354 



NA TURE 



[February 9, 1899 



taken. Dr. Jebb next touched upon the uneasiness caused in some 

 quarters by "Clause 7 in the revised Directory of the Science and 

 Art Department, issued in 1897, and said a needless fear had 

 arisen lest the clause was designed to forestall the establishment 

 of Icical authorities by Parliament and to set up voluntary 

 organisations in their place. It was a " temporary and partial 

 expedient." After what the Lord President had said he might 

 say that they had the most explicit and the most completely 

 satisfactory assurances that the Government contemplated 

 following up their creation of a central authority by the creation 

 of local authorities, and that it would be altogether unju.stifiable 

 to refuse a welcome to the Board of Education Bill on the 

 ground that its own immediate scope was limited. With regard 

 to the second proposition. Dr. Jebb addressed himself to the 

 desirability of the Consultative Committee of the Board of 

 Education being of a permanent character. They desired that, 

 if not a statutory body, it should, at all events, be a recognised 

 institution, not a merely occasional resource, which might or 

 might not be called into existence by the Minister of the time. 

 In asking for some express recognition of the Universities and 

 the teachers on the Consultative Committee they were merely 

 asking that the Government should not leave to chance a result 

 which would probably occur in any case, and that the committee 

 should always include certain elements which, as would be 

 generally allowed, would be indispensable to its efficiency for 

 the purposes which the Bill contemplated. 



Need for a Central Authority. 

 There existed in England a very large supply of institutions 

 which gave secondary education in .some forn. or other. There 

 were public schools, grammar schools, large and small, of 

 various types, proprietary and private schools, technical col- 

 leges and institutes, polytechnics, science and art classes in con- 

 nection with South Kensington ; and at the top of the element- 

 ary school system there were the higher grade Board schools, 

 some of which were also schools of science, receiving Govern- 

 ment aid : there were al.so higher grade schools not subject to 

 School Boards, but under voluntary management. These 

 various resources for secondary teaching were controlled by 

 various agencies which had no connection with each other. The 

 central control was divided up between the Charity Commission, 

 the Department of Science and Art, and the Education Depart- 

 ment ; the Board of Agriculture, too, had certain functions in 

 this respect. The local authorities were no less manifold and 

 disparate. Within the same town or district the local power 

 over .secondary education might be shared between a county or 

 borough council, a School Board, various governing bodies, 

 committees under the Science and Art Department, and 

 managers of voluntary schools. The inevitable result was 

 overlapping and waste of power, greater or less in different 

 places, but prevalent in some degree everywhere. Such waste 

 of power meant increased cost to the taxpayer or ratepayer. 

 Economy alone dictated organisation. But organisation was 

 also demanded by regard to the efficiency of our secondary 

 system as a whole, which vitally concerned not only our indus- 

 trial and commercial interests, but also the general welfare of 

 the nation and the empire. 



Organisation of Education Board. 

 The Board of Education Bill introduced in the House of 

 Lords by the Duke of Devonshire last August was to be again 

 introduced this Session. Its object was to establish a Board 

 of Education for England and Wales, which should take the 

 place of the existing Education Department (including the De- 

 partment of Science and Art at South Kensington), and .should 

 also exercise certain powers now pertaining to the Charity 

 Commission. This Board would have the superintendence of 

 all matters relating to education, both secondary and elementary. 

 It might probably be organised in three department!; — one for 

 secondary education proper, one for the more technical branches 

 of science and art teaching and for the control of science and 

 art museums, and a third for elementary education. The object 

 was to establish a single strong central authority which could 

 survey the whole field. At the same time, nothing was more 

 remote from the intention of the Bill than to impose a rigid 

 or bureaucratic system of secondary education on the country. 

