February 12, 1903] 



NA TURE 



357 



placed in England except for patented apparatus or by gas 

 concerns controlled by British capital. The National Physical 

 Laboratory, the British institution corresponding to the Reichs- 

 anstalt of Germany and the U.S. National Bureau of Stan- 

 dards, gets the absurdly small sum of 20,000 dollars per year, 

 while the "beer money" appropriated to technical schools of 

 the second and third rank amounted in 189S-9 to 4,152,000 

 dollars and in 1S99-1900 to 4,380,000 dollars. 



That there is "something the matter" with English eco- 

 nomics seems evident to an impartial observer. Public opinion 

 is slowly awakening to a realising sense that in some unseen 

 manner England is being fed, clothed, reorganised and educated 

 by foreigners. Prominent Englishmen, whose warnings are 

 sincere, are trying to tell her that decline is at hand unless she 

 adopts a sweeping reform in the whole content of her educational 

 system, so as to bring it into close relationship with present-day 

 necessities; 



The Englishman learns slowly ; he prefers to use methods 

 formerly successful in spite of the fact that they are inapplicable 

 to-day ; he is slow to disturb established tradition and can 

 scarcely be made to believe that any new forces have entered 

 into the struggle for industrial supremacy. The rest of the 

 world is learning the value of technical training in its varied 

 forms as a foundation for industrial success, but the English still 

 cling to their antiquated ideas. England has not kept alive to 

 the requirements of the new scientific age into which we are 

 now being thrust ; she has not recognised the close connection 

 that exists between science and industry ; she is, as it were, 

 using mediaeval methods in modern industrial warfare ; by 

 neglecting the technical education of her people, she has failed 

 to train her industrial army. This alone explains at once her 

 own decadence and the advance of Germany and the United 

 States. 



The educational status of England is far lower than many 

 suppose. We are pleased to juggle with the names Eton, Rugby, 

 Oxford and Cambridge, but we must remember that these 

 schools are only for the highest social classes and are maintained 

 to educate the English gentleman of rank, not the plain every- 

 day Englishman, and have little or no good influence upon 

 industrial or commercial life. Through their graduates, who 

 influence much of the editorial writing in London, they are 

 seriously impeding the advance of correct ideas by their ultra 

 conservatism and even ignorance of the scientific spirit of the 

 age. The whole trend of an Oxford or Cambridge education is 

 away from the masses. The primary and grammar schools of 

 England are not only weak and inefficient, but are partly under 

 State and partly under religious control ; public high schools, as 

 Americans know them, are non-existent ; the higher college and 

 university training is mostly classical and out or harmony with 

 modern necessities ; technical education, which in Germany and 

 the United States must be preceded by a good high-school course 

 of study, follows in England a weak grammar school education. 

 Outside of her college preparatory schools and her two 

 universities, which reach only an exceedingly small fraction of 

 her people, England provides educational facilities which are 

 utterly inadequate, both in character and extent, to the 

 enormous needs of her people. To a certain extent, the view of 

 Dr. Johnson still prevails that education is " needed solely for 

 the embellishments of life and is useless for ordinary vermin." 



The temper of the British mind is against scientific and 

 technical progress. Research work, which is really the guiding 

 star for all human progress, is sadly neglected. New ideas are 

 imported from Germany and the United States ; they seem 

 unable to germinate on British soil. London, which was the 

 first city to be lighted by gas, is the last to accept electricity. 

 Germany teaches England electrochemistry and the United 

 States gives her lessons in electric traction. Low-grade 

 technical schools, evening schools and polytechnics she has in 

 abundance ; but they train only the imitative, not the creative 

 faculties. England hates the specialist ; Germany glories in 

 him. England relies upon the practical man ; Germany upon 

 the technically trained man. England exalts the "ruleof- 

 thumb " method; Germany insists upon scientific accuracy. 

 England has no national system of education ; Germany has a 

 highly organised, Government-controlled system; England 

 places her technical training next above a weak elementary 

 education ; Germany, believing in specialised education, which 

 must be concerted and not premature specialisation, places her 

 technical training after a thorough general education. 



