86 
WATOTE, 
[NovEMBER 26, 1903 
and the figures which we quote below show how 
unlikely we are to get such a system under the scheme 
now put forward, if it be admitted, to adopt a state- 
ment taken from the report of the same committee, 
that experimental science, i.e. chemistry and physics 
treated experimentally, is an essential part of a sound 
general education. In the outlined scheme now before 
us—as stated above—science comes into the education 
of the candidates in the qualifying part as an alternative 
for Latin or Greek, that is to say, practically speaking, 
for Latin: and again in the competitive part as an 
alternative for Latin, French, history, &c. Now 
boys at school begin Latin at say eight or nine 
years of age. They probably rarely begin the experi- 
mental science proposed before thirteen or fourteen. 
If the candidates are to do a three years’ course in 
chemistry and physics, as suggested, they must begin 
it at fourteen or sooner, in order to be ready for the 
qualifying part at, say, seventeen, which seems likely 
to be about the age at which we may expect most 
candidates will take this part. This means that at 
about fourteen the choice must be made between science 
and Latin. 
But at fourteen a candidate will have studied Latin, 
French, &c., for years. He, his masters and his 
parents will know a good deal about his prospects in 
these subjects. Whilst, from what we have said, it is 
obvious that in most cases they will know nothing 
about his prospects in science at that age. Can it be 
doubted that nearly all the cleverer boys, and most 
even of those whose abilities are second rate, will 
neglect science at every stage—that, as a rule, only 
those who are really bad at Latin will get any science? 
Again, is it reasonable to suppose that candidates 
whose early education has included no experimental 
science will at the eleventh hour give up one of the sub- 
jects in which they are somewhat advanced, and take 
to a subject in which they are untried and untrained ? 
Must it not happen that the average officer of the future 
will know nothing of, and care nothing for, science or 
its methods, be incapable of appreciating its import- 
ance to his profession, and incapable, even, of using 
the knowledge of others from ignorance of their 
language and methods of thought? This scheme must 
result most disastrously in its effect on the army and 
on the schools, 
It has been*suggested that the parents will select 
and insist on the science. We do not believe it. There 
is a strongly flowing current in favour of science 
among the parents. That is true. But how can any 
reasonable parent be expected to insist on his son 
taking up the subject which seems least likely to 
conduce to success in a competition of vital import- 
ance to him? 
But this question is not really a matter of opinion 
at all. 
Some years ago science, in both Woolwich and Sand- 
hurst competitions, had to compete in a somewhat 
similar way with several other subjects which are 
begun earlier than the experimental science at schools, 
and on conditions which were, we think, not so very 
much more unfavourable than those now proposed. 
From computations that have been made for us, we 
find that at that time one successful Sandhurst candi- 
date in twelve ventured to offer experimental science 
For Woolwich, even, though there were well-known 
advantages in starting at the Royal Military Academy 
with a scientific training, which no doubt will still 
exist, the proportion who offered science was only 22 
per cent., or say one in five, of the whole. 
As the majority of the candidates will continue for 
some time to come to be derived from the same classes 
as in the past, why should we expect a more favour- 
able result now? Some years ago Sir Henry Roscoe 
NO. 1778, VOL. 69] 
and others came forward as the champions of science, 
and, aided by the head masters of Rugby, Cheltenham, 
Clifton, and other schools, and by insistently directing 
attention to these and similar facts, presently secured a 
more reasonable system in many respects. No doubt 
the science arrangements made then need revision now 
in many of their details. But the need for science 
training among our officers, the need for a fuller 
appreciation among them of the part it plays, the 
absolute need to start a training in science, as in 
languages and mathematics, at an early stage of a 
bay's training; and, above all, the importance of not . 
teaching young officers to regard it as unimportant 
by neglecting it at the schools or afterwards, were never 
greater than at this moment. Who among our leaders 
in science will come forward in this fresh emergency ? 
PROF. ALEXANDER ROLLETT. 
ROF. ALEXANDER ROLLETT, of the Univer- 
sity of Graz, the eminent physiologist, died on 
October 1 at the age of sixty-nine. His name, though 
not associated with any particularly brilliant discovery, 
is well known to science as that of a diligent and 
successful worker. 
Descended from a family of doctors, both his father 
and grandfather having been more or less dis- 
tinguished physicians in Baden, near Vienna, Alex- 
ander Rollett commenced his medical studies in the 
dawn of the great era of physiological science under 
the guidance of Carl Ludwig and of Ernst Briicke, 
then newly appointed professor of physiology in 
Vienna. 
In 1858, having completed his course of studies, 
Rollett became Briicke’s assistant, and in 1863 was 
appointed to the professorship in Graz, which he re- 
tained until his death. Like his great masters, 
Rollett’s investigations extended to widely different 
subjects, but by preference to problems that involve 
the use of histological methods. His principal re- 
searches may be summed up under no less than four 
distinct headings :—chemistry and histology of con- 
nective tissue, chemistry and histology of blood, 
histology and physiology of muscle, and work on 
sight and other senses. Three of these different sub- 
jects Rollett subsequently treated at length in severat 
standard publications. 
We find Rollett first studying the composition and 
structure of the connective tissues, and demonstrating 
that mucine is a prime constituent of these substances. 
His work on this subject, and especially on the cornea, 
he later on embodied in the corresponding chapters of 
Stricker’s ‘‘ Handbuch der Gewebelehre.’? He then 
turned his attention to the chemical and histological 
properties of the blood, and it was he that first per- 
formed the well-known experiment of ‘‘ laking ’’ blood 
by alternate freezing and thawing, and by repeated dis- 
charges of electricity. The theory of the ‘‘ stroma ”’ of 
the red corpuscles is likewise founded largely on 
Rollett’s observations. By these and other discoveries 
he attained the rank of a prime authority on the physi- 
ology of blood, so that when Hermann edited his well- 
known ‘‘ Handbuch,”’ the chapter on blood fell to 
Rollett’s share. 
On the intricate subject of the structure of striated 
muscle Rollett brought to bear his powers of histo- 
logical analysis, and added new comparative data of 
value by his observations on the muscles of bats, of 
insects, and of other invertebrates. At a much later 
period Rollett again approached the study of muscle 
from a physiological point of view, and published im- 
portant observations on the velocity of the contraction 
wave and on exhaustion phenomena. On_ the 
