April 21, 19 10] 



NA TURE 



237 



truth in this bold assertion has rapidly gained ground 

 among Englishmen who have the welfare of the nation at 

 heart, and those who are directly interested in the severe 

 competition in trade and commerce that has come with 

 the enormous advances made by Germany and the United 

 States in industrial and commercial enterprise. Although 

 there are probably still a large number of Englishmen who 

 have their doubts about this magic power of education, the 

 experience of the last forty years and the revelations that 

 have been made about other countries, together with the 

 fact that foreign competition is felt to become a little un- 

 comfortable, have made this educational question suffici- 

 ently urgent for the Government to take the matter in 

 hand, and as a result we have a large department of the 

 Government with a responsible Minister of Education at 

 its head, and a most active Permanent Secretary, all hard 

 at work to set our house in order. 



The schools we require are (i) an elementary school 

 with a modest and simple curriculum ; (2) a municipal or 

 county secondary school of the type of the German Real- 

 schule with leaving age sixteen, in which French, German, 

 and English, elementary mathematics, and elementary 

 science form the staple of education ; (3) a modern school 

 with leaving age nineteen, in which the same subjects are 

 taught, but carried further, and in which Latin should be 

 an alternative to one of the foreign languages ; (4) a 

 classical school, in which Greek, Latin, and English form 

 the backbone of the teaching, and mathematics, science, 

 French, and German hold a subordinate place. This t\pe 

 of school would naturally be one for the abler boys, for 

 they alone can reap the full benefit of such a wide course, 

 but I am convinced that they can cope with it success- 

 fully ; those who cannot do so should be rigidly kept out 

 of it. Boys of the modern and the classical school should 

 be admitted to the universities after having passed through 

 the top form and after passing a leaving certificate 

 examination in the subjects of their curriculum. Scholars 

 from the elementary school should pass on to the municipal 

 or county or modern school at the age of ten, and there 

 should be attached to the elementary school a technical 

 or industrial department for boys who are apprenticed to 

 a trade, which they should attend for two years — from 

 fourteen to sixteen — as part of their period of apprentice- 

 ship. Such a school has recently been opened by the 

 London County Council as a day technical school for boys 

 in book production (printing, book-binding, &c.). .A 

 similar department might be attached to municipal or 

 county schools for boys from sixteen to eighteen, in which, 

 according to the localitj', agricultural, commercial, or in- 

 dustrial subjects of a practical nature should be taught. 



Yon may think that these ideas are Utopian : I do not ; 

 in fact, I am convinced that if the nation has the will the 

 authorities will find the way, and, though it be a costly 

 enterprise, I venture to say that England never made a 

 better investment, not even in Dreadnoughts. 



" Caveant consules ne quid detrimenti capiat res 

 publica." 



UXIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Glasgow. — The ordinary course of instruction given by 

 Captain Lyons, F.R.S., lecturer in geography, has proved 

 so successful that a higher or second-year course has been 

 instituted in addition, with the approval of the Senate and 

 Court of the University. 



The annual meeting of the Institute of Metals will be 

 held in Glasgow on September 21 and 22 in the natural 

 philosophy building, which has been granted for the pur- 

 pose by the University Court. 



The principal has received intimation of a gift of 5000/. 

 for the general fund of the University from the trustees 

 of the late Alexander Fleming ; and of a grant of 2000/. 

 for the provision of additional lecturers and assistants in 

 the faculty of arts from the committee for the better 

 equipment of the University. 



The first sod on the site of the buildings in Kelvingrove 

 Park for the Scottish Exhibition of National History, Art, 

 and Industry, 191 1, was cut by Lord TuUibardine on 

 April 22. The promoters of the exhibition have promised 

 to present to the University a sum of 15.000/. from the 

 NO. 2 II 2, VOL. 83] 



profits for the foundation of a chair of Scottish history 

 and literature. Meanwhile, Sir Herbert Maxwell, F.R.S., 

 and Dr. William Wallace have been appointed university 

 lecturers in Scottish history and Scottish literature 

 respectively. 



At the graduation on April 18 six graduates received 

 the degree of D.Sc. for original research. One was a 

 lady and one a Japanese naval architect. Thirty -one 

 candidates were admitted to the degree of B.Sc. 



Sir William MacGregor, who is a medical graduate of 

 ! Glasgow, has been requested to represent the Senate at 

 ! the semi-jubilee of the foundation of the Royal Geo- 

 1 graphical Society of Australasia, to be celebrated at 

 I Brisbane in June. 



! 



I Mr. J. A. Smith has been elected to the Waynflete chair 

 I of moral and metaphysical philosophy in the Universitj- of 

 I Oxford, in succession to Prof. T. Case, who resigned last 

 1 term. 



The committee of the Central Bureau for the Inter- 

 national Interchange of Students (of which Lord Strath- 

 cona is the president and Lord Brassey the treasurer) 

 has opened an office in Caxton House, Westminster, to 

 facilitate educational travel for all university men, 

 i graduates or otherwise, with the view of assisting them 

 j to gain a first-hand knowledge of the life, needs, progress, 

 j and potentialities of other English-speaking countries. 

 i Travelling scholarships for undergraduates are being 

 j raised at nearly all the universities. They will be tenable 

 ! this summer, and will provide a valuable educational tour 

 ' of a practical character through Canada and the United 

 States for students whose return to their own universities 

 will allow for the dissemination of their widened outlook 

 and inspiration among their contemporaries. Already a 

 few of the scholarships are completed. The scholarship 

 tours are intended to be of great educational interest, and 

 , to illustrate the more important spheres of activity — 

 ' administration, the scheme of education, industry, social 

 ' work, &c. The places at which stops will be made are 

 ! chosen accordingly. Private persons who are prepared to 

 ; conform to the rules made to govern the tours, and to 

 I defray their own expenses, will be allowed to join these 

 tours. A number of university men, both staff and 

 students, as well as non-resident graduates, are arranging 

 to travel independently under the auspices of the bureau, 

 which freely provides them with introductions, information 

 relating to places offering the best facilities for the study 

 of a given subject, and special rates of travel. The 

 bureau aims at being a clearing house of information on 

 education of a practical kind for students throughout the 

 world ; and among its more immediate objects are the 

 promotion of a standardisation of work among the uni- 

 versities which would enable a student to take a part of 

 his course in another university than his first Alma Mater. 

 It desires to encourage a greater exchange for post- 

 graduate work. The expenses of organising and conduct- 

 ing the scholarship tours are not inconsiderable, and 

 further donations are needed. They should be sent to 

 Lord Brassey. A sum of lOOoZ. has been offered con- 

 ditionally on a further 6000/. being forthcoming. The 

 various sums raised for scholarships will count towards 

 this total, but donations to the central fund are necessary 

 to enable the work to be effectually carried on. Further 

 information will be readily given on application to the 

 honorary secretary, Mr. H. W. Crees, at Caxton House. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, Aoril 14 — Sir Archib'iid Geikie, K.C.B., 

 president, in the chair. — E. N. da C. Andrade : The 



viscous flow in metals, and allied phenomena. These 

 experiments on the flow of metals were carried out on 

 wires, which were subjected to a continued constant stress. 

 The increase of stress which takes place owing to thinning 

 if the wire is stretched by a constant load was avoided 

 bv having the stretching weights made in the form of 

 hvperbote of revolution, and letting them sink into water 

 as the wire lengthened ; the size of such a weight can be 

 chosen so as to keep the load per unit area of cross- 



