January 5, 1899] 



NA TURE 



237 



secondary schools, and also upon the character of the text-books 

 which have been published from time to time for use in such 

 schools. 



Not only have many headmasters been won over to this newer 

 and more intelligent mode of imparting scientific instruction, 

 but the various examining bodies — the local exammation 

 authorities at Oxford and Cambridge, as well as the Senate 

 of the London University — are all moving in the same direction. 

 Examinations in elementary experimental science are becoming 

 more and more practical. It is yearly becoming less common 

 for examiners to be satisfied with verbal descriptions of scientific 

 experiments, the candidates must be able to perform the experi- 

 ments themselves and also draw the proper inferences from 

 them. 



In addition to other reasons why the heuristic method of 

 teaching should be adopted. Prof. Armstrong claims for it that 

 it conduces to the formation of moral and intellectual character 

 and purpose. Children are encouraged to be properly inquisitive 

 and inquiring ; to observe correctly ; to be neat and careful in 

 all their work ; to be economical ; to attend patiently to 

 details ; to reason with judgment ; to be handy, and to develop 

 many other equally valuable characteristics. 



For instruction in science to be carried out according to 

 heuristic methods, ample room must be provided, but there 

 need be no very special arrangements made. Prof. Armstrong 

 enumerates the comparatively few necessaries in the way of 

 fittings ; they are : unfixed benches of the kitchen-table type, 

 fitted with gas ; one or two long sinks made of wood — elongated 

 washing tubs ; one or two benches fixed against the wall of the 

 room, with cupboards {having a tray which will slide in and 

 out) fixed in the space underneath ; single draught-closet ; con- 

 siderable amount of wall space converted into blackboard ; and 

 free wall space, having upright battens affixed at regular in- 

 tervals for attaching shelves or hooks. Apparatus should be 

 provided to meet requirements as they arise, and " every effort 

 should be made to utilise ordinary articles — medicine and pickle 

 bottles, jam pots, saucepans, Ac. — and to construct apparatus 

 in the workroom ; for this latter purpose a carpenter's bench 

 and tools, vice and files, a small lathe, an anvil, and even a 

 small forge should, whenever possible, form part of the equip- 

 ment. Infinite injury is done at the present day, invaluable 

 opportunities of imparting training are lost, by providing every- 

 thing ready made." Centimetre-foot-rules, drawing-boards, 

 T and set-squares, and balances must, however, be supplied. 

 But the greatest of the.se is the balance. Says Prof. Armstrong, 

 "altogether indispensable and essential as the primary weapon 

 of heuristic instruction is the balance. There is no question that 

 in the future the test of efficiency in a school will be the extent 

 to which suitable balances are provided and used." Or, again, 

 " the balance is to be regarded as an instrument of moral 

 culture, to be treated with utmost care and reverence." 



Appended to the article are the full courses of instruction in 

 elementary science adopted by the Incorporated Association of 

 Headmasters, and a course in Irotany framed by Prof. Marshall 

 Ward, and included in the programme of the Joint Scholarships' 

 Board Examinations. 



Prussian Secondary Education for Boys. 



It is interesting to read, in the article entitled " Problems in 

 Prussian Secondary Education for Boys," which Mr. Sadler 

 contributes to vol. iii., of the part von Humboldt took in 

 developing an effective plan of educational administration in 

 Prussia. Humboldt was appointed Director of Public Education 

 in 1792, and during the succeeding seventeen years was actively 

 engaged in supplying the urgent need which was then felt for 

 improved education. He insisted, among other things, that no 

 one should be allowed to undertake higher education, even in 

 private schools, who did not hold a certificate of competency 

 awarded by a State authority. In 1808, he began to remodel 

 Prussian secondary education : and the work of the succeeding 

 ten years is carefully reviewed in Mr. Sadler's article. The 

 eleventh section of this exhaustive inquiry is of especial import- 

 ance at this time. It is concerned with the manner in which 

 the growing need for more knowledge in the various branches of 

 professional and commercial life has been met in Prussia. As 

 Mr. Sadler says, "a really good secondary education, up to 

 sixteen or nineteen as the case may be, does for a man what he 

 can rarely do for himself in later years. It drills his intelligence, 

 while the powers are still supple, and it presses into his mind, 

 while the memory is still retentive and undisturbed by outside 

 cares, a well-set foundation of necessary knowledge. But all 



NO. 1523, VOL. 59] 



