340 



NATURE 



\Aug. 22, 1872 



philosophy of Bacon, and has been thought by some to constitute 

 its great weakness. I have no doubt there are as mmy in Eng- 

 Und as in Germany who would not be deterred by the prospect 

 of comparative poverty, which in every country must be the part 

 of thos; who devote them selves to abstract science, but very few 

 who have the courage and res )lution to follow this course in 

 spite of a public opinion which cstimites science on utilitarian 

 principles. 



This lead"! me na'urally to my .second position, which is that 

 the most efficient means we can take to improve the position of 

 our .science in England are those which have for their object the 

 enlightenment of pablic opinion, and that this is to be effected 

 partly by diffusing this knowledge of our labours among the 

 public, and so inducing them to take an interest in them, p irlly 

 by introducing training in physical science into our schools. 



In the art of exposition, i.e., of miking iliflicult subjects 

 plain, we have one among us who is a master — whose powers in 

 this respect have b?eu acknowledged, not only in England, bat in 

 Erance, and still more emphatically in Germany. His work on 

 elementary physiolo_jy has been presented to the German public 

 by one of the leading German physiologists (who is himself a 

 model of clearness of style), who tells his countrymen in his 

 preface that no German writer could expound the experimental 

 facts which are the basis of physiological knowledge as Huxley 

 can. 



In the existence of such a man as Iluxley I find a great source 

 of encouragement for the future of English physiology, not only 

 on account of his own work, large though that has been (for no 

 one builder can lay many bricks in an edifice where every brick 

 requires such careful laying), but also for his mfluence on 

 national life. 



At one time I confess that I was disposed to underrate the 

 value of popularising science ; — now I see the power of exposition 

 to be a great power for good. We have an example of the 

 good that it effects in the history of this Association. We have 

 another in that of the Royal Institution, which has lately been 

 made familiar to us by the accounts which have been givon of 

 tliat great and good man who for so many years was its life. 

 Faraday, the greatest physicist of his time, was equally master 

 of the art of exposition. Of the inlhience which his mind 

 thereby exercised on the minds of men, women, and children, 

 there can 1)3 no doubt. Nor do I think that h; lost by it him- 

 self, for although we cannot suppose that he taught without 

 some exhaustion of his energies, I cannot believe that the effort 

 was a useless one even to himself 



One would not venture to say of such a man tint, in explain- 

 ing to chi'dren the fundamental conceptions which in his mind 

 were already so clear, these became still clearer ; but I think it 

 may be so. 



I pass at once to the second part of my position, that which 

 relates to the teaching of science, and particularly physiology, in 

 schools. This I may deal with very shortly. 



The teaching must necessarily be elementary. If it is thorough 

 and genuine, it is good. 



To wedg^ a little bit of Bowdlerised physiology, something 

 about the structure and functions of the human body, into the 

 ordinary course of a school education, may be an ornamental 

 addition to it, but can scarcely be really useful. Our reform, if 

 it is to be attempted at all, must be much more complete and 

 radical. It must consist, not in adding natural science to the 

 system of instruction in which we ourselves and our predecessors 

 were brought up, but in substituting for some of the old drudge- 

 ries somelhmg better and more substantial. 



As regards that higher education which may be defined as 

 introductory to the studies of the University, most peop'.e are 

 now disposed to recognise that there exis's at the present day a 

 tendency to increase its extent at the expense of its thoroughness. 

 On the one hand, a powerfid effort is made by the /auifaton's 

 icinpor'n acti to maintain the old discipline ; while on the odier 

 a general though somewhat vague notion prevails that no system 

 of education can be regarded as complete from which science is 

 excluled. To reconcile these antagmisti: tendencies, the only 

 method which has heen found is that of ad lition an! accumu- 

 lation. Instead of displacing some of the old requirements, an 

 addi'ional loid of new subjects has been impi-^ed on the unfir- 

 tunae examinee in the form of chemi-try, physics, ani nai physi- 

 ology, i&c. No wonder that to the victnn who has just pissed 

 through one of our modern ordeals the very names of these 

 sciences are sickening ; for in addition to the disagreeable task 

 of getting them up from tex'-books (lext-books, however excel- 



lent, are at best but very poor reading), the competitor, wh ;ther 

 successful or not, has the consoling reflection that hehisbjen 

 doing treadmill work arter all — 'earning a number of facts and 

 laws of great value to the man who is able to possess himself of 

 them, but tp him rendered absolutely useless from the m ide of 

 study to which the present system of examinations has compelled 

 him. 



