NATURE 



57 



THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1871 



SCIENCE FOR WOMEN 



IN the present condition of the two questions of Science 

 Teaching and of the Higher Education of Women, it 

 may be worth while to regard them for a moment from 

 that point of view in which they coalesce, to inquire, in 

 other words, what is being done for the scientific instruc- 

 tion of women. We do not propose now to argue the 

 question whether it is desirable that women should learn 

 science — that we take to be already decided ; but rather to 

 speak of the extent to which, at the present time, pro- 

 vision is being made for carrying out this object. The 

 attention of the public was called to the subject a fort- 

 night ago by the publication of the report of the Syndi- 

 cate appointed by the University of Cambridge for the 

 examination of women abo\e eighteen years of age in 

 July last. The following are the portions of this report 

 which refer to the various subjects coming within our 

 scope : — 



" The answers in the present year in Mathematics show 

 a marked improvement upon those in 1870. The Euclid 

 was decidedly well done, one candidate answering every 

 question except one rider. The conic sections were tried 

 by only two, and without any great success, nothing being 

 attempted in analytical geometry. The algebra was 

 creditably done, but I observe, as I did last year, that 

 while the candidates are fairly skilled in the management 

 of symbols, they seem to have little idea of a logical 

 proof. I should recommend, in this subject, a much more 

 careful study of proofs of rules. The trigonometry, 

 making allowance for the greater intrinsic difficulty of 

 the subject, was better done than the algebra. Statics, 

 astronomy, and dynamics were taken by very few candi- 

 dates, one of whom, however, showed a knowledge of 

 these subjects small in amount, but thoroughly sound as 

 far as it went. It may be worth while to remark that one 

 candidate, who took in Euclid and algebra only, was the 

 best in each of these subjects. 



"In Botany and Zoology the examiner states that the 

 number of candidates was so small as to give little scope 

 for a report. The exammation was satisfactory, as far as 

 was possible under the circumstances. One of the candi- 

 dates passed with distinction. In Geology and Physical 

 Geography the examiner reports as follows : — ' No one 

 has done well. The answers are in most cases shallow 

 and full of bad blunders. The examinees seem not to 

 have sufficient acquaintance with the simple laws of 

 physics to make much progress ; for instance, it was plain 

 that some did not understand the ordinary laws of evapo- 

 ration and condensation of vapour, and it seems to me 

 impossible to understand the causes of clouds and rain- 

 fall without such preliminary knowledge. There seemed 

 no better foundation laid in geology. More than one con- 

 founded Plutonic with Laurentian rocks. No one showed 

 a tolerable acquaintance with the outlines of systematic 

 geology, or any knowledge at all of Pateontology.' " 



The report, though in some respects not unsatisfactory, 

 shows how very much still remains to be done before even 

 a fair start can be said to be made in a general training 

 of our women in the elements of Natural and Phy- 

 sical Science. It is therefore with great pleasure that 

 we welcome the attempts, unconnected and imperfect 

 though some of them may be, which are now being made 

 to remedy this defect. 



VOL. V. 



To place the matter on its right footing, it is essentia 

 that the work should be undertaken by the very best 

 teachers we have at our command ; and in London at 

 least this is being done in a manner that must in time 

 bring forth good fruit. The classes for women conducted 

 last season at South Kensington by Professors Huxley, 

 Guthrie, and Oliver were attended by large and highly 

 appreciative audiences ; and the programme for the present 

 season, already announced by Professors Duncan, 

 Guthrie, and Huxley, is no less attractive. The Ladies' 

 Educational Association of London has wisely confined its 

 teaching to that of the professors of University College, 

 thus affording a guarantee that the instruction shall be of 

 a first-class kind ; and now that the whole scientific staff 

 of the College has placed its services at the disposal 

 of the Association, and the Council has given permission 

 for the lectures to be delivered within its walls, with full 

 use of its philosophical apparatus, a scientific training is 

 for the first time offered to ladies on a par with that ob- 

 tained by its male students. We learn that the classes 

 named in the programme have all been started, and with 

 a fair number of entries. That there is great room for 

 instruction of this kind is shown also by the eagerness 

 with which women take advantage of the opportunity of 

 attending mixed classes wherever they are conducted by 

 men of high repute. We need only refer to the success 

 which has attended Prof. Huxley's lectures at the London 

 Institution in Finsbury Circus, especially as regards the 

 position taken by girls at the examinations in previous 

 years, and to the crowded audiences, consisting at least 

 half of ladies, who are now attending his course on Ele- 

 mentary Physiology. 



In the provinces the same work is going on, thouo-h 

 hardly with the same degree of organisation. The 

 professors of the University of Cambridge in particular 

 have shown a praiseworthy zeal in the cause, and have 

 offered their time and their services for a more general 

 system of instruction than could be comprised within the 

 lectures which have been given during the last two years 

 at Cambridge itself. We referred last week to the attempt 

 now being made at the College for Women at Hitchin — 

 to be removed, whenever sufficient funds can be obtained, 

 to Cambridge— to inaugurate systematic instruction in 

 Chemistry as an introduction to the other sciences, an 

 attempt to which we heartily wish the success it deserves. 

 When the College for Physical Science was founded at 

 Newcastle, the Council took into consideration a request 

 from a number of ladies of the neighbourhood that women 

 should be admitted to its classes, and decided to make no 

 restriction as to sex in the admission of students or in the 

 rules to which they should be subject. Greatly, however, 

 to the disappointment of the Professors themselves, after 

 all this preparation, when the time came not a single lady 

 presented herself as a pupil. We cannot but think that 

 the ladies of Newcastle were ill-advised in urging the 

 subject upon the Council when there was no actual demand 

 among them for the instruction itself, and thereby giving 

 occasion for unjust reflections on the genuineness of the 

 desire among women for instruction in science. 



We wish we could refer with the same satisfaction to 

 the present position of the question in Scotland. The 

 ladies of Edinburgh have shown their high appreciation 

 of the opportunity that has been offered them by several 



