March 29, 1906] 



NA TURE 



521 



upon it, therefore, as a piece of good fortune that synthesis 

 demands the creation of countless new methods of con- 

 struction, separation, and recognition, and the study of 

 hundreds of intermediate products before the proteids them- 

 selves can be reached. For these methods not only serve 

 in the end to produce all the natural albumins, but bring 

 to light many more which may eventually serve to explain 

 the remarkable changes which certain proteids effect in 

 the form of ferments and toxins. J. B. C. 



THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS. 

 "I X its report for 1905, the Royal Society for the Protection 

 of Birds directs attention to the circumstance that the 

 year under review is the first during which it has enjoyed 

 the privilege of a Royal Charter. Reference is also made 

 to the importance of last year's ornithological congress in 

 connection with the recognition of the great principle that 

 bird-protection is an international affair, and that, in the 

 case of migratory species, it is of little use to adopt pro- 

 tective measures in this country if indiscriminate slaughter 

 is carried on abroad. It is, moreover, also pointed out 

 that we are by no means free from reproach in this matter 

 even at home, as is exemplified by the instance of a honey- 

 buzzard which was killed and mounted in the Isle of 

 Wight, although such procedure would have been illegal 

 in Hampshire. The progress of bird-protection in India is 

 referred to with approval ; but it is stated that further inter- 

 national action is required in connection with the trade 

 in " osprey -plumes." 



Simultaneously with the report of the English Society for 

 the Protection of Birds, we received those of the kindred 

 American body, the National Association of Audubon 

 Societies, for 1904 and 1905. The former of these contains 

 a history of the " Audubon movement " in the United 

 States by Mr. W. Datcher, the president of the association, 

 and also the results of a special effort for the protection 

 of water-birds, made possible by a fund at the disposal of 

 the association. In the report for 1905 the president has 

 to congratulate the association on its first year's working 

 as a corporate organisation, the incorporation having 

 largely augmented its power for good. After referring to 

 the cordial relations existing between the association and 

 foreign bodies the work of which is of a similar nature, 

 the president directs special attention to correspondence re- 

 lating to the urgent need of protection for the extensive 

 bird-colonies in certain islands in the Pacific. Special 

 efforts are being made to enlist the interest of the general 

 public in bird-protection by means of exquisitely illustrated 

 leaflets (of which we have received a sheaf) descriptive of 

 some of the rare and more interesting birds. In the case 

 of the cardinal and so-called American goldfinch, the illus- 

 trations are coloured. 



THE PLACE OF POLYTECHNICS IN 

 EDUCATION.' 



""THOSE of you who know what you are doing here and 

 know what is being done in other places must feel 

 that we are at a very interesting, almost a critical, time 

 from an educational point of view. We may be said, 

 indeed, to be at the beginning of a new renaissance — a new 

 birth of learning, just in the same way that our forbears, 

 a.d. 1000 up to a.d. 1200, were in the forefront of that 

 first renaissance. But the trouble is that the dark ages 

 did not cease then, lor we have had a dark age since, and 

 it is to correct this second dark age that this new birth 

 is necessary. Now what did the inhabitants of Europe 

 do at that first renaissance? They kept on the schools 

 which had been brought down by the different rulers, the 

 different church authorities, from the time of the Roman 

 Empire. The Roman schools, judging from what the 

 Romans did from Scotland to the south end of the Red 

 Sea, must have dealt with the science of the time, and 

 that perhaps is the reason that the earliest universities 

 always included " the nature of things " in their curricula. 

 A modern public schoolmaster might not think their educa- 



1 Extracts from an Address delivered at the Borough Polytechnic Institute 

 on December 4, 1905, by Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.B., F.R.S. 



no. 1900, VOL. 73~] 



tion complete because Latin and Greek were the modern 

 languages then, and the students were taught no dead 

 ones ; but, be this as it may, at the renaissance they in- 

 sisted upon the teaching of Latin, because then everybody 

 who was anybody spoke Latin — it was the lingua franca 

 of Europe — and not to speak Latin was to belong to the 

 corps of the deaf and dumb. Secondly, they had to learn 

 Greek, because the movers in the educational world at that 

 time were chiefly doctors, and they had learned all they 

 could about doctoring and surgery from bad Latin trans- 

 lations of bad Arabic translations of the Greek authorities, 

 so that when the Greek manuscripts became available all 

 the world was agog to learn Greek in order chiefly that 

 they might learn medicine and surgery. Now, I want to 

 point out to you that in this we had education founded 

 absolutely and completely upon the crying needs of the 

 time. Very good. Then if we are going to do anything 

 like that in our new renaissance, what ought we to do if 

 we are to follow precedent? We must arrange our educa- 

 tion in some way in relation to the crying needs of the 

 time. The least little dip into the history of the old uni- 

 versities will prick the bubble of classical education as 11 

 is presented to us to-day. Latin was not learned because 

 it had the most magnificent grammar of known languages. 

 Greek was not learned in consequence of the transcendental 

 sublimity of ancient Greek civilisation. Both these things 

 were learned because people had to learn them to get their 

 daily bread, either as theologians or doctors or lawyers, 

 and while they learned them the " nature of things " was 

 not forgotten. 



Now what is the problem of to-day? We are in a world 

 which has been entirely changed by the advent of modern 

 science, modern nations, and modern industries, and it is 

 therefore perfectly obvious that if we wish to do the best 

 for our education it must be in some relation to those three 

 great changes which have come on the world since the old 

 days. Remember, in the old days there was no experi- 

 mental philosophy, there was no steam, there was little 

 relation practically between the ordinary lives of the people 

 and the phenomena, or, at all events, the working of the 

 world of nature around them. But with us all our life, the 

 poorest life, the richest life, the country life, the town 

 life, if it is to be lived properly and wholesomely, has to 

 be lived in the full light of modern science ; we have to 

 know exactly the best thing to do and why we should do 

 it. The problem before us to-day, if it be the same problem 

 that was before those old peoples, the problem, that is to 

 say, of learning everything we can from those around us 

 in other nations, must drive us to the study of modern 

 languages, just as the modern world conditions drive us to 

 modern science, so that there, I think, we have an answer 

 to those who may ask of us : What changes are you going 

 to make in modern education if you are going to have the 

 best possible education? First of all, we have the fact 

 that we are bound, if we follow precedent, to deal with 

 those things which are of importance from the present 

 point of view. Latin is no longer the lingua franca of 

 Europe, and we have better guides in science and philo- 

 sophy than Aristotle. A question which arises when we go 

 on to consider this matter is a very simple one : Is it 

 worth while bothering about education? Is it worth while 

 troubling to inquire what the old renaissance did or the 

 new renaissance ought to do? Now there we approach a 

 question in which the world is certainly very much wiser 

 than it was a few years ago. Thirty or forty years ago, I 

 am sorry to say, in this country practically nobody cared 

 anything whatever about education, at all events about the 

 education of the people, and the trouble with us now — the 

 trouble that we shall have to take years to get over — is 

 that in Germany that question was settled as early as the 

 time of Luther, who insisted that it was the duty of all 

 communities to look after the education of their children 

 as well as the building of bridges and the making of roads. 

 Nofw I think it is generally accepted, both in this country 

 and in others, that whether the citizens of a State are 

 educated or not is a matter of absolutely supreme import- 

 ance, and when I say " educated " I mean educated morally 

 and physically as well as intellectually. It is no longer 

 merely the concern of the child or of the child's parent. 

 It is acknowledged to be the only true foundation for a 



