228 



NA rURE 



[July 4, 1901 



Prof. Perry does not confine his attack on our system 

 of teaching mathematics to Euclid ; he holds that a 

 boy's scientific knowledge, generally, should not be 

 primarily based upon abstract reasoning. 



" Why not let a boy jump over all the Euclidean 

 philosophy of geometry and assume even the 47th pro- 

 position to be true ? Why not let him re|jlace the second 

 and fifth books of Euclid by a page of simple algebra. . . ? " 



Some such procedure as Prof. Perry here indicates is 

 really the key to improvement in our scientific teaching ; 

 and the objections which his proposal is likely to meet 

 are met by him with a certain forcible humour : 



" Because the embryo passes through all the stages of 

 development of its ancestors, a boy in the nineteenth 

 century must be taught according to all the systems ever 

 in use and in the same order of time. Think of com- 

 pelling emigrants to pass to America through Cuba, 

 because Cuba was discovered first. Think of making 

 boys learn Latin and Greek before they can write 

 English, because Latin and Greek were the only lan- 

 guages in which there was a literature known to English- 

 men 450 years ago \ " 



And this is, substantially, our procedure. Prof Perry's 

 remedy for our waste of time in mathematical teaching 

 is contained in his advocacy of what he calls " Practical 

 Mathematics," which may be described as a short cut to 

 all the most important results and methods of science 

 without the preliminary passage through a train of ab- 

 stract reasoning in the old order — not, we presume, that 

 the abstract reasoning is to be abolished altogether, but 

 that it will come later and more easily when the results 

 which it was originally employed to establish have be- 

 come familiar practical truths by experience and measure- 

 ment. This contention of Prof. Perry's does not, of 

 course, agree with the pure a priori nature of mathe- 

 matical reasoning hitherto accepted as orthodox truth. 

 Indeed, it is not uncommon to hear even some scientific 

 men objecting to such a principle as Prof Perry's in 

 some such terms as these : " Mathematics is primarily 

 an education of the mind, and it must be regarded as 

 an end in itself ; the object of education is not the 

 short and rapid attainment of practically useful know- 

 ledge, but the cultivation of thought." The simple 

 answer to this is that, in view of the pressure of compe- 

 tition in the affairs of practical science, we cannot afford 

 to take things in the old leisurely manner. Moreover, as 

 already said, the re-ordering of our mathematical teach- 

 ing according to the plan sketched by Prof Perry in his 

 chapter on " Practical Mathematics " does not involve, 

 by any means, the atwlition of abstract reasoning, but 

 the postponement of it until the mind of the pupil is in 

 the best condition to employ it. 



We cannot aft'ord space to discuss Prof Perry's 

 syllabus of practical mathematics in detail, but we may 

 say that all those who have either the good fortune or 

 the bad, according to the scene of their labours, to be 

 employed in the teaching of mathematics, will find their 

 work facilitated by adopting the system of graphic repre- 

 sentation and graphic solutions so strongly advocated by 

 Prof Perry. The graphic method of solution of problems 

 otherwise insoluble constitutes a wonderful interest both 

 for the pupil and for the teacher ; but, unfortunately, this 

 fact is as yet very imperfectly recognised. 



There is one branch of the question of school teaching 

 NO. 1653, VOL, 64 



which is scarcely noticed by Prof. Perry— the question of 

 the preparatory school. The growth of the preparatory 

 school in England within the last twenty years is most 

 remarkable. This somewhat costly institution is, as a 

 rule, an exact copy of the public school. The methods, 

 the language, and. above all, the athletic ideals and 

 aims of both are the same. The unscientific career in 

 the greater institution is carefully initiated and cultivated 

 in the less. Now, although nearly every branch of 

 physical science is full of facts, principles and methods, 

 the experimental illustration of which would awaken a 

 far greater interest in the mind of a young boy than can 

 be awakened by Greek or Latin grammar, the teaching 

 of the elements of physical science in the preparatory 

 stage of youth is almost unknown. There is a great deal 

 of the elementary, but very important, portion of the 

 science of electricity which every boy of the age of 

 twelve (or less) should know, and could learn with no 

 difficulty whatever ; but he is kept rigorously aloof from 

 all such knowledge, and we see him at the age of thirteen 

 or fourteen fully equipped at his preparatory school for 

 his public school exhibition or scholarship, absolutely 

 ignorant of every electrical fact in existence. 



This refers, of course, to boys of the better classes — 

 those who look forward to a public school education. 

 Prof Perry remarks on the subject (p. 95) : — 



" I see no reason why the principles of physics should 

 not be intimately known to every child who has passed 

 the age of twelve years. . . . An examination of the 

 work carried on in the model national schools in Ire- 

 land will show that m many cases children of eleven and 

 twelve years possess a fair knowledge of physics and 

 chemistry, and when they do not possess this knowledge 

 it will be found that too much attention has been paid to 

 Euclid and grammar, and perhaps practical geometry 

 has not been studied at all." 



In taking leave of Prof Perry's suggestive little book, 

 we would say that if the average English parent is con- 

 tent that his son should be brought up according to the 

 classical model of the public school, with its athletic 

 ideals and that superior " tone " with which it is gener- 

 ally credited, it might not be proper for any one to inter- 

 fere with his choice ; but when we reflect that these 

 classical mstitutions are those in which our political 

 rulers acquire their training and form their ideals, 

 without appreciable modification by a subsequent career 

 in an old University, the whole nation has a right to 

 complain. The professional politician is apt to look 

 down upon the professors of science ; and until science 

 makes its presence felt in the Government of the country 

 by having eminent scientific men in its councils, we shall 

 have to continue to deplore "England's neglect of 

 science." George M. Minchin. 



GRANT DUFF'S NOTES FROM A DIARY. 

 Notes from a Diary, 1889-1891. By Sir Mountstuart E. 

 Grant Duff. Vol. i. Pp. viii + 287. Vol. ii. Pp. 272. 

 (London : Murray, 1901.) Price iSj. 



IT might truly be said of Sir Mountstuart Grant Duft" 

 as was once said of Van Dyck, " During these 

 years all noble England passed before him and remained 

 immortal." He is a member of the best clubs — the 



