September io, 1903] 



NATURE 



45 



to the sun, liie »ail at any moment represents the then posi- 

 tion of any number of atoms which left the nucleus for 

 some distance back, whereas with the enormous velocities 

 and effective forces now discussed the comet moves so 

 slowly in comparison that the tail would practically repre- 

 sent the path at the time. 



It has taken me far longer to throw out this not very 

 luminous ray than I had expected or than it is worth. I 

 tear that it is a sort of ray in which the ratio of its dead 

 \v,eight to its vitalising charge is too small to enable it to 

 penetrate the lightest screen of examination. 



These are the days of rays, and now before we have quite 

 become familiar with the rays of radio-active bodies Blondlot 

 has presented us with N rays, which issuing from the 

 mantle of an incandescent gas burner penetrate wood or 

 aluminium, and then increase the light without increasing 

 the heat of hot bodies on which they fall. ' 



Passing now from the amusement of speculation to more 

 seiious duties, I find myself confronted with the difficulties 

 ihat prevent us in this country from succeeding as we used 

 to do in the international struggle — a struererle the issue of 

 which is daily becoming more and more a question of brains, 

 <;f education, of skill and enterprise in manufacture — and 

 lirally of that great virtue extolled by the President of the 

 L nited States, strenuousness. 



It is the duty of everyone who sees the wav in which 

 we are being outstripped in the race to do what in him lies 

 to scrape ofif the rust which is clogging our educational 

 machinery. I now refer to the defects which hamper the 

 ir.lellectual progress of the majority of our youth. I believe 

 the public school mathematics in this country stands on a 

 level of its own, well below that of any other. In England, 

 owing to our complicated system of weights and measures, 

 which our Ministers and our Parliament dare not abolish 

 for our own good, the scanty hours allowed for mathematics 

 are devoted to the learning of tables which should never 

 have to be learned at all, to compound reductions designed 

 merely to puzzle but not to lead to any new step ; and, even 

 if our present system were not futile enough, to learning 

 lists of antique values which serve the useful purpose of 

 giving the boys something to do. The result is that beyond 

 having time to acquire a few elementary algebraical rules 

 the boy is never introduced to algebra proper ; he has no 

 idea of algebraical reasoning ; his trigonometry often does 

 not exist, and the very sound or suggestion of coordinate 

 geometry or of the differential calculus, which might be 

 well within his reach, produces a shiver of dismay. 

 Geometry is presented for the first time in the form of 

 Euclid, a form as repulsive to most boys as it well could 

 be. I must confess to having been attracted and not re- 

 pelled by Euclid ; but the boy does not care for time. Now 

 that I look at Euclid again I have also to confess that any 

 lingering regard for an old friend vanishes before the 

 archaic language and the unnecessary circumlocution. If 

 Euclid must be retained let it be translated into English, the 

 English that any parent would use in explaining the ideas 

 to his son ; let it be illustrated by constant reference to 

 real things so as to appeal to the boy who does not revel 

 in the abstract. Let the ideas and the terms first be pre- 

 sented in the form of experiments and of measurements with 

 instruments; let the schoolmaster dare to throw over the 

 intolerable conservatism which prevents our doing anything 

 ten times as well lest some item should prove to be a trifle 

 worse ; in fact, let us take some heed of the possiblv ex- 

 treme, but none the less genuine and valuable preaching 

 I Prof. Perry. I have so far referred only to the miserable 

 i>f> that is made of the odd hours grudgingly given to what 

 is called mathematics. Is it any use to repeat the long- 

 standing complaint of (he way in which the schoolmaster 

 insists upon overdoing his Latin and Greek under the belief 

 that they are at least essential to intellectual development 

 if, indeed, they do not supply the only stimulus? As society 

 is constituted they are essential to education as an extensive 

 knowledge of Confucius is essential to an educated China- 

 man, so that we may mix one with another, appreciate the 

 works of our great authors, understand the same allusions, 

 and have the same kind of knowledge of the development 

 of our civilisation. Few men of science, perhaps none, wish 

 to see all of this, some of which is essential to a general 

 education, abolished ; all that we ask is that the school- 



NO, 1767, VOL. 68] 



master shall not continue to impose upon the community 

 the unbalanced learning which corresponds to mathematics 

 and science without letters. The time given to t lassies is 

 exorbitant ; more must be reserved for those pursuits which 

 draw out the habit of independent thought, creation and 

 originality. It would be well if every schoolmaster could 

 read an admirable article by James Swinburne on the two 

 types of mind fostered by the two complementary types of 

 education, but this is buried away in an inaccessible number 

 of the W estminster Review. 



