2 2 



NATURE 



[July 6, ign 



have I ited entirely on modern lines. Latin, as 



hi with grammar and dictionary, is inductive science 

 almost in the abstract. Again, the engineer is doubtless 

 often called upon to command a gang of foreign workers. 

 1 he sooner and the better he learns their language the 

 more easily he will control them and direct their labour. 

 The language may he wholly alien lo any that is spoken 

 in Europe, yet the necessary elements of language must 

 always be the same. It is undoubtedly the business of the 



r to understand contracts, and to give and receive 



orders accordingly. These transactions require a careful 

 and exact appreciation of words by whomsoever used. It 

 is too often forgotten that the whole profession of lawyers 

 lives, in the main, on the inability of other people either 

 to say what they mean or to understand what is said to 

 them. Dr. Gow suspects that the time is at hand when 

 it will be advantageous to the engineer to mingle the utile 

 with the dulce, to discern not only what is mathematically 

 possible, but also what is artistically impossible, not only 

 what is cheap, but also what is nasty. For this purpose 

 some general culture is necessary, such as makes a man 

 liberal in mind and sympathetic to the common run of his 

 fellows. Dr. Gow considers that the best plan is to give 

 i boy a general education, mainly literary, up to sixteen 

 of age, and at that point to watch him closely and 

 put him to what he wants to learn. If he is clever he will 

 be successful; if he is not clever he will, at least, be happy 

 and proud of his calling. 



Prof. Silvanus P. Thompson initiated a discussion on 

 the extent to which mathematical and scientific subjects 

 should share with other subjects of literate education the 

 attention of schoolboys who intend to enter later the 

 engineering profession. In the present chaos of secondary 

 education, the schools of the type which chiefly furnishes 

 boys to the engineering profession are almost wholly desti- 

 tute of any organisation adapted to that end. Not one, so 

 far as the speaker knew, has any definite educational goal 

 to set before the majority of its boys. In general, school- 

 masters devote their energies to preparing a few scholar- 

 ship candidates, and have no definite educational aim what- 

 ever for the bulk of the boys. Until this hopeless state of 

 things is radically altered, and until the goodness or bad- 

 "f a school is adjudged, not by the triumphs of a 

 few, but by the proportion of all its scholars whom it 

 brings to a maturity test, British education will continue 

 to be in a bad way. In all German secondary schools 

 there is a perfectly definite goal before every boy in the 

 school. Before he reaches the topmost class he will have 

 to pass the Einjahrige examination, or pass out disgraced. 

 Three years later, if he passes the Abiturient examination, 

 the way is open for him to any university and to anv pro- 

 fessional career : otherwise he is marked as unfit for pro- 

 mal life. Hire, with us, the State (save in Scot- 

 land) has not yet organised the secondary schools. Each 

 university wastes its energies over holding matriculations 

 and tin- like. Almost all the professional bodies hold 

 ii- matriculations or preliminary examinations of 

 own. The result, educationally, is muddle, waste, 

 inefficiency. The schoolmasters, in despair at the multi- 

 tude of twenty conflicting matriculations, fix upon none, 

 and let chaos work. 



Prof. Thompson is in agreement with the recommenda- 

 tions of the report of the committee of the Institution ol 

 Civil _ Engineers, given $& years ago, on the studentship 

 examination. These briefly an n pecialisation at 



school is undesirable: (2) a leaving examination for 



larv schools, similar to that in existence in Scotland 



and in Wales, is desirable throughout the United Kingdom ; 

 (3) instruction in mathematics should he by somewhat 

 modified methods: (4) a general knowledge of elementary 

 physics and chemistry or natural philosophy is preferable 

 to the pursuit in detail of some particular department in 

 science. 



