284 



NA rURE 



[January 18. 1900 



responsible throughout. Later, it was urged that everything 

 that is taught at all in a school should come round pretty 

 nearly every day for at least one year. In the third stage of 

 teaching, when botany is studied for some special purpose, the 

 great problems of the nutrition and reproduction of higher green 

 plants should be specially studied. Such a course of plant 

 physiology should occupy several hours a week for two or three 

 years. 



Miss von Wyss described how object lessons in botany might 

 with advantage be given. She deprecated the idea that botany 

 could be satisfactorily taught to young children apart from the 

 study of zoology, and urged that such object lessons should be 

 co-ordinated with the teaching of drawing and literature. The 

 current idea that there is a difficulty in obtaining specimens in a 

 large town was shown by the experiences Miss von Wyss 

 related to be quite erroneous, and the success which object 

 lessons have met with at the North London Collegiate School 

 for Girls was dwelt upon. 



Juvenile Research. 



The afternoon meeting at the Imperial Institute was pre- 

 -sided over by Sir Henry Roscoe. Prof. H. E. Armstrong, 

 F.R.S., described in an interesting address the methods he had 

 employed with his own children at home to educate them in the 

 way of discovering for themselves the answer to questions which 

 were presented in their ordinary life. The address was illus- 

 trated by practical demonstrations by Prof. Armstrong's little 

 daughter and two young sons, and a series of lantern slides 

 made it quite clear how the system described had been de- 

 veloped. In reading a book by the late Henry Drummond, 

 called " The Monkey that would not Kill," the children cam e 

 across the statement that a stone was lighter in sea-water than 

 in air, and to satisfy themselves of the truth of the statement 

 was the object of the piece of research which the children 

 entered upon under the general supervision of their father. The 

 steps in the inquiry were worked through again before a large 

 audience, and the children themselves explained with remarkable 

 intelligence what the object and result of each experiment were. 

 Throughout the course of training, which was exemplified by 

 the demonstration, each child kept a careful account of every- 

 thing which was done, illustrating each step by means of sketches 

 and recording every numerical result obtained. Prof. Armstrong 

 maintained that the teaching of science to children was not 

 commenced early enough, and that too little faith is shown by 

 teachers in the reasoning faculties of young children. 



Object Lessons. 



The second day's meetings were held at the Shoreditch 

 Technical Institute. Prof. Woods Hutchinson was to have 

 given an address in the morning on "The Early Teaching of 

 Natural History in Schools," but he was too ill to attend. Mr. 

 J. W. Tutt read a paper on "Object Lessons in Natural 

 History," in which he detailed the educational advantages of 

 this method of instruction, the mode of giving a good object 

 lesson, and a suitable scheme of lessons for young children. A 

 discussion, in which a large number of teachers took part, 

 followed. But, from one cause and another, the subject in hand 

 received very little attention, and few actual working methods 

 were explained. 



Manual Work in Metal. 



The concluding meeting was presided over by Sir J. F. D. 

 Donnelly, and was concerned with the discussion of "Metal 

 Work as a Form of Manual Instruction in Schools." Papers 

 were read by Prof. W. Ripper, of University College, Sheffield, 

 and Mr. Bevis, Director of Manual Instruction for the Birming- 

 ham School Board. Prof. Ripper's paper was concerned with 

 the general considerations which make a development of the 

 subject of manual instruction in metal desirable. It was pointed 

 out that there has been a decided advance in this direction in 

 recent years, and it was stated by Prof. Ripper that the exhibi- 

 tion of metal work in the Education Exhibition at the Imperial 

 Institute is better than that of the recent Chicago Exhibition. 

 Mr. Bevis gave an account of the course of instruction in metal 

 work which was given to boys of Standards V. and VI., who 

 were between the ages of ten and thirteen years, in the schools 

 of the Birmingham School Board. 



NO. 1577. VOL. 6t] 



UNI VERSITY AND ED UCA TIO NA L 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — Mr. A. H. Evans, M.A., of Clare College, 

 who is favourably known as one of the authors of the " Cam- 

 bridge Natural History," was, on January lo, elected an 

 Esquire Bedell in succession to the late Mr. Gill. 



The Special Board for Biology propose that legal powers 

 shall be obtained to vary the conditions of the Gedge Bequest 

 for the furtherance of physiological research, so as to equalise 

 the conditions ron which "advanced students" compete with 

 ordinary students for the prize under this foundation. 



In his dedication of the fourth volume of " The Linacre 

 Reports" to the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, Prof. 

 R. Lankester avails himself of the opportunity to make some 

 remarks upon the want of encouragement given by Oxford 

 Colleges to work of the kind contained in the volume. The posi- 

 tion of science at Oxford has already been dealt with in detail in 

 these columns (vol. liv. 1896). The present method of appor- 

 tioning the College endowments is most unsatisfactory, and 

 Prof. Lankester's suggestion that two-thirds of such endow- 

 ments should be given for the encouragement of the study of 

 the natural sciences, and one-third for the subjects comprised 

 under the general terms Litera: Humaniores and Modern 

 History, is amore reasonable distribution. In any case, Oxford 

 is not likely to become a University for students of science 

 while a past professor is justified in making a statement such as 

 the following concerning the distribution of endowments : — 

 " It is, I know, useless to urge this, which is the judgment and 

 practice of almost every University excepting our own, upon 

 the consideration of those who now have the control of that 

 splendid potential source of energy, the College endowments. 

 They have, unfortunately, with rare exceptions, been brought 

 up in complete ignorance of the scope and significance of the 

 studies which they refuse to recognise ; they deliberately and 

 conscientiously use the advantage of their position so as to 

 maintain the present one-sided system, and to discourage the 

 study of the natural sciences by those who come as students to 

 Oxford." 



It is not only at Oxford that study and research in the 

 domain of the natural sciences receive little encouragement. In 

 the preface to the volume of " Studies in Biology from the 

 Biological Departments of the Owens College," Profs. S. J. 

 Hickson and F. E. Weiss refer to the fact that no more Bishop 

 Berkeley Research fellowships will be available for original 

 work. The remark " Biology is now left in our College with- 

 out any fellowship or scholarship to enable a promising student 

 to devote a year of his life to original investigation before 

 commencing his career as a teacher or medical student, and our 

 well-equipped research laboratory has consequently to remain 

 unoccupied during the greater part of the year. We cannot 

 help feeling that if these facts were more generally known some 

 help might be forthcoming from those who realise what biology 

 has done and is doing for the development of rational methods 

 of modern medical research." Why the Bishop Berkeley 

 fellowships, which once promised to rank among the best 

 characteristics of Owens College institutions, are not now 

 available is not explained. 



At a general meeting of Convocation of London University 

 held on Monday, the report of the standing committee was 

 presented. The report dealt with the election by Convocation 

 of members of the Senate under the new statutes. It stated 

 that the representatives allotted to Convocation will have to be 

 chosen in May. The representatives of Convocation will con- 

 sist of the Chancellor (elected for life), the chairman of Con- 

 vocation, and sixteen members, of whom eight will retire every 

 two years. These eighteen will form a majority of the members 

 of the Council for external students, who will have to advise 

 the Senate regarding the whole of the present work of the 

 University. The Academic Council, elected mostly by teachers 

 of the University, will perform a like function for internal 

 students. There is no restriction on the choice of candidates. 

 The new constitution will probably be in the hands of the 

 University before the next meeting of Convocation in May, and 

 by that time the University will probably have taken up its 

 abode in its new home at the Imperial Institute. After a short 

 discussion, the report was adopted. 



