5o5 



NA rURE 



[February 24, 1910 



The issue of " The Public Schools Year Book '* for 1910, 

 which is now available, is the twenty-first, and the coming 

 of age of this useful annual publication is marked fittingly 

 by its adoption by the Headmasters' Conference as their 

 official book of reference. The first part of the work is 

 devoted to the proceedings of the Headmasters' Conference 

 and to full information relative to the public schools. The 

 second part deals with entrance scholarships at the public 

 schools, entrance examinations to the universities, and the 

 conditions of admission to the Navy, Army, Civil Service, 

 and other professions, including engineering and chemistry. 

 A general list of preparatory schools where young boys 

 may be prepared for admission to a public school is also 

 included. To parents proposing to send a boy to one of 

 the public schools, the year book will prove invaluable, 

 since the information respecting the organisation and 

 instruction, fees and other charges, and so on, is just what 

 they will require. 



A RECENT table prepared for the London County Council 

 Education Committee provides instructive particulars as to 

 the ages of the boys and girls in the London secondary 

 schools aided by grants from the Council. During the 

 educational year iqoq-io there were in attendance in these 

 schools Q244 boys and 5468 girls. Of the 9244 boys, 2131 

 were under 12 years of age, 1589 between 12 and 13 years, 

 1786 between 13 and 14 years. 1767 between 14 and 15 

 years, 1191 between 15 and 16 years, 465 between 16 and 17 

 years, 224 between 17 and 18 years, and 91 were more than 

 18 years. As regards the 5468 girls, 1467 were under 12 

 years of age, 896 were between 12 and 13 years, 863 

 between 13 and 14 years, 922 between 14 and 15 years, 805 

 between 15 and 16 years, 327 between 16 and 17 years, 

 154 between 17 and 18 years, and 34 above 18 years. In 

 other words, only 7S0 of the total number of boys in the 

 London secondary schools aided by the Council, or only 8"4 

 per cent., are above 16 years of age, and only 515 of the 

 total number of girls in the schools, or 9*4 per cent., are 

 above 16 years of age. It must be remembered that, with 

 the exceotion of the greater public schools, the maioritv of 

 the public secondary schools in London receive aid from the 

 rates, and consequently it has to be admitted that the 

 number of boys and sSx\9- receiving what may be called a 

 complete secondary education is very small. 



The London County Council aids upwards of fifty 

 secondary schools in London. The grants are paid partly 

 with the view of enabling the schools to accommodate a 

 larger number of pupils than would otherwise be possible, 

 and partly with a view of increasing the efficiency of the 

 work. The income of the " aided " schools is derived from 

 four main sources — endowment. Board of Education grant, 

 fees, and grant from the London County Council. The 

 total amounts of these sources of income for the educational 

 year igoS-g were as follows : — Endowment, 52,533?. : Board 

 of Education grant, 49,818/. ; fees, including fees of London 

 County Council scholars, 114,334/. : ^nd the Council's grant, 

 excluding the fees of scholars, 41,415/. ; making a total of 

 258,100/. It is estimated that during the present educa- 

 tional year the amounts will be: — Endowment, 53,190/.: 

 Board of Education grants, 57,678/. ; fees, 120,963/. ; and 

 Council's grant, 40,346/. ; bringing the total up to 272,177/. 

 In the case of each " aided " school, the Council requests 

 the governors to submit a statement of receipts and expendi- 

 ture for the completed year, and also an estimate of the 

 receipts and expenditure for the coming year, and the grant 

 made by the Council is estimated to be. sufficient, together 

 with endowments, fees, and Board of Education grant, to 

 admit of the efficient carrying on of the school, and to 

 provide a reasonable working balance throughout the 

 educational year. 



