January 17, 1907 | 
construction of a seismograph which shall be suit- 
able for the measurements of tremors having their 
source near the place of observation. Advertisements 
giving details of this competition have appeared in 
various papers in this country (see NaTuRE, January 3, 
p. xci). 
It may be remembered that an organisation for 
studying the propagation of earthquakes was dis- 
cussed at the last meeting of the International Associ- 
ation of Academies held in London in 1905, and that 
a committee was then appointed to formulate the 
views of the united academies, the originally proposed 
scheme for the seismic organisation not having met 
with general approval. This committee met, and 
its recommendations were subsequently approved 
by the council of the International Association of 
Academies. The International Seismological Associ- 
ation has accepted the suggested modifications, the 
general tenor of which was to safeguard the internal 
organisation of the earthquake observations in 
different countries, confining the international work 
to those physical questions of earthquake propagation 
which can obviously only be dealt with on an inter- 
national basis. It is to be hoped that the spirit of 
these modifications will be adhered to, and that no 
attempt will be made to encroach on the functions 
which more definitely concern each country separately. 
We are glad to note, therefore, from the proceedings 
of the recent conference that both the questions of a 
more particular study of the districts surrounding 
Vesuvius, which primarily concerns Italy, and the 
foundation of a station in Iceland, which primarily 
concerns Denmark, were postponed. 
The social functions of the international meeting 
were well looked after at Rome, the members bein 
most hospitably entertained, and also provided with 
tickets enabling them to travel at about half-fare over 
= State railways during the meeting, and for several 
days before and Bik 
SCIENCE IN HIGHER EDU ICATION. 
T is satisfactory to notice the attention now being 
given to scientific methods in education, not only 
by teachers and others actively engaged in educational 
work, but also by prominent statesmen. During the 
past week several important educational conferences 
have been held, and a report of one specially organised 
by science teachers appears elsewhere in this issue. 
But the dominating note of other conferences con- 
cerned with the school curriculum in general and 
subjects belonging to the literary side of education in 
particular is that of scientific method. Whether in 
the study of ancient or modern languages, in the 
cultivation of mental attitudes or the ‘development of 
the body, it is clear that authoritative opinion con- 
siders the best methods of teaching should be based 
upon principles which have long been advocated by 
men of science. The little leaven of science is 
leavening the whole lump of educational effort, and 
the result is gratifying to contemplate. 
Provided that scientific methods are adopted, that 
is, methods which aim at making pupils worl out 
their own intellectual salvation, it does not matter 
much what subjects are studied. What we have 
always wished to avoid, and what we are glad to 
see now meets with unanimous disapproval, is in- 
struction which is not education, the drudgery of 
learning phrases or performing mental gymnastics 
in literature, mathematics, or science without atten- 
tion to the more valuable faculties of critical thought 
and originality. From the condition of a_ passive 
absorber of: teachers’ notes and the pemmican of text- 
books of former days, the pupil is gradually being 
recognised as an active agent who may be led to 
NO. 1942, VOL. 75 | 
NATURE 
to 
NI 
make his own observations and form his own con- 
clusions, whatever the subject of study may be. It 
can scarcely be said at present that the old methods 
have disappeared from our schools and colleges—the 
requirements of the old universities and examining 
bodies prevent this end from being reached—but the 
feeling of practically all active thinkers and workers 
in the world of education is in favour of the adoption 
of principles with which we are completely in sym- 
pathy, and_ their influence is gradually giving the 
spirit of life to what have been the dead bones of 
school work. 
Our statesmen, also, and in particular Mr. Haldane, 
Secretary of State for War and president of the 
British Science Guild, are taking opportunities to 
impress upon the nation the essential part which 
science and higher education must play in the polity 
of the modern State if progress is to be secured. We 
are glad, therefore, to extract from reports of speeches 
made last week by Mr. Haldane and Mr. Asquith 
some remarks expressing conviction of the value of 
factors which have long been recognised in these 
columns as essential to national welfare. 
ScIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 
An 
council 
international economic congress, arranged by the 
of the Royal Economic Society, was held on 
January 9 and to at the London School of Economics. 
Mr. Haldane, M.P., occupied the chair during the earlier 
portion of the morning session on the first day as president 
of the society, and delivered the introductory address. Mr. 
Haldane is reported by the Times to have said :—What- 
ever other differences there may be between the nations, 
there is a brotherhood—a brotherhood the reality of which 
is asserting itself more as year succeeds year—the brother- 
hood of science. We are to-day recognising that in science, 
as well as in other things, international cooperation is 
essential, and perhaps in no department is that more 
marked than in the department which deals with the 
science of the State. It is not only in economics that this 
kind of wider outlook is beginning to come to people. In 
science of every kind we have witnessed the tendency of 
the nations to specialise. Perhaps it is more easy to 
preserve a common basis in those sciences which do not 
touch human nature; but there is one thing that is true 
of all sciences, and that is that their methods are neces- 
sarily abstract. Do not let us be carried away with the 
notion that because a method is abstract, therefore it is 
not an indispensable method for getting at the truth. It 
is obvious that the chances of reaching the truth are greater 
in certain cases, the greater the abstractness of the method. 
I have at this moment two books in my mind, books 
which, in a sense, are to-day out of date, but which, in 
another sense, will never be out of date, because they are 
the most perfect illustrations of true scientific method— 
the method which does not allow itself to shut out of view 
facts by the narrowness of its conceptions. One is 
Darwin's ‘‘ Origin of Species,’’ the other is Adam Smith’s 
“Wealth of Nations,’? a book written by a man who had 
profoundly freéd his mind from every kind of narrowness. 
After dealing with the value to statesmen of the study 
of economics, Mr. Haldane spoke of the internationalism 
of science. He remarked:—It seems to me that this 
tendency to the internationalism of science, which is again, 
after 300 or 400 years, beginning to set in, which does not 
depend on our speaking a common language, but does 
depend on our becoming more and more specialists working 
out different departments of great and complicated ques- 
tions—it seems to me that this new tendency is one which 
should fill us with hopefulness for the future. It has been 
said, and said with truth, that this is not an age of great 
men. We do not seem to be producing a Newton or a 
Gauss, a Helmholtz or a Laplace with the frequency with 
which former generations produced these outstanding 
figures; and yet, on the other hand, who. will doubt that 
the general level of science is far higher to-day than it 
was a generation ago, and still higher than it was a 
generation before that? People have realised that it is 
