ON POPULAR SCIENCE LECTURES. 335 



immeasurable importance in attaining national efficiency. This 

 should be followed by some general scientific knowledge being required 

 in all passing examinations, as a guarantee of an acquaintance witb 

 science method and reasoning. ' 



The provision now made for the study of scientific and technical 

 subjects accounts, no doubt, for the failure of popular lectures_ in 

 many districts. When there were few institutions of higher education, 

 the thoughtful section of the population took advantage of such lectures 

 to extend their knowledge, but now the same class is provided for ui 

 educational institutions and com'ses. The public science lectures of 

 the present times, therefore, need not be of the same kind, or on the 

 same subjects, as those of a past generation, but should be adapted to 

 more modern needs and interests. Above all, they should be intended 

 for the people as a whole, and not for students or others who propose 

 to devote systematic attention to the subjects of the lectures or devote 

 their careers to them. This distinction is not recognised in the sub- 

 joined remarks by Mr. 0. F. Procter (Hon. Sec., Hull Scientific 

 and Field Naturahsts' Club), which represent the views of many 

 scientific societies as to the present position, yet it is most important. _ 



Mr. Procter says : ' Scientific lectures can only be made popular in 

 the sense that you attract the crowd of unscientific people, with a pro- 

 fusion of experiments, or, failing that, lantern illustrations. People 

 will flock to the Egyptian Hall and are vastly entertained and educated 

 a little by an exhibition of what is often clever scientific acrobatics. 

 Human nature loA'es to see what it cannot understand, and twenty 

 years ago represents a period when the commonplaces of science were 

 a wonderland to the average mind. The trend of education has altered 

 that, and has sharply divided the same people into a minority of 

 scientific enthusiasts who "ask for more," and a majority of in- 

 differents who remain cold at a display of the old elementary stuff. 

 Education (and that includes very largely the popular science lectures 

 of the past) has created in this, as in all the arts, a small aristocracy 

 of intellect, or, rather, comparatively small. These are not satisfied 

 with anything that can possibly be popular. They are long past that, 

 but will feverishly attend anything which proposes further to explore 

 the deep water. The crowd — the man in the street and his women- 

 kind— has had its wonder-hump excised in the school laboratory. 

 Modern sensationalism in amusement and the plethora of scrappy yet 

 crisp literature (which religiously exploits every new_ thing, scientific or 

 otherwise, that may entertain) has calloused this excision. The 

 application of the film-pictures to microscopy, &c., is about the only 

 way to popularise science lectures, but — why bother? "We cannot all 

 be men of science, and the present system provides that any who get 

 the call may answer it, whilst popular lectures only attempt to enter- 

 tain individuals of an age who are already past the slightest hope of 

 ever being useful scientists. The proper thing is already being done 

 by our schools, universities, and University Extension lecturers with 

 our budding professors.' 



The following letter from the Acting Eegistrar of University College, 

 Nottingham, bears upon some of the foregoing points: 'Popular 