The prospectus for the current session of the Pusa 

 Agricultural Research Institute gives . particulars of the 

 courses available for students in agricultural chemistry, 

 economic botany, economic entomology, mycology, agri- 

 cultural bacteriology, and agriculture proper. The work 

 in each of these departments is respectively under the 

 supervision of the Imperial agricultural chemist, economic 

 botanist, entomologist, mycologist, agricultural bacterio- 

 logist, and agriculturist, who act under the principal as 

 chiefs of the teaching staff. In the absence of experience 

 of the class of student likely to be received, it has been 

 found impossible to lay down a permanent syllabus of the 

 NO. 2104, VOL. 82] 



training in each subject. The syllabuses are, for the 

 present, tentative, and subject to the condition that time 

 will not be wasted in taking students over ground that is 

 already familiar to them. It may be remembered that the 

 Pusa Agricultural Research Institute owes its inception to 

 the generosity of Mr. Henry Phipps, who in 1903 placed 

 at the disposal of Lord Curzon, then Viceroy of India, 

 a donation of 20,000/. (which he afterwards raised to 

 30,000/.) with the request that it might be devoted to 

 some object of public utility in India, preferably in the 

 direction of scientific research. Part of this donation was 

 devoted to the construction of a Pasteur institute at 

 Coonoor, in southern India, and it was decided that the 

 balance should be utilised in erecting a laboratory of agri- 

 cultural research to form a centre of economic science in 

 connection with that occupation on which the people of 

 India mainly depend. This conception was subsequently 

 enlarged, and the Government of India has now con- 

 structed a college and research institute, to which a farm 

 of some 1300 acres is attached, for purposes of experi- 

 mental cultivation and demonstration. The Pusa Institute 

 is consequently in a position to enable students who have 

 passed with distinction through a course at a provincial 

 college, by means of a post-graduate course in one of the 

 specialised branches of agricultural science, to qualify for 

 the higher branches of agricultural work. 



RErLViNG to the toast of his health at the annual dinner 

 of the Bristol University Colston Society on February 17, 

 .Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., spoke of the administration 

 of British universities. Professors should not, he said, be 

 paid less than the average income obtainable in kindred 

 professions. If a professor is paid at a much lower rate 

 than he would obtain by entering some corresponding pro- 

 fession, it means that persons of one of three classes will 

 occupy chairs. First a few men, from love of teaching 

 or research, will carry on work on a pittance. Secondly, 

 there are the men with a competence, who will take pro- 

 fessional work for the love of it. They are few. The 

 third result of underpayment is that professorial chairs 

 will be filled with men of mediocre talent and capacity ; 

 students will suffer, and generations, as they succeed one 

 another, will deteriorate. Scholarships, he continued, are 

 mostly a waste of money. The bestowal of scholarships 

 is not always a failure ; but if granted as loans on the 

 evidence of the power of application and good conduct, the 

 money can, in most cases, be bestowed more profitably. 

 What the public wants to buy, or should want to buy, is 

 the educated brains of one who will in future prove useful 

 to the State. The present method is one by which the 

 article is uncertain and the price paid incommensurably 

 high, owing to the high percentage of failures in attaining 

 the standard of mind which the public has a right to 

 demand. If the money distributed in scholarships were 

 applied to the development of universities, England's uni- 

 versities would be rich. — The question of adequate re- 

 muneration for professors is to some extent a question of 

 ways and means : until more money is forthcoming in this 

 country for the purposes of university and higher education 

 generally, there seems little possibility that the emoluments 

 of men engaged in teaching and research will be increased. 

 British universities seem unable to arouse the generosity 

 of our men of wealth to the same extent as has been done 

 in the United States, for instance. We notice in Science 

 for February 11 that in one week donations were announced 

 of 50,000/. to the .Sheffield Scientific School of Yale Uni- 

 versity, 200,000/. for the establishment of a teachers' 

 college, and qo.ooo/. for the general purnoses of higher 

 education. A few gifts on this scale would soon make it 

 possible to remedy the defect to which Sir William Ramsay 

 directs attention. 



New science laboratories at St. Leonard's School, St. 

 Andrews, N.B., were opened by Sir Ernest Shackleton on 

 February i. The building comprises two large labora- 

 tories each 34 feet by 30 feet, a lecture theatre to seat 

 sixty pupils, a room for the preparation of experiments by 

 the science mistresses, a dark-room for work in optics, 

 a conservatory for botanical experiments, a cloak-room, 

 and a spacious corridor, to be fitted with dust-proof 

 museum rases. The chemical laboratory, which ,is also 

 to be used for practical work in geography, is fitted with 

 six benches, at each of which four girls work. The tops 



