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BEPORT 1893. 



commnnicate an account of them to the Royal Society next session. 

 (2) A collection of dried plants (sent to the Kew herbarium), of seeds, 

 of which forty species are now growing at those gardens, and of some 

 iris-bulbs. (3) About one hundred specimens of butterflies, sent to the 

 British Museum (South Kensington). (4) A collection of spiders, beetles, 

 &c., was also made, but the greater part of this, unfortunately, was stolen 

 from the baggage on the journey down from the mountains. Some 

 account of the details of the journey has been given by Mr. Conway to 

 the Royal Geographical Society, and has appeared in their journal for 

 November 1892 and for February and July 1893, and a fuller narrative 

 will be published in a volume in the course of a few months. 



The Teaching of Science in Elementary Schools. — Report of the 

 Committee, consisting of Dr. J. H. Gladstone (Chairman), 

 Professor H. E. Armstrong {Secretary), Mr. S. Bourne, Dr. 

 Crosskey, Mr. G. Gladstone, Mr. J. Heywood, Sir John 

 Lubbock, Sir Philip Magnus, Professor N. Story Maskelyne, 

 Sir H. E. Koscoe, Sir E. Temple, and Professor S. P. 

 Thompson. 



Your Committee have the satisfaction of reporting this year two important 

 circumstances which show the increased value set upon the teaching of 

 science in elementary schools. The one has reference to the rapid 

 advance in the adoption of ' Elementary Science ' as a class subject ; the 

 other is the great provision made for it in the new Code for evening 

 continuation schools. 



The report of last year showed the commencement of the movement 

 for the substitution of scientific teaching in the place of the so-called 

 ' English ' as a class subject, a movement which has now become much 

 more pronounced. It will be seen by the following tables that, while the 

 teaching of ' English ' steadily rose with the gradual increase in the 

 number of schools, that of geography and elementary science slightly 

 decreased during the years 1882 to 1890 ; and that when the obligation 

 to take ' English ' had been removed these two scientific subjects took a 

 start at once, which has been more than maintained in 1891-92. 



The number of departments of schools in which these class subjects 

 have been examined by H.M. Inspector during the eight years 1882 to 

 1890 has been as follows : — 



The numbers during the last two years are as follows :- 



