22 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 
began to go with a rush. Owens College obtained, in 1880, a charter as 
Victoria University and could give degrees to its students, and in the 
early ‘eighties Mason’s College, Birmingham, with Poynting as Professor 
of Physics, University College, Liverpool, with Lodge as Professor, 
Yorkshire College, Leeds, with Riicker as Professor, came into existence 
and later became Universities. 
The number of schools where Science was taught rapidly increased, and 
as a result of this so did the number of Science students coming to the 
Universities. Very clear evidence of this is the fact that in 1881, thirty 
years after the foundation of the Cambridge Natural Science Tripos, the 
number of candidates had only risen to twenty-five, while in 1891 the 
number was ninety-four, practically as great as any other Tripos in the 
University. 
It can now, | think, be claimed that some Science is taught in all schools, 
and a good deal in a great many ; this is a great advance and has practically 
all been made in the last fifty years. It cannot, however, be said that even 
now Science occupies in our systems of education a place commensurate 
with its ever-increasing influence on human thought and withits importance 
in the progress of civilisation. 
One defect of the present system is that the Entrance Scholarships 
offered by most of the great Public Schools have in practice the effect of 
attracting the abler boys to Classics. In the examination for most of these 
Scholarships much greater weight is given to Classics than to any other 
subject, and a boy must have spent most of his time on Classics if he is to 
do well in the examination. Thus, when he goes tothe School he is much ~ 
further advanced in Classics than in anything else and, naturally, takes it 
as his main subject. It may not, however, be the subject in which his 
strength really hes. For unlike Mathematics, in which marked proficiency 
is only attained by boys with a somewhat rare type of mind, in Classics 
most able boys can under skilful teaching acquire sufficient proficiency to 
give them a fair chance of getting an Entrance Scholarship at a Public 
School. These Scholarships may thus entice them along a path which 
does not lead to their true destination. That this actually occurs 
is, | think, shown by the figures given in the Report of the Committee 
on the Position of Natural Science in the Educational System of Great 
Britain, 1918. Of the Entrance Scholarships to Cambridge gained by 
boys from seven great Public Schools which give Entrance Scholarships, 
for one gained in Science, six were gained in Classics. This disproportion 
is far greater than the average for all Schools, showing that it is not due 
to the rarity of scientific talent as compared with classical, but is an 
artificial one due to the systems in force at these Schools. 
The last thing I wish to do is to disparage Classical Studies. I think 
that for some boys a course in which Classics predominates is the best, 
and I think that in the early stages of the education of all boys Classics 
should play a large, perhaps even the largest, part. What I think is 
desirable is that the School Examination should not be so specialised as 
it is now, and that the papers in Classics should not be so much more: 
advanced than those in any other subject. 
It is not enough to have introduced Physics into Schools, it is necessary 
to develop methods of teaching which will make its study produce its full 
