NA TURE 



[January 7, 1909 



Up to 1906 the council offered 1200 probationer scholar- 

 ships, without income limit, of the value of 15L a year, in 

 addition to free education. These scholarships are tenable 

 for one or two years, and are awarded on condition that 

 the scholars undertake to enter the teaching profession on 

 the completion of the scholarship course. During the year 

 the council awarded 749 such scholarships, together with 

 twenty-eight free places at secondary schools, to students 

 residing outside the county. From 1907 provision will be 

 made for the award of only 800 such scholarships, and the 

 actual number awarded each year may not amount to this 

 number. 



The council awards 100 intermediate county scholar- 

 ships annually to pupils between fifteen and seventeen 

 years of age, tenable until the end of the school year in 

 which the pupils attain the age of eighteen, with possi- 

 bilities of extension for another year. During the year 

 seventy such scholarships were awarded to boys (including 

 twenty commercial intermediate scholarships) and thirty to 

 girls. The scholarships consist of free education at a cost 

 not exceeding 25/. a year, together with maintenance 

 grants rising from 20/. a year to 35/. a year. The income 

 restriction is 400/. a year. The commercial scholarships 

 are tenable in the commercial department of the Canlden 

 or Hackney Downs London County Council secondary 

 schools. 



The council awards fifty senior county scholarships or 

 exhibitions annually ; they confer free education (not ex- 

 ceeding 30/. a year) and such maintenance allowance (not 

 exceeding 60/. a year), at such rate and for such periods, 

 not exceeding four years, as the council may in each case 

 determine. They are tenable at such universities or 

 university colleges as the council may from time to time 

 approve for that purpose, not more than five such scholar- 

 ships awarded annually being tenable for one year at the 

 London Day Training College. The council has also at 

 its disposal a certain number of free places for day students 

 at schools of the University of London. As the number 

 of applications was not so great as in previous years, the 

 council awarded during the year thirty-nine senior county 

 scholarships and exhibitions, together with fourteen free 

 places at various colleges. 



It is generally admitted that the scholarship systems, 

 both of the late Technical Education Board and of the 

 council, have been remarkably successful. The county 

 scholarship system has really formed a ladder to carry 

 promising scholars from the public elementary to the 

 secondary schools, university colleges, and uiiiversities. 

 That the council has secured able candidates for its scholar- 

 ships is shown by the fact that each year the council's 

 scholars have obtained scholarships in the universities or 

 institutions of university rank. Five such scholarships 

 were obtained at Oxford and Cambridge during the vear 

 under review, and many senior county scholars have 

 obtained degrees with honours. 



On the more technical side, exceptional distinction has 

 been gained by scholars in research work, while others 

 have obtained good appointments owing to their technical 

 and artistic achievements. 



By the regulations of the Board of Education a secondary 

 school "must offer to each of its scholars an education 

 of a wider scope and higher grade than that of an 

 elementary school, and provide a progressive course of 

 instruction (with the requisite organisation, teaching stafT, 

 curriculum, and equipment) in the subjects necessary to a 

 good general education upon lines suitable for scholars of 

 NO. 2045, VOL. 79] 



an age-range at least as wide as from twelve to sixteen 

 or seventeen. Provision made for scholars before the age 

 of twelve must be similarly suitable, and in proper relation 

 to the work done in the main portion of the school." 

 The pressing need for further inducements and facilities 

 for children to proceed to a secondary school after leaving 

 the elementary school has long been recognised by the 

 council, and by means of a system of scholarships a bridge 

 by which even the poorest children may pass from the 

 elementary to the secondary school has been provided. The 

 course of instruction in secondary schools, approved by the 

 Board of Education, is framed so as to lead up to a definite 

 standard of attainment, and not to stop short at a merely 

 superficial introduction to any branch of instruction. 



Apart from the council's own secondary schools, there 

 are a large number of secondary schools in respect of which 

 the council makes both maintenance and equipment grants, 

 and which are regularly inspected by the council's officers; 

 the total number of such schools is now fifty-two. The 

 total amount of grants made in respect of secondary 

 schools for the educational year ending July, lOoS, was 

 93,970/. 



In accordance with a scheme approved by the late 

 Technical Education Board in 1902, the annual grant of 

 io,oooZ. to the University of London, to be divided equally 

 between the four faculties of arts, science, engineering, 

 and economics, has been continued. In addition, annual 

 grants have been made since 1895-6, together with 

 occasional equipment grants, to four of the constituent 

 colleges of the University, the council thereby obtaining 

 the right to a certain number of free places. 



VlilVERSirV AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



It is proposed, says Science, to collect 1500!. with which 

 to purchase the valuable chemical library of the late Prof. 

 W. O. Atwater, and present it to Wesleyan University, 

 Middletown, Conn. The library contains more than 5000 

 volumes, including about 2500 volumes of periodicals. 



Two courses for teachers, arranged in connection with 

 the London County Council Education Committee, will 

 begin at University College on January 23. Dr. Wood- 

 land will begin a course of lectures on " The Structure 

 and Natural History of some Common .Animals," and Dr. 

 Fritsch will begin a similar course on " Fundamental Prin- 

 ciples of Botany." On Tuesday, February 23, Prof. 

 Pearson will deliver a lecture on " The Purport of the 

 Science of Eugenics." This will be the first of a course 

 of lectures on national eugenics, to be given on Tuesdays 

 in the second and third terms, by Prof. Pearson, Mr. 

 Heron, and Miss Elderton. 



The annual meeting of the Public School Science 

 Masters' Association will be held at Merchant Taylors' 

 School, Charterhouse Square, E.C., on January 12. In 

 the morning, at 10 a.m., an exhibition of scientific 

 apparatus and books will be opened, and at 10.30 a busi- 

 ness meeting will be held. The president. Sir Clifford 

 .Allbutt. K.C.B., F.R.S., will afterwards deliver an address 

 upon the relation of general to technical science teaching. 

 \t the close of the morning session Mr. M. D. Hill, of 

 Eton College, will speak on anthropometry in schools. 

 The afternoon meeting will be devoted largely to a dis- 

 cussion upon science curricula in public schools, and the 

 debate will be opened by the following papers : — Mr. G. F. 

 Daniell, on the report of the British Association upon the 

 sequence of studies in science ; Mr. W. D. Eggar, of Eton 

 College, on geography considered as a science subject ; 

 Mr. R. G. Durrant, of Marlborough College, on to what 

 extent and at what stage should prevalent views on the 

 nature of solution be taught in schools; and Mr. G. H. 

 Martin, of Bradford Grammar School, on science for the 

 " classical side." At the close of the discussion, Mr. C. I. 

 Gardiner, of Cheltenham College, will deal with the ques- 

 tion of the refusal of the General Medical Council to 

 recognise public schools as institutions where medical 

 education can be commenced. 



