220 
NATURE 
[NovEMBER 16, 1916 
ito visiting students. Means must be adopted to attract 
the research student, aided, if necessary, by research 
scholarships from home. The station should have 
sufficient Imperial support to avoid the hampering 
of its utility by local prejudice or ignorance. The 
permanent staff should include a mycologist and a 
skilled gardener. ; 
Finally, I should like to suggest the holding of an 
Imperial Botanical Congress at which matters of 
general and special interest might be discussed. The 
visit of the British Association to Australia was, I 
‘think, helpful to the Australian botanists; it was 
«certainly very helpful and of the greatest interest to 
‘those coming from home. Many of the addresses and 
‘papers were of considerable interest and value, but of 
‘greater value was the opportunity of meeting with 
‘one’s fellow-workers in different fields, of conversa- 
‘tion, discussion, and interchange of ideas, the better 
realisation of one’s limited outlook, and the stimulus 
of new associations. A meeting which brought to- 
gether home botanists and botanical representatives 
from oversea portions of our Empire to discuss methods 
-of better utilising our vast resources would be of great 
‘interest and supremely helpful. Let us transfer to 
"peace purposes some of the magnificent enthusiasm 
which has flowed homewards for the defence of the 
‘Empire in war. 
In this brief address I have tried, however imper- 
‘fectly, to indicate some lines on which botanists may 
‘render useful service to the community. To a large 
extent it means the further development and extension 
of existing facilities added to an organised co-operation 
‘between botanists themselves and between botanists 
and the practical and commercial man; this will in- 
-clude an efficient, systematic cataloguing of work done 
and in progress. We do not propose to hand over 
all our best botanists to the applied branches and to 
starve pure research, but our aim should be to find a 
useful career for an increasing number of well-trained 
‘botanists and to ensure that our country and Empire 
shall make the best use of the results of our research. 
Incidentally there will be an increased demand for 
the teaching botanist, for he will be responsible for 
laying the foundations. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
By invitation of the college authorities, the next 
annual meeting of the Association of Public School 
Science Masters will be held at Eton on Wednesday 
and Thursday, January 3 and 4, 1917, under the presi- 
dency of Prof. H. H. Turner. After the president’s 
address the main subjects of discussion and _ their 
openers will be as follows :—Science for the rank and 
file, Prof. R. A. Gregory; Technical bias in science 
teaching in schools, Mr. E. R. Thomas; The place of 
the text-book in science teaching, Mr. G. N. Pingriff. 
There will be the usual exhibition of apparatus, but 
it will consist chiefly of exhibits by members of the 
association. 
THE current issue of the Fortnightly Review con- 
tains an article by Dr. R. Brudenell Carter on ‘‘ Science 
and Education." The subject is made interesting to 
the general reader from the variety of aspects under 
which it is viewed, and the interest is enhanced by 
literary style and historical illustration. The import- 
ance of early sense-training is emphasised, and atten- 
tion is directed ‘to the value of a pocket magnifying- 
glass as a child’s possession. The author’s views on 
the development of intelligence, individual and racial, 
appear at times to challenge orthodox genetic psycho- 
logy, but this may be due to the difficulty of popular 
‘exposifion in a short article. However ‘this’ may be, 
NO, 2455, VOL. 98] 
general assent will be given to the proposition that 
instruction in science should “change the view taken 
by the pupils of the events around them, and produce 
a conviction of ignorance of many forces and condi- 
tions by which the lives of nations, as well as of indi- 
viduals, are liable to be powerfully or overwhelmingly 
influenced.”” Dr. Carter’s proposals for science instruc- 
tion in schools will scarcely be accepted as adequate, 
even as part of the all-round instruction of those who 
do not intend to pursue a scientific career, since they 
depend upon lectures alone, a course which teachin 
experience has proved to be ineffective unless a period — 
of practical and more intensive study is added. But 
science teachers will welcome the general trend of the 
article, and all readers will gain by the freshness and 
vigour of the essay. Even now our legislators need 
to be reminded that ‘‘ wisdom is hardly to be expected 
from men who regard its highest manifestations with 
the unseeing eyes of the scientifically ignorant.” 
Tue Mathematical Association has now expressed its 
agreement with the Classical, English, Geographical, 
Historical, and Modern Language Associations in the 
view that any reorganisation of our educational system 
should make adequate provision for both humanistic 
and scientific studies; that premature specialisation 
should be avoided; and that technical preparation for 
a particular profession should be conceived in such a 
spirit that it misses none of the essentials of a liberal 
education (see Nature, September 7, p. 23). The 
Mathematical Association submits that from a school 
course of mathematics the pupil should acquire (1) an 
elementary knowledge of the properties of number and 
space ; (2) a certain command of the methods by which 
such knowledge is reached and established, ee 
with facility in applying mathematical knowledge to 
the problems of the laboratory and the workshop; f 
valuable habits of precise thought and expression; (4 
some understanding of the part played by mathematics - 
in industry and the practical arts, as an instrument 
of discovery in the sciences and as a means of social 
organisation and progress; and (5) some appreciation 
of organised abstract thought as one of the highest 
and most fruitful forms of intellectual activity. This 
statement is signed by Prof. A. N. Whitehead, presi- 
dent of the Mathematical Association, and by Mr. 
A. W. Siddons, chairman of the Teaching Committee. 
It will be remembered that the Association of Public 
School Science Masters has also expressed agreement 
with the resolutions adopted by the associations repre- 
senting humanistic studies, and has emphasised — 
the needs which natural science meets in the direction 
of the search for truth and of a comprehension of the 
part played by science in modern civilisation (see 
Nature, October 26, p. 162). 
To Science Progress for October Sir Ronald Ross 
contributes an essay dealing with the question whether — 
our public-school education is in need of reform, and, 
if so, how much, from the point of view of parents. 
The discussions which have taken place in the House — 
of Lords and elsewhere would seem to lead one to 
believe that there is general agreement as to some 
reform being necessary, but not as to its amount. Un- 
fortunately there is a tendency for the modern educa- 
tionist to believe that he alone should decide the nature 
of the curriculum, and many people besides the parents — 
of public-school boys think that boys are taught what 
the schoolmaster is able to teach rather than what they — 
should be taught. Lord Desborough’s Committee for 
Public-School Reform sent to the parents of boys at 
Eton and other public schools a memorandum (pub- 
lished in Nature of June 8) urging reform, and re-— 
questing replies for or against it. The résponse 
indicated that the parents are’ overwhelmingly in 
