584 



NA TURE 



[January 28, 1909 



of matter is a necessary disciplinary corrective of all 

 abstract thinking, whether scientific or not, and we should 

 beware how we repress it lest we destroy that practical- 

 mindedness which we treasure as one of the most valuable 

 of our national assets. Imbued as we are with these con- 

 victions, it is discouraging- to meet with opinions which 

 appear to have been formed at a period when they were 

 in some measure justified by the direct transference to the 

 school of the practice of the university without the neces- 

 sary adaptation to a lower intellectual plane, and by other 

 inevitable errors of the early and empirical stage of science 

 teaching. It is some relief, however, that the charge 

 which has to be met is a matter of pounds, shillings and 

 pence, and not one of squandering educational opportunity 

 or of wasting human effort. 



Economy bears upon science teaching precisely at it bears 

 upon every branch of education and every department of 

 social administration, nor do its principles perforce wither 

 away in the atmosphere of science. As practical experi- 

 ence extends, as the supply of trained teachers improves, 

 as examinations become more scientific and less restricted 

 in style, so will the spirit of investigation and research be 

 stimulated, and sound standards of thought be established. 

 Indeed, the question of outlay will almost cease to be 

 relevant as the relation of output to expenditure improves, 

 but if definite statements be called for, a wide range of 

 inquiry has furnished them. From the information thus 

 gained, it appears that the present average expenditure on 

 apparatus and material is about \l. per annum for each 

 pupil receiving practical instruction in science in the public 

 schools, and about los. per annum for each pupil in other 

 secondary schools. It may be safely accepted as a maxi- 

 mum estimate — a fairly generous one — that physical and 

 chemical laboratories can be equipped, maintained in appa- 

 ratus, and supplied with consumable material, and provision 

 also be made for the practical study of animate nature, on 

 a basis of too boys w-orking for lo hours a week (or 

 40,000 boy-hours per annum), by an average annual expen- 

 diture of 150!. for a period of ten years. After this period 

 of installation and accumulation of plant, the annual cost 

 of maintenance and renewal need not exceed \oa\. In 

 other words, the cost per head should never exceed 30^. a 

 year during the early constructive stage, and mav be 

 expected to fall much below that value after a period 

 varying with the scope of the work, the degree of special- 

 isation, and the number of students. But it is imperative 

 that expenditure should be guided by experience, for a 

 wrong start by a tyro may hamper himself or his successor 

 for years. For this reason there is much valuable work 

 to be done by any independent body which would undertake 

 to serve as a standing committee' for the sifting and co- 

 ordination of results in these matters, and for advising and 

 guiding those in need. 



Save for a few of the chief public schools, the statements 

 here made in connection with secondary education arc 

 fortunately to a great extent unnecessarv. There arc now 

 about 750 secondary schools in England and Wales in- 

 spected by the Board of Education and receiving grants 

 for efficient teaching. In these schools there are about 

 100,000 pupils taking a course which has been approved 

 by the Board, and this course must provide instruction in 

 science. The Board insists that " the instruction in 

 science must include practical work by the pupils." In 

 each of these secondary schools, and they include most of 

 the grammar schools and endowed schools of the country, 

 one or more laboratories must be provided. They are to 

 be fitted with benches for their special purpose, and sup- 

 plied with water, gas, and, when possible, electric current. 

 Sufficient apparatus must also be provided for a reasonable 

 course of work. 



The governing bodies of all these schools must provide 

 laboratories and apparatus for individual practical work 

 whether they like it or no. The schools are not regarded 

 as efficient or entitled to receive grants in aid of education, 

 unless they_ comply with the regulations laid down by the 

 Board_ for individual practical work in science. Provision 

 for this purpose cannot be evaded bv anv secondary school 

 „.i,:ph receives grants in aid. nor,' on' the other hand. 



whli 



would any reduction in its cost permit the teaching to be 

 extended beyond the limits already imposed bv the rightful 

 claims of other subjects. Secondary schools which are less 

 local in character and not qualified to receive grants, but 

 XO. 2048, VOL. 79] 



are subject to considerable competition among themselves, 

 are prompted by motives of self-preservation to give a 

 prominent position in their curricula to scientific training. 

 It is now only a few public schools which remain in an 

 exceptional position and offer but limited opportunities of 

 learning science to a portion of their pupils. If an exten- 

 sion of science teaching in such schools be desired, the 

 cost of its provision does not appear to be the real 

 obstacle. 



THE WORLD OF LIFE: AS VISUALISED AND 

 INTERPRETED BY DARWINISM.' 



'X'HE lecturer began by stating that, although the theory 

 of Darwinism is one of the most simple of com- 

 prehension in the whole range of science, there is none 

 that is so widely and persistently misunderstood. This is 

 the more remarkable, on account of its being founded upon 

 common and universally admitted facts of nature, more or 

 less familiar to all who take any interest in living things ; 

 and this misunderstanding is not confined to the ignorant 

 or unscientific, but prevails among the educated classes, 

 and is even found among eminent students and professors 

 of various departments of biology. 



Darwinism is almost entirely based upon those external 

 facts of nature, the close observation and description of 

 which constituted the old-fashioned " naturalists," and it 

 is the specialisation in modern science that has led to the 

 misunderstanding referred to. Those who have devoted 

 years to the almost exclusive study of anatomy, physiology, 

 or embryology, and that equally large class who make the 

 lower forms of life (mostly aquatic) the subject of micro- 

 scopical investigation, are naturally disposed to think that 

 a theory which can dispense with all their work (though 

 often strikingly supported by it) cannot be so important 

 and far-reaching as it is found to be. 



Numbers, Variety, and Intermingling of I.ife-fornis. 



Coming to the first great group of facts upon which 

 Darwinism rests, the lecturer directed attention to the 

 great number of distinct species, both of vegetable and 

 animal life, found even in our own very limited and rather 

 impoverished islands, as compared with more extensive 

 areas. Great Britain possessed somewhat less than 2000 

 species of flowering plants, while many equal areas on the 

 Continent of Europe have twice the number. The whole 

 of Europe contains qooo species, and the world 136,000 

 species already described ; but the total number, if the 

 whole earth were so w-ell known as Europe, would be 

 almost certainly more than double that number, or about a 

 quarter of a million species. The following table, show- 

 ing how much more crowded are the species in small than 

 in large areas, was exhibited on the wall. It affords an 

 excellent illustration of the fact of the great intermingling 

 of species, so that large numbers are able to live in close 

 contact with other, usually very distinct, species. 



Numbers of Flowering Plants 

 Square mi 



The County of Surrey 700 



A portion containing 60 



660 

 600 

 400 



The above figures were given by the late Mr. H. C. 

 Watson, one of our most eminent British botanists, and 

 as he lived most of his life in the county, they are probably 

 the results of his personal observation, and are therefore 

 quite trustworthy. 



Continuing the above inquiry to still smaller areas, one 

 porch, equalling 1/160 acre, or less than the i/ioo.ooo 

 of a square mile, has been found to have about forty dis- 

 tinct species, while on a patch 4 feet by 3 feet in Kent 

 (or about i '25,000,000 of a square mile) Mr. Darwin found 

 twenty species. 



1 Abstract of discourse delivered at tlie Koyal Institution on Friday 

 January 22, by Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace. O.M., F.R.S. 



-' Other tables illustrating similar facts in other parts of the world wer; 

 prepared, but net exhilited, as being likely to distract attention from the 

 lecture itself. 



