382 
NATURE 
[AucustT 17, 1899 
Department’s grants in that year was 158,370. These students 
were distributed among 11,723 classes in 2023 different schools. 
Scotch schools and students are not included in these figures, 
the Scotch Education Department having taken over the ad- 
ministration of grants for science and art instruction. Even 
more satisfactory than the increase of the number of pupils 
receiving science instruction is the fact that in 1898 there were 
159 Schools of Science—that is, schools following an organised 
course of scientific instruction—in which practical work forms an 
essential part. The number of students in these schools was 
21,193. This is a considerable increase on the preceding year, 
when the number of Schools of Science was 143, with 18,142 
students. 
For the year 1898 the grants to science schools in England, 
Wales and Ireland, exclusive of those made to training colleges, 
amounted to 169,604/ 3s. 3a. The sum included (a) 85,8622. 
to science schools for attendance grants, and 614/. on results of 
examination (honours only); total, 86,4767. ; (4) 82,998/. to 
Schools of Science, for capitation and attendance grants and 
grants on results of examination. 
The figures under (a) show an average payment in 1898 of 
12s. 74d. for each individual student under instruction in science. 
schools, whilst the average payment per student under instruction 
in Schools of Science (4) was 3/. 185. 2d. 
The grants now made to schools are based upon the attend- 
ance of pupils, instead of being computed on the results of the 
individual examinations. Referring to this change and to the 
increase of practical work, Captain Abney, the Director for 
Science, says :—‘‘ In the past year, the system of payments by 
attendance was made general to all schools except in the case of 
Schools of Science. From this mode of payment candidates for 
honours were necessarily omitted, their work being necessarily 
special and requiring special treatment. The abolition of pay- 
ments on results has diminished to some extent the numbers of 
students who were presented for examination, and the course of 
instruction in the various stages of the subjects of science for 
which payments are made will be more prolonged. This un- 
doubtedly tends to sound instruction. . . . There is a decided 
increase in practical instruction in various subjects, and in many 
places laboratories for physics and for biological subjects have 
been provided, as the higher attendance grant is only attainable 
where such provision has been made. I cannot help comment- 
ing upon the very marked impression that the obligation to give 
practical instruction in science has made in the elaboration of 
apparatus for teaching purposes. At a conference on science 
teaching, held at the Chelsea Polytechnic under the auspices of 
the London Technical Education Board, there was an exhibition 
and demonstration of the use of science apparatus in teaching. 
The novelties in apparatus and the general interest taken in the 
conference by science teachers and others clearly indicated the 
rapid advances that had been made in this branch of teaching.” 
The Reports of the Inspectors of the Department include 
many points worthy of the consideration of educationists. The 
following extracts contain a few of the views expressed on the 
general subjects of secondary schools and science teaching ; and 
as they represent opinions based upon direct experience of the 
conditions of elementary scientific instruction in this country, 
they have exceptional value. 
Extracts from Reports. 
Many of the smaller secondary schools are still badly equipped 
for teaching purposes. Most of them are ill-supplied with 
funds, and have consequently an inadequate and inferior staff of 
teachers, while some few are bent upon continuing methods and 
subjects of instruction which must be of little value to the class 
from which their pupils should be drawn. It is, moreover, 
impossible to deny that owing to the practical absence of out- 
side criticism some few secondary schools are hopelessly 
inefficient. . . . Many country grammar schools have reason 
to be thankful to the County Councils for the very liberal aid 
they have received towards the erection or equipment of suitable 
rooms for science purposes, or towards the payment of a science 
master. The County Councils can for their part in most cases 
ensure that the science work is thoroughly and systematically 
given by requiring the school to place itself in connection with 
the Department. To this the best and most progressive of the 
smaller schools offer no objection. They realise that assistance 
from public funds must be accompanied by some amount of 
public control, and as a rule the visit of the inspector is most 
feared where it is most unknown. Still, in spite of County 
NO. 1555, VOL. 60] 
Council assistance and Department grants, many of the endowed 
grammar schools are still in straitened circumstances. Where 
fees are low and endowments small, it is often a serious matter 
tosecure a proper staff of teachers, to keep fittings and apparatus 
in a proper state of completeness, and to provide for the 
necessary outlay on repairs, rates and taxes. It is therefore 
not a matter for surprise if the science and art appliances in 
some of the secondary schools are found to be meagre in 
quantity and poor in quality. ; 
On the whole, it may be said that a very fair provision has 
been made for scientific and technical instruction of the youth 
of the country up to, at any rate, the age of sixteen or seven- 
teen, supposing them to devote themselves to study until at- 
taining that age, and that in most large towns the artisan and 
manufacturer can obtain good instruction in technology and 
general science. But our larger polytechnics could be much 
further utilised if research work in their laboratories were more 
encouraged. 
It would be most helpful to the technical education of the 
country if a fairly liberal grant could be paid on any student 
who, having acquired sufficient training in science, devoted him- 
self to some special work in a laboratory under the supervision 
of the teacher in charge. The results of such work might be 
examined and criticised by the professors and examiners of the 
Department, and, if worthy, brought to the notice of the various 
societies for the promotion of scientific investigation. 
The freedom from examination in the elementary courses of 
Schools of Science hasehad considerable influence on the char- 
acter of the teaching, especially in the practical work. Teachers 
have awakened to the fact that science may afford a sound 
mental training, and that method is no less important to a 
student than results. Syllabuses exhibit a more logical se- 
quence. Instead of depending upon a course thought out by 
others, teachers are beginning to think out their own, and al- 
though there is room for improvement, enlightened methods 
are making way. The ‘‘ Heuristic method,”’ which seeks to 
make each boy or girl a ‘‘ discoverer” of known physical laws, 
and thus develop in him the scientific spirit, has had an im- 
portant influence on the teaching of science. In the hands of a 
highly competent teacher it is an important guiding principle— 
in the hands of some of its disciples there is danger of its be- 
coming a fetish. The Heuristic method is essentially historical ; 
the pupil is told little, but is put in the way of finding out for him- 
self, whichis well. But there is as much danger in telling him too 
little as in telling him too much. Itis not perhaps impertinent to 
point out that scientific discoveries have seldom been inductive. 
Investigators have been acquainted with the results of other 
discoverers, and have had, almost invariably, a ‘‘ working 
hypothesis” which they have sought to establish by deductive 
methods. It is therefore advisable to lay stress on the usefulness 
in teaching science of a ‘‘ working hypothesis,’ which should 
form the basis of practical work having for its object the 
‘discovery ” of alaw. Though the beginner ‘‘ must be put 
in the position of an original discoverer,” it should be borne 
in mind that an criginal discoverer has at his disposal the ob- 
servations and views of other investigators. It is only fair that 
the student should be placed in pretty much the same position, 
otherwise his observations will be ill-directed, and will lead 
him nowhere. It is almost needless to remark that in any case 
the advanced work may be more didactic. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
THE natural history collections in the Whitechapel Public 
Library and Museum are being systematically used by many 
teachers in the elementary schools of the district to illustrate 
object lessons. Teachers who propose to utilise the collections 
for this purpose send to the curator, Miss Kate M. Hall, a list 
of the object lessons they are giving, and arrangements are then 
made for one or more practical demonstrations bearing upon 
the lessons. The children (about forty-five in number) are 
brought up to the museum every week, for 1 to 14 hours, until 
the course is finished. They are divided into three groups of 
fifteen, and each group spends about twenty minutes at each 
table on which the specimens chosen for the lesson have been 
placed. In this way the children have the opportunity of 
closely observing the objects, and of comparing the structure 
¥] 
