340 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 
years to come. Similar advantages are found to some extent in other 
University cities. But outside these centres the difficulty of securing suitable 
accommodation and adequate supplies of apparatus constitutes a really big 
limiting factor in the organisation of science classes for Adult Education. 
In all the most active centres for science work this position is emphasised. 
In Nottinghamshire, ‘ When classes in biology, chemistry, etc., can meet 
in a laboratory, it is possible to do useful work, but facilities of this kind are 
available only in the University towns or in towns which have a secondary 
school : even then it is not always possible to obtain the use of laboratories 
for adult classes. Many of the classes, however, meet in small towns or 
villages, and such elementary requirements as running-water and gas are 
rarely available in the classroom. ‘Tutors have to take all their own 
apparatus, and work with buckets of water, spirit lamps, etc. It is little 
wonder they fall back to a great extent upon lantern ‘slides, or occasional 
demonstrations, and the chief value of science teaching is lost to the 
students ’ (Prof. Peers). 
In Leicestershire, ‘the provision of the necessary accommodation, 
equipment, and material is still very difficult. Most of the classes have to 
be held in village schools which are, of course, not designed to accommodate 
adult science classes. The resources of Loughborough College, however, 
are available for the classes held in Leicestershire, and we are now able to 
provide microscopes, a projector, and other equipment for the use of the 
tutors. Occasionally students have been brought in from a village class to 
have a meeting in the College, where more adequate equipment for demon- 
strations is available. Some of the tutors have cars, and carry a considerable 
amount of equipment to their classes. The students also provide some of 
their own materials for experiment’ (R. J. Howrie, Loughborough T.C.). 
In Glasgow, provision is made to meet the demands for science ‘ largely 
through classes meeting at the University where laboratories are available. 
At most outlying centres it has not been found possible to meet it so fully, 
most of the equipment found necessary, in so far as it could not be provided 
by the students themselves, has been taken from Glasgow.’ 
At Bristol, ‘ there is a certain difficulty with regard to equipment. This 
does not apply in Bristol, where University laboratories are available. 
Outside Bristol, and other large towns, it is not easy to secure equipment, 
except for courses where instruments and material of a portable kind can be 
used.’ 
The result is a fundamental limitation to certain kinds, and aspects, of 
scientific study. One W.E.A. worker in Birmingham writes : 
‘The serious study of science by groups of working people is a new 
development in Education, and its point of departure is different from that 
in schools and Universities. . . . It is found desirable to begin, not as 
physics or chemistry, or biology, but with a mixed elementary introduction 
to all these. This, in itself, has proved difficult to fit in with the ordinary 
supply of apparatus, as it neither is a specialised science course nor hygiene, 
nor nature study. This kind of teaching makes different demands on 
equipment from the ordinary school or college course. It does not demand 
expensive apparatus, so much as different apparatus, with consequent need of 
storage place and opportunity for preparation.’ 
Even in London only three out of the twelve Literary Institutes organised 
by the L.E.A. for Adult Education attempt any classes in science, and only 
two of these possess any equipment for the work. 