 There was no idea of a cast-iron uniformity. The local 

 authorities, which in due course would be created, would have 

 free discretion to deal in their own way with the varying 

 need., and circumstances of their respective localities. The 



NO. 1528, VOL. 59] 



central authority would merely exercise a general super- 

 vision, affording guidance and assistance as they might be 

 needed. The Duke of Devonshire indicated, in his speech 

 at Birmingham on January 23, what the first task of the 

 new central authority would be. He said that the literary 

 side of education should not be unduly neglected in com- 

 parison with the scientific and the technical. It would be a 

 guarantee for the maintenance of the distinctly liberal studies 

 and of that liberal spirit in education generally which was the 

 very breath of life to secondary schools. Already a very large 

 number of schools, of various sizes and types, had had experi- 

 ence of examination by the Universities, and had been thoroughly 

 satisfied with it. .•\boul one hundred secondary schools were 

 represented in the Cambridge local examinations, and about the 

 same or a slightly larger number were examined by the Oxford 

 and Cambridge Joint Board. The cost was very moderate, 

 making the aid of the Universities available for many schools of 

 which the resources wire comparatively limited. He could 

 not, of course, speak with any authority as to the manner in 

 which the Government might be disposed to regard the sugges- 

 tion made in this resolution ; but it appeared reasonable to hope 

 and believe that the assistance of the Universities in work for 

 which they had already proved their com.petence, and which 

 had been done to the satisfaction of the schools, would be 

 accepted by the Education Board of the future. Such assist- 

 ance would .so far diminish the number of new inspectors that 

 would have to be appointed. In conclusion, he would only say 

 that the Board of Educatinn Bill appeared to him, on the whole, 

 to receive a cordial welcome from all who were interested in 

 the welfare of secondary education in this country. The 

 CSovernment had shown itself fully alive to the importance of the 

 (]uestion. It had chosen the method of procedure which was 

 recommended by practical considerations, and which was most 

 likely to conduce to efl'ective legislation on sound lines and 

 without unavoidable delay. Dr. jebb concluded by moving the 

 resolutions en bloc, and after short addresses by the Master of 

 Trinity, Mr. Swallow, and Mr. Bryce, M.P., the resolutions 

 were put to the meeting and carried. 



EXPERIMENTAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 



THEORY OF HEREDITY.^ 

 TN this, the first part of a paper on reversion, the two foUow- 

 -*- ing questions are dealt with, viz. : (i) Is there invariably 

 evidence of reversion ? (2) May reversion, when it does occur, 

 result in the complete, or all but complete restoration of either 

 comparatively recent or of comparatively remote ancestors ? 

 The first question is answered in the negative, but to the second 

 an affirmative answer is given. In support of the view that 

 reversion does not invariably occur, it is pointed out (l) that 

 clear evidence of reversion is rare in the pure-bred offspring of 

 highly prepotent animals, such as Galloway, .\berdeen, Angus, 

 and Shorthorn cattle. .\nd (2) that there is sometimes no 

 evidence of reversion in cross-bred animals. While it is deemed 

 unnecessary to submit evidence of the fact, long recognised by 

 breeders, that the offspring of highly prepotent animals are, as a 

 rule, the image ol their parents, it is thought desirable to 

 submit evidence in support of the contention that in cross-bred 

 animals indications of reversion may be wholly wanting. The 

 following experiments bear on this point : (<() When a pre- 

 potent Galloway bull (which is black and hornless) is crossed 

 with a Highland heifer, the result may be an animal which 

 experts are unable to distinguish from a pure-bred Gallow."iy — 

 there may be neither a trace of the long-horned Highl.and 

 parent, nor yet any indication of reversion, (/i) A peculiarly 

 marked skewbald (bay and while) Iceland pony mare, when 

 mated with a whole-coloured bay Shetland pony, produced a 

 foal which in colour, form, and gait is almost identical with the 

 skewbald dam — on no single point does it suggest the bay 

 Shetland sire. (. ) A nearly black Shetland mare, when mated 

 with a liay Welsh pony, produced a bay foal «hich in its make, 

 colour, &c., is the image of the sire, {d) .\ pure white fanlail 

 pigeon, cros.sed with a blue pouter hen, yielded a nearly white 

 bird having the form and habits of a pouter, but no suggestion of 

 Coluni/ta livia, the supposed ancestor of the numerous varieties 

 of pigeons, (f) A white Shorthorn crossed with Aberdeen, 

 .\ngus, or Galloway cattle results in " blue-greys," which, 

 1 By Prof. I. C. Ew.irl, F.R.S. (Cominuiiicalcd 10 tin- Royal Socicly of 

 Edinburith, December ;, 1898.) 



