November 9, 1905] 



NA TURE 



4i 



vertebrate arose from that group of invertebrates which 

 possessed a central nervous system most nearly similar to 

 thai ol a lovs vertebrate such as Ammocoetes, an inverte- 

 brate, therefore, I. .lunging to the group of arthropods. 

 This argument had been worked out by the author in a 

 series Ol papers published in the Journal of Anatomy and 

 Physiology, and receives especial support from the pala- 

 ontological record. For the dominant rare now, the biped 

 mammal man, arose undoubtedly from the highest race 

 evolved up to that time — the quadrupedal mammals; these 

 in their turn originated from the dominant reptiles; these 



1: .Min from the amphibians, which were the most highly 

 organised group of their day. The amphibians themselves 

 1 Line from the dominant race living in the sea al the 

 time— ^the fishes ; so, too, according to the author's theory, 

 the fishes arose directly out of the race previously dominant, 

 i.e. the arthropod group. This theory necessitates the 

 formation of a new alimentary canal at the transition 

 from the arthropod to the vertebrate — a requirement which 

 is no more unlikely than the formation of a new respiratory 

 apparatus at the transition of a fish into an amphibian. 



I he reason why others have found this formation of a 

 new Slimentary canal so difficult of acceptance is because 

 embryology — and embryology alone — in its recent teaching 

 makes the alimentary canai, and not the central nervous 

 system, the important organ around which the animal is 

 built up. The author, basing himself especially on Braem's 

 papers in the Biologisch.es Centralblatt, pointed out that 

 in reality the germinal layer theory was a physiological 



and not a morphological conception, that th te criterion 



of hypoblast was not its mode of formation but its ultimate 

 fati ; whither or no, the definite alimentary canal was 

 formed from it. Morphological laws of development must 

 exist, but to quote Samassa, " one thing can be said with 

 certainty al the present time, the germinal layer theory is 

 not one of them." The author suggested a re-consideration 

 ol the whole matter, and, starting with the adult, pointed 

 out that the tissues of the body fall naturally into two 

 great groups, those which are connected with tin central 

 nervous system, the master tissues of the body, anil those 

 which live a free existence without any such connection. 

 The body might be looked upon as composed of a neuro- 

 epithelial syncytium, in the meshes of which free cells 

 live. 



Prof. Cleland, F.R.S., in conclusion, read a communi- 

 cation on the growing-point of the Yertebrata, in the 

 course of which he pointed out that while the medullary 

 folds appear in close connection with the blastopore, and 

 the parts concerned with the cranium and its contents are 

 lie' fust to appear, both mesoblastic somites and spinal 

 nerves appear in succession, each metamere behind that 

 which is immediately proserial to it. ft follows, therefore, 

 that it is from the short space between the medullary 

 folds and blastopore that new metameres of the neuro- 

 muscular system are formed, and there is no reason to 

 doubt, the author held, that the visceral system is extended 

 in (he same manner. The nucleated corpuscles of this 

 region furnished, therefore, in his opinion, the parents "I 

 the corpuscles of which the successive metameres of the 

 trunk are composed, and they do so by giving off successive 

 -.ins uf corpuscles which belong each to a particular 

 metameVe. 



T 



EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE AT THE BRITISH 

 ASSOCIATION. 



HE most noteworthy feature in the educational science 

 on at tin' South African meeting of the British 

 Association was the address of its president, Sir Richard 

 Jebb, an address which was originally delivered at Cape 

 Town, and repeated with a little variation at Johannes- 

 burg. '111.- address, which was printed in full in Nature 

 ol September 28 ip. 545), dealt with the idea of a uni- 

 >. . 1 iiv and the distinction which marks off the teaching 

 of a university from that of a higher technical school or 

 similar institution. 



I he subject of the address was the more apposite in 



thai the most pressing educational question in South 



1 the present time is the creation of a teaching 



university. The present Cape University is an examining 



NO. 1880, VOL. J^\ 



body only, and it has been suggested that the time has 

 come for it to grow into a teaching university by the 

 combination of the colleges at present preparing for its 

 examinations, much as the Universit) uf London was 

 so recently re-created. The difficulties, however, both of 

 funds and' of conflicting inter, sis have nol yel been over- 

 come. 



