1/8 



NA TURE 



[December 25, 1902 



and the large number of highly paid specialist teachers 

 who ought to be employed therein. 



At present there is no technical institution in the United 

 Kingdom which is staffed on a scale even approximately 

 equal to that of such foreign institutions as the Charlotten- 

 burg Technical High School, Berlin, and the Massa- 

 chusetts Institute of Technology, Boston. In these 

 magnificent technical high schools, in place of two or three 

 professors, e.g., of engineering, we find a very large 

 number of highly qualified men, each dealing with some 

 special branch of engineering knowledge, and this can be 

 economically done because of the very large number of 

 engineering students gathered together in one institution. 

 In this country, at present our comparatively few adult 

 engineering day students are scattered among a relatively 

 large number of institutions ; as a result, such far-reach- 

 ing subjects as electrical engineering have to be en- 

 trusted to a single professor. Indeed, there are some 

 technical colleges in which there is only one professor of 

 engineering, and electrical engineering is in charge of a 

 poorly paid assistant lecturer. 



To remedy this, coordination of work is necessary, not 

 merely within the great towns, but even between neigh- 

 bouring educational authorities, which are not infrequently 

 jealous of one another and pursue their work regardless 

 of what is going on around them. Hence we have cases 

 of towns within easy reach of one another where tech- 

 nical institutions have been established, each of which 

 tries to do the highest possible work in all the subjects 

 which it undertakes. The result is a small number of 

 students in each subject in each town and a staff of 

 teachers proportionate, it is true, to the number of 

 students, but inadequate for the purposes of advanced 

 technical education. It would be well, therefore, if 

 power were given to the Board of Education to select a 

 limited number of central institutions where alone higher 

 technical education in the day-time should be given. 



Liberal financial aid will be needed to place such in- 

 stitutions on a satisfactory basis, and as they will be 

 national rather than local institutions, a large part of the 

 money for their support should be provided from the 

 imperial exchequer: the remainder should be contributed 

 by the various local authorities in the districts which they 

 serve. 



Another important matter which must be determined 

 is the relation of institutions providing the highest kind of 

 technical training to the universities or university colleges 

 in the same district. The best solution of this problem in 

 such a case as, e.g. Manchester would be for the technical 

 institution to absorb all the higher technical work of the 

 city and for the university college to devote itself to the 

 faculties of theology, literature, philosophy, medicine, 

 law, pure science, music, &c. Where local universities 

 are established, the technical institution would become 

 the faculty of technology and commerce : it should not 

 be subjected to the academic control of the university, 

 which might tend to destroy its usefulness for industrial 

 and commercial purposes. 



The great technical institutions of Germany and 

 America exist side by side with important universities ; 

 they are, however, independent of these, and it is partly 

 to this fact that they owe their usefulness in promoting 

 the industrial progress of the German and American 

 nations. 



An important problem for the new local educational 

 authorities will be the training of teachers of trade 

 subjects. It is easy to find men with a good knowledge 

 of their respective trades, or persons who can teach 

 well, with a superficial knowledge of an industry, but the 

 combination of these qualifications is comparatively rare. 

 It is not easy to see how this can be speedily remedied, 

 but an improvement might be produced by arranging a 

 higher scale of remuneration for teachers of trade sub- 

 jects who had passed examinations giving evidence of 



NO. 1730, VOL. 67] 



their power to explain in simple language matters con- 

 nected with their own industry. More than this it is 

 probably impossible to demand at present. 



As regards the more highly qualified teachers needed 

 for adult day classes in technical institutions, one of the 

 greatest difficulties is how best to keep such men in touch 

 with their respective industries. If the teacher's whole 

 time is not required for the work of the institution, he can 

 remain in contact with the industry by doing consulting 

 work and by research. Unfortunately, in such cases there 

 is often a tendency for him to regard his teaching work 

 as the least important part of his occupation ; in fact, 

 one has known cases where the principal value of such a 

 teacher to his students has been the fact that his name 

 was well known in the industry and his recommendation 

 consequently a valuable one, though his actual teaching 

 work was of a merely nominal character. The cure for 

 this would be to make the pay which the teacher receives 

 for teaching by far the largest part of his income ; such 

 an arrangement would, however, mean a considerable in- 

 crease in the salaries of teachers of technical subjects, 

 but, in the opinion of the writer, it would be justifiable, as 

 it would make it possible for some of the best men to 

 continue teachers ; at present, such men are attracted to 

 the industries by the incomparably larger financial prizes 

 which they offer. J. Wkrtheimer. 



PREVENTION OF RABIES. 



A LETTER headed " Mr. Hanbury admits the failure 

 ■^*- of the muzzle" has been addressed to us by a 

 member of the executive committee of the National 

 Canine Defence League, which letter, as might be ex- 

 pected, urges in so many words on behalf of the canine 

 species the total abolition of the muzzling order at all 

 times and under all conditions. The writer of the letter 

 vindicates for himself, as might also be expected, a 

 superior knowledge concerning rabies, its nature and its 

 mode of spread ; he, as a matter of course, is one " who 

 understands dogs" and considers "that the muzzle was 

 from the first condemned as useless cruelty." According 

 to this authority, the Board of Agriculture, including, we 

 presume, its veterinary department, " itself ignorant of 

 dogs and their diseases, has persistently refused to be 

 advised and guided by those who do possess the requisite 

 knowledge" (sic/). 



To be serious, it is no new thing that there never is 

 any lack of amateurs who, notwithstanding the obvious 

 want of special knowledge required to form an opinion, 

 are in their own estimation quite capable of judging of 

 the merits or demerits of a question that can be only 

 dealt with adequately by the specialist possessed of the 

 requisite knowledge. 



Rabies is an infectious disease, directly communicated 

 by the bite of a rabid animal, in the vast majority of 

 cases a rabid dog. In the interest of the animals them- 

 selves — all domestic animals are susceptible to the 

 disease — and above all in the interest of human beings, 

 the disease should be, and as a matter of fact has been, 

 controlled, checked and prevented from spreading by 

 the thorough, not half-hearted, carrying out of the 

 muzzling order : that is, the slaughter of ownerless and 

 stray dogs — the most dangerous because the most 

 frequent means of contagion — and by the muzzling, not 

 merely the pretence of muzzling, of all dogs, so as to 

 include also those that may and sometimes do harbour 

 the contagium before the actual disease has fully declared 

 itself in them. Such is the practice, the only rational 

 practice, which is followed, and successfully followed, in 

 other countries at times when rabies makes its appear- 

 ance. The private opinion of Mr. Hanbury or any other 

 politician on this subject, and the complaint that — owing, 

 most probably, to the loose and half-hearted manner of 