The race for industrial supremacy is on ; the first three places 



NO. 1737, VOL. 67] 



are undoubtedly held by England, Germany and the United 

 State*. In view of the need of economic progress, it is not 

 difficult to see that the outcome of the feeling of unrest which 

 now pervades the educational world will be the enlargement of 

 the sphere of technical education. All the signs of the times 

 point in this direction. The trained technical man is rapidly 

 taking the place of the untrained man. No nation can success- 

 fully oppose this world-wide movement. When the philosophers, 

 educators and economists have risen to a full comprehension of 

 the meaning of the present world-wide educational unrest, they 

 will see that the solution of their doubts and anxieties lies in a 

 fuller and more comprehensive development of the sphere of 

 technical education. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 Oxford. — On Saturday last, Mr. H. Brereton Baker, F.R.S., 

 Balliol College, was elected to the Lees readership in Chem- 

 istry, which had become vacant owing to Mr. Vernon Har- 

 court's resignation. Mr. Baker came up to Balliol as a 

 Brackenbury scholar in 1SS0, and took a "first" in natural 

 science in 1883. He was a pupil of Prof. Dixon, at 

 that time lecturer in chemistry at Balliol, and he also worked 

 under Mr. Harcourt at Christ Church. On leaving Oxford, Mr. 

 Baker went to Dulwich, where he remained until last May, when 

 he was appointed head-master of the Alleyn's School. His 

 election is naturally very popular, and Oxford will gladly 

 welcome back one of her most distinguished chemists, particu- 

 larly one who has shown that the duties of a schoolmaster are 

 not incompatible with the carrying on of research. 



On Saturday, February 14, a meeting of the resident members 

 of the University who are interested in the teaching of natural 

 science will take place in the examination schools to meet a 

 deputation from the Association of Public School Masters, con- 

 sisting of Mr. H. B. Baker, of Dulwich, Mr. Hill, of Eton, Mr. 

 Sclaier, of Charterhouse, and Mr. Shenstone, of Clifton. The 

 following proposals of the association, respecting entrance 

 scholarship examinations to the universities, will be brought 

 belore the meeiing : — (1) That the science part of the examin- 

 ation should consist of (a) a paper on elementary physics and 

 chemistry f r all candidates ; {b) papers and practical work in 

 not more than four subjects: (i.) physics; (ii.) chemistry; 

 (iii.) botany and zoology; (iv. ) geology. Of these subjects, 

 candidates must not offer more than two. (2) That very marked 

 excellence in one of the four advanced subjects should have due 

 weight. 



Cambridge. — Mr. T. Manners-Smith, Downing, and Dr. 

 Marett Tims, King's, have been appointed additional demon- 

 strators of anatomy. 



Mr. W. A. Cunnington, Christ's, has been appointed to 

 work at the University table in the Naples Zoological 

 Station. 



The Library Syndicate report that the cost of providing 

 suitable accommodation and catalogues for the Acton 

 Library, presented by Mr. John Morley, will amount to more 

 than 7300/. 



Dr. MacAlister, Prof. Woodhead and Dr. Nuttall have 

 been appointed to represent the University at the Brussels 

 Congress of Hygiene and Demography, to be held next 

 September. 



The following have respectively been appointed electors 

 to the professorships named : — Chemistry, Dr. T. E. Thorpe ; 

 Plumian of Astronomy, Mr. W. H. M. Christie; Anatomy, 

 Dr. T. C. Allbutt ; Botany, Mr. A. Sedgwick ; Geology, Dr. 

 S F. Harmer ; Jackson of Natural Philosophy, Lord Ray- 

 leigh ; Downing of Medicine, Dr. A. Macalister; Miner 

 alogy, Prof. J. J. Thomson ; Zoology, Dr. D. MacAlister ; 

 Experimental Physics, Lord Rayleigh ; Mechanism, Mr. O. 

 Reynolds; Physiology, Prof. G. S. Woodhead; Surgery, 

 Dr. A. Macalister; Pathology, Dr. W. H. Gaskell ; Agri- 

 culture, Dr. W. Somerville. 



Sir James Blyth, Bart., has been appointed a member 01 

 the Board of Agricultural Studies. 



Dr. Victor Lebeuf, of the University of Montpellier, has 

 been appointed director of the astronomical observatory at 

 Besancon, and Dr. Marcellin Boule to the professorship of 

 palaeontology at the Paris Natural History Museum. 



