November 3- 1898] 



NA TURE 



■schools existed in England before the Reformation, as for 

 instance those at Wisbech, Week St. Mary, V/iniborne, Dar- 

 lington, and Chipping Campden, appears from Mr. Leach's 

 researches before referred to (pp. 110-114). In fact, the very- 

 idea of receiving payment for teaching was scouted until the 

 introduction of secular teachers about the beginning of the 

 eleventh century. 



And yet Sir Norman Lockyer speaks of "the iron heel 

 of priestcraft " — an ugly word — as arresting the " new spirit " 

 presumably of free education of the people. Nor is his uncompli- 

 mentary reference to the Jesuits in France more according to 

 facts. However what the Society of Jesus has effected for the 

 cause of education, both literary and scientific, is too patent to 

 any unbiassed student of the history of education to need dis- 

 cussion. Moreover, I should be needlessly occupying space 

 in this journal. A. L. Cortie. 



Stonyhurst College, October 23. 



Organic Variations and their Interpretation. 



I HOi'Eyou will allow me to correct two serious errors in Prof. 

 "Weldon's reply to my criticisms. 



I was never foolish enough to assert, as he implies that I did, 

 that the theory of natural selection attempts to answer the 

 <)uestion whether modifications originate accidentally or not. I 

 said that this was the question between the adherents of the 

 theory and its opponents. I quite agree with Prof. Weldon 

 that the theory of natural selection does not involve a theory of 

 the origin of variations. For that reason it is not by itself a 

 theory of evolution. 



Prof. Weldon asserts that I said there was no evidence of the 

 •entrance of fine mud into the gill-chambers of crabs during life. 

 I said, or wrote, nothing of the kind. He found china clay in 

 the gill-chambers of the individuals which died in his experi- 

 ments, and I pointed out that this was no proof that the crabs 

 had died because their branchial apparatus was unable to keep 

 out the particles of clay. The clay was not found in the gills of 

 the survivors, and he inferred that they owed their survival to 

 more efficient filtration, due to their relatively narrower frontal 

 breadths. I merely pointed out that the inference was not valid 

 because the dead crabs had been jn the muddy water after death, 

 while the survivors were killed after removal. 



I do not admit that Prof. Weldon has successfully vindicated 

 his evidence or his conclusions against my criticisms ; but as 

 you, Sir, are unable to allow me any more space, I must thank 

 you for printing my first letter, and leave further discussion of 

 the matter for some other opportunity. 



Penzance, October 22. J. T. Cunningham. 



SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION IN RURAL 

 DISTRICTS. 

 AMONG the problems of technical education which 

 ■'^~*- County Councils have had to face, the most difficult 

 is the bringing home of the importance of scientific train- 

 ing to those engaged in agriculture and in rural industries 

 generally. A study of the results achieved in the various 

 counties very clearly brings out the fact that while con- 

 siderable progress has been made in inanufacturing 

 centres where the practical bearing of science is more or 

 less obvious, the agricultural counties have hitherto failed 

 to show a similar progress as the outcome of their efforts 

 to improve the rural industries. Many causes are con- 

 tributing in this country to check advancement in rural 

 technical education. The general depression of agri- 

 culture, the conservatism and apathy of farmers and 

 landowners, the high cost of carriage of farm produce, 

 and the incompetence of technical instruction committees 

 are among these causes ; but it would be out of place to 

 discuss such matters in the columns of a scientific journal, 

 and we are content in admitting that the technical com- 

 mittees in agricultural districts have had a far more 

 difficult task imposed upon them than the committees of 

 urban manufacturing centres have ever been called upon 

 to perform. 



In bringing under the notice of the readers of Nature 

 an educational movement which we are (irmly persuaded 

 NO. 1514, VOL. 59] 



is a movement in the right direction, we have primarily 

 in view the fact — obvious to men of science, but, unfor- 

 tunately, not so obvious to those more immediately con- 

 cerned — that agriculture in its widest sense is as much 

 dependent upon scientific research for its advancement as 

 any other industry. The great importance attached to 

 agricultural stations in the United States and Canada, 

 and on the continent, and the splendid results in the way 

 of agronomic research which are being achieved at these 

 stations, amply testify that other countries are alive to 

 their agricultural welfare. All that has been done in 

 this country by those great pioneers, Lawes and Gilbert, 

 has been the result of private munificence.^ 



In view of the fact that the results of scientific research 

 are bound with the progress of time to make themselves 

 more and more felt in all kinds of rural industries, and 

 bearing in mind also the slow rate of development in this 

 direction in our country, we are convinced that the best 

 chance of enabling our agricultural population to ap- 

 preciate the importance of research and to meet com- 

 petition is to give the rising generation an opportunity of 

 acquiring some knowledge of sound scientific principles 

 as a part of their early training. If the present genera- 

 tion of farmers and landowners cannot or will not bend 

 to the inevitable, and endeavour to cope with difficulties 

 by scientific method, then, at any rate, let facilities be 

 given to their children for the acquisition of such scientific 

 habits of mind as will enable them, without actually becom- 

 ing experts in any particular science, to realise exactly how 

 they are situated with respect to their competitors. It is 

 hardly necessary to point out in these columns that in all 

 rational schemes of technical education this principle is 

 recognised as sound. It is remarkable, in view of this 

 acknowledged principle, that so many technical instruc- 

 tion committees should have attempted to begin their 

 work at the wrong end, and should have expended large 

 sums in encouraging sporadic teaching by specialists to 

 adults who, for lack of proper training, are totally unpre- 

 pared for specialisation in any direction. In most cases 

 a critical analysis of the results obtained under this 

 system shows that unintelligent manual dexterity is the 

 utmost that can be achieved. This, in our view, does 

 not constitute technical education ; certainly, so far as 

 agricultural industry is concerned, this kind of instruction 

 is not likely to be of any permanent value. 



The agricultural industries may be regarded as furnish- 

 ing a rallying point round which several distinct branches 

 of science meet. To insure success in such occupations 

 when all the resources of science are being utilised by 

 our competitors, it is becoming more and more im- 

 perative that the education of the farmer should, at 

 any rate, be placed on a scientific foundation. We 

 cannot, unfortunately, look at present to the elementary 

 schools for any help in this matter. The children 

 leave too early in life, and such science teaching as 

 they receive (if any) is quite inadequate. The sporadic 

 system encouraged by some County Councils has already 

 been condemned. Still more unfortunate appears to us 

 to be the frittering down policy of administering the 

 technical education grant in the form of doles to districts 

 in proportion to the number of the inhabitants. The 

 few want educating in the thinly populated agricultural 

 districts quite as much, or even more, than the many in 

 the towns. It is more costly to educate the few than the 

 many ; therefore the rural districts require more financial 

 aid proportionally than the towns. Under the system 

 referred to, the country districts get less. If an "intelli- 

 gent foreigner," who came over to inquire into our 

 educational systems since the passing of the Technical 

 Instruction Act, were told that the degree and quality of 

 the education given to a boy or girl had been made 

 dependent on the number of inhabitants per square mile 



1 The fruclkultural st.ition established by the Duke of Bedford and Prof. 

 Pickering at Ridgmount also comes under this heading. 



