372 A HISTORY OF 



in 1890 introduced short systematic courses of lectures 

 on science subjects, suitable for boys and girls. The 

 lectures were still continued when the report was 

 drawn up. The committee emphasised the necessity 

 for practical work in science teaching, and it was stated 

 that more especially to promote this kind of study, 

 the Department of Science and Art gave grants in aid 

 to schools which fulfilled the requirements of their 

 inspectors. The report shows that the amount of 

 these grants was diminishing at an alarming rate. In 

 fact, it did not pay to teach science, and the committee 

 urged that science should be made to rank equally 

 with literary subjects in its power of earning result 

 fees for the schools, and exhibitions and prizes for the 

 pupils. 



The Council sent the report to the Lord Lieutenant 

 with a covering letter urging that " education, to be 

 efficient and to fit the future men and women of the 

 country for the discharge of their duties, must be 

 practical, and deal more with things and less with words 

 than it has done in the past. Science is the basis of 

 such teaching, and it is certainly a singular fact that 

 whilst science is every day receiving more attention in 

 other countries, it is rapidly passing out of the curri- 

 culum of Irish intermediate schools." 



The Society subsequently learned that shortly after 

 the Science Committee had adopted their report, the 

 Lord Lieutenant had appointed a commission " to 

 inquire into the system of Intermediate Education in 

 Ireland under the Act of 1878, its practical working, 

 as to the desirability of reforms, and as to the necessity 

 of further legislation. " The Act of 1899, creating 

 the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruc- 

 tion, placed science teaching in Ireland in a much 

 more favourable position than it had previously occu- 



