March 27, 1884] 



NA TURE 



507 



be four years in length. One half the time will be spent 

 in a careful study of mathematics, chemistry, physics, 

 modern languiges, and the methods of scientific research, 

 the other half in professional studies in some department 

 of applied science, as mechanics, in which are unfolded 

 the laws of natural forces underlying processes and 

 existing in materials. Mathematics has given the rules 

 of calculation ; drawing, a skill of eye and hand ; and 

 shop-practice, familiarity with actual labour accurately 

 performed.'' Fourteen similar institutions during the 

 last ten or twelve years have been started, but in all of 

 them, as may be e.xpected in a new country like America, 

 the great demand is for knowledge in the arts of working 

 wood and iron ; the former is taught from felling the tree 

 to cabinet-making, and since little of such work can be 

 done without the aid of the companion art of working 

 metals up into tooh and machinery, they are, in varying 

 proportions, taught together in nearly all. Several 

 schools report that the time — in some cases two after- 

 noo.is a week — assigned for shop-work did not diminish 

 the intellectual tasks required. Rather less ambitious in 

 its aims, but excellently practical, is the Worcester 

 County Free Institute, founded by so.ne gentlemen of 

 wealth for the training of boys for the duties of an active 

 life, '■ broader and brighter than the popular method of 

 learning a trade, and more simple and direct than the 

 so-called liberal education.'' The education there is 

 bised on mathematics, living languages, physical sciences, 

 and drawing, but the distinguishing feature is the method 

 and amount of practice in a machine-shop. A manual 

 training school also at Boston and a school for miners 

 and mechanics of a little lower grade still at Drifton, Pa., 

 are schools in eacli of which an increasing proportion of 

 time is devoted to technical subjects, m the latter entirely 

 free. 



On the whole, nevertheless, with seven and a half 

 million dollars bequeathed for educational purposes 

 during iSSi, our Report regretfully remarks this year 

 that the " claims of science do not seem to be sufficiently 

 regarded by the benefactors of learning."' While these 

 . various schools of science have increased in number 

 slightly, and teachers and pupils by about one-tenth, 

 schojls of theology, though similarly increased in number, 

 have lost one-tent'n of their pupils. 



Like the higher colleges, the schools of liw have 

 fallen off in nu nber, but they contain mire pupils. The 

 influence of their work as affecting all future legislition 

 in the States, and therefore the importance of their pupils 

 being grounded in the science of legislation and not 

 learning it in offices only by the rule of thumb, is wisely 

 urged, ddeie it is history which is chiefly required to un- 

 derlie "technical " training. Still more must every one 

 feel the necessity for a high m )ral as well as mental 

 standard in a profession that has in t'aese days gathered 

 such despotic powers to itself. 



Many weighty remarks, similar to those we referred to 

 list year, on the insufficiency of the medical course of 

 study, are to be found in this Report. The necessity of 

 elevating the standard of medical education is universally 

 ad nitted, and a general improvement to so.nae extent is 

 noted. It is evidently entirely in the hands of the Uni- 

 versities, for themselves report that, wliere the stand ird 

 has been raised, students have by no means fallen off, 

 but the reverse; and medical men know well th it where 

 diplomas differ in standard, the highest are well worth 

 wor'^ing for. The importance o' the degree to this pro- 

 fession is also shown by more being taken in medicine 

 than in anything else, and more in medicine and science 

 together than in letters, law, and all other subjects. 



On no point dod Kngland show to such disadvantage 

 by the side of the United States as in the matter of free 

 libraries. It is the more inexplicable because the inar- 

 vellously, not to say unfairly, cheap literature there, 

 together with the scattered habitations, would each tend 



to every man's house being his library ; while in England 

 the exactly reverse conditions of costly boo'vs and closely 

 packed population must make free libraries a most con- 

 venient arrangement. Yet in the United States seventy- 

 one additional libraries with 178,000 voluines were started 

 in iSSi, making up nearly 4000 libraries with 13,000,000 

 volumes. "The true aim in the administration of these 

 libraries should be to mike the books in them accessible 

 and useful to the greatest number of readers. The time 

 has passed when the preservation o^ a library was the 

 chief end of its economy. Methods of arranging, classi- 

 fying, numbering, and charging books aft'ect materially 

 the usefulness of any collection." It well deserves con- 

 sideration what an influence for good or for evil 4000 

 librarians guiding the tastes of their readers to one or 

 other class of literature may have. A further step also is 

 being ta'<en in many places. Librarians and the trustees 

 of libraries generally are trying to cooperate with teachers 

 and parents both in selecting and supplying literature for 

 the young ; the librarian and the schoolmaster together 

 choosing a number of volumes from the main library to 

 be circulated at the discretion of the litter among his 

 scholars. 



An interesting matter for discussion is the principle 

 again laid down by this Report in its remarks upon the 

 defective classes, that those deficient in natural powers, 

 as the deaf, the blind, have as good a right to their edu- 

 cation as those with a sound mind in a sound body ; that 

 it is a duty and not a charity to educate them effectually. 

 The necessity of a "technical" education also, in their 

 case, i.e. teaching them a trade as well as "letters" is 

 clearly urged. Ttiis is carried also with success in sone 

 cases as far as a college education, and tlie late President 

 Garfield complimented the authorities of the Deaf-mute 

 College at Washington upon their presenting so many 

 more capable men to the State. This is, in bire fact, true 

 of the college's work ; but, like the view ta'ien of much 

 benevolent work, it seems to forget that the same amount 

 of power bestowed upon better material would have done 

 much more for the State, and that this better material is 

 never scarce. It is taking much safer ground to base it 

 upon benevolence which, like the " quality of mercy," will 

 bring a blessing also to the giver. 



There are fourteen institutions for the benefit of feeble- 

 minded youth. Oar Report pleads for them that money 

 spent on their education will be more productive than 

 thit spent on lunatics. The census of i83o reports 76,895 

 idiots and 91,997 insane. Inquiry into the cause of such 

 large numbers in a country where overcrowding ought 

 not to be necessary, and the fact that 14 per cent of them 

 had a weak-minded parent and 20 per cent, a weak- 

 minded relative, raises a doubt as to the good in the long 

 run of relaxing the natural chec'-c to the survival of the 

 unfit. Ttiat 33 per cent, of the parents are addicted to 

 drink is, alas, a too natural explanation to us in England. 

 There can be no doubt that it would be not only wise State 

 economy, but it would bring very valuable scientific evi- 

 dence upon the most home-reaching of subjects "to 

 attach to all appropriations for charitable purposes an 

 enabling clause that institutions disbursing t'ris charity 

 should contribute to the commonwealth, in as precise a 

 form as possible, statistics of the origin of the evils they 

 affect to relieve."' 



Reform schools on the excellent plan of the celebrated 

 Michigan one at Coldwater are increasing in number, 

 and one for females also has been opened in this State at 

 Adrian ; and while the argument from benevolence is 

 even stronger for their inmates than for the weakminded, 

 the economical objection is far weaker, as the morality of 

 colonies like Botany Bay shows that moral infirmities, 

 when not carefully cultivated in gaols and prisons, are not 

 so deeply set. Again, while natural checks have a tend- 

 ency to eradicate lueak mental powers, they act much 

 more slowly, if at all, in crowded cities against diseased 



