L.—_EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE 217 
technology at universities. In thirty years’ time this statement may look 
ridiculous, but one cannot foresee events so far ahead. Rather than any 
marked expansion in numbers should take place during the next five years, 
I should prefer to concentrate on giving the better man a better chance 
than he has now; to improve the quality rather than to increase the 
quantity. 
It is commonly said of students of science that their general education 
is weak. The remarks of the committee on the education and supply of 
biologists may be taken as representative of a large body of critics, for 
they were based on the views of many witnesses. 
“Among boys taking science as their special line of study there is too 
great concentration on science to the neglect of other subjects. Our 
witnesses view with anxiety the prospect of a growing race of illiterate 
scientists unable to express themselves adequately or intelligently in their 
own language, and ignorant alike of history and of the forces other than 
the chemical and physical which make the world in which they live.’ 
There is undoubtedly much force behind these criticisms ; and yet 
I think the poor student of science is apt to be maligned. The great 
growth of knowledge in nearly every department of learning inevitably 
means that we all become more and more ignorant of each other’s special 
interests ; can it justly be argued that the young scientist who has little 
or no knowledge of history is more ignorant than the young historian who 
has no knowledge of science? Do we not, perhaps, tend to exaggerate 
the virtues of a general education, forgetting that many of the greatest 
men have had no education worth speaking of ? I remind myself fre- 
quently, and particularly on this occasion, of the fate of Mr. Joseph 
Finsbury, of whom it is written that ‘a taste for general information, 
not promptly checked, had soon begun to sap his manhood. There is 
no passion more debilitating to the mind,’ the author adds, ‘ unless, 
perhaps, it be that itch of public speaking which it not infrequently 
accompanies or begets.’ And if you know the book you will remember 
that one of Mr. Joseph’s lectures ‘ to the great heart of the people’ was 
entitled ‘ Education: its Aims, Objects, Purposes and Desirability.’ I 
dare not continue the quotation. 
At the Imperial College I have colleagues who have had over twenty- 
five years of experience of successions of boys from secondary schools. 
They say, without hesitation, that the standard of general education has 
increased steadily throughout that period. Iam newer to the work ; and 
when I reflect that so many of the present generation of secondary school- 
boys who find their way to universities come from the poorest homes, 
I think the standard of general education is to be praised rather than 
decried. I think also that the man who has ideas of his own, and a capacity 
for doing something really well, is more useful and more interesting, even 
though he may be unable to express himself adequately in his own language, 
than one who is merely capable of describing other people’s work and ideas 
in elegant English. When all these allowances are made, however, there 
is undoubtedly room for improvement. There are many scientific men 
