.* 
NATURE 
269 
THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 1870 
THE SCIENCE AND ART DEPARTMENT 
OTS Report of the Science and Art Department just 
issued is a document of such vast importance to all 
interested in Science or Education, that we take the first 
opportunity of saying something upon it. The work 
which has bzen done in Science by this Department is so 
little known, however, that it is necessary to preface our 
account of this year’s report by a brief history of what 
has been attempted, and accomplished, in former years. 
In 1853 the Board of Trade proposed to extend a 
system of encouragement, similar to that already com- 
menced in the Department of Practical Art, to local insti- 
tutions of Practical Science, and the Treasury at once wrote 
one of their classical minutes, in which they expressed 
the concurrence of “ My Lords” generally, in the plans 
proposed by the President of the Board of Trade, “as 
the most effectual means of giving effect to the recom- 
mendation of Her Majesty at the opening of the Session, 
with a view to the advancement of Practical Science.” 
Experiments were tried in the way of Science—or 
Trade and Navigation—Schools at Aberdeen, Birming- 
ham, Bristol, Leeds, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Poplar, Green’s 
Sailor’s Home, Stoke, Truro, Wigan, Wandsworth, and 
other places. Most of these experiments failed after a 
short time. 
In June 1859 the minute which is the foundation of the 
present system of aid passed, but this minute has been 
greatly modified from time to time and greatly enlarged. 
The plan pursued before 1859 fullowed, more or less, 
the analogy of the elementary school system. That is 
to say, a trained teacher was sent where a committee was 
formed, a certain salary guaranteed for a year or two, and 
soon, This kind of encouragement, however, failed. The 
requirement of the country was not only teachers to teach 
but people who wished to learn. After a short time teachers 
exhausted the guarantee and the schools were broken up. 
The state of the country as respects science instruction 
for artisans at this time (eleven years ago) is well described 
by Dr. Hudson in a letter then written to the Education 
Department. In Lancashire and Cheshire, he says, there 
was no instruction in chemistry, except in “ small classes 
chiefly for mutual improvement in elementary chemistry, 
and conducted without the aid of efficient teachers, which 
are in operation at Ballington, Hyde, Staleybridge, Stock- 
port, and Burnley. In Yorkshire, the only night schools 
affording instruction in chemistry are at Bradford, Halifax, 
Huddersfield, Leeds, and Selby.” 
“No instruction whatever is afforded at any Me- 
chanics’ Institute in Yorkshire, Lancashire, or Cheshire ; 
and mineralogy, as applied to mining, has only been 
recently added to the programme of class instruction in 
one single society—the Wigan Mechanics’ Institution.” 
“Tn the whole district of Lancashire and Yorkshire, ex- 
tending from sea to sea, there is no adult school or 
mechanics’ institute in which theoretical mechanics is 
taught, .... or experimental physics.” “The three 
Ridings of Yorkshire, with their 150 mechanics’ and kin- 
dred institutions, only possess two societies, and these 
mere village institutes, in which instruction—Manston in 
Physical Science, and Shipley in Natural Philosophy—is 
afforded, and this to an infinitesimal amount. With two 
exceptions, there are no mechanics’ institutions or mutual 
improvement societies in Lancashire in which any elemen- 
tary instruction in Physics (Natural Philosophy or Me- 
chanics) is given, and the county of Cheshire does not 
present one instance in which these matters receive atten- 
tion in similar societies.” 
The essential point of the system which the department 
has organised to reach this terrible state of things, is that 
it pays simply for results with a preliminary test ex- 
amination of teachers,—the Honours examination enabling 
teachers to show high qualifications if they possess them. 
And the aim has been to enlist all kinds of persons resi- 
dent in different localities—sometimes the teachers of the 
ordinary day schools, at other times workmen who had an 
aptitude for teaching—to commence science instruction, 
and it looks very much as if this plan has met the diffi- 
culty. It has permitted small beginnings by persons 
conversant with a locality when outsiders could have had 
neither chance of doing anything, nor sufficient work to 
support them. It has, in fact, been a missionary effort, 
and as such has succeeded, and has been paid for. 
So much for a general historical sketch of the modus 
operandi of the Department; let us now come to the 
description, and give evidence of a power at work, which, 
with proper encouragement, will in time do wonders. 
The “no schools” of 1859 were represented by 120 
schoo!s with 5,479 pupils in 1865, and by 779 schools 
and 34,283 pupils in the present year. Here are the 
general results in tabular form : — 
1863. 1869. | - 1870. 
Number of Schools under Teach] | 
ersexamined . 300 523 799 
Number of Classes in the same 856 1,489 | 2,200 
Number of individuals under | 
instruction in Classes under 
Certificated Teachers . 15,010 | 24,865 345283 
Number of the above who came 
up for examination . 6,875 | 12,988 (about) 17,000 
Number examined in addition | | 
to the above who were not in 
Schools under Certificated 
Teachers. yen 227 | 246 (about) Joo 
Number of Papers worked in =| 
Subject. 
1. Practical, Plane, and Solid 
Geomeuy. - 1,337 | 2,638 | 35359 
2. Machine Construction and | 
Drawing 1,671 2,987 | 3,656 
3. Building Constniction . w| 1,185 1,998 2,631 
3 3 (alternative). Naval Ar- io 
chitecture, ... . 21 5 Lay Bt 39 
4. Elementary Mathematics! 1,390 | 2,329) ais tage V.& ne IEE 
5. Higher Mathematics . . 33 84 Z vu & VIL 26 
6. Theoretical Mechanics 353 629 | 830 
7. Applied Mechanics ei 167 294 | 551 
8. Acoustics, Light and Heat 769 1,952.1 2,021 
9. Magnetism and Electri- | 
CHEV wes me) al) gORS) 2,509 2,613 
ro. Inorganic Chemistry : g64 2,173 | 2,694 
11. Organic Chemistry . 123 210 235 
ma: WGeolORy Wiss 2” fe om a 309 619 1,069 
13. Mineralogy . i iw 38 67 63 
14. Animal Phys siology . 1,182 2,227 3)705 
15. Zoology. . 298 303 II4 
16. Vegetable ‘Anatomy and| 
Physiology. r12 144 400 
17. Systematic and Economie 
Botany . nt 73 90 140 
18. Principles of Mining Doe 41 48 64 
1g. Metallurgy « «. . « « 81 126 | 160 
zo. Navigation : 219 303 | 260 
21. Nautical ‘Astronomy oa 86 107 | 68 
22. Steam 5 ° 106 149 3II 
23. Physical Geography s «| x)816] 2,687 5,435 
Total number of Papers worked) 13,112 | 24,085 89,395 
From the above table we gather that there were in May, 
1869, 523 schools and 24,865 pupils ; in May, 1870, 799 
