538 
NATURE 
[SEPTEMBER 25, 1902 
twenty-three years I have written a good deal about the harm 
done to England by the general dislike that there is among all 
classes for any kind of education. I do not say that this dislike 
is greater than it used to be in England; I complain that it is 
about as great. But I have never spoken of the decadence of 
England. It is only that we have been too confident that those 
manufactures and that commerce and that skill in engineering, 
for which Napoleon sneered at us, would remain with us for 
ever. Many writers have long been pointing out the conse- 
quences of neglecting education ; prophesying those very losses 
of trade, that very failure of engineers to keep their houses in 
order, which now alarms all newspaper writers. Panics are 
ridiculous, but there is nothing ridiculous in showing that we 
can take a hint. We have hada very strong hint given us that we 
cannot for ever go on with absolutely no education in the scien- 
tific principles which underlie all engineering. There is another 
important thing to remember. Should foreigners get the notion 
that we are decaying, we shall no longer have our industries 
kept up by an influx of clever Uitlanders, and we are much too 
much in the habit of forgetting what we owe to foreigners, 
Fleming and German, Hollander, Huguenot and Hebrew, for 
the development of our natural resources. Think of how much 
we sometimes owe to one foreigner like the late Sir William 
Siemens. 
But I am going too far; there is after all not so very much of 
the foolishness of Ishbosheth among us, and I cannot help but 
feel hopeful as I think lovingly of what British engineers have 
done in the past. We who meet here have lived through the 
pioneering time of mechanical and electrical and various other 
kinds of engineering. Our days and nights have been delight- 
ful because we have had the feeling that we also were helping 
in the creation of a quite new thing never before known. It 
_ may be that our successors will have a better time, will see a 
more rapid development of some other applications of science, 
Who knows? In every laboratory of the world men are dis- 
covering more and more of Nature’s secrets. The laboratory 
experiment of to-day gives rise to the engineering achievement 
of to-morrow. But I do say that, however great may be the 
growth of engineering, there can never be a time in the future 
history of the world, as there has never before been a time, 
when men will have more satisfaction in the growth of their 
profession than engineers have had during the reign of Queen 
Victoria. 
And now I want to call your attention to a new phenomenon. 
Over and over again has attention been called to the fact that 
the engineer has created what is called ‘‘ modern civilisation,” 
has given luxuries of all kinds to the poorest people, has provided 
engines to do all the slave labour of the world, has given leisure 
and freedom from drudgery, and chances of refinement and high 
thought and high emotion to thousands instead of units. But it 
is doing things more striking still. Probably the most important 
of all things is that the yoke of superstitions of all kinds on the 
souls of men should be lifted. The study of natural science is 
alone able to do this, but education through natural science for 
the great mass of the people, even for the select few called the 
distinguished men of the country, has been quite impossible 
till recently. I say that it is to engineers that the world 
owes the possibility of this new study becoming general. In 
our country nearly all discoveries come from below. The leaders 
of science, the inventors, receive from a thousand obscure 
sources the germs of their great discoveries and inventions. 
When every unit of the population is familiar with scientific 
ideas, our leaders will not only be more numerous, but they will 
be individually greater. And it is we, and not the schoolmasters, 
who are familiarising the people with a better knowledge of 
Nature. When men can hardly take a step without seeing 
steam-engines and electro-motors and telegraphs and telephones 
and steamships, with drainage and water works, with railways 
and electric tramways and motor-cars ; when every shop-window 
is filled with the products of engineering enterprise, it is getting 
rather difficult for people to have any belief in evil spirits and 
witchcraft. 
All the heart-breaking preaching of enthusiasts in education 
would produce very little effect upon an old society like that of 
England if it were not for the engineer. He has produced 
peace. He is turning the brown desert lands of the earth into 
green pastures. He is producing that intense competition 
among nations which compels education. If England has 
always been the last to begin reform, she has always been the 
most thorough and steadfast of the nations on any reform when 
NO. 1717, VOL. 66] 
once she has started on it. Education, pedagogy, is a progres- 
sive science ; and who am [ that I should say that the system 
of education advocated by me is that which will be found best 
for England? In the school education of the average boy or man 
England has as yet had practically no experience, for she has 
given no real thought to it. Yet when she does, I feel that 
although the Finsbury scheme for engineers may need great im- 
provement, it contains the germ of that system which must be 
adopted by a race which has always learnt through trial and 
error, which has been led less by abstract principles or abstract 
methods of reasoning than any race known in history. 
NOTES. 
We learn from the Z7mes that the work at the Ben Nevis 
Observatory is to be continued for another year without change 
in its character. The Meteorological Council in London has 
agreed to continue its grant of 250/. to the low-level observatory 
at Fort William and the grant of roo/. to the high-level observ- 
atory. The proceeds derived from furnishing newspapers with 
meteorological reports and from other sources will amount, it is 
hoped, to about 150/., the sum hitherto yielded. The balance 
of the cost of maintenance, amounting to about 1000/., has been 
readily subscribed by the public. This satisfactory arrangement 
will enable the staff to prosecute its work without interruption 
until the Parliamentary Committee inquiry has reported. 
REUTER telegrams state that both craters of the Soufriére 
have been active since September 11, that communication by 
wireless telegraphy is to be established between Martinique and 
Guadaloupe, and that a shock of earthquake was felt in many 
of the northern towns of South Australia on Friday morning 
last. A severe shock was also experienced in Adelaide in the 
evening of the same day. 
THE medals and prizes will be distributed to the students of 
the Royal College of Science, South Kensington, in the theatre 
of the Victoria and Albert Museum at 2.30 p.m. on Thursday next. 
The opening address of the new session will be delivered by 
Prof. John Perry, F.R.S., and Sir Arthur Riicker, F.R.S., will 
also spealc. 
THE death is announced in the A¢hexaewm of Theodor v. 
Heldreich, director of the Botanic Gardens at Athens. The 
deceased botanist, who was in his eighty-first year, devoted his 
attention mainly to the flora of Greece, and was the author of 
numerous works. 
AMONG the deaths of foreign men of science we notice the 
following :—M. Damour—a member of the Paris Academy of 
Sciences—at the age of 94, and Prof. O. G. Nordenstrom, 
of the Stockholm School of Mines. The former was well 
known for his chemical analyses of rare minerals, and the latter 
was an authority on mining and the author of numerous technical 
memoirs. 
THE suggestion that a public subscription should be opened 
for the purpose of purchasing the house in which Pasteur was 
born and presenting it to the town of Ddle was brought before 
the French Association at its recent session. 
A SCHEME has been proposed to the Italian Minister of Posts 
and Telegraphs by Mr. Marconi for the creation of a radio- 
telegraphic station communicating with the stations established 
or to be established by the Marconi companies in London and in 
America. The scheme, which is still under consideration, would, 
if carried out, cost about 70,000 lire. It was announced at a 
dinner given in Mr. Marconi’s honour that the King of Italy 
had bestowed the Cross of a Grand Officer of the Italian Order 
of the Crown upon the inventor. 
A PRELIMINARY report on the subject of the wireless 
| telegraphy experiments conducted by a board of naval officers 
ae 
ae et 
