478 
the candidate’s acquaintance with his subject, they 
have instructed the examiners to make the questions as 
practical as possible, and are endeavouring to secure the 
services of two examiners for each subject, one of whom 
at least shall be actually engaged in manufacture. At 
the same time it is interesting to notice that of those can- 
didates who have not attended the ordinary registered 
classes, 47 in all presented themselves from University 
College, London; the Royal School of Mines; the York- 
shire College, Leeds; the Glasgow Technical College; 
the St. Mark’s Technical College, Grosvenor Square ; 
and from other similar Institutions ; and of these 41 suc- 
ceeded in passing, 23 in the first, and 18 in the second 
division, the percentage of failures being remarkably less 
among this than among any other class of candidates. 
_Among changes in the technological examinations, all in 
the way of improvement, we may note that the subjects 
have been so arranged as to group together allied indus- 
tries ; examinations in electric lighting, the transmission 
of electrical energy, and electrical instrument making 
have been added; more sensible arrangements have been 
made as to the grades of the examinations; these and 
several other changes all tend to the efficiency of the ex- 
aminations as real tests of the attainments of candidates. 
From all this it seems clear that the Council of the 
Institute are impressed with the truth on which we 
have so often insisted in these columns, that there can 
be no efficient practice without sound principles, that 
instruction in the practical applications of science must 
be based upon a knowledge of the science which is applied, 
that instruction in the latter must precede instruction in 
the former, otherwise technical education is little better 
than the old empirical rule-of-thumb methods. Therefore 
we are glad to see, as the Lord Chancellor indicated in 
his speech at the laying of the foundation of the Central 
College last July, that the aim of the Institution will be to 
supplement the work of those institutions, especially the 
Science and Art Department, whose aim is to afford a 
knowledge of the principles of science and art. There is 
distinct evidence in the examinations of the new Institute 
of a gradual tightening of the tests, both for students and 
those who aim at being technical teachers. At the dis- 
tribution of the prizes last December Sir Frederick 
Bramwell said that ‘‘the value of these certificates and 
prizes depends upon the thoroughness of the test that is 
applied, and it is in the interest of the certificate and 
prize-holders themselves that the standard of the examina- 
tion should be maintained, in order that the value of the 
rewards may be duly appreciated. The Institute’s cer- 
tificates are intended to be regarded as diplomas of 
efficiency, and with this view they are awarded to those 
only who give evidence of possessing a practical as well 
as a theoretical knowledge of the subjects embraced by 
the examinations. Mere book-learning will not suffice 
to pass our examinations.”’ 
The City Companies have so far been wonderfully liberal 
in their donations to the Institute, but we hope those which 
have not contributed will take the advice of the Prince 
of Wales at the recent meeting, and lose no time in 
doing so. Compared with what has been spent in the 
Paris Conservatoire, the sum so far spent by the Institute 
has been a. mere pittance; the City Guilds have 
ample funds at their command, and_they could not spend 
NATURE 
| March 2 3, 18 
—— 
8 
them on a better object, or one more likely to yield a rich 
return for the benefit of London and the country gene- 
rally than in an institution that we hope one day will be 
comparable to that of Paris. The success already achieved 
is a guarantee that money devoted to the purposes of the 
Institute will be well spent. 
The Council of the Institute are even already hin- 
dered in their work from want of funds; all over 
the country opportunities occur for starting techni- 
cal schools in important industrial centres, but this 
requires a little expenditure on the part of the In- 
stitute, to encourage an adequate response from local 
sources. It would indeed be extremely useful if, in con- 
nection with some more of the numerous science schools 
of the Science and Art Department, a technical School 
were available for those who desired to learn some of the 
practical applications of the principles they had learned 
at the science school. This would greatly help to impress 
upon the public the natural order of connection between 
the two departments. In the arrangement for awarding 
the Holl Scholarships and prizes in connection with the 
Institute, this order is insisted on, for, among ‘other 
qualifications of the scholars, they must have passed an 
examination in mechanics (or physics), mathematics, and 
chemistry, to the satisfaction of examiners appointed by 
the Institute. All this seems to us very encouraging ; the 
Institute is yet young, and technical education in the real 
sense is in this country only a thing of yesterday; but if 
it be developed along the lines indicated by this report, 
there is every reason to hope that in time it will become 
an Institution of the highest national importance. 
THE ART OF DINING 
Aristology ; or, The Art of Dining. By Thomas Walker, 
M.A. With Preface and Notes by Felix Summerly. 
8vo. Pp. 96. (London: George Bell and Sons.) 
Food and Feeding. By Sir Henry Thompson, F.R.C.S., 
&e. 8vo, (London: Frederick Warne and Co.) 
st De two dinners which stand out in our memory as 
events in our life were of very different characters. 
The one consisted of brown bread and lard, washed down 
with some rough country wine, and was eaten in the 
middle of a Tyrolese glacier. The other embraced every 
delicacy the heart could wish. Our appreciation of the 
first was due to compulsory fasting for some time pre- 
viously. Our appreciation of the second was due to its 
intrinsic merit. In it the dishes seemed to be so arranged 
that each one stimulated the palate for the one that suc- 
ceeded it, and the wines given with each course were so 
selected as to increase the appetite for, and appreciation 
of, the solids. We then, for the first time in our life, began 
to realise that cookery was a fine art. In speaking of the 
fine arts we generally include only those which appeal to 
the special senses of sight and hearing, such as sculpture, 
painting, architecture, music, and we rarely think of modes 
of appealing to the special senses of smell and taste. Yet the 
latter two are perhaps quite as closely connected with our 
emotions as the former, and as capable of exciting keen 
sensations of pain and pleasure. Smell and taste differ 
from sight and hearing in being much more easily fatigued, 
and this may partly be the cause of their imperfect cultiva- 
ae 
2 
4 
‘ 