At Johannesburg, also, the successful starl ..I the nth 



established technical institute has led 0. a plan for its 

 growth into a university, with engineering, agrii ulture, 

 law and education as its main Faculties, and 11 seems 

 not unlik'ely that liberal financial support would be forth- 

 coming should it be decided on fuller consideration to 

 adopt such a scheme. 



At the sectional meetings a large proportion of tin 

 papers was contributed by teachers resident in South 

 Africa, so that opportunities were afforded to the visitors 

 oi learning what were the more pressing educational 

 problems, and to the local members of discussing these 

 problems on a wider platform. At (ape 1 own the Rev. 

 W. E. C. Clarke gave a general review of the develop- 

 ment of education in the cplonv, laving particular stress 

 on the perennial difficulty of providing any efficient scheme 

 for the instruction of the widely scattered country popula- 

 tion. Mr. Clarke's paper excited considerable interest, and 

 led to renewed discussion, especially the latter portion, 

 which dealt with the status of the teacher in Cape Colony. 

 He spoke of the power of the Cape Teachers' Union, and 

 deplored the tendency of their conferences to be rather 

 exclusively occupied with questions of salary and allow- 

 ances instead of leading public opinion on matters of 

 educational policv. 



Mr. YV. W. Wav, principal of the Graaf Reinet College, 

 also contributed a 'brilliantly written and hard-hitting paper 

 on the disabilities of the' South African schoolboy. He 

 pointed out how the semi-tropical climate, the wealth of 

 sun and air, the freedom and isolation of the life of the 

 South African boy, while thev produce an alert and self- 

 reliant race, do not work wall in the interests of education. 

 The youth are essentially undisciplined and unintellectual, 

 while' the earlv phvsical development brings its own 

 dangers. Mr. Wav touched upon the further difficulties, 

 both as to mind and morals, which arise out of the prox- 

 imity of the native, th.' co-existence of two languages, the 

 inferior tvpe of teacher that characterised the past, and the 

 narrowing influence of many of the religious bodies in the 

 country. Nothing but an ampler endowment and a general 

 rise in the status of the teacher can induce in tin- future 

 South African a proper respect for his intellectual develop- 

 ment. 



The general history and administration of education in 

 the other colonies were thoroughly dealt with at th.' 

 Johannesburg meeting in a series ..I papers contributed 

 by Mr. Warre Cornish, Mr. (.111111, and Mr. Duthie. They 

 ail showed certain common problems — the scarcity of suit- 

 able teachers and the necessity of improving their status 

 and training, the expense of providing adequate school 

 buildings, and the difficulties induced bj the isolation 

 of the farms. This latter question of education upon the 

 Veld was also dealt with in a breezy paper by Mr. J. H. 

 (mli. 11, a vivid and sympathetic presentation of the case, 

 in which the author evidently trusted more to the self- 

 devotion of the individual teacher than to any possibilities 

 of organisation. 



The second meeting at Cape Town opened with a paper 

 by Mr. W. M. Heller on the methods of teaching science, 

 with an introduction bv Prof. H. E. Armstrong. At its 

 close Mr. Oscar Br. .wning expressed his dissent from the 

 current view' of the " heuristic " method — as an instru- 

 ment of education it was valueless, and all good teachers 

 of history and literature had worked by (his method long 

 before Prof. Armstrong resuscitated its unhappy name. 

 Mr. A. D. Hall claimed that the value of the " heuristic " 

 method lav in the inspiring ideal it set up; unrealisable 

 as it might be, the natural tendency of the teacher was 

 to drift along the other easier wa\ of giving instruction 

 ex cathedra instead of bv th.' path of discover; an. I experi- 

 ment. Mr. G. Fletcher.' however, rather hit off th. 

 of lb- in. '-ting wh.-n he suggested thai a 

 l.e declared for discussions of th.' "heuristic" method, 

 which had in past years occupied far too much of the 



