DEcEMBER 10, 1896] 
NATURE 
I4I 
elected to a Millard Scholarship in Natural Science at Trinity 
College. 
Messrs. G. W, Williams,*of Pocklington School, and H. H. 
Crosthwaite Thomas, of Kendal School, were honourably 
mentioned as a result of the examinations for Hasting’s Exhibi- 
tions at Queen's College. 
The following elections to Mathematical Scholarships and 
Exhibitions have taken place :—Balliol College : H. C. Beaven, 
of Rugby School; W. H. Beveridge, of Dulwich College. 
Queen’s College: Rs B. Threlfall, of Ifeversham School. 
Brasenose College: F. F. Beach, of Monmouth Grammar 
School. Worcester College: O. Meade-King, of Exeter 
Grammar School; W. C, Burnet, of Boston Grammar School. 
CAMBRIDGE.—The Arnold Gerstenberg Studentship for pro- 
moting the study of moral philosophy and metaphysics among 
students of natural science, both men and women, has been 
divided between Mr. C. S. Myers, of Caius College, and Mr. 
A. G. Tansley, of Trinity College, who have already taken 
honours in the Natural Sciences Tripos. 
A vote of the Senate will be taken to-day (December 10) on 
the question whether or not the Sedgwick Memorial Museum 
of Geology shall be erected in the ground recently acquired 
from Downing College. 
The General Board of Studies, while adhering to their opinion 
as to the importance of maintaining and endowing the Profes- 
sorship of Surgery, now propose that it shall be suspended for 
one year. The proposal is made on the ground that it is de- 
sirable to give time for bringing about an official connection 
between the office and “a Hospital.”” Of course Addenbrooke’s 
Hospital is intended, and it remains to be seen whether the 
Governors will be willing to reopen a question which was 
thought to have been satisfactorily arranged a few months ago. 
The State Medicine Syndicate states that in the past year 
sixty-seven candidates have presented themselves for the 
examination in Public Health. Thirty-five were successful in 
obtaining the University Diploma. 
__ Mr. E. W. Brown, of Christ’s College, Professor of Applied 
Mathematics at Haverford College, Pennsylvania, has been 
approved for the degree of Doctor of Science. Prof. Brown's 
researches in the lunar theory are numerous and important. 
| Dr. L. E. Shore, Fellow of St. John’s College, has been 
appointed University Lecturer in Physiology, in the place of Dr. 
A. S. Lea; and Mr, A. Eichholz, Fellow of Emmanuel College, 
has been appointed an additional Demonstrator in Physiology. 
Mr. F. B. Stead, of King’s College, has been nominated to 
occupy the University’s table at the Naples Zoological Station, 
‘in the place of the late Mr. Gray. 
__ The Walsingham Gold Medal has been awarded to Mr. W. 
McDougall, of St. John’s College, for a monograph embodying 
original research in physiology. 
THE Gossage Chemical Laboratory of the University College, 
Liverpool, will be opened on December 12, by the Earl of 
Derby. Prof. Ramsay will deliver an address upon that occa- 
‘sion. This addition to the chemical department will, says the 
British Medical Journal, afford increased accommodation to 
medical students and candidates for the D.P.H., and will pro- 
vide the means of carrying on special advanced chemistry. In 
connection with this department it is proposed to undertake the 
preparation of some of the rarer chemical compounds for the use of 
investigators who now have frequently to send abroad for them. 
THE regulations applicable to secondary schools receiving 
grants from the Technical Education Board of the London 
County Council for the year 1896-97, which are published in the 
Tast number of the Gaze/¢e, are of a very satisfactory and thorough 
kind. Amongst several important additions and alterations, we 
are glad to notice that scholars entitled to free education are not 
or other extras. The arrangements which continue to be made 
owards perfecting the practical teaching of science in the 
metropolitan secondary schools leave little to be desired. In 
the issue of the Gazet/e before us we find an account of additions 
to six more of these schools, viz:—Cooper’s School, Bow ; 
Philological School for Boys, Marylebone Road ; Roan School 
for Boys, Greenwich ; James Allen’s School for Girls ; Brompton 
School for Girls; and Rame’s School for Boys, St. George'’s-in- 
‘the-East. In nearly every case laboratories for the teaching of 
practical physics and chemistry have been provided, and in 
some of them manual instruction has also been added to the 
to be required to pay for entrance fees, books, examination fees, | 
THE Catalogue (Avglice, Calendar) of the Michigan Mining 
School for 1896-1898 has lately been issued. Beside the usual 
; school statistics, cuts of buildings, outlines of courses, &c., the 
volume contains a number of tables giving the classification of 
rocks and minerals, which students taking the course in geology, 
mineralogy, and petrography will find very valuable in their 
class and laboratory work, as well as helpful in their future 
researches. The scope of the work done and the methods 
employed in this department of the school are well outlined by 
these classifications. The catalogue contains also various 
Statistics concerning the mineral production of the United 
States, and of Michigan in particular. Mention is made of the 
equipment and work of many of the most important copper 
and iron mines in the Upper Peninsula. The data thus col- 
lected brings out the fact that the school has all that could be 
desired in its situation, in the very midst of the most productive 
mines, in which are found the finest mining machinery in the 
world. The weekly excursions to the neighbouring mines and 
mills, laid out as a regular part of the student’s work, together 
with the annual trip to the more remote iron mines, enable him 
to study and compare the plans of work employed. 
