318 
NATURE 
[Aug. 17, 1871 


rural population, wherein the rates of marriage and of birth are 
much less than in that of the towns. The classes that yield the 
largest number of births are, beginning with the least important 
—(1), fishermen ; (2), miners, especially coal-miners, and the 
like ; (3), the proletariat of large towns. Whatever my be said 
of the two former, this last and most important is, physically, 
about the worst developed in the kingdom. Formerly it did not 
tend to increase in nuinbers, relatively, to other classes, because 
the death-rate in the worst quarters of towns was so high as to 
balance or overbalance the birth-rate—such was the case not 
long ago in Liverpool, for example. But the effect of sanitary 
improvements has been so considerable, that the rates of sickness 
and death in these quarters are being decidedly ameliorated ; and 
this improvement, regarded dispassionately, is no more an un- 
mixed good than are good things in general; tor the increase in 
the number of survivors brings about a disproportionate augmen- 
tation in the numbers of the class in question, and thus lowers 
the average standard of physical development. 
SECTION G. 
MECHANICAL SCIENCE 
OPENING ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, PROF, FLEEMING 
JENKIN 
In addressing you on the subject of Mechanical Science in 
our ancient university, I propose to speak on the somewhat 
threadbare topic of technical instruction. The panic with which 
soine persons regarded the rapid improvement made abroid in 
manufactures has subsited, but I hope that you will be all the 
more ready on that account to listen to a few sugges ions as to 
steos which may be immediately taken to improve the education 
of those who app y science to practical ends. The subject does 
not owe its prominence to any events of to-day or of yesterday ; 
it has long been, and will long be, of piramount importance to 
this country that the education of the producers of wealth should 
be such as will enable them, not merely to compete on advan- 
tazeous terms with foreigners, but rather to master the great 
forces of nature by which we work. That we have gained some 
triumphs can be no reason for relaxing our efforts. Wih each 
advance further advance becomes more difficult, and requires 
more knowledge. The first rade implements and processes 
employed by man certainly required tor their exp anation or 
acquirement no book-learning ; but as processes become com- 
plex, and implements develop into machines, as the occupations 
of men differ more and more. practice alone is found insufficient 
to give skiil, and study becomes the necessary preparation for all 
successful work. Our first engineers w-re not learned men ; 
strong good sense and long practice enabled them to overcome 
the comparatively simple questions with which they dealt. All 
honour to those great men ; but we who have to deal with more 
complex, if not with vasier problems, cannot trust to goo sense 
alone, even if we possess it, but must arm ourselves by the study 
of science and its application to the arts. This being granted, 
how shall it be done? [need not trouble you by refuting the 
absurdities of a few men, who would have those things taught at 
schools which have hitherto been taught by practice. What has 
been tauzht by practice must still be taught by practice, The busi- 
ness of the school is to teach those things which prac ice ia an art 
will not teacha man. Let us apply ths principle to enzineering 
—the most scientific of ali professions It will be most useless to 
lecture on filing and chippiny ; it will be use ess to describe the 
mere forms and arrangements of vast multitudes of machines ; 
one kind of knowledge of the properties of materials cin only 
be acquired, as it al ways has been acquired, by acrually handl ng 
them ; and the knowledge of the arrangement of a machine is fur 
better learnt by mere inspection than from fifty lectures ; more- 
over. it can be acquired by an intelligent man, even if he be 
wholly unletrered. Book learning about estimates, the value of 
goods, methods of superintending work, and dealing with men, 
is foolishness. Writren de-criptions of pud !ling a clay embank- 
ment, excava'ing, and such operati ns, give no knowledge ; and 
yet a vast mass of such knowledze must, at some time of his life, 
be acquired by the engineer, and the student cannot be employed 
as an engineer until he nas laid up a store of such knowledze. 