At school, the first objert of science teaching should be 

 to evoke interest, not to impart the facts or data of 

 , still less to systematise their rediscovery. All that 

 has its place later. Even the driest subject can be madi 

 thoroughly attractive by a live teacher who handles his 

 subject in a human way. A had teacher can make even 

 electricity as dull and distasteful a subject as the conjuga- 

 tion of irregular verbs. One difficulty which has been 

 explained by masters of progressive tendencies in seeking 

 NO. 2175, VOL. 87] 



to introduce mathematical reforms such as that which has 

 come about in the past few years lias ben the stupidity 

 of inspectors, who have not yet grasped the importance of 

 the reforms. The benumbing influence of all the older 

 Cambridge traditions i^ also felt. Bad teaching is 

 responsible more than anything else for distaste for mathe- 

 matics. A realh, icher will make his boys 

 enthusiastic over matters that in the hands of others are 



i "I., dull. 



The greatest change which has come over the teaching 

 ol mathematics is the almost complete disappearance of 

 l.u. [id. Prof. Thompson is not sure whether the loss is 

 not greater than the gain. The teaching of Euclid was in 

 one respect absolutely invaluable. If approached rightly, 

 after practice in geometrical drawing, the study of Euclid 

 constitutes an unrivalled training in methodical and cogent 

 reasoning. But Euclid is gone, and there has been no 

 satisfactory substitute for it. It is the opinion of Prof. 

 Thompson that boys nowadays are less capable of follow- 

 ing a sustained train of thought than they used to be. 



In the conflict of subjects, one is apt to lose sight of 

 the fact that training in thinking and in the correct ex- 

 pression of thought is more essential than the stud] of 

 any particular subject. In all studies — science, mathe- 

 matics, language, or literature — there should be cultivated 

 precision in the use of words and cogency in modes of 

 thought. These things are vastly more important in the 

 ultimate making of a professional p- gineer than the 

 acquisition of a hoard of scientific fa . The secondary 

 school must not degenerate into a hou of cram. 



Sir John Wolfe Barry agreed ith Dr. Gow that 

 specialisation should not commence too early. A general 

 training should be given in early life, as it was impossible 

 to attain to such later. His own early training had not 

 been directed towards engineering, and he considered that 

 this had been to his advantage. 



Mr. Theodore Reunert, of Johannesburg, hoped that the 

 conference would lay down a definite course of training 

 for engineers. In other professibns parents could obtain 

 definite information regarding the course of study and 

 training through which their sons must proceed ; in 

 engineering no such information is available. 



Dr. W. H. D. Rouse thought that specialisation before 

 sixteen or seventeen was wrong. In his opinion, Prof. 

 Thompson had not spoken too strongly in regard to the 

 evils of examinations. Examinations were generally of an 

 undesirable character, and their continued multiplication 

 was a great evil. Prof. Thompson's remarks about 

 German examinations being conducted by cooperation 

 between the State and the teachers were of value, and he 

 considered that such was the only way that was fair to 

 the teachers. 



Mr. W. Whitaker, F.R.S., could not confirm the view 

 that culture could be obtained only in early life. Dr. 

 Gow- had emphasised the educational value of literature; 

 there was nothing like leather, and he noticed that Dr. 

 Gow was a Doctor of Literature. Mr. Whitaker agreed 

 with Prof. Thompson's remarks on the teaching of Euclid. 

 He believed that English was taught very badly, and that 

 scientific men in this respeel were as badly trained as the 

 majority of people, and worse than most, 



Dr. R. Mullineux Walmsley thought that the lack of a 

 definite educational aim in England was due to defective 

 public opinion. In this respect matters were much better 

 in Scotland. The statement which had been made that 

 universities had to bold matriculation examinations 

 because they wanted the fees was true, and if the London 

 University gave its examinations up it would be bankrupt 

 . mdalous state of affairs. 



Prof. W. S. Ahell considered Euclid to be the basis of 

 the English system of mathematics, and that the Institution 

 of Civil Engineers should insist on its being taught. 



Colonel J. E. Capper said that a mechanic might be 

 able to lay a railway, but an engineer, in addition, should 

 lie aide to say if n nv to lav it at all. To 



answer such questions, ;i general literary education was 



Mi. T. II Baile; [gested that Prof. Thompson had 



missed tin' aim of public school life, which was not to turn 

 out professional men, but to give a general grounding and 

 moral training. 



Both Dr. Gow and Prof. Thompson in their replies 