over Germany these advantages have been made more accessible 

 to the children of families of small means than is the case in 

 England." It has been, moreover, a fixed principle in Prussia 

 for some time, that the different types of secondary school 

 should be kept distinct. " In the application of science to 

 industry there has been an ever-increasing demand for young 

 men of ability, well-trained in studies which equip them for 

 business callings, instead of tending to estrange their sympathies 

 from commercial life." The Education Department of Prussia 

 now definitely accepts the idea of non-classical training as a part 

 of a national system of higher education. The curricula and 

 programmes of work for higher schools in Prussia, which follow 

 the general article, should prove of great value in guiding 

 English headmasters. That section which deals with natural 

 science shows that in the gymnasium, or fully classical school, 

 two hours a week are given in each form to the study of science. 

 The teachers are instructed that "special importance is to be 

 attached, not so much to the amount of what is learnt, as to the 

 thoroughness with which it is studied." The endeavour must 

 be " above all to guide the pupils to think and observe for 

 themselves." In the Realgymnasium, or school with Latin 

 only, and the Oberrealschule, or modern school, the amount of 

 time given to science is increased in the higher forms to five 

 hours a week in the Realgymnasium, and six hours a week in 

 the Oberrealschule. It would take too much space to give a 

 detailed account of the subjects, and the parts of them, studied 

 in the different forms ; but a reference to pp. 303-6 will give 

 the necessary information. 



Higher Commercial Education. 



Mr. Sadler also contributes to vol. iii. an elaborate account 

 of higher commercial education at Antwerp, Leipzig, Paris and 

 Havre. The Inslitut Superieur de Commerce at Antwerp 

 aims at being a university lor the future merchant, and at the 

 special training of those to whom the consular service of the 

 country will ultimately be entrusted. It is a public institution, 

 under the inspection of the State, and its professors are civil 

 servants. The Belgian government pays three-quarters of its 

 annual cost, and the municipality of Antwerp the rest. Foreign 

 students are admitted, and it is found that the associations thus 

 formed are indirectly helpful to the furtherance of Belgian 

 trade. The staff of the Institute consists of fourteen professors 

 and two assistants, in addition to the director. To candidates 

 who are successful in the final examination the Institute awards 

 diplomas of merit, but these diplomas are not lightly given and 

 are highly valued by business men. The diploma also qualifies 

 a student to obtain one of the travelling scholarships awarded 

 Ijy the Government in order to encourage commercial inquiry. 

 The scholarships are worth from 200/. to 250/. a year, and may 

 be regarded as travelling studentships for commercial research. 



One of the causes of the commercial advance of the German 

 empire is the intellectual efficiency of the secondary schools, 

 and of the higher Technical Institutes. "The secondary 

 .school is organised as the foundation, the higher Technical 

 Institute as the crown." German non-classical secondary edu- 

 cation prepares a boy to excel in commercial life, but the Germar>- 

 secondary school authorities rigidly abstain on principle fronv 

 any attempt at premature specialisation in commercial subjects. 

 The first German Higher School of Commerce was last year 

 established in Leipzig. There is to be a close conelation be- 

 tween this Higher School of Commerce and the University of 

 Leipzig. The Director of the Leipzig School defines its objects 

 " to be the raising of the position of the trading classes in social 

 estimation, and their equipment with the higher level of expert 

 knowledge which the conditions of modern industry require. " 

 Commercial opinion in Germany is not, however, unanimous in 

 favour of the establishment of schools of commerce. Thus, in 

 the Annual Report for 1S97 of the Hamburg Chamber of 

 Commerce the following remarks occur : — 



"The science of business is a science which must be learnedi 

 by practical experience. It cannot be picked up on the benches, 

 of a class-room. It must be acquired in practical life. A young 

 man trained in a school of commerce will enter on practical life 

 with his head full of all manner of preconceptions." 



Mr. Sadler does not say much about the French Higher 

 Schools of Commerce, but directs attention to the volume, 

 " Commercial Instruction organised by the Paris Chamber of 

 Commerce," which was prepared by that Chamber for the 

 Chicago World's Fair of 1893. O" ''^^ general question of 

 commercial education, the following remarks are worthy of 

 note. "All persons of experience heartily reprobate the 