Colleges cannot give hin this ; he must serve an apprenticeship 
in jact if not in ‘orm; young foreigaers taugnt in cilleges serve 
their apprenticeship, at the cust of their emp/oyers, during the 
first few years of theic professional life. We call the tyro an 
apprentice or pupil, and he pays his master instead of being paid 
by him. I have the strongest feeling against any attempt to 
substitute collegiate teaching for practical apprenticeship ; so far 

as colleges attempt to teach practice, they are and will be a sham 
in this country an din all others. The work of a college is to 
teach those sciences which are applied in the arts ; but it can go 
a little further, and indicate to its students how the application 
is mide in at least a few selected instances. Applying this dictum 
to the education of an engineer, his college can teach him mathe- 
matics, natural philosophy, chemistry, and geology. No one 
can doubt that a youth well trained in these branches of know- 
ledge will, even with no further teaching, learn more during his 
apprenticeship, and during his whole professional life will take a 
higher standing, than the man of equal in e-ligence ustrained in 
science. Colleze can, however, do more than this ; it is found 
that a lad will go through a considerable number of books of 
Euclid, and yet see so dimly how his kiowledge is to be 
connected with practice that he may be unable even to 
compute the area of a field tae dimensions of which are well 
known to him ; and far more is it seen that a man may be fairly 
grounde1 in mathematics, and yet have very little idea how to 
apply his knowledge to mechanical problems. It is the business 
of those who hold such chiirs as mine to point out the connection 
between pure science and practice ; to show how mathematics are 
employed in mensuration and in mechanical calculations; to 
show how the traths of physics are mide use of in designing 
economical machinery, as wien we teich the connection between 
the liws of heat and the steam ergine. The student who has 
once grasped the fact that there 1s a real conn-cim b-tween 
practice and theory will s-Idom be at a loss how !o find or search 
for that connectioa in after life. The student thus prepared 
knows what he has to learn from practice, and need not lose 
precious time in blundering over the numberless scientific pro- 
blems which practice is sure to suggest but can never solve. The 
education of the architect, the practical chemist, the manufac- 
turer, and the merchant. must be similar, statis mutandis, with 
that of tie engineer. Assuming, tuea, that the education of 
those who are to follow more or less scientific .ursuits must con- 
sist in acquiring first, that theoretical knowledge whic’ practice 
cannot give, and, secondly, the practical kno wledge which schools 
should not attempt to give, there remains the question whether 
the theoretical preparation shouid be given in special collezes, or 
universities such as our own. [ hive no hesitation in preferring 
the university. Mathematics, physics, chemistry, g-ology, 
botany, languages, all form el-ments require! in various combi- 
nations in the education of all students. Taereis but one kind of 
mathematics, one kind of pure physics, an} so forth. Surely it is 
better that weshould teach the men belonging to different profes- 
sions side by side, so long as the mutter taught is to be the same, 
There are many dangers in an opposite course. There are not a suf- 
ficient number of competent teachers to allow of much differentia- 
tion. Segregation at an early age is not ant to foster professional 
pecu'iarities and nirrow-mindzdness, There is great danger, if 
physics are to be taught specially to enzineers, that a special 
kind of physics. erroneously supposed to be specially useful to 
them, will be invented. Lastly, tne contact of students and 
professors of one faculty with the students and professors of 
other faculties is very benefi-ial toall. Donot, therefore, cripple 
old universities by withdrawing from them a portion of their 
stulents and their professors, to set up special, professional, or 
technical colleges ot a novel kind, but rather add by degrees to 
the power and usefulness of old institutions, and found new 
colleges and universities after the model 0 those which are found 
to have done good work. As an example of what may be safely 
done, I consider that in Edinburgh we require a chair of archi- 
teccure, and lectureships on navigation and on_ telegraphy. 
There is, further, much want of a teacher of mechanical draw- 
ing The professors of physics and chemistry require additional 
accommodation for practical lavoratories, and ad iitional as- 
sistance. If these additions were made, our college would, in 
my opinion, meet all the requirements for superior technical 
educition in this part of Scotland. For 2,000/. per annum all 
these additions might be made, Notwithstanding the acknow- 
ledged importance of educarion. establishments for giving the 
hig ver kinds of instruction are never self-supporting, and students 
must everywhere be bribed to come and learn. Immediate 
prizes, in the form of bursaries, scholarships, and fellowships, 
are required to induce men to cultivate the older fields of learning, 
and similar bribes are needed to p-omote the tillage of the more 
recently colonised domains of applied science. The Whitworth 
scholarships are a noble example of munificence thus directed, 
although, in my opinion, the examination requires considerable 
reform. I hope that further benefits of this kind will be conferred 
on those colleges which give efficient teaching, Local ambition is 

