322 NATURE 
[FEBRUARY 4, 1904 
and have been suffering severely for some years past 
from the fact that the public schools now pass their boys 
directly into Woolwich and Sandhurst in greatly 
augmented numbers, and therefore send far less of 
them to the tutors than formerly. And, secondly, 
because, owing to the above mentioned circumstance, 
very few boys now go to the army tutors from the 
public schools, in normal circumstances, unless they 
are a good deal below the average of public school 
candidates; whilst formerly, when these candidates 
were much less carefully looked after in many 
schools than they are now, a great many boys of more 
than average ability passed from the schools into 
the hands of the tutors. The change in the quality 
of the boys who come into the classes of the latter, 
therefore, probably is not due to a deterioration of the 
work done in the schools—even if there be such a 
deterioration—but to an entirely different cause, viz. 
that which we have indicated above. 
The truth of the matter, judging from what was said 
in the discussion and other evidence, appears to be 
something of this sort, that the Sandhurst and Wool- 
wich candidates of to-day, so far as concerns those 
“who are at all likely to obtain a commission,”’ are sel- 
dom ‘** wanting in the moral qualities of an officer,’’ are 
“willing to learn’? and “easily interested in their 
work for a time,’? but a great many of them are 
“mentally incapable of concentration?’ for anything 
but short periods of time. The cause of this defect is 
to be sought and remedied partly in the schools, partly 
also in modern English home life; but we fear it 
will never be eradicated so long as the military pro- 
fession continues to be not self-supporting. And for 
this reason :—The supply of able and ambitious young 
men who desire a soldier’s career and who are in a 
position to follow a profession which will not, in most 
cases, support them is somewhat small, whilst the 
number of such young men required for officers is large. 
The result is that though the competition for com- 
missions in the engineers is a real one, that for the 
other branches of the army is much less severe than is 
generally supposed. Hence the spur to work is much 
less than the interests of the army demand. 
Other very important topics which came up in the 
discussion were the methods of teaching mathematics 
and the great need for more science in the education 
of officers. On both these points Colonel Maude is 
thoroughly sound. He advocates a far wider use of 
graphic methods in mathematics, and realises that the 
subject could and should be made more interesting, 
though apparently he is unaware of the recent great 
changes that have been effected in this department, 
for he remarks that he is told the method is in use in 
France, and that he learns from the Engineer that 
Prof. Perry recommends it in England. 
; On the second subject he says, ‘* Primarily, we need ”’ 
in our officers “ the power to observe facts accurately, 
t.e. scientific teaching ’?; and again, in the discussion 
on his paper he pointed out, what we ourselves directed 
attention to a few days later, that under the proposals 
formulated for the examinations for entrance to the 
army in the future it would continue to be possible 
for candidates to get into the army “ 
d with no know- 
ledge of science ” 
ed and, it may be added. with no scien- 
tific training to enable them to sift facts and distinguish 
the true from the false. : 
A few days after Colonel Maude’s paper was read 
a protest on the subject of the new regulations was 
made in Nature, and there were many others, some 
made through the Press and others directed to the 
Advisory Committee. These various appeals appear 
to have induced the committee to reconsider the matter. 
But, alas! we find from the announcement made on 
January 18 that the committee has quite failed to under- 
NO. 1788, VOL. 69] 
stand the objections to its scheme, and that in its main 
feature, though not in all its details, the revised scheme 
is indistinguishable from that which preceded it. 
In the first scheme, that which was published in 
November, 1903, the provisions were as follows :— 
(1) That there should be a qualifying examination, 
which,might take the form of a leaving certificate, for 
all candidates, and that this must include English, 
history and geography, mathematics (elementary), 
French or German, and either (a) science, or (b) Latin 
or Greek. 
(2) That there should be in addition a competitive 
examination, and that for Woolwich this should in- 
clude three compulsory subjects, viz. English, either 
French or German, and mathematics i., together with 
any two of mathematics ii., science, history, French, 
German, Latin, Greek ; whilst for Sandhurst there were 
to be two compulsory subjects, English and French or 
German, together with any two of mathematics i., 
mathematics ii., science, history, French, German, 
Greek, Latin. 
On the publication of this scheme it was quickly 
pointed out in our columns and elsewhere that it would 
go near to Ixilling science in many, and perhaps in 
most, public schools, since, for reasons which need not 
be repeated, Latin would hold an advantage too great 
to be withstood in such a competition. On January 18 
some alterations in the scheme were announced. 
These are as follows :— : 
(1) The subjects covered by the qualifying certifi- 
cate will be divided, as shown below, into two classes. 
Class i.—(1) English, (2) English history and geo- 
graphy, (3) mathematics (elementary). N.B.—All 
candidates must take up and qualify in each of the 
above three subjects. 
Class ii.—(1) Science, (2) French or German, (3) 
Latin or Greek. N.B.—All candidates must take up 
and qualify in any two of the above three subjects (1), 
(2) and (3). 
(2) No candidate will be allowed to take out a 
leaving certificate or its equivalent, or pass the qualify- 
ing literary examination, before he has attained the 
age of seventeen years. 
(3) The languages which may be taken up as 
voluntary subjects at the competitive examination for 
admission to the Royal Military Academy or Royal 
Military College will be—German or French, and Latin 
or Greek. ; 
No doubt at first sight this seems a considerable 
change in the right direction, since it appears to put 
science on an equal footing with French or German 
and with Latin or Greek. But if we look more closely 
into the proposal we see that one of these three sub- 
jects, viz. French or German, and one only, is com- 
pulsory for both Woolwich and Sandhurst in the com- 
petitive part, and must, therefore, be taken up at the 
qualifying stage also by practically every candidate. 
Thus the scheme in its new form is only the original 
scheme rewritten. The real alternative is still, as 
before, between science and Latin or Greek,! and 
between these two only. 
It is nothing less than astounding that the body of 
officers and gentlemen who have now had this matter 
before them for several months should so little under- 
stand the certain effect of their own regulations that 
they could put forward this change, which is no 
change, after all that has been said and written on the 
subject. 
Taken as a whole, the new proposals do, it is true, 
make a slight alteration. In part ii. candidates will 
be unable to take up two modern or two classical 
languages, which may tend in some slight degree to 
widen the school training of a few of the candidates. 
Really, in effect, between science and Latin. 
