584 



NA rURE 



[ArRiL 24, 1902 



Lectures and Essays by the late William Kingdon 

 Clifford, F.R.S. Edited by Leslie Stephen and Sir 

 Frederick I'ollock. 2 vols. I'p. 410, 342. (London : 

 Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1901.) Price \os. 



It is neither upon his popular lectures nor upon his 

 crude essays in metaphysics that Clifford's permanent 

 reputation is based. But it is not surprising that they 

 still find numerous readers ; they are so free from 

 pedantry, so engagingly frank, so evidently the work of a 

 man who sought truth with a really passionate desire. 

 We may smile at Clifford's theory of " brain-stuff,'' which 

 is easily demolished by the very same kind of criticism 

 which he himself applied to "The Unseen Universe" ; 

 we may feel justly astonished that a mind so penetrating 

 in many ways should believe that consciousness is a 

 complex of elementary feelings, which can separately 

 exist as things in themselves ; we may regret the occa- 

 sional bitterness of his invectives, even while we re- 

 member that they were inspired by a hatred of priestcraft 

 and superstition. But with all this, when we turn again 

 to these fresh and stimulating pages, and when we read 

 once more Sir Frederick Pollock's graceful and generous 

 introduction, we can understand how Clifford charmed 

 and impressed his contemporaries, and how keen was 

 their sorrow at his premature death. It is, perhaps, not 

 altogether fanciful to compare Clifford's fate with that of 

 Robert Louis Stevenson ; in each case a reaction has 

 followed the too partial praise of admiring friends, and 

 this disparagement is again being corrected by a more 

 dispassionate criticism. 



Teoria delle Funzio7ii Analitiche. By Giulio V'ivanti. 

 Pp. 432. (Milan : Ulrico Hoepli, 1901.) Price 3 lire. 



"A POCKET guide to the Theory of Functions," may 

 strike many pure mathematicians as being a rather 

 startling innovation. But the rate at which mathematical 

 knowledge is added to every year makes it increasingly 

 difficult for a mathematician to acquire a thorough 

 acquaintance of more than a very limited range of study, 

 and if the physicist, for example, has to derive his in- 

 formation on the theory of functions from large treatises 

 and scattered literature, " life is too short " and the work 

 is crowded out by other matters. 



The book is divided into three parts, the first con- 

 taining the elements of the theory of groups, the second 

 the general theory of analytical functions, while the third 

 contains a sketch of certain recent developments of the 

 theory of functions. Prof X'ivanti bases his treatment 

 on Weierstrass's methods. At the end is a list of 218 

 books and papers dealing with the subject, all for the 

 very small price of half-a-crown. 



It is much to be wished that a reaction may be set on 

 foot in this country against the over-elaboration and 

 specialisation of mathematical text-books by the pub- 

 lication of a series of small handbooks similar to this 

 little Italian treatise. The need for a change of this kind 

 is well illustrated by a copy of the iSOo edition of 

 Routh's " Rigid Dynamics," which the present writer has 

 just acquired. It bids fair to be much more useful in 

 teaching a certain class of student than the modern 

 large two-volume editions. 



Graduated Exercises in Elementary Practical Physics. 

 By C. J. Leaper. Pp. iii -4- 264. (London : Biggs and 

 Co., 1901.) Price 2s. i>d. 



This contains the usual elementary exercises in physics, 

 and it is not obvious what special advantages it offers. 

 Many of the diagrams are very bad, and the printing is 

 poor. Examples are given for the students to follow ; 

 thus we find the product in Boyle's law carried to six 

 significant figures, and the latent heat of fusion of ice to 

 five figures. How often are we to cry out against this ? 



NO. 1695,. VOL 65] 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[ The Editor does uol hold himself respomibk for opinions ex- 



pressed by his correspondents. Neilher lan he U)iderlake 



to return, or to coi respond with the writers of, rejenel 



maniisiripts intended for this or any other part of NaTL'KE. 



No notice is taken of anonvmous communications.'^ 



The Education Bill. 



The suggestion in your editorial memorandum last week on 



this subject is one for which there is a remarkable precedent in 



the history of educational controversy. That suggestion is to 



the effect that, having regard to the complexity of the subject, to 



the fact that the urgent need of our time is the organisation of 



secondary and higher instruction, while the condition of our 



primary instruction is, on the whole, satisfactory and but for 



the demands of the voluntary schools would not require any 



material change at all, it would be well to divide the Bill into 



two parts and to press forward during the present session the 



enactment, with due modifications, of that part which affects 



intermediate and scientific education, and so to leave the part 



relating to elementary education for fuller consideration another 



year. 



This course would be precisely similar to that adopted by Mr. 

 W. E. Forster in 1869, the year before the Elementary Educa- 

 tion Act. He had been a member of the Schools Inquiry 

 Commission, which had recently issued a memorable and most 

 comprehensive report, the work largely of the late Lord 

 Lyttelton and the present Archbishop of Canterbury'. As 

 Vice-president of the Council, he introduced the Endowed Schools 

 Bill, which was designed to deal with the whole problem of 

 secondary as distinguished from elementary instruction. The 

 Bill was divided into two parts, the former providing for 

 the urgent need of the moment, the reform of the ancient 

 and often obsolete and useless endowed foundations, and the 

 latter constituting central and local authorities for the coordina- 

 tion and improvement of all classes of secondary schools — private, 

 proprietary and municipal — for the registration of teachers, 

 for the provision of needful schools, and for the con- 

 struction of a coherent system of secondary education for 

 the whole country. But it happened then, as it is hap- 

 pening now, that such a large and far-reaching proposal 

 touched many interests and involved many dithculties, and that 

 it proved impossible to pass the whole Bill in one ses.sion. So 

 Mr. Forster wisely abandoned the second part of the Bill, and 

 resolutely secured the passing of the first. The Endowed 

 Schools Act thus simplified and placed on the statute book is 

 still in force, and has proved to be one of the most beneficent of 

 modern Acts of Parliament. It created a special Commis- 

 sion, with power to inquire into the history and resources of 

 educational foundations, to revise and modernise their statutes 

 and deeds of gift, to reform the governing bodies, and to 

 secure the permanence and increased public usefulness of edu- 

 cational endowments generally. Other attempts have been 

 made in subsequent years to deal piecemeal with the larger 

 projects of educational reform contemplated by the Govern- 

 ment of 1869 ; but it remains on record that if an attempt had 

 been made to enforce the enactment of the whole measure, 

 the Endowed Schools Act, which has proved of such signal 

 public service, would never have been passed. 



Without renewing any discussion as to the merits or demerits 

 of the new Bill, it may interest your readers to be reminded of 

 the precedent thus set more than thirty years ago. If that pre- 

 cedent were followed in the present case, it would at least give 

 an opportunity to the newly constituted local authorities to deal 

 at once with technical and secondary education, and thus to gain 

 a new title to public confidence. The public would then be 

 enabled to judge, after one or two years' experience, of 

 the expediency of entrusting to these bodies the larger and 

 more difficult task which the present Bill proposes to hand over 

 to them — the virtual reconstruction of the whole existing system 

 of elementary education. J. G. FlTCH. 



Athenx'um Club, April 22. 



I FIND myself in entire agreement with the views expressed 

 by Principal Lodge in the last number of Naiirk. And if 

 any practical illustr.-ition were needed to support them, I think 

 ti is afforded by the invaluable work which has been done for 

 secondary education in the county of Surrey. 



Until the County Council took the matter up, the educational 

 destitution of western Surrey as regards secondary schools was 



