5*P 



NATURE 



[April 2, 1885 



America, and incorporated in the lectures. In my next 

 and concluding notice I shall touch on the further deve- 

 lopments if space permits. 1 George Forbes 

 {To be continued.) 



CITY AND GUILDS OF LONDON INSTITUTE 

 'HE Fifth Annual Report of the Council of this Insti- 



T l 



tute, which was presented last week to the Governors 

 by the Lord Chancellor, gives evidence of marked pro- 

 gress in all departments of the Institute's operations. 

 During the last five years, the advance made in this 

 country in providing technical schools of various grades 

 has been very great, and brings us educationally within a 

 measurable distance of France and Germany. Much 

 praise is certainly due to the City Companies for the very 

 energetic manner in which they have set about giving 

 effect to the important objects they have undertaken. 

 The Technical College at Finsbury and the Central 

 Institution at South Kensington are important additions 

 to the educational establishments of the metropolis. That 

 the Finsbury College has supplied a great want is shown 

 by the rapid increase in the number of students during 

 the two years since it was opened. The number of 

 evening students might have been expected to be large, 

 because in very few places, if in any, do evening students 

 have the same advantages as at Finsbury of obtaining 

 practical instruction in physics and mechanics. But the 

 great success of the College is shown in the increasing 

 number of its day students. In little more than two years 

 the number has increased from 30 to 14S ; and nearly all 

 these students are in regular attendance throughout the 

 whole day, and go through the complete course of in- 

 struction as laid down for them in the programme. Some 

 changes have taken place in the staff of the College in 

 consequence of the opening of the Central Institution. 

 Mr. Philip Magnus has been relieved of the duties of 

 Principal, which he temporarily undertook in addition to 

 his other duties as organising Director of the Institute, 

 and Profs. Ayrton and .Armstrong have resigned the 

 Chairs of Physics and Chemistry for similar positions at 

 the Central Institution. The appointment of Dr. Silvanus 

 Thompson as Principal and Professor of Physics at 

 Finsbury promises well for the future of the College, and 

 the Council have been well advised in this selection. 

 The Professorship of Chemistry is still vacant. 



The Central Institution, which is to form a kind of 

 technical university, was formally opened in June last, 

 but, as generally happens, the completion of the fittings 

 has occupied more time than was anticipated, and the 

 Institution is consequently not yet in working order. The 

 Prince of Wales, who has shown great interest in the 

 progress of the Institute, issued an appeal to the Lord 

 Mayor and to the Masters of the several Companies for 

 additional funds to defray the cost of the fittings, which 

 brought in over 17,000/. It may be expected, therefore, 

 that this Central College will be very completely furnished 

 with all the necessary appliances and apparatus for 

 scientific and technical instruction. 



The Council of the Institute refer with satisfaction to 

 several passages in the Report of the Royal Commis- 

 sioners on Technical Instruction, showing the great need 

 in this country of improved facilities for higher technical 

 teaching. It is a common error, which the building in 

 South Kensington will help to correct, that technical 

 education has reference to artisans only, and that the im- 

 provement of the skill of the working man is the great 

 desideratum in the commercial interests of the country. 

 But this is not so. The difference between foreign 

 countries and our own in the facilities afforded for the 



1 Corrections to first notice in issue of March 19 : — For asphasia read 

 ■ <■ 1'. 462, line 41 of second column, for a few seconds, re&d/brafew 



thousandths of a second. P. 463, line 35 of first column, for without read 



education of artisans is not so marked as in the oppor- 

 tunities for the higher education of masters and managers 

 of works. 



But the City Guilds Institute, whilst giving prominence 

 in its scheme to the provision of this higher education at 

 its Central Institution, has done a great work in assisting 

 in the establishment of evening technical schools in all 

 the principal manufacturing centres of the kingdom, by 

 means of its system of technological examinations. The 

 Director's special Report on this part of the Institute's 

 work is full of detailed information as to the increase in the 

 number of candidates and of subjects of examination, and 

 is supplemented by remarks of the examiners on the 

 causes of the failures of the candidates. The percentage 

 of failures is decidedly high ; but the Institute very wisely 

 insists upon a high standard of excellence, so that its 

 certificates may be accepted by masters and employers 

 as proof of the efficiency of those who hold them. In 

 many crafts, this would be impossible, if the certificates 

 were awarded on the results of a written examination only ; 

 but the practical tests which have this year been added 

 afford a guarantee, which would otherwise be wanting, of 

 the technical skill, as well as of the knowledge of the candi- 

 dates. In the examination in "weaving," for instance, the 

 candidate is required to design an original pattern, to 

 prepare it for the loom, and to weave it in suitable mate- 

 rial, besides answering questions on the analysis of 

 patterns, the structure of the different kinds of looms, &c. 

 In mine surveying, also, a practical examination was last 

 year held at the Pease's West Collieries, in which the 

 candidates were engaged, with the examiner, in surface 

 and underground work during the three days. Whilst 

 the Institute's examinations are thus conducted there can 

 be no doubt of their efficiency, and of their affording a 

 valuable supplement to those of the Science and Art 

 Department. Most of the Institute's examiners com- 

 plain of the candidates' want of skill in drawing ; and 

 it is satisfactory to note that the attention of the Educa- 

 tion Department has been called to this general defect in 

 the education given in our primary schools, and that it is 

 likely to be remedied by the provisions for teaching linear 

 drawing throughout the Standards contained in the New 

 Code for 18S5. 



The Report of the Institute concludes with an appeal 

 for additional funds. If the Council are to develop the 

 work they have begun they require a much larger income 

 than they now dispense. A good beginning has been 

 made, but it is little more than a beginning, in the esta- 

 blishment of technical schools in this country. Leicester, 

 Nottingham, Sheffield, and Manchester have received 

 some assistance from the Institute ; but there are many 

 manufacturing towns still requiring help, and the wants of 

 the metropolis are by no means satisfied. It is to be 

 hoped, therefore, that the appeal of the Council, backed 

 by the powerful support of the Lord Chancellor, will meet 

 with a ready and adequate response. 



THE PEABODY MUSEUM A T NEW HA VEN, U.S. 

 T^HE accompanying illustration of this fine museum is 

 ■"- reproduced from Science. The Peabody Museum, 

 Mr. Ingersol] informs us, stands on the corner of Elm 

 and High Streets, just without the campus of Yale Col- 

 lege. The building is due to the liberality of George 

 Peabody, who gave a sum of money, in 1S66, to erect a 

 house for the collections. Thanks to the financial pros- 

 perity of Massachusetts, the bonds for a hundred and fifty 

 thousand dollars had greatly increased, and those set 

 aside for the first wing of the building had become worth 

 a hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars when the 

 trustees began to build. With that sum they have erected 

 one of the finest buildings, for its purpose, in the United 

 States — a lofty and ornamental structure of red brick and 

 cream-coloured stone, whose broad and numerous windows 



