: A.—MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 23 
Nd 
" educational effect. The problem is a difficult one, the teaching of Classics 
and Mathematics have long experience and tradition behind them. No 
such tradition exists for that of Physics. The methods have had to be 
evolved and it cannot be said there is yet anything like complete 
- agreement as to which are the best. Science Masters are attacking the 
problem with the greatest vigour and enthusiasm, are trying out one 
method after another. I think there is perhaps too great a tendency to 
concentrate on the method to the exclusion of the personality of the 
teacher, a good teacher will soon find the method which in his hands 
gives the best results and will do better with that than with one imposed 
on him from outside. 
‘ Post-GRADUATE STUDY AND RESEARCH. 
Research is now an integral part of the training of a considerable 
number of our students and the importance of research for the welfare of 
the nation universally recognised. This, however, is quite a modern 
development. It had hardly started sixty years ago, and though a vigorous 
propaganda for the ‘ Endowment of Research’ was being carried on by 
Mark Pattison, Huxley, Roscoe, Lockyer, and others, it was some time 
before it began to produce much effect. 
1 Besides the apathy of the country there were at that time three great 
_ obstacles to research :— 
1. The lack of Laboratories. We have already seen how this has been 
remedied. 
2. The lack of Scholarships to enable men to stay up at the University 
to research after taking their degree. 
3. A third obstacle was that there was hardly any chance of obtaining 
a livelihood by research alone, so that the only men who made it a 
career were those who had money or were so enthusiastic that they 
were reckless about monetary affairs. The case is very different 
; now when research is a recognised profession and a fairly lucrative 
one. 
It is not a great exaggeration to say that in those early days there 
was neither room, money nor a career for those who wished to research. 
Things, however, soon began to mend and research gradually came 
to be regarded as a suitable subject for the award of Scholarships and 
Fellowships. I am glad to say that one of the first, if not the first, to 
take action in this matter was Trinity College, Cambridge, who in 1874 
determined to take into account for election to Fellowship any original 
work which the candidates might submit. Before this the elections had 
been determined solely on the results of an examination held by the 
College. They carried out the scheme in no half-hearted way, for at 
the first election under the scheme in 1874 they elected Francis Balfour, 
the great zoologist, though it was an open secret that if the examination 
_ alone had been taken into consideration another candidate would have 
been elected. The scheme has been remarkably successful. Many 
_ papers of absolute first-rate importance have been submitted by the 
candidates and now the College has abandoned the examination altogether 
_ and only takes into account the original work submitted by the candidates. 
