REPORT OF THE SCIENTIFIC EDUCATIONAL COMMITTEE. xlix 



The boys vrho are destined to enter the learned professions continue a 

 classical course, in which, however, much less time is devoted to classical com- 

 position than is the case in our Public Schools. Nor is science by any means 

 neglected in this course, which is intended to cover a period of three years. 

 Besides the "elementary division" there are five great classes in these 

 schools, viz., a grammar division, an upper division, a philosophy class, and 

 classes for elementary and special mathematics. 



In the grammar division there is systematic instruction on the physical 

 geography of the globe. 



In the second class of the upper division the boys begin to be taught the 

 elements of zoology, botany, and geology in accordance with the ministerial 

 programmes ; and in the rhetoric class descriptive cosmography (which seems 

 to be nearly coextensive with the German Erdkunde) forms the subject of a 

 certain number of weekly lessons. 



In the class of philosophy, the young students are initiated into the ele- 

 mentary notions of physics (including weight, heat, electricity and magnetism, 

 acoustics, and optics) and of chemistry, in which, at this stage, the teaching 

 is confined to " general conceptions on air, water, oxidation, combustion, the 

 conditions and efi'ects of chemical action, and on the forces which result 

 from it." 



In the classes of elementary and special mathematics this course of scientific 

 training is very considerably extended ; and if the authorized programmes con- 

 stitute any real measure of the teaching, it is clear that no boy could pass 

 through these classes without a far more considerable amount of knowledge 

 in the most important branches of science than is at present attainable in any 

 English Public School. 



VI. The German Schools. 



In Germany the schools which are analogous to PubUc Schools in England 

 are the Oymnasia, where boys are prejDared for the Universities, and the 

 Burger schulen or Realschulen, which were estabhshed for the most part about 

 thirty years ago for the pui"pose of aff"ording a complete education to those 

 who go into active life as soon as they leave school. An account of the 

 Prussian Gymnasia and Realschiilen may be seen in the Public-School Com- 

 mission Eeport, Appendix G ; further information may be obtained in ' Das 

 hohere Schulwesen in Preussen,' by Dr. Wiese, published under the sanction of 

 the Minister of Public Instruction in Prussia, and in the programmes issued 

 annually by the school authorities throughout Germany*. 



At the Gymnasia natural science is not taught to any great extent. Ac- 

 cording to the Prussian official instructions, in the highest class two hours, 

 and in the next class one hoiir, a week are allotted to the study of physics. 

 In the lower classes two hours a week are devoted to natural history, i. e. 

 botany and zoology. The results of the present training in natural science 

 at the Gymnasia are considered by many eminent University professors in 

 Germany to be unsatisfactory, owing to the insufiicient time allotted to it. 



In the Eealschulen about six hours a week are given to physics and che- 

 mistry in the two highest classes, and two or three hours a week to natural 

 history in the other classes. In these schools aU the classes devote five or 

 six hours a week to mathematics, and no Greek is learnt. In Prussia there 

 were in 1864 above 100 of these schools. 



* See also Etude sur I'instruction secondaire et superieure en Allemagne, par J. F, 

 Minssen, Paris, 186(3. A brief Report addressed to the Minister of Public Instruction in 

 France. 



1807. d 



