NATURE 



[May 2 1, 1891 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Eighteen Years of University Ex'tension. By R. D. 



Roberts, M.A., D.Sc. (Lond.). (Cambridge : University 



Press, 1 89 1.) 

 The University Extension movement takes so prominent 

 a place among the educational influences of the age that 

 a good account of the system has for some time been 

 needed. This is supplied by Mr. Roberts, who, first as 

 lecturer, then since 1881 as assistant and organizing 

 secretary to the Cambridge Syndicate, and since 1886 as 

 secretary to the London Society, has had the best possible 

 opportunities of studying the new method, and of forming 

 a judgment as to its fitness for the uses to which it is 

 applied. He begins with an account of the origin and 

 growth of the movement, then describes the character of 

 the audiences, the reception of the idea by artisans, and 

 the signs of earnestness displayed by various classes of 

 students. Mr. Roberts also discusses the conditions of 

 success, has a chapter on the consolidation of the work, 

 and presents a summary of results. No essential fact 

 has been omitted, and the general impression which will 

 be left on the minds of most readers probably is that 

 those connected with the movement have done much to 

 foster and to satisfy the desire of a very large number of 

 persons for intellectual training. There are certain 

 rules — some of them rather difficult — with which the 

 system must be brought into accord if it is to be capable 

 of further development ; and these are stated with much 

 force and precision in the present useful little volume. 



Evening Wdrk for Amateur Photographers. By T. C. 



Hepworth, F.C.S. (London: Hazell, Watson, and 



Viney, Ltd., 1890.) 

 iNthisbook the author has written, in an interesting manner, 

 a series of chapters relating to many points in photography 

 that are generally found most useful to amateurs. The 

 following are the subjects of some of the chapters : 

 lantern entertainments, lantern-slides on gelatine plates, 

 clouds in lantern pictures, frame-making, enlarging, pho- 

 tography by magnesium light. There are also two or 

 three chapters on electric light, light by incandescence, 

 and methods of making cheap batteries. 



The subjects are treated in a manner that makes the 

 book well worth reading, and its value is increased by 

 numerous illustrations obtained from photographs and 

 drawings by the author. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[ The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 

 pressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 to return, or to correspond with the writers of, refected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of '^Kixi'&v.. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications. '\ 



The University of London Question. 



The Convocation of the University of London has, by a large 

 majority, thrown out the scheme for the reconstitution of the 

 University proposed by the Senate. Even those who had little 

 love for it must feel some sympathy at the frustration of labours 

 which were as patient as they were undoubtedly disinterested. 



For the moment the whole question remains in abeyance. I 

 am disposed to think that it may be useful to discuss, in the 

 interval which must elapse before any further step is taken, some 

 of the fundamental questions which seem to me to underlie the 

 solution of the problem, and have never, as it seems to me, 

 been properly considered. 



On such a subject one might easily write a great deal. For 

 the sake of brevity I shall therefore attempt to sum up what I 

 have to say under separate heads. 



The Examination System. 

 One factor in the present situation is undoubtedly the growing 

 dissatisfaction of many distinguished teachers with the examina- 



NO. I 125, VOL. 44] 



tion system as applied to University education. And as the 

 University of London at present does nothing but examine, it 

 is obvious that the question lies at the root of any judgment that 

 may be pronounced on its present work and constitution. Those 

 who wish to know all that can be said against the present use of 

 examinations in University work cannot do better than study 

 a paper by Prof. Lankester, which he has reprinted in his 

 " Advancement of Science" (pp. 175-192). He has stated hi^ 

 case with all the force and lucidity of which he is a happy 

 master. He sees "the most injurious result of the system" in 

 "the degradation of the teacher." The "intrusive board of 

 examiners " draws " away from him the attention and the respect 

 of his pupils," or urges "him to put aside his own thought and 

 experience, and to teach the conventional and commonplace." 



I am free to admit that there is a certain element of truth in 

 what Prof. Lankester says. But having had, like him, a good 

 deal of experience both of examining and of being examined, I 

 am disposed to think the picture somewhat over-coloured. No 

 doubt the University of London in the past has exalted ex- 

 amination into a sort of idol. But as regards the superior 

 degrees in science and medicine, at any rate, examination is 

 now practically dispensed with, and the test of competence is 

 the performance of some kind of original investigation. 



For the inferior degrees, as far as I am aware, the examina- 

 tion system in more or less prescribed subjects obtains every- 

 where in the three kingdoms. For my part, I think the system 

 may be defended, and upon the same lines as those on which 

 Prof. Lankester defends "leaving examinations" at schools. 

 For he says, and I think rightly, that such an examination 

 " may be regarded as a means of criticizing and testing the 

 performance not merely of the schoolboys but of the school- 

 masters." Now in University education, as carried on in this 

 country, I can only see a prolongation of school education, with 

 methods and a moral discipline modified to suit the more ad- 

 vanced age of the pupils. And the inferior degree (I am not 

 speaking, of course, of professional subjects) is, in my view, 

 nothing more than the corresponding " leaving examination." 

 It is a test of whether teaching has been faithfully done and 

 learning diligently pursued. 



I am quite ready to admit that impending examinations are 

 more or less irksome both to teachers and taught ; but I am not 

 convinced that that discipline is in itself an evil. It is not un- 

 desirable that some restraint should be put on the possible 

 vagaries of the one and the very probable desultoriness of the 

 other. It is necessary in entering upon the study of a subject 

 to go over its fundamental groundwork in a methodical manner. 

 To many teachers and to many pupils this is not a little dull. 

 It is easy and it is pleasant to dwell at some length on attractive 

 parts of a subject and to skim superficially over others. There 

 are probably few persons who, looking back upon their own 

 student days, will not admit the truth of this. The fact is that 

 to get any mastery of a subject one must learn its grammar ; 

 and the majority of young people require some degree of com- 

 pulsion to make them do it. It may be irksome at the time, but 

 the advantage is life-long. I .know, speaking from my own 

 experience, that the compulsion of schedules which is so odious 

 to Prof Lankester has made me devote my energies to the 

 mastery of the rudiments at any rate of many subjects which I 

 should certainly have carefully avoided if I had not been com- 

 pelled to do otherwise. And I do not believe that, if students 

 are carefully and soundly taught, they suffer any real in- 

 justice at the hands of competent examiners. But then I agree 

 with Prof. Lankester that the examiners must know their busi- 

 ness, and must not be either ill-informed or pedantic. No one, 

 I think, can- urge that the kind of men that the University of 

 London enlists in its service as examiners are open to the 

 charge of being either. 



If these views are correct, and I believe in the main they are, 

 then the evil consists not in the examination system as the in- 

 centive to the orderly performance of a curriculum, but in 

 another and perfectly distinct evil on which Prof. Lankester 

 very sagaciously puts his finger — the mischievous importance 

 which the outside world attaches to academic achievement. " A 

 man refers throughout his life to the fact that he obtained a 

 ' first-class' as a sort of perpetual testimonial." Of course, in so 

 far as this is true it is very absurd. A course of University 

 study is a means, not an end ; it is a sort of apprenticeship to a 

 subject. The student learns its technique, its language, and 

 something of its literature. If he has done this earnestly and 

 well, his University will applaud him, will call him in academic 



