NATURE 



[June 6, 1907 



Thus, although no leaching of agriculture is to be 

 introduced, partly perhaps because the teachers are 

 not qualified to teach it, partly because it would be 

 waste of time to those boys who do not afterwards 

 follow agricultural pursuits, still knowledge of sur- 

 roundings is being acquired, habits of intelligent ob- 

 servation are being cultivated, and every subject of the 

 school curriculum is acquiring a reality which no oral 

 teaching could ever give it, and which must render 

 the education a better training for life, whatever the 

 after careers of the lads may be. 



But while agriculture is not taught, it is notice- 

 able that in the study of surroundings such subjects 

 are suggested as will yield knowledge that is useful 

 to the farmer or farm-hand. For example, the boys 

 are to collect the field and garden weeds, and study 

 their root systems and time of seeding with the view 

 of learning the reasons for their abundance and the best 

 means of dealing with them. From the point of view 

 of cultivating intelligent observation, such an exercise 

 is as good as one that has no utilitarian bearing, and 

 it has this additional value, that the boys learn to 

 apply their knowledge to the practical purposes of 

 rural life. 



This idea of purpose is kept prominently in view in 

 all the subjects named in the memorandum. Manual 

 work naturally takes an important place, for it is as 

 necessary to cultivate the habit of manual work in 

 childhood as it is the habit of intelligent observation, 

 and its neglect has been another factor in the pre- 

 ference shown by lads after leaving school for non- 

 rural employment, and therefore in rural depopula- 

 tion. But, again, the manual work is to have pur- 

 pose. The woodwork is to be directed to making 

 useful things, the gardening to growing useful vege- 

 tables, and thus the boys' hearts, as well as their 

 heads and hands, become impressed into their educa- 

 tion. 



One omission is noticeable — that the teaching of 

 science finds no place in the suggestions. But to ac- 

 quire a scientific habit of mind, the study of a science 

 is certainly not necessary, nor even perhaps desirable, 

 for children of twelve and thirteen. It is nature- 

 study rather than the study of a natural science that is 

 advocated, for while the correlation of a number of 

 facts or phenomena of the same kind is likely to 

 weary children, the coordination of one fact or pheno- 

 menon with others of a different order stimulates their 

 interest and widens their outlook, and permits more 

 readily of application to the purposes of dailv life. 



The memorandum is followed by a series of " sug- 

 gestions for the encouragement of rural education." 

 These include the establishment of junior naturalist 

 societies and boys' agricultural clubs, nature-study 

 exhibitions, and school museums of local natural 

 history, together with a suggestion that facilities 

 should be provided for the training of teachers in rural 

 subjects. 



LANDSCAPE PROTECTION IN GERMANY. 

 A N abstract of a lecture delivered on October i, 

 ■^*- 1906, at Munich, at the annual meeting of the 

 " Heimatschutz " League, by Prof. H. Conwentz, was 

 recently published in pamphlet form. It deals with 

 what has been done in Germany, and more es- 

 pecially in Bavaria, for the preservation of the forests, 

 of bird and plant life, and of the beauty of the land- 

 scape in general. 



E\en so far back as 1S03 a private property near 

 the town of Bamberg, in Bavaria, was bought up 

 by the State, and turned into a people's park. .At 

 one time the banks of the Danube were gradually 

 becoming disfigured by large quantities of stone beinc.; 



NO. 1962, VOL. 76] 



taken away ; it was then determined that the stone for 

 public buildings should be obtained from those quarries 

 which did not interfere with the landscape. 



In 1S41 an order was issued which dealt more 

 especially with the trees. By it it was made almost 

 impossible to remove or alter the existing avenues in 

 the streets ; further, oaks, elms, and beeches were 

 specially to be looked after, and also any trees con- 

 nected with history or legends. By the Bavarian 

 forest-law of 1S52, private as well as public forests 

 came under State superintendence. 



About 1902 an order was circulated that for the 

 welfare and the increase of birds, hedges and bushes 

 should be planted, or existing ones looked after. 

 Moreover, uncommon birds were to be particularly 

 safeguarded and spared, as complaints had been forth- 

 coming that their number was decreasing. 



Similarly, orders were issued for the preservation of 

 certain local plants which were threatened with ex- 

 tinction in the neighbourhood of Garmisch. 



In several cases, telephone wires have been laid 

 underground, and in Saxony a certain proposed 

 mountain-railway was not built in order not to spoil 

 the view. 



More recently, we find that in Prussia similar re- 

 gulations have come into existence. There in 1903 

 a law was passed forbidding the disfigurement of pro- 

 vincial neighbourhoods by advertisements. The 

 author directs attention to the fact that other countries 

 might profit by obtaining such a law. How beneficial 

 such a one would be to this country ! 



Further, we find that Saxony, Baden, Hesse, and 

 Weimar have all adopted, in one respect or another, 

 the same precautions. 



Before concluding, the author points out how 

 London has led the wav in the matter of commons 

 and of retaining woods in its more distant environs, 

 referring more especially to Epping Forest. 



SIR JOSEPH FAYRER. BART., K.C.S.I., F.R.S. 



ON Tuesday, Mav 21, Sir Joseph Fayrer died. He 

 was born on IDecember 6, 1824, and he died full 

 of fears and full of honours, for he was honorary 

 physician (military) and physician extraordinary to 

 the King, honorary physician to her late Majesty 

 Queen Victoria, M.D. and LL.D. of various uni- 

 versities, and fellow of many learned societies. Yet 

 all his honours were richly deserved, and he bore them 

 with the most unassuming modesty. Many men are 

 acquainted with jj.irts of his work, but very few know 

 the whole. When Huxley died, a wail of grief went 

 up from the scientific world, but many people are 

 unaware that but for Fayrer the course of Huxley's 

 life might have been completely different, and 

 a great part of his scientific work might never have 

 been done. They were fellow students together, 

 Huxley being senior by a year, though Fayrer was 

 actually older by a few months. When Huxley had 

 finished his medical studies he was, as he himself 

 says in the autobiographical sketch prefixed to his 

 essays, wondering what he should do to meet the 

 imperative necessity of earning his own bread, when 

 Favrer suggested that he should enter the naval 

 medical service. He did so, and after a few months 

 at Haslar he went on his famous voyage on the 

 Rattlcmake, and thus began his scientific career. 

 The attraction which drew Fayrer and Huxley together 

 and led to their close friendship was the great likeness 

 between them in many respects. It has been said 

 that in every human face a resemblance may be traced 

 to some animal, and this was markedly so both in 

 Huxlev and Fayrer. Especially in his later years 

 Huxlev's face and head suggested that of a lion,. 



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