NATURE 
361 

THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 1871 


THE TEMPLE MEMORIAL AT RUGBY 
E hear with peculiar satisfaction that one of the 
memorials of the Bishop of Exeter at Rugby is 
to be an Observatory. It is a very appropriate memorial 
to a man who, above most others, recognised the true rela- 
tions of science and literature, and did so much to give 
science its rightful place. And it is a valuable addition 
to the resources of a school ; at present perhaps it will 
not find its ful! use; but when it does it will be well 
associated with the name of one who has foreseen the 
future position of our great public schools. 
Our great public schools fulfil two functions, they 
prepare for the universities, but they are themselves the 
universities for the great majority of the boys who go to 
them ; those who go into business, into the army, and to 
many other occupations, do not in general go to Oxford 
or Cambridge. Their school education ends at eighteen. 
Now this large class is scarcely sufficiently contemplated 
at schools. For them it is necessary that a school should 
offer, not the first part of an education which requires 
many years to complete it, but the best education that 
can be given where this limit of age is imposed. For such 
boys as these it is highly desirable that their school course 
should have more elevation about it, and more of prac- 
tical application. It would take us far from our present 
subject if we were fully to develop our meaning ; but it 
seems a step, and an important one, in the right direction, 
to establish an astronomical and meteorological ob- 
servatory at one of the public schools ; for this is to assert 
that such knowledge of these subjects as is attainable 
ought to be within reach of boys who will not have the 
opportunity of studying them after complete mathematical 
training at the universities. It is one step further towards 
establishing the ideal education, the co-existence of 
religious influence, literature, science, art, and handicraft 
in the same institution. 
Some amount of astronomical teaching is necessary in 
a school ; it is very much neglected at present, because it 
does not pay in examinations. Yet we know by expe- 
rience that few subjects are so interesting as astronomy. 
And in schools, as at Rugby, where geometry and 
mechanics are taught, the noblest illustrations may be 
taken from the mechanism of the heavens. But astronomy 
cannot be taught by a book only. The most useful, indis- 
pensable instrument to an astronomical teacher is an 
orrery. No descriptions, no diagrams, give boys a con- 
ception of the solar system so clearly as a few minutes 
with an orrery. The next most useful instrument is a 
telescope. And certainly Rugby seems to be fortunate in 
the instrument that is to be given to it. 
The Temple Telescope is anobleone. The object-glass, 
of 8lin., was made with especial care and pains by Alvan 
Clarke for Mr. Dawes. It is 8} inches aperture, and 
108? focal length. It is mounted equatorially, has an 
excellent driving clock, of an unique kind; and the eye- 
pieces range from 92 to 1,000. 
An instrument like this is, of course, a luxury, but its 
beauty is, in itself, a great inducement to its use. There 
are few things so wondrously beautiful as the moon, 
VOL, III. 

or Jupiter, or a star cluster, seen with a low power in such 
a telescope. And any one who has tried to show the 
moon to several people with an ordinary telescope will 
appreciate the advantage of having it equatorially 
mounted, and of its being provided with a driving clock. 
Other instruments for astronomy, surveying, and meteor- 
ology, will be added to the observatory; some of the 
masters having provided a fund adequate to give so 
fine an instrument all the surroundings that are required 
to make it practically available. And ere long we hope 
to see a really useful observatory established. 
It is to be under the joint managementof Mr. Wilson, who 
munificently gives the telescope, and Mr. Seabroke, an old 
Rugbeian, who is already favourably known as a worker. 
He still has his spurs to win, however, and will soon be 
very favourably situated for winning them. 
The telescope is now the property of the Rev. H. E. 
Lowe, of Atherstone, but will become the property of Mr. 
Wilson in March. We greatly regret to hear that circum- 
stances which have lately happened at Rugby affecting the 
tenure of masterships will prevent for the present the gift 
of the observatory to the school, and can only hope that 
it will not be long before the present difficulties are over- 
come. Meantime it will be established on private ground, 
and will be accessible to the school. Verily there be 
head-masters and head-masters, and masters and masters ! 
1: 
THE EXPERIMENTAL AND NATURAL 
SCIENCES IN TRINITY COLLEGE, 
DUBLIN 
HE condition of the Experimental and Natural 
Sciences in the various Universities is at the pre- 
sent time a subject of such general interest that we give 
the following sketch of what is now done for them in 
Trinity College, Dublin. 
Until a student passes the Michaelmas term examination 
of his second (Senior Freshman) year he is supposed 
to confine his attention to classics, mathematics, and 
logic ; but in his third and fourth years he must devote 
himself, to a certain extent, to the study of Experimental 
Physics, including heat, electricity, magnetism, and 
chemistry, and pass examinations on these subjects even 
at the ordinary term examinations. In the fourth year of 
his studies the student can go in for honours in Natural 
and Experimental Sciences, the course for which includes 
Jamin’s “ Cours de Physique,” Lloyd’s “ Wave Theory of 
Light,” Naquet’s “ Principles of Chemistry,” Cotta’s 
“Classification of Rocks,” and-Haughton’s “ Manual of, 
Geology.” 
At the conclusion of his collegiate studies the student 
can graduate in either Experimental or in Natural 
Science, and the Court of Examiners can recommend the 
most distinguished of the candidates to the Board for 
gold and silver medals ; candidates thus recommended 
receiving their B.A. degrees as Senior and Junior Mode- 
rators respectively. 
The subjects for examination for the Moderatorships 
in Experimental Science are (1) Experimental Physics 
viz., Heat, Light, Sound, Electricity, and Magnetism ; 
(2) Chemistry, Inorganic and Organic ; (3) Mineralogy, 
including Crystallography; and the hundred marks 
allotted to the examination are as follows :—Light and 
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