_ 
* Dec. 8, 1870] 
NATURE 
103 

cultivated, but still toa general and unlearned public, prone 
to receive fanciful analogies as real reductions to simpler 
laws, and to confound together fond imaginings with 
sound and fruitful hypotheses, we very much doubt whether 
it may not turn out to be an engine rather of mischief 
than of good. Genealogies there must be, doubtless, and 
many, doubtless, also may in time be made out. In 
cases like the pedigree of the horse, the evidence already 
seems wonderfully strong ; and it would be simple pre- 
sumption to fix a limit beyond which we cannot hope for 
success. Still, by their nature, genealogies are like castles 
of cards in the shape of inverted pyramids, with each 
tier Jess safe and less sound than the one above it. A 
very little memoir may disturb one of the lower stages, 
and then a whole pile comes down witha run. They are 
not the kind of things to put before learners as the strong- 
holds of science. Some readers would learn in the frst 
half of this volume to love Darwinism better than biology, 
and before they had finished the second half, would 
love Haeckel better than either. Others would pass rapidly 
through a disbelief in Haeckel and distrust of Darwin to a 
state of complete doubt about biology in general. Worst 
of all would be the effect on such minds as that of a 
speaker at one of the meetings of the Biological Section 
of the British Association at Liverpool, who said he had 
believed for many years in spontaneous generation, in 
natural selection, in the evolution theory, and in most 
views of a similar kind, and who seemed ready to believe 
anything and everything except the old truth, that truth is 
very hard to get, but very precious when it is gotten. 
M. F. 

DEFECTS IN GENERAL EDUCATION 
On Some Defects in General Education. Being the Hun- 
terian Oration of the Royal College of Surgeons for 
1869. By Richard Quain, F.R.S. (London : Macmillan 
and Co, 1870.) 
1D we QUAIN begins the present lecture with a pleasant 
and suggestive sketch of the career and genius of 
Hunter, but the greater part of it is taken up with the 
subject indicated in the title. The point to which most 
attention is naturally directed is the predominance of 
classics in the present system of education. Against this 
Dr. Quain protests with all the ardour that we expect ina 
man imbued with the best scientific ideas of his time. In 
the first place, he insists that the study of our own lan- 
guage and literature should hold a much more important 
place in the education of our youth than is actually 
assigned to it. He thinks it monstrous that men should 
be carefully taught to read Latin and Greek, and be left in 
almost total ignorance of the history of their own speech, 
with scarcely any real power of using it, and without the 
smallest insight into the true spirit of one of the richest and 
most extensive literatures in the world. Aboveall, however, 
Dr. Quain urges that Science should become the staple 
element of modern education. Onthe ground of mere ex- 
pediency, he points out, rich and poor ought alike to be 
taught Science, for it gives the former a truer conception 
of the duties which attach to property, and the latter it 
enables to improve their position. T3ut whatis even more 
_ important, Science imparts to those who devote them- 

selves to it the freest and largest culture; and it is grossly 
irreligious to talk reverently of a Creator, and yet to 
refuse to seize every opportunity to become better 
acquainted with the Creation. ‘If the instructors of the 
young in schools believe, if parents believe, that the 
things of this world are in truth the work of the Creator 
ought not that belief, without anything further, to settle 
the question for them? Ought not these ‘glorious 
works’ to be acknowledged as subjects for diligent study, 
not disregarded as they are now?” Another fault in our 
educational arrangements to which Dr. Quain refers is 
the excessive devotion to athletic sports which at present 
prevails. This, he thinks, arises from the repulsive 
nature of the chief subjects of study at our schools and 
universities, and would probably come right if the intel- 
Jectual tastes and propensities of every order af mind 
were more carefully studied and gratified. The lecturer 
also protests against the dangerous extent to which we 
have carried the competitive system at the present day. 
With all the best writers on the subject—Mr. Matthew 
Arnold in particular—he believes that excessive competi- 
tion is the reverse of favourable to true culture; that 
it renders anything like real study distasteful, and 
produces in the end narrow and superficial minds. He 
suggests that it might be well, as in Germany, to have for 
boys leaving school one general examination, which it 
would be necessary to pass for entrance to the universities 
to the professions, and to the public services. For this 
examination there would be no special preparation ; it 
would only serve as a test of the general culture derived 
during a series of years from the training of skilled 
teachers. Afterwards the student ought to be allowed to 
consult his own tastes in the choice of subjects of study, 
The other matters of which Dr. Quain speaks, are the 
necessity for a higher order of masters in our national 
| schools, and the absurdity of mixing up with strictly pro- 
fessional training in medical schools instruction in physics, 
chemistry, and botany. We hope that so thorough and 
exhaustive an exposure of the weak points in our educa- 
tional system, coming as it does from so high an authority, 
will not be without its effect in quarters where there is the 
power, if only there was the will, to bring about a more 
satisfactory state of things. 


OUR BOOK SHELF 
The Natural History of Commerce. By John Yeats, LL.D. 
(London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1870.) 
THE design of this book is excellent ; and it has, on the 
whole, been well carried out. The author is well known 
as the principal of a large “middle-class” school, who 
has long recognised the claims of Science as an essential 
item in the education of an English gentleman or mer- 
chant. And the information contained in this volume is 
exactly such as ought to be familiar to everyone who lays 
claim to the advantages ofa liberal education. We aie 
afraid, however, that, as a matter of fact, it will be found 
that the ‘“‘ Natural History of Commerce” is a ferra in- 
cognita, especially to those engaged in commercial pur- 
suits, who might often derive, not only pleasure, but, what 
is perhaps more to the point, profit, from some acquaint- 
ance with it. The work is divided into four parts. Inthe 
first we have commercial products treated from a geogra- 
phical point of view; the different botanical zones of 
Meyen are defined; and the principal natural products 
described of Britain, Continental Europe, and the other 
