February 6, 1896] 



NATURE 



with reference to these scholarships has appeared at various 

 limes in the Record of Technical and Secondary Education, An 

 examination of the particulars there given reveals several interest- 

 ing facts, not the least among which is the diversity of opinion 

 as to what the candidates for such exhibitions and -scholarships 

 should be examined in. At Plymouth, boys are expected 

 only to have a knowledge of sixth and seventh standard 

 work when they enter for scholarships of the first of the above 

 divisions, while those of Bristol are set papers not only in ele- 

 mentary subjects, but also in algebra, Euclid, French, German, 

 chemistry, botany, &c. Candidates in Blackburn and Stock- 

 jK)rt, amongst numerous other places, are set papers in the 

 subjects of the "Science and Art Directory," though in the 

 former place any commercial knowledge proves useful, and at 

 Stockport boys may enter themselves for any branch of tech- 

 nology mentioned in the City and Guilds' programme. Such 

 facts as these show that we are yet far removed from any definite 

 and uniform course of education graduating from the elementary 

 school upwards. The complaints, which are published in most 

 of the County Council reports, of the hopelessness of 

 looking for any satisfactory progress in technical instruction 

 until the students entering technical or science and art schools 

 are better prepared to benefit by their teaching, are likely 

 to be often repeated unless it is made compulsory upon all 

 scholarship holders to give satisfactory evidence of their acquaint- 

 ance with, at least, the work of the elementary schools. In some 

 cases, authorities have tried to avoid this difficulty by stipulating 

 that candidates shall have been pupils in elementary schools ; 

 but it is notorious that a year or two after leaving school most 

 boys have completely lost any knowledge they may have had. 

 Means by which the continuity of a boy's education may be 

 ensured have yet to be taken. No permanent gain can result if 

 technical work is built on insecure foundations, and we imagine 

 that the foundations of scientific knowledge can be very properly 

 begun in the elementary school. This knowledge should be 

 carried on in evening continuation schools, and attendance at 

 such schools should be made compulsory, as it is in Germany. 

 If that were done, a boy at the age of seventeen would be in 

 fit condition to enter the true technical school, whereas, 

 under the present system of elementary education, he is not. 

 The want of agreement to which we have referred obtains also 

 when we come to consider the conditions under which scholar- 

 ships to secondary schools are awarded. The most striking 

 feature here is perhaps the countenance which is given to 

 dabbling in all sorts of subjects. Since the secondary school is, 

 as a rule, intended for boys from about thirteen to sixteen or 

 seventeen years, and is, or should be, entered at, or about, the 

 lower age, it seems unreasonable to expect any candidate 

 to have done anything of importance at such subjects as 

 lx»tany and physiology, and yet such subjects are continually 

 asked for. At every point one is struck with the want of 

 coordination in the various grades of English education. If we 

 could once get something like a consensus of opinion as to the 

 proper work of the elementary, the secondary, the technical 

 school, and finally of the college, this continual difficulty of 

 what to examine in would not arise. When we come to look 

 into the regidations affecting the scholarships offered by the 

 technical instruction committees at universities or institutions of 

 university rank, it becomes painfully evident that such com- 

 mittees are by no means clear what their work properly is. 

 Several county authorities consider a knowledge of Latin, and 

 one at least recognises familiarity with Greek, as being desirable 

 for technical students. It is not our desire to decry the 

 study of the classics, but we maintain that neither Greek nor 

 Latin gives any claim to a technical scholarship, and, further, 

 that the grant for technical education is being wrongly used if 

 it is awarded for proficiency in such subjects. It cannot be too 

 much insisted upon that one of the points which the advisers 

 and directors of the various committees need yet to consider, 

 refers to the requirements and capacities of the different classes 

 of the community, and how these can best be met. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCA TIONAL 



INTELLIGENCE. 



Oxford. — The lecture list for the current Term contains a few 



features of interest. In the Department of Medicine Dr. J. 



Ritchie gives a practical course of Elementary Morbid Histology, 



making use for the first time of the pathological laboratory which 



NO. 1 37 1, VOL. 53] 



has recently been fitted up in the Department of the Regius 

 Professor of Medicine. 