The way to obviate this I have already hintei at. Let it be 

 clearly understood that if natural science is to be made a part of 

 our educational system, it cannot be introduced as an ornamental 

 addition or accomphshment, but as part of the grounlwork To 

 serve as a groundwork, we must admit that phys ology and ana- 

 tomy are not adapted. 



The corner-stone must, of course, be mathematics. Side by 

 side with mathematics the subjects which ought to claim pre- 

 ference are physics and chemis'ry. The latter, when taught 

 and studied experimentally, is specially frted to cultivate that 

 certainty, that convincedness of mind, that clear realisation of 

 facts seen not by the bodily but by the intellectual eye, which 

 constitute the scientific spirit. A boy who has learnt to 

 feel the certainty of the laws of chemical comlnnation, of the 

 relations between density and combming weight, and between 

 both and specific heat, can never, so long as he retains his mental 

 soundness, relapse into that state of v.ague inlifiference about 

 facts which characterises many uneducated persons, or lose the 

 habit of exactitude of conception and statement to which he is 

 compelled by pra:tice in chemical reasoning. 



It is clear that anatomy and physiology cannot be recommended 

 on the same ground, yet I believe that it may be wisely included 

 in ordinary education, not as a discipline, and not as a subject 

 of examination, but on the ground that it is so usefully applicable 

 to the common affairs of life. It is undoubtedly useful that every 

 one should know something of the structure and functions of his 

 own body, and this for sever.al reasons — first, because he is en- 

 abled there!)y to take better care of himself, and to understand 

 how to preserve himself by reasonable precautions against some 

 of the well-recognised causes of disease. Another reason is, he 

 would not be so likely as he would otherwise be to become the 

 dujie of the many quackeries which are alloat — more ready to 

 take (he advice of the doctor as regards the regulation of his 

 mo le of life, less credulous about the cllicacy of drugs. 



Let us now, in conclusion, say one word as to the influences 

 which the general adoption of a system based upon scientific 

 training would exercise on scientific progress, and particularly on 

 the progress of the science in which we are interested. 



I can illustrate this best by taking the medical student as an 

 example. We teachers of physiology to medical studen's know 

 that when we begin first to talk to them about the principles of 

 the subject, e.g., about chemical change as the essential condi- 

 tion of all vital phenomena, about the relation between the pro- 

 duction of heat and external motion, about the exchange of gases 

 in respiration, and many other fundamental subjects, the great 

 difticulty is that our auditors are utterly at fault for want of tnose 

 conceptions about matter and its powers, which are expressed by 

 the words we are constantly using, such as solid, liqui 1, gas, 

 vapour, weight, density, volume, &c., all of whicli to the avera.;e- 

 finished schoolboy are perfectly meaningless. The result is 

 that these fundamental conceptions, not having been mastered at 

 first, are not mastered at all, and the student begins to bjild the 

 superstructure without having had any opportunity of laying the 

 foundation. If the Voiiiiliiuiig vieve different, if students were 

 to come to their work with the scientific habit of mind already 

 formed, it would not only make them better students, but would 

 retain its influence on him through life. The details might fade 

 from the memory, but the spirit would remain, 



I trust that it will not appear to the members of the Section 

 that I have, in any of the obseivations I have made, forgotten that 

 the object for which we are assembled here is the promotio ; of 

 the science of anatomy and physiology. Although I cannot cl rim 

 for our science a more direct interest in scientific training than for 

 otners, there are reasons (as I hive enrieavoured to show) why it 

 suffers more from the want of it thin others, Tne chief one 

 being that, as compired with whit we feel and know to be its 

 real import mce to the tu'ure wel'are of humanity, the practical 

 benefits which immediately arise from it are not so ob/ious. 



I have said very htile indeed of another pressing difficulty 

 which we have now, and, I believe, will have for mmy years, 

 to contend with^the want of p;cuiiiary resources — b ciuse I 

 know that in this country if educated public opinion can be in- 

 terested on behalf of any scientific object, and particularly if 



