January 25, 1906] 



NA TURE 



509 



(Eton) were elected to serve in a joint capacity. Mr. J. 

 Talbot (Harrow) was re-appointed treasurer, and the Rev. 

 the Hon. Canon Lyttelton, headmaster of Eton, was 

 unanimously elected president for the year 1907. 



Sir Michael Foster, in opening the conference, excused 

 himself from giving an address on the ground that for some 

 time his minxl had been filled with very inferior things 

 (Sir Michael referred to the contest for the represent- 

 ation of London University in Parliament). The first paper 

 was read by the Rev. W. Madeley (Woodbridge) ; its aim 

 was to invite discussions upon the possibility of intro- 

 ducing a comprehensive syllabus of scientific teaching 

 within the time limits of a classical curriculum. Mr. 

 Madeley characterised the fact that there was no com- 

 pulsory science on the classical sides of public schools as 

 a deplorable anachronism. He pointed out, too, that philo- 

 sophy was introduced into the classical honours papers at 

 Oxford, and that classical scholars were expected now to 

 know what was meant by the " struggle for existence," 

 " survival of the fittest," " the Glacial epoch," and " the 

 laws of motion," as shown by questions set in examin- 

 ation papers. He suggested that two hours alone per week 

 could be spared in which classical boys could do science, 

 and outlined a general course of what he termed natural 

 philosophy, which he thought would broaden the outlook 

 of the boys and do more for their general education than 

 a training in some special branch of science. Among tne 

 items in his syllabus were gravitation, the solar system, 

 the conservation of energy, the indestructibility of matter, 

 the laws of chemical change and combination, Darwinism 

 and evolution. 



Sir Michael Foster, in the discussion which followed, said 

 that he sympathised with the wish of Mr. Madeley, who 

 had given them a problem to solve and mentioned the 

 time in which it had to be done. He went on to say that 

 the whole use of science was dependent upon the habit of 

 mind that was acquired, and this, which meant openness, 

 alertness, and power of observing many things, could not 

 be gained by surveying the whole world of science, but by 

 attendance to details. When these had been mastered 

 broader views and generalisations could more easily be 

 grasped. 



Mr. W. D. Eggar (Eton) advocated that the two hours 

 should be devoted to laboratory study, and that a very 

 small bit of science should be thoroughly taken up. No 

 lectures should be given, as the boys could read up notions 

 for themselves. Mr. D. Berridge (Malvern) thought that 

 if classical masters prepared a number of foreign phrases 

 for the science boys to learn, so that those met with in 

 the newspapers could be understood, they would be as 

 well equipped from the literary point of view as Mr. 

 Madeley's boys would be in science by the course which 

 he had outlined. Mr. Berridge agreed that the division of 

 the lower school into classical and modern sides militated 

 against the taking of science on the former of these. He 

 suggested that headmasters should try the experiment of 

 making, say, the five subjects of the old London matricu- 

 lation compulsory for all boys until they were sixteen years 

 of age and ready to specialise. Mr. W. A. Shenstone 

 (Clifton) asked why boys might not have the special and 

 the general training as well, and advocated, in addition 

 to the two hours' work at a particular branch in the 

 laboratory, the attendance of the boys once a fortnight 

 at general lectures, such as those lay addresses given at 

 Clifton on Sundav evenings. Many speakers emphasised 

 the ignorance of the classical boy and man. Mr. Cumming 

 (Rugby) said that the only instrument that they understood 

 when they left school was the pen. 



Mr. J. Talbot (Harrow) read the second paper, on the 

 present state of the Army examinations, and began bv 

 alluding to the changes which have recentlv taken place, 

 not only in flie standard and arrangement of subjects, but 

 also in their very nature. As he considered that the 

 changes were permanent, he went on to trace the reason 

 for them. For this we must go to South Africa, for the 

 recent war has altered the whole principles underlying the 

 tactics and training of the Army. As Colonel Henderson 

 has pointed out, the discipline used to be entirely 

 mechanical, killing all individuality, and forbidding either 

 officer or man to move without direct order; now. as he 

 says, soldiers must be like a pack of well trained hounds, 



NO. 189T, VOL. 73] 



not running in regular order, but without stragglers, each 

 using his instincts and intelligence, and following up the 

 general aim with relentless perseverance. 



