330 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 
VII. THANKs. 
For their valued assistance in supplying the necessary information the 
best thanks of the committee are tendered to the— 
(1) Heads and Science Teachers of individual Schools ; 
(2) Assistant Mistresses’ Association ; 
(3) Association of Women Science Teachers ; 
(4) Assistant Masters’ Association ; 
(5) Headmasters’ Conference ; 
(6) Incorporated Association of Headmasters ; 
(7) Science Masters’ Association. 
SCIENCE TEACHING IN ADULT EDUCATION. 
Report of Committee appointed to consider the position of Science Teaching 
in Adult Educational Classes, and to suggest possible means of promoting 
through them closer contact between Scientific Achievement and Social 
Development (Prof. J. L. Myres, F.B.A., Chairman; Mr. C. E. 
BROWNE, Secretary; Major A. G. Cuurcu, D.S.O., Dr. LILIAN 
CLaRKE, Miss E. R. Conway, C.B.E., Prof. C. H. Descu, F.R.S., Sir 
RICHARD GREGORY, Bt., F.R.S., Mr. S. R. HumBy, Miss H. Masters, 
Mr. E. R. THomas. Co-opted: Mr. A. Clow Forp, Dr. C. W. 
KIMMINS). 
CONTENTS 
I. Introduction. II. Abstracts from Replies to Questionnaire. 
III. Suggestions and Recommendations. IV. Bibliography. 
V. Appendix. 
I. INTRODUCTION 
OnE of the most direct reactions of general culture to industrialisation was 
the establishment, in the greater centres of mechanical production, of 
‘Mutual Improvement’ Societies, Literary and Philosophical Institutions, 
and (rather later) of more specialised Field Clubs and Natural History 
Societies, side by side with Archaeological and Architectural Societies, the 
offspring of the romantic movement which was so closely linked historically 
with the industrial. Most of these associations were literally for ‘ mutual 
improvement’; the best informed or most voluble amateur lectured to the 
rest ;, apparatus was home-made ; where a ‘ magic lantern’ was available, 
the slides were hand-painted. London was far off. When the British 
Association was founded in 1831 it was explicitly to bring leading scientific 
men from London and the Universities into occasional conference with 
local workers, as well as local workers with each other. 
It was in the subsequent half-century of this movement, thus assisted by 
the British Association, that quite naturally the great period of popular 
awakening to the value of science took place. The great controversies of 
the period, at times passionate and dramatic, fired popular imagination and 
enthusiasm, and gave force and power to the claim that science should find 
