148 KEPORT — 1872. 



among us who is a master — wliose powers in this respect have been acknowledged, 

 not only in England, but in France, and still more emphatically in Germany. His 

 ■work on elementary physiology has been presented to the German public by one of 

 the leading German physiologists (who is himself a model of clearness of style), 

 who tells his countrymen iu his preface that no German writer could expound 

 the experimental facts which are the basis of physiological knowledge aa 

 Huxley can. 



In the existence of such a man as Huxley I find a great source of encouragement 

 for the future of English physiology, not only on account of his own work, large 

 though that has been (for no one builder can lay many brides in an edifice 

 where every brick requires such careful laying), but also for his influence on 

 national life. 



At one time I confess that I was disposed to underrate the value of popularizing 

 science ; now T see the power of exposition to be a great power for good. We 

 have an example of the good it efiects in the history of this Association. We have 

 another in that of the lloyal Institution, which has lately been made familiar to 

 us by the accounts which liave been given of that great and good man who for so 

 many years was its life. Faraday, the gi-eatest physicist of his time, was equally 

 master of the art of exposition. Of the influence which his mind thereby exercised 

 on the minds of men, women, and children there can be no doubt. Nor do 

 I think that he lost by it himself; for although we cannot suppose that he taught 

 without some exhaustion of his energies, 1 cannot believe that the effort was a 

 useless one even to himself. 



One would not venture to say of such a man that, in explaining to children the 

 fundamental conceptions whicli in his mind were alreadj' so clear, these became 

 still clearer ; but I think it may be so. 



I pass at once to the third part of my position, that whicli relates to the 

 teaching of science, and particularly physiology, in schools. This I may dealAvith 

 Aery shortly. 



The teaching must necessarily be elementary. If it is thorough and genuine, 

 it is good. 



To wedge a little bit of Bowdlerized physiology, something about the striicture 

 and functions of the human body, into the ordinaiy course of a school education 

 may be an ornamental addition to it, but can scarcely be really useful. Our 

 reform, if it is to be attempted at all, must be much more complete and radical. 

 It must consist, not in adding natural science to the sj'stem of instruction in which 

 we ourselves and our predecessors were brought up, but in substituting for some of 

 the old drudgeries something better and more substantial. 



As regards that higher education which may be defined as introductory to the 

 studies of the University, most people are now disposed to recognize that there 

 exists at the present day a tendency to increase its extent .at the expense of its 

 thoroughness. On the one hand a powerful effort is made by the huclatores 

 temporis adi to maintain the old disciplines ; while on the other a general though 

 somewhat vague notion prevails that no system of education can be regarded as 

 complete from which science is excluded. To reconcile these antagonistic ten- 

 dencies, the only method which has been found is that of addition and accumu- 

 lation. Instead of displacing some of the old requirements, an additional load of 

 new subjects has been imposed on the unfortunate examinee, in the form of 

 chemistry, physics, animal physiology, &c. No wonder that to the victim who 

 has just passed through one of our modern ordeals the A"ery names of these 

 sciences are sickening ; for in addition to the disagreeable task of getting them up 

 from text-books (text-books, however excellent, are at best but very poor 

 reading), the competitor, whether successful or not, has the consoling reflection 

 that he has been doing treadmill work after all — learning a number of facts and 

 laws of great value to the man who is able to possess himself of them, but to him 

 rendered absolutely useless from the mode of study to which the present system 

 of examinations has compelled him. 



The way to obviate this I have already hinted at. Let it be clearly understood 

 thatif natm-al science is to be made a part of our educational system, it cannot be 

 introduced as an ornamental addition or accomplishment, but as part of the ground- 