Under the old conditions, Mr. Talbot said, brains were 

 not essential in an officer, and any type of entrance ex- 

 amination would do, and did. Now, however, if each 

 officer is to employ the trained initiative which is essential 

 in the new order of things and produce it in his men, it 

 is obvious that his own training as a boy becomes all 

 important. While Woolwich and Sandhurst supply the 

 purely technical training, the science masters have to supply 

 the mind they train, and this must be well developed, 

 inured to hard work, and, above all things, supple. 



\\ ■■ .in- now in a position, continued Mr. Talbot, to 

 understand the division of the examination into two parts. 

 The qualifying examination, or its equivalent, the leaving 

 certificate, is intended to ensure that the boy has a sound 

 general education, the competitive, that he has brains, and 

 unless the standard of the examination is fairly high it is 

 difficult to tuscriminate between brains and cram. 



One of the chief qualifications of the officer is the power 

 of initiative ; he is always meeting fresh problems, the 

 solution of which, right or wrong, must be found quickly, 

 and on its correctness the lives of his men and possibly of 

 a whole army may depend. No method of teaching which 

 Mr. Talbot had found makes more demand on a boy's 

 power of drawing conclusions and acting on them than 

 the practical work in the laboratories. For this reason 

 science should be compulsory in the qualifying examin- 

 ation, though not in the competitive one as it at present 

 stands. Certain things militate against the adoption by 

 candidates of science — the want of laboratory accommoda- 

 tion, the fact that the alternative subject, Latin, can be 

 taught to all the boys at once, and that there are two 

 examinations. In larger schools Mr. Talbot fancied that 

 science is doing well in the struggle for existence. In 

 conclusion, science masters were told that they could no 

 longer grumble at a reactionary War Office ; they must 

 see to it that it is not able to talk of antiquated teachers. 

 It would be a bad thing for the schools if there ever arose 

 a military Osborne to supersede the science masters. 



Sir Michael Foster bore out what Mr. Talbot had to 

 say about the two halves of the examination. The com- 

 mittee on military education had had to face the fact that 

 many an officer could not spell, and had no knowledge of 

 accounts. The qualifying examination was to ensure that 

 the candidate should at least be able to write a letter, and 

 the competitive to prove that he had brains, and, being 

 able to use them in some directions, might be likely 10 

 do the same in others. Subsequent speakers made it clear 

 that many boys at the public schools took science in the 

 qualifying examination if not in the other. The discussion 

 turned afterwards on the difficulties of, and objections to, 

 the practical examinations in science, especially when no 

 examiner came to conduct them. As an alternative, it was 

 suggested that the production of note-books kept in the 

 laboratory to show that the candidate had been through 

 a proper course of training should be accepted in lieu of 

 practical tests, and should determine whether the owner 

 should be allowed to sit at the theoretical examination. 



An exhibition of scientific apparatus by various makers 

 and members of the association was arranged in the labor- 

 atories of Westminster School in connection with the meet- 

 ing. Two novelties were shown bv Messrs. Brown and 

 Son : the first was a combination of the conical condenser 

 from 1 heir " Desideratum " still with a hot water oven, 

 the hot water from the top of the condenser being u^'-d 

 to Feed the jacket of the oven. The other was a new 

 suction and blast apparatus dependent upon water pressure, 

 which worked almost instantaneously. Among the exhibits 

 of the science masters themselves was a very neat method 

 of rocking a flask or other vessel by placing under one 

 edge of the circular base of the stand supporting it an 

 india-rubber tube through which a current of water is 

 passed. The Rev. E. C. Sherwood exhibited this, and also 

 some exceedingly useful clamps designed by Mr. Barnes. 

 Though adapted for almost any work, those shown were 

 used by Mr. Sherwood on retort stands, and are wonder- 

 fully ingenious and effective. A spring prevents the clamp 

 from sliding rapidly down the rod when the screw i- re- 

 leased ; the tightening of the latter not only fixes it on the 