Mr. Batrour’s remarks, reported in NATURE (p. 85), upon 
the difference between technical instruction as understood by 
most of the committees which dispense it, and the higher 
technical instruction in which Germany takes the lead, ought 
to be known to every local educational authority in the 
country. The matter was referred to in a recent address, 
(p. 69), in which Prof. Meldola deplored the action of Tech- 
nical Education Committees in frittering away the fund at 
their disposal upon numerous small classes, instead of concen- 
trating their attention upon a few, and making these thorough. 
The folly of this has been pointed out on many occasions in these 
columns, and every thoughtful educationist regrets that so much 
money is being wasted upon trade subjects while the scientific 
principles underlying them are generally neglected, and often 
ignored altogether. With the idea of finding the nature of the 
instruction given in technical classes, we have looked through the 
invaluable A’ecord published by the National Association for the 
Promotion of Technical and Secondary Education, and have 
derived therefrom the following instances :— 
In addition to classes in other subjects, Bedfordshire provides 
instruction in nursing, carpentry, and farriery ; Buckinghamshire 
supplies dressmaking, lace-making, straw-plaiting, horticulture ; 
Cambridgeshire : basket-making, brick-work, vocal music ; Isle 
of Ely, poultry-rearing, bee-keeping, ploughing, draining and 
dyking, vocal music; Cheshire, pattern-cutting and clicking, 
type-writing, music ; Cornwall has classes in cabinet-making and 
plumbing ; Devonshire, sheep-shearing and thatching ; Dorset- 
shire, brick-making ; Essex, smiths’ work, sail-making, photo- 
graphy ; Herefordshire, ploughing and hedging, precis-writing, 
horse-shoeing, and political economy ; Hertfordshire really dis- 
tinguishes itself by providing for instruction in nineteen 
‘technical ” subjects. including embroidery, wicker-work, china- 
painting, allotment gardening, hedging and ditching, sheep- 
shearing, ploughing, and farriery. Lancashire encourages the 
teaching of subjects which differ as widely as ‘* hat-manufacture ” 
and “‘ financial science.” The difficulty experienced in reading 
the report of the work in Lancashire was to find some subject 
which was of taught. Leicestershire adds ‘‘ hosiery” to its 
repertoire, and Lincolnshire (Holland) stacking. Norfolk 
provides on its ‘* bill of fare’ every subject from needlework to 
seamanship. Shropshire adds leather-work, a subject favoured 
by many other counties. Staffordshire offers metal-work, re- 
poussé-work, and gesso, while Surrey is distinguished by 
‘“economics.” East Sussex fosters music, and teaches life- 
saving. Wiltshire sanctions classes in brewing, and Worcester- 
shire in cider-making. The borough educationists are disposed 
in many cases to be inventive. At Bath ‘* technical arithmetic ” 
has been invented, at Bolton ‘‘ machine” calculations are taught 
as a separate subject, while the youth of Burnley are taught 
“*commercial”’ English. The authorities at Blackburn assist the 
teaching of Greek and Latin, in addition to French, German, 
Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, and add thereto the usual 
subjects, with vocal music, shorthand, and book-keeping. These 
instances are but a few of many which can be found in the 
Records for the last twoyears. No further argument is necessary 
to show the necessity for some sort of unanimity as to what 
ought to be attempted and whatleftalone. The worst ofit is that 
allthis dabbling dissipates energy which, with a little guidance, 
could be made capable of accomplishing really useful work. 
