474 



NA 1 URE 



[Sept. 14, 1? 82 



of the College at Portsmouth — describes as " simply an 

 examination of their mothers or governesses, or the pre- 

 liminary schools they may have been at.'' Their general 

 education is then stopped ; they are sent to the Britannia, 

 and there, in the space of two years, they have to learn 

 and pass an examination in a number of subjects, the list 

 of which is utterly appalling. On this Prof. Soley, of the 

 United States Naval College, says, "The course, as indi- 

 cated by the examination papers, is far in advance of the 

 mental powers of average boys of the prescribed age. 

 The reason that more do not fail is to be found in the low- 

 standard of passing, and in the system of cramming 

 carried out by clever tutors who are masters in the art of 

 coaching pupils for examinations. No one seems to pre- 

 tend that the students come anywhere near the ostensible 

 standard, or carry away anything like real knowledge of 

 the subjects embraced in the programme." And what 

 little is learnt is extremely evanescent : within six months 

 the majority have forgotten all about it. It appears from 

 a report by Dr. Hirst, the Director of Studies, that in a 

 recent examination, and in papers specially prepared, the 

 young gentlemen six months out of the Britannia ob- 

 tained an average of 32 per cent, in Arithmetic, 28 in 

 Algebra, and 17 in Trigonometry. Now the Britannia is 

 essentially a mathematical school, and the Instructors are 

 — it is fully proved by their immediate results — able, hard- 

 working men ; but they are crushed by afradically bad 

 system, which necessitates the "teaching mathematics 

 and navigation from the wrong end." In this, the In- 

 structors have no option ; they are bound by an official 

 schedule which requires the newly-caught children, know- 

 ing next to nothing of Algebra or Geometry, and very 

 little of Arithmetic, to proceed at once to the solution of 

 Plane and Spherical Triangles. Of course the little fel- 

 lows learn to do these questions, because there is no 

 passing for them unless they do do them ; but " the 

 knowledge is stuffed into them by a ' damnable itera- 

 tion' sickening alike to the teacher and the taught." 

 What is the result ? We have shown that they pass out 

 of the Britannia and straightway forget it all. A Naval 

 Instructor of many years' experience assures us that his 

 guiding rule has been to assume that a youngster joining 

 his ship fresh from the Britannia knows nothing, and to 

 begin him with the very elements of Algebra and 

 Geometry. When this can be done, when the Naval 

 Instructor is zealous and is supported by the Captain, 

 when a suitable place can be found for study, and when 

 the youngsters are industrious and clever, then, no doubt, 

 very satisfactory results are sometimes obtained : but the 

 difficulties in the way are exceedingly great. " Order it 

 as you will," Mr. Laughton says, " on board ship the 

 routine will always interfere with the school, and inter- 

 ruptions are frequent. Nor does keeping the middle or 

 morning watch quicken a boy's faculties for study : with 

 his eyes involuntarily closing, his head nodding over his 

 book, the thermometer at So or 90°, and the perspiration 

 dropping from the end of his nose— the difficulties in his 

 way are very real. What a make-believe school, under 

 such circumstances, often is, every Naval Instructor 

 knows very well. The wonder is not that, with such a 

 considerable expenditure of labour, so little is done, but 

 that anything is done at all." The present day affords an 

 example of another difficulty. What amount of school, 



we would ask, have the young gentlemen of the Mediter- 

 ranean fleet done during the last three months ? or, 

 admitting that in some instances they have been present 

 in the body, what amount of real study have they done ? 

 Our experience of boy-nature would lead us to answer — 

 None. And after all these difficulties, the end is as 

 might be expected : for a young officer in his final exa- 

 mination to show any real knowledge of his theoretical 

 subjects is said to be quite exceptional. 



The result then of the present system is that — speaking 

 generally — the young officer, whilst a midshipman, learns 

 neither the practical nor the theoretical parts of his pro- 

 fession : his time is muddled away: he gets a certain 

 amount of crude knowledge crammed into him for his 

 examination ; and having passed that, if all desire of 

 learning has not been crushed out of him, he has too 

 often to begin again at the veiy beginning. In the 

 majority of cases, Mr. Laughton tells us, an officer 

 coming to the College for a voluntary course of study 

 "does not know any mathematics at all"; and, he add-., 

 "when men have got to the age of 25 or 30 without 

 mastering the elementary principles of geometry ami 

 algebra, the task of then doing so is extremely irksome, 

 and in many cases, utterly impossible." Now it is ad- 

 mitted, and — as we have said — by officers of long and 

 special experience, that this state of things does exist, 

 and ought not to exist ; and there seems a very general 

 idea that the remedy must be a radical one, and be applied 

 at the beginning ; that the foundation of mathematical 

 knowledge ought to be laid before a boy goes to sea at 

 all ; and that the early part of his time at sea should be 

 spent in a specially appointed training ship, and not in a 

 ship on active service, where the instruction of the young 

 officers is a point of very secondary consideration, if 

 indeed it has any real place. Mr. Laughton proposes 

 that the cadets should not be entered till they have 

 learned their mathematics, and suggests that this should 

 be tested, in a competitive examination, at an age ranging 

 from 16 to 17. Capt. Grenfell would prefer entering 

 them by nomination at 12, and keeping them in a college 

 under the Admiralty for 4 or 5 years. Each proposal has 

 its own advantages ; but we prefer a free competition, 

 at a reasonable age, to the nomination of children ; and 

 we see no reason why these elementary subjects should 

 be taught, at the expense of the public, to lads who are 

 in no way bound to the public service. But either one, 

 or the other, or any similar scheme would be an enormous 

 improvement on the present system, which stands con- 

 demned by its acknowledged failure, and by the verdict 

 of a very large number of experienced officers. 



UNITED ST A TES FISHERIES 

 Report of T. B. Ferguson, a Commissioner of Fisheries of 

 Maryland, January 1881. (Hagerstown, Maryland : 

 Bell and Co.) 



THE figures of fish culture as we find them in the 

 various reports of the American fishery commis- 

 sioners are perfectly startling in their magnitude. In this 

 report of Major Ferguson we are favoured with an 

 account of the piscicultural work carried on in connection 

 with the " Shad" (Aiosa sapidissiiua), an excellent food 

 fish, which is now being bred in millions at several places 