Ihe classic is unfortunately still in possession, and where, 

 as is still often the case, he is innocent of any appreciation 

 of the educational value of post-Newtonian studies \^^ is 

 not surprising that he thrusts into odd moments the subjects 

 he does not understand, and which he therefore despises, 

 and that the boys committed to his charge and living in 

 such an atmosphere are half ashamed of showing any 

 interest in the scanty science which is within their reach. 

 It is almost impossible to believe that such can be the case, 

 but I have referred to the impression to which the appoint- 

 ment of the first science master at my own school gave rise. 

 I now refer to the contribution to a discussion on education 

 but a year or two ago by that experienced teacher. Principal 

 Griffiths. Fortunately our public schools are not the only 

 ones in the country. Smaller and less fashionable schools 

 pay more attention to education and suffer less from what, 

 in defiance of all rule, I can only call didactatorial method. 



I am not aware that the result of this almost total ex- 

 clusion of tabooed subjects in favour of Latin and Greek is 

 producing a standard of classical attainment in our youth 

 greatly in advance of that to be found in other countries, 

 but it is certain that in history, modern languages, mathe- 

 matics, and science the product of our public schools is sadly 

 deficient. 



There is another point related to our deficient general 

 scientific training on which I wish to offer some remarks, 

 and that is in relation to manufacture. It is the fashion 

 among^ some of our scientific people to talk of our manu- 

 facturers as if they were a very ignorant lot and to suppose 

 that one word from some professor who has never seen 

 outside a laboratory would be sufficient to put them right. 

 Now in my somewhat varied experience I have had occasion 

 to become acquainted with corners of our great manu- 

 facturing areas, and while my experience is small and not 

 enough to generalise upon, it is nevertheless several times 

 as great as that of some who are ready to adopt the superior 

 attitude, but have none. 



The loss of one industry after another is only too patent. 

 Ii so far as this may be due to want of enterprise in our 

 men of business we are not concerned with the cause in this 

 Section ; in so far as it may be due to want of that little 

 assistance which the fiscal arrangements in other countries 

 make possible for our rivals again we are not concerned in 

 this Section; in so far as our patent laws are unique among 

 those of manufacturing nations in allowing the foreigner 

 to manufacture in his own country under the protection of 

 our patent law, so that the most valuable school we possess, 

 the manufactory, as well as the manufacture, is conducted 

 to the advantage of our rivals — a point which I suppose it 

 is unnecessary to commend to the notice of Mr. Chamber- 

 lain — with this, too, we have no concern in this Section ; 

 but in so far as this, or the want of enterprise or of fore- 

 sight that leads to it, is due to ignorance and to want of 

 appreciation of scientific advance we are very much con- 

 cerned with it. If I may refer to my own limited experi- 

 ence, there is a lamentable contrast in the manner in which 

 a great number of our own countrymen look at any pro- 

 position put before them and that in which the alert 

 American does. It is useless to explain that which would 

 be self-evident to a man with a moderate knowledge of 

 chemistry and physics such as our schools ought to supply, 

 or for which they should at least lay the foundation, for the 

 words have no meaning ; they are merely words. He dis- 

 trusts anything new ; he has heard of a new process before 

 that did not work out well ; experience on the Continent to 

 him is no experience at all, for he believes the inhabitants 

 in such distant parts of the earth are not capable of know- 

 ing as well as the enlightened Englishman whether a thing 

 is properly done or not, and so he goes on as he did before, 

 perfectly content. This attitude would not be possible with 

 the most elementary understanding of common principles. 



