ON POPULAR SCIENCE LECTURES. 345 



Lecture Types. 



Tliree types of popular lectures may be distinguished, namely : 

 (1) Lectures to members of local scientific societies and others interested 

 in scientific subjects; (2) people's lectures, with lantern-slides and 

 experiments. These are of a recreative kind and somewhat of the 

 nature of entertainments ; (3) lectures showing the relation of science 

 to various aspects of national life, such as industry, education, practical 

 politics, and so on. These have for their object the creation of a large 

 body of opinion in support of the claims of science to an influential 

 position in the State. 



(1) The programmes of local scientific societies show that a wide 

 range of subjects is covered, and that a valuable service is rendered 

 by the opportunities which the meetings and lectures afford of obtaining 

 sound ideas upon scientific matters and developments. A few subjects 

 may be mentioned from many hundreds referred to in the reports 

 submitted : Aerial Navigation ; Heredity ; The Daylight Saving Bill ; 

 Medieval Alchemy; The Story of Moving Pictures; Eoger Bacon; 

 Colliery Explosions ; Wheat ; The Food We Eat ; How to Distinguish 

 Wild Birds; Lord Lister and his Woi'k; Gyroscopes and Gyroscopic 

 Devices ; Wireless Telegi-aphy ; The Web of Life ; Afforestation ; From 

 Grub to Butterfly ; The Splendours of the Heavens ; Insect Mimicry ; A 

 Piece of Limestone ; Insects as Carriers of Human and Animal Dis- 

 eases; Eadium ; Coal and Fuel Economy; Chemical Science and Indus- 

 try ; Drops and Bubbles ; Humble-bees ; The Air We Breathe ; 

 Creatures of Other Days ; Spectnmi Analysis ; Migration of Birds ; The 

 Distribution of Wealth ; Bacterised Peat ; Tuberculosis ; Civilisation and 

 Food ; The Alternation of Generations ; Colour Photography ; Ancient 

 Herbals ; Volcanoes : their Origin and Nature ; Astronomical Sidelights 

 on Archneological Problems ; The Study of Splashes ; Romance of Insect 

 Life ; The Calendar ; Light and Vision ; Mendelism ; Poisonous Plants ; 

 Aphides (Green Flies) ; Bees and their Diseases ; Bacteria in Daily 

 Life ; Protective Colouration ; Shooting Stars ; The Senses — News- 

 agents of the Mind; Munitions of War; The Life of a Star; The 

 (Jolours of a Soap Bubble. 



It is obvious from an examination of reports and syllabuses that, in 

 most districts, local societies and institutions provide already for tlie 

 needs of the circle of people interested in scientific work and develop- 

 ment. The societies seem, however, to make up their programmes 

 independently, and depend very largely upon local lecturers. It would 

 be an advantage if each society and institution would send to a central 

 committee a list of about half-a-dozen lecturers and their subjects who 

 would be prepared to lecture at other centres. The list could then be 

 printed and distributed to all the bodies contributing to it, and each body 

 would thus have before it not only many possible subjects of lectures, 

 but also be able to secure outside lecturers for them if so desired. 



(2) Outside the circle of local societies and educational institutions 

 is the large mass of the community completely apathetic to scientific 

 development and with no desire for knowledge. This part of the 



