Notes and Comments. 279 



securing for them a prominent place in the examinations for 

 the public services. These matters define clearly the work of 

 the Committee, and are not the objects of any other organiza- 

 tion. While, therefore, the Committee is aware of desirable 

 changes in the position of science in schools of all grades and 

 in national affairs generally, it believes that the best means of 

 effecting reforms in all directions will be the securing of ade- 

 quate attention to science in the education of students at the 

 public schools and Universities where a large number of the 

 most influential members of the community receive their 

 early training. Its activities will be continued until these 

 ends have been attained.' 



THE NEED FOR SCIENCE 



We have also received a pamphlet entitled ' The Need for 

 Science in Education,' written by Sir E. Ray Lankester. In this 

 he states : — ' We believe in the great importance of science and 

 the scientific method — not merely for the advancement of the 

 material well-being of the community, but as essential to the 

 true development of the human mind and spirit. And for this 

 reason we think that there is a need for the very serious and 

 determined introduction of the study of the natural sciences, 

 their history and method, as an integral part of the education 

 given in all schools, but more especially in those where the 

 youth of the well-to-do classes who will succeed to positions of 

 influence in the State, in industry and commerce, are enabled 

 to give ample time to the acquirement of knowledge and the 

 discipline of their minds.' 



IN EDUCATION. 



' The mass of detailed knowledge of nature arranged so as 

 to exhibit " the causes of things," grouped under larger and 

 smaller " laws of nature" or general statements, is nowadays 

 arranged in a series of separate branches — the several " sci- 

 encies " known as physics, chemistry, astronomy, geology, 

 botany, zoology and anthropology. It is of the utmost 

 importance that in school education as much as half the pupil's 

 time should be given to gaining a knowledge of the main facts 

 revealed by these sciences and to personal observation of the 

 experiments and methods of reasoning by which they have, 

 been demonstrated. These studies must not exclude but be 

 accompanied by the study of the English language and litera- 

 ture, and of univeral history, and by the acquirement of 

 facility in the use of simple mathematics and of at least two 

 foreign languages.' 



THE LIFE OF NATURE. 



Dr. J. Arnold Lees writes : — A sophic nature-lover, Richard 

 Higgs, better known to Lancashire than to Yorkshire naturists, 

 said an old thing newly but extra-finely the other day. Quoting 



19'7 Sept. i. 



