THE POSITION OF GEOGRAPHY IN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM. 381 



number for the United Kingdom, which would then be raised. But it is 

 better to deduct every teacher in the foreign institutions who has 

 more than geography within his province, even though it be meteorology 

 or ethnography, geology or history ; then the figures are — for the German 

 Empire, 31 ; France, 28 ; Austria, 16 ; Italy, 11 ; and the United King- 

 dom, 5. These figures do not include geographers such as Professors do 

 Lapparent and Levasseur in France, Oberhummer in Germany, Boyd 

 Dawkins and Lapworth in England, whose chairs combine geography with 

 other subjects. 



The position and nature of geographical work in Austrian and Belgian 

 universities is noted in Appendices XL. and XLI. 



4. GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETIES AND PUBLICATIONS. 



Any report on the position of geography in the educational system of 

 the country would be incomplete if it omitted to notice the excellent work 

 being done by the five British geographical societies. All of these, by 

 their lectures and publications, have done much to spread an interest in, 

 and true knowledge of, geography throughout the country. 



They have supported the better teaching of geography in our schools 

 and colleges, by giving awards, subscriptions, and other encouragement. 

 The Royal Geographical Society has trained many explorers. The lecture- 

 ships at Oxford and Cambridge are due to the initiative and hitherto 

 largely to the financial support of the Royal Geographical Society, and the 

 independent lectureship at the Owens College, Manchester, was main- 

 tained at the joint cost of the Royal and the Manchester Geographical 

 Societies. 



Short statements of the educational work done by British geographical 

 societies are given in Appendix XLII. 



In the last anniversary address to the Royal Geographical Society 

 (' Geographical Journal,' June, 1897), Sir Clements Markham, the Presi- 

 dent, outlined some of the educational schemes of the society : — 



(a) The Training of Explorers. — ' A diploma is to be granted to those 

 pupils of Mr. Coles who have gone through a complete course of instruc- 

 tion, and whose sufiiciency is certified to by a committee, consisting of the 

 instructor and two members of our Council.' 



(b) The Training of Teachers. — ' The Council has now resolved to give 

 a large measure of support, out of the Society's funds, to a London School 

 of Geography, if such an institution should be successfully established 

 under Mr. Mackinder's auspices. Our plans have been altered, as we 

 acquired experience, but our aim has always been the same — to train 

 good geographical teachers, and to promote the teaching of geography on 

 a sound basis in our secondary schools and universities.' 



The number of geographical societies in the United Kingdom is small, 

 5, when compared with 26 in France, 21 in Germany, 10 in Russia and 

 5 in Switzerland. The membership in the British siocieties is large, 

 but the Royal Geographical Society has more than half the total number 

 of members of the British societies. Of the 153 geographical publications 

 which appear regularly, 48 are in French, 42 in German, 15 in English 

 (6 American, 5 British, and 4 Australian), 12 in Russian, &c. 



In Germany, France, Switzerland, and Italy, National Geographical 



