It would be 

 absurd, in the case of a nation which depends so much 

 on mining and metallurgy, if these subjects were not 

 taught in the chief national university, as the University 

 ■of London must become. 



But the London University, like the Paris University, 

 if the little history of Science teaching I have given 

 you is of any value, must leave our Normal College 

 alone, at all events till we have more than trebled our 

 present supply of Science teachers. 



But while it would be madness to abolish such an 

 institution as our Normal School, and undesirable if not 

 impossible to graft it on the New University, our School, 

 like its elder sister in Paris, should be enabled to gain 



NO. 15 I 2, VOL. 58] 



by each increase in the teaching power of the University. 

 The students on the scientific side of the Paris School, 

 in spite of the fact that their studies and researches are 

 looked after by fourteen professors entitled Maitres de 

 Conferences, attend certain of the courses at the Sorbonne 

 and the College de France, and this is one of the reasons 

 why many of the men and researches which have 

 enriched French science, hail from the itcole Normale. 

 ^ One word more. As I have pointed out, the French 

 Ecole Normale was the result of a revolution, I may 

 now add that France since Sedan has been doing, and 

 in a tremendous fashion, what, as I have told you, Prussia 

 did after Jena. Let us not wait for disastrous defeats, 

 either on the field of battle or of industry, to develop to 

 the utmost our scientific establishments and so take our 

 proper and complete place among the nations. 



J. Norman Lockyer. 



FELLOWSHIPS FOR RESEARCH. 

 'T'HE foundation of Research Fellowships by the 

 -*■ Commissioners of the Exhibition of 185 1 was in 

 this country of the nature of an experiment. Many 

 people more or less enamoured of the system in vogue at 

 the universities, whereby a man is carried on from one 

 examination grind to another, until his freshness and 

 originality of mind are in great measure lost, looked at the 

 scheme for Research Fellowships with distrust, and an 

 inclination to foretell their failure. There might, it was 

 said, be an able man here and there who is benefited by 

 holding a Research Fellowship and who does good work- 

 while holding it, but, in general, maturity of mind and 

 knowledge, and an accumulated fund of experience are 

 necessary for the success of a scientific or literary in- 

 vestigator. There is truth in this, of course, but the 

 scholastic training of the best men is frequently carried 

 so far that all enthusiasm is killed out by examinations, 

 or the mind has become too critical and fastidious for the 

 work of original production or continuous investigation. 



These prophecies have been falsified in the most con- 

 clusive way by the report of the Commissioners. They 

 say that they have received from academic institutions 

 all over the country unanimous testimony to the success 

 of their system of Research Scholarships, and an analysis 

 of the work done by the Research Scholars and their 

 after careers shows that the success has been full and 

 complete. A number of able young men, fairly well 

 trained in theoretical and practical science, have been 

 chosen from the best students of our provincial colleges 

 and given the means of pursuing research, and therefore 

 also higher study of the best kind, for two or three years 

 at approved institutions at home and abroad. The Com- 

 missioners most wisely determine that the whole time of 

 the scholars should be given to the research work under- 

 taken, and have steadfastly refused to sanction the 

 employment of their funds to enable students to prepare 

 for University degrees. The scheme and its conditions 

 were the subject of much criticism. It was objected that 

 by spending time in research the prospects in life of su^h 

 men would be injured, that it would be difficult for them 

 after to find congenial employment. This fear has also 

 proved groundless. Of the large number of young men 

 who have been sent out by the Royal Commissioners 

 nearly all have obtained appointments in which the 

 knowledge, skill, and, above all, resource and self- 

 dependence they have acquired will be of the utmost 

 value. Many have returned to their old colleges to teach, 

 and to encourage among the students rising among them 

 that zeal for the advancement of science they have them- 

 selves imbibed, to be an example ever before the eyes of 

 still younger men, and by their association with rising 

 students to create an interest in scientific progress which 

 the studies of the class-room often fail to arouse. Some 



