August 5, 1897] 



NATURE 



315 



No doubt this etiquette is inspired from the highest 

 quarters, but Mr. Bashforth was not the man to take 

 such treatment lying down ; he did not rest till he had 

 extracted a written minute, acknowledging that his ex- 

 periments had been adopted officially. But a bad mark 

 has been put against him for his audacity ; for while 

 other inventors have been rewarded, we have yet to 

 learn that Mr. Bashforth has received any acknowledg- 

 ment from our own Government, either of a tangible or 

 complimentary nature. 



TEACHING THE TEACHERS. 

 Thirty Years of Teaching. By L. C. Miall, F.R.S., 

 Professor of Biology in the Yorkshire College. Pp. 

 viii -f 250. (London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1897.) 



A FRIENDLY criticism of schoolmasters and their 

 ways, written by a professor of biology, is a book 

 of special value. Biology is a subject not usually taught 

 in schools, and students taking it up at college are not 

 in the condition which the schoolmaster is fond of de- 

 scribing as "thoroughly well-grounded in the elementary 

 parts of the subject," and the scientific professor as 

 "crammed with a multitude of imperfectly understood 

 facts." The professor of biology therefore, in forming 

 an opinion upon the previous training of his pupils^ 

 thinks more of the mental habits which they have formed 

 than of the knowledge which they have acquired. 



Prof Miall is singularly fortunate in his suggestions 

 upon the teaching of special subjects : — that geography 

 should be taught mainly by means of map drawing; that 

 text books should be used merely as works of reference ; 

 that lessons in arithmetic and geometry should include 

 practical work in measurement ; that in teaching modern 

 languages the written or spoken language should be 

 made the basis, and instruction in grammar founded 

 upon it ; that mastery of English does not come by 

 grammar and analysis, but by observation and practice ; 

 that true science consists in a scientific habit of mind, 

 and not in a knowledge of scientific facts ; that the 

 present system of teaching classics to boys who leave 

 school at sixteen, is laying a costly foundation for a struc- 

 ture which will never be built. These are truths which 

 schoolmasters may or may not believe, but which very 

 few of them follow in practice, influenced as they are 

 chiefly by the demands of examinations, but also in part 

 by the large numbers in their classes, and by the inertia 

 of human nature. All that Prof. Miall says upon the 

 method of teaching of every subject is well worthy the 

 careful attention of every schoolmaster. Prof. Miall, 

 too, shows a keen insight when he speaks of the true 

 value of examinations, while the statement that the 

 University local examinations were once a great step for- 

 ward, but that they have now (like other human insti- 

 tutions) outlived their usefulness, and become rather a 

 hindrance than a help, is one which may mark an epoch 

 in the history of middle-class education. 



In one point, however, we find the experience of the 

 professor somewhat at variance with that of the school- 

 master. Prof. Miall appears entirely to overlook the 

 moral elements of boyhood : he tells us, for instance 

 that boys will work at a subject in proportion to their 

 interest in it ; this is probably the case with students, 

 NO. 1449, VOL. 56] 



but it is conspicuously not the case with schoolboys. The 

 chief factor in causing the industry of a schoolboy is his 

 sense of duty ; the industrious boy is the one who has a 

 strong sense of duty, the idle boy is he in whom the 

 sense of duty has not been aroused ; the main thing in 

 which boys always will be interested is not their lesson, 

 but each other. Again, Prof. Miall would abolish home- 

 work for younger boys, and commence it with boys over 

 fourteen ; but, in this case, how much home-work would 

 he get done ? We venture to say that if boys had not 

 formed the habit of doing a regular hour's evening work 

 by the time they were twelve, they would never begin at 

 all ; the object of setting home-work to young boys is not 

 to replace teaching, but to assist in forming regular 

 and industrious habits. A few other instances might be 

 given in which the experience gained by observing 

 students would only lead to failure when applied to the 

 teaching of schoolboys ; and we doubt whether any boys 

 could be taught by class lessons to read, write, and speak 

 French by the age of fourteen. 



Prof Miall gives us some striking remarks upon the 

 absurdity of extreme precision when based upon loose 

 data, and some interesting biographies occupy the final 

 chapters of his book ; on the whole, we can thoroughly 

 recommend "Thirty Years of Teaching" for the perusal 

 of every schoolmaster and every parent in the country. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 

 Abhandliingen zur Physiologie der Gesichtsempfinduiigen. 

 Edited by J. von Kries. \'ol. i. Pp. vi -f- 198. (Ham- 

 burg and Leipzig : Leopold Voss, 1897.) 

 The five papers in this volume are contributions from the 

 Freiburg Physiological Institute, reprinted from the 

 Zeitschrift fiir Psychologic und Physiologie der Sinnes- 

 organe. Dr. von Kries is the author of three papers 

 dealing with the functions of the retinal elements, sub- 

 jective efifects produced by light of short duration, and 

 colour vision, in the course of which a number of ob- 

 servations on the visual effects of different parts of the 

 spectrum on different colour-blind individuals are re- 

 corded. Two other papers included in the collection are 

 on the influence of light-intensity and adaptation on the 

 vision of green-blind subjects, by Drs. J. v. Kries and W. 

 Nagel ; and on the influence of the yellow-spot — the part 

 of the retina which lies directly in the axis of vision — 

 upon colour appreciation, by Dr. Breuer. 

 Cuirasses et Projectiles de Marine. By E. Vallier, Pp. 

 188. (Paris : Gauthier-Villars et Fils ; Masson et C% 

 1897.) 

 Les Htiilcs mineral es ; Ptftrole, Schtste, Ligftite. By 



Frangois Miron. Pp. 198. (Same publishers.) 

 Both these volumes appear in the Encyclopedie 

 scientifique des Aide-Memoire series. M. Vallier's 

 volume deals with the various kinds of armour-plates 

 used upon men-of-war of different nations, and the 

 projectiles employed for attacking these ironclads. In 

 M. Miron's book, the extraction, composition, use, and 

 analysis of mineral oils is described. 

 Botanische Wanderungcn in Brasilien. By Prof. Dr, 

 W, Detmer. Pp. vi -1- 188. (Leipzig : Veit and Co.. 



1897.) 

 It is not given to many of us to realise our heart's desire, 

 yet this is what Prof. Detmer did when he made a journey 

 to Brazil. The impressions received from the start to the 

 home-coming are set down in this little book, and the 

 whole make an interesting narrative. The journey taken 

 was through the States of Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, Minas 

 Geraes, San Paulo, and Espirito Santo. 