Mr. J. C. Alsop is assisting the Professor of Experimental 

 Philosophy in practical instruction, and Mr. E. W. A. Walker 

 is assisting in the practical course of Physiology in the Depart- 

 ment of Physiology. Otherwise the courses of lectures in the 

 Faculties of Medicine and of Natural Science are unchanged. 



An examination for a Radcliffe Travelling Fellowship will be 

 held during the present term, commencing on March 3. Intend- 

 ing candidates, who must declare that they intend to devote 

 themselves to the study of Medical Science during the tenure of 

 the Fellowship, and travel abroad with a view to that study, 

 are required to send their names and qualifications to the 

 Radcliffe Examiners, the RadcUffe Library, Oxford, on or before 

 February 3. 



Mr. W. Warde Fowler, Fellow of Lincoln College, has been 

 appointed a Curator of the Botanic Garden, in place of Mr. 

 Edward Chapman, Fellow of Magdalen College, resigned. 



The Delegacy of Non-Collegiate Students announce that a 

 Shute Scholarship of an annual value of £^0 will be awarded on 

 Saturday, June 20. The examination will be in Chemistry, 

 and will commence on Tuesday, June 2. The Scholarship is 

 open, and there is no limitation of age ; but no member of the 

 University will be eligible, who shall have completed eight Terms 

 from the date of matriculation. 



Cambridge. — The Council of the Senate have appointed 

 Mr. Charles Smith, Master of Sidney Sussex College, Vice- 

 Chancellor, a Governor of Eton College, in the room of Dr. 

 Forsyth, F.R.S., who has resigned. 



The subscribers to the Robertson Smith Memorial have 

 paid over to the University ^335 for the purchase of Oriental 

 manuscripts, after investing some ;[^iioo for the maintenance in 

 Christ's College of the late Professor's library. 



The memorial respecting degrees for women, signed by over 

 2000 members of the Senate, has been presented to the Council. 

 The discussion of the subject by means of fly-sheets and pam- 

 phlets has already begun, and promises to be unusually keen. 



At the matriculation on January 28, twenty-seven new names 

 were added to the list of freshmen ; this raises the total entry 

 up to the present to 938. 



On Friday, January 31, the Duke of Devonshire distributed 

 certificates to the scholars and exhibitioners elected last year by 

 the Technical Education Board of the London County Council. 

 There were 5 senior county scholars, 60 intermediate county 

 scholars, 600 junior county scholars, 135 art scholars and exhibi- 

 tioners, and 73 evening science exhibitioners, making a total of 

 882. What the scholarship scheme of the Board is, and what it 

 aims at doing, will be gathered from the following remarks 

 made by the Duke of Devonshire. In the first place there 

 are the junior county scholarships, open to boys and girls under 

 thirteen years of age, by competition. These scholarships carry 

 with them free education in a secondary selected school for two 

 years, and a money payment divided between the two years of 

 £,zo. The examination by which they are gained is an examina- 

 tion in the subjects taught in elementary schools. Thus, the 

 advantage of two years of education beyond the age of thirteen 

 in a higher school is opened up to a large number without 

 any cost to themselves or to their parents. It is the first step 

 upon the educational ladder which has been set up by the 

 County Council, and whether that step is taken as a preliminary 

 to an attempt to rise to higher rungs of that ladder, or whether 

 it is taken with no object of prosecuting the ascent higher, yet 

 the advantage of these two added years of education in an 

 efficient selected school may prove and ought to prove of im- 

 mense value to the student. The next step in this ladder is a 

 grant of a smaller number of intermediate county scholarships, 

 which enable boys and girls under the age of sixteen to con- 

 tinue their education further in secondary schools up to nineteen, 

 and of course carrying with them a higher money payment to 

 compensate for the higher value of the labour which it is the 

 object of this scheme to make during the period of education 

 necessary ; and, finally, the County Council offer a limited 

 number of still higher scholarships which will enable the fittest 

 of those who have distinguished themselves in previous competi- 

 tions to continue their education for three years in either a col- 

 lege or some other institution of University rank. What, in fact, 

 the County Council, through its Technical Board, has been able 

 to do has been to establish something in the nature of a technical 



