JANUARY 17, 1907] 
NATURE 
The final sitting was held on Friday morning, 
January 11, when papers were read by Mr. T. Strangeways, 
on a description of an infectious disease occurring in hares ; 
by Mr. E. G. Fearnsides, on the blood changes in man 
caused by the presence of metazoan parasites, and their 
aid in diagnosis; and the use of an economic museum 
in the teaching of geography, by Mr. W. G. Freeman. 
Some valuable observations were brought out in Mr. Fearn- 
side’s paper on the changes observed in the blood in 
parasitic attacks and the production of toxins by the para- 
sites. Mr. Warburton exhibited an apparatus for extract- 
ing small mites, &c., from moss, invented by Prof. Berlese, 
who contributed a paper on the olive-fruit fly and its treat- 
ment. 
The next annual meeting will take place at Edinburgh 
in Easter, 1908; a meeting was also arranged for July in 
London. 
Mr. Walter Collinge, of Birmingham University, is still 
continuing the secretaryship. 
LAE SPuBElC SCHOOLS CIENGE 
ASSOCIATION. 
HE annual meeting of the Public School Science 
Masters’ Association was held on Saturday, January 12, 
at the University of London, the president, the Rev. and 
Hon. E. Lyttelton, headmaster of Eton, being in the chair. 
The president. in his address on the place of science 
and of literature in a general education, prefaced his re- 
marks with the opinion that a classical headmaster had 
one great advantage when criticising a science lesson in 
that his total ignorance of the subject placed him in the 
position of the most backward of pupils, and enabled him 
to ascertain exactly when the lesson was successful in 
producing the required impression on the mind of the 
learner. In. the discussion of educational matters there 
were the dangers of cloudiness from ignorance and of 
dogmatism which afforded no contribution to the dis- 
cussion. Science was calculated to diminish these two 
dangers. By science he meant experimental study, and not 
the form of class demonstration sometimes, in the old 
days, combined with lax discipline, the object apparently 
being to provide a sort of agreeable change in the regular 
work of the schoolboy. 
As now understood, general education meant that given 
to boys up to the age of sixteen, and the arguments follow- 
ing were in favour of science being taken seriously before 
that age. It would be conceded that science aroused more 
interest, at least in its initial stages, than was the case 
with any other subject, save religion, but it was a ques- 
tion whether this interest did not fall off later when more 
brain work was required. This was so with classics. The 
practical question, however, was not whether science 
interested the boy more than did the classics, but whether 
science and literature should go on together. The boys 
who were apparent failures at classics might be found 
successful later in science. Huxley had said that in science 
young minds were brought into contact with facts. It 
was not so very different in the case of literature. The 
advantages claimed for science in educational effects, train- 
ing in inductive and deductive methods, and freedom from 
following mere authority, were shared by most other sub- 
jects when these were taught by modern methods. These 
newer methods were certainly due to the influence of science 
teaching. 
The advantages of experimental science might be said 
to consist in the constant application to reason, truth, the 
senses of touch and sight, the virtue of patience, and 
accuracy. Science brought the pupil into association with 
the great army of discoverers, and illuminated daily life 
with its stimulating powers, leading to the exercise of the 
precious faculties of imagination and wonder. The presi- 
dent pleaded for training leading to ambidexterity, and re- 
ferred to the healthful mental effect afforded by exercise 
of both sides of the brain, pointing out that many school 
games were lacking in this respect. The results of scien- 
tific and of literary teaching both depended upon the 
NO. 1942. VOL. 75] 
MASTERS’ 
enthusiasm of the teacher, but this was especially true of 
the latter. One advantage of literature was that it brought 
the learner more into contact with human affairs generally, 
and although some of the faculties touched were the same 
as in the case of science, there were others not so in- 
fluenced. They were not called upon to decide between 
two subjects. There was room for both; teachers of 
science and of classics should be co-workers. Literary 
teachers should be able to save the science masters the 
labour of teaching the art of making notes in correct style. 
The classical failures should be rescued by science. The 
classical teacher called to the science teacher for help with 
new devices to touch the imagination and awaken hope— 
for something to haunt, startle, or waylay the young 
minds; to make them feel the joy of learning. 
Sir Oliver Lodge said that to eliminate the heat retained 
rather than generated by cloudiness of thought and fog of 
dogmatism, it was necessary to admit the clear and bracing 
atmosphere of science. He agreed that ambidexterity was 
to be encouraged. There were three kinds of boys, the 
docile, the eager, and the unwilling, each of whom re- 
quired different treatment. But it was necessary to con- 
sider the average boy. The quantitative side of science 
should not be overdone. In that respect subjects differed ; 
in the study of heat, quantitative work was desirable 
in the earliest stages, but in electricity he thought it 
better at first to allow an acquaintance with phenomena, 
proceeding later to measurement. The teacher should 
excite interest, rouse curiosity, feed only the hungry, and 
not stuff with information apropos of nothing. Sir Oliver 
suggested that astronomy and physiology might be taken 
in schools, and that astronomy should be treated in a 
manner not too technical, but rather on biographical lines. 
One should begin at both ends of a subject, but in different 
ways, for science was both inductive and deductive, and. 
this method of learning would use both qualities.. He-advo- 
cated the pupil’s going ‘‘ behind the scenes ’’; he should 
-read examination answers, perhaps set examination papers. 
In learning a language a boy was apt to consider he was 
dealing with chaos, so many forms of words occurring, 
e.g. changes in stem of verbs, for which he could see no 
reason. Were the boy, set to construct a language, he 
would see the necessity for and realise the meaning of 
tenses and cases. Boys should be encouraged to read the 
classics of science, and then they would get to appreciate 
the spirit of scientific investigation, which should be carrie¢ 
into all their studies. Books should be used in order t¢ 
learn how to acquire knowledge at first hand; problems 
should be thought out before information was gratuitously 
supplied. A literary education was possibly best on the 
psychical side, but it did not give a knowledge of the 
material universe, and no educated person should be 
deprived of this. 
Prof. Tilden thought the system or classical and scien- 
tific sides in schools was insufficient. There were, for 
instance, artistic minds which did not respond to either 
of these divisions. The president, replying to Mr. J. 
Talbot (Harrow), said he agreed that science should have 
a liberal allowance of time in the curriculum, something 
quite different from simply two hours per week, and in 
reply to the Rev. A. L. Cortie, S.J. (Stonyhurst), he 
advocated commencing the subject at, say, six or seven 
years of age. Mr. Thwaites (Wyggeston Schools, 
Leicester) gave the results of some inquiries he had made 
of the chief public schools. In general, about 60 per cent. 
of the boys take science, and of these about 95 per cent. 
are in the general courses. The average number in classes 
was 21-5 for the general and 14 for special courses. The 
former were allowed, on the average, four hours per week 
for two subjects, and the latter twelve hours. In twenty- 
three schcols there was one science master for every 
seventy-six boys. He considered it was now time for the 
schools to agree upon the subject-matter of their science 
courses. 
Mr. F. R. Leyland-Wilson (Charterhouse) read a paper 
on the best method of introducing the atomic theory in 
science. 
An exhibition of apparatus by members 
facturers was held at the close of the meeting. 
and manu- 
