Dec. ii, 1879] 



NA TURE 



i39 



thirty species of Amazon parrots known ; which, then, is 

 " the Amazon parrot " figured ? The text is appealed to 

 for an answer in vain. Not two lines are devoted to the 

 Macaws. The same is very much the case all through : 

 thus, the honey-guide is figured after Keuleman's sketch; 

 eleven species are known, but neither is the name given of 

 the species figured, nor is the name given of the species 

 whose habits are described. The common goat-sucker, the 

 whip-poor-will, and the lyre-tailed nightjar, are figured, 

 and yet no scientific names for them are to be found. No 

 doubt both author and editor will agree with us that the 

 value of this work would be greatly added to if the good 

 example set in this matter by Mr. Dallas were followed. 

 The illustrations are in general very good, but is there 

 not one egg too many in the nest of the edible-nest swift- 

 let ? The general get-up of the volume — type, paper, and 

 binding — are all that could be wished, and despite the 

 few things in it which we think might be amended, we 

 most cordially recommend it and its predecessors as very 

 excellent volumes on the natural history of the mammals 

 and birds. 



rROF. HUXLEY OX TECHXICAL EDCCATIOX 



AT the lecture by Prof. Silvanus Thompson, on "Appren- 

 ticeships,'' at the Society of Arts last week, Prof. 

 Huxley was in the Chair, and in inviting discussion on the 

 paper, said he would commence it by making a few remarks 

 himself. He had listened to Prof. Thompson's paper 

 with gratification, not only on account of the good sense 

 it embodied, but also for a more selfish reason, inasmuch 

 as it entirely accorded with the views which he, coming 

 to the matter from a different side, had himself expressed. 

 Unfortunately he had no personal acquaintance with the 

 ordinary kinds of work in what were called handicrafts, 

 but he ventured some two years ago in that very room 

 to point his remarks with respect to technical education 

 by the knowledge he possessed of medical education. He 

 then expressed a hope that something real and practical 

 would soon be done by the City Guilds, which had clone 

 him the honour of consulting him on this subject of 

 technical education, and the advice he gave them was 

 in precise accordance with the principles which Prof. 

 Thompson had laid down that night. Whatever might 

 be the merits or demerits of the old system of appren- 

 ticeship, it was as thoroughly doomed in the different 

 kinds of ordinary handicrafts as it had been long 

 doomed in physic. The only alternatives appeared to 

 him to be of two kinds. In the first place, we ought to 

 bring within the reach of the young people who were em- 

 ployed in our great manufactures the means of carrying 

 on their education in the particular branches of business 

 with which they were respectively occupied beyond the 

 time during which the necessities of practical life obliged 

 them to be at work in the workshop— that is to say, for a 

 period corresponding virtually with what used to be their 

 apprenticeship. One of his suggestions, therefore, was 

 that there should be established in the neighbourhood of 

 the great centres of industry schools to which young boys 

 who are learning certain handicrafts could resort in order 

 to receive instruction which would qualify them to work 

 skilfully and intelligently at their trade. He likewise 

 suggested that the guilds should employ part of their 

 large funds in the establishment of a central institution, 

 which should do for the teaching-power of the country 

 that which such institutions as the Ecole des Arts et 

 Metiers in France, and the Polytechnicum at Zurich, did 

 in their respective countries. In England there was not 

 only a total absence of schools to which apprentices could 

 resort, but there were no teachers competent to teach in 

 such schools, even if they were established. He thought 

 that the suggestions he made to the guilds were of a 

 sound and practical nature, and calculated to advance 

 the interests of technical education in this country. He 



understood Prof. Thompson to object to the existing 

 elementary training in our Board schools on the ground 

 of its technical nature and of its occupying the minds of 

 the student entirely with book learning and matters 

 which had no sort of bearing on his future life. No one 

 endeavoured more earnestly than he, when he occupied a 

 seat at the School Board, to remedy the evil of the exclu- 

 sively book character of our ordinary school instruction. 

 He did not entertain the slightest doubt that an extension of 

 the Kindergarten system, including the use of tools and the 

 knowledge of elementary machines, was a matter of great 

 importance, but he could not think that the evil of not 

 giving hand-work in the elementary schools was after all 

 very great. Although it was a great thing to make 

 skilled workmen, yet it was much more important to make 

 intelligent men. The four or five years during which 

 children ordinarily remained at school were not too much 

 to devote to even an exclusive study of reading, writing, 

 and arithmetic, and to the acquirement of some intelli- 

 gent knowledge of geography, the elements of history, 

 and the rudiments of physical science. On this point he 

 might observe that no pupil was admitted to the Ecoles 

 d'Apprentis in Paris until he was thirteen years old, or 

 unless he presented his certificate of elementary educa- 

 tion. If we attained one half or a quarter of the good 

 results reached in the Ecoles dApprentis.the improvement 

 in the condition of the average British workman would 

 be exceedingly great. 



In proposing a vote of thanks to Prof. Thompson for 

 his paper, Prof. Huxley expressed his belief that, as far 

 as London was concerned, it would be a scandal and a 

 robbery if a single shilling were asked for out of the 

 general revenues of the country for technical education. 

 The City of London Guilds possessed enormous wealth, 

 which had been left to them for the benefit of the trades 

 they represent. If the people did not insist on the 

 wealth being applied to its proper purpose, they deserved 

 to be taxed down to their shoes. It would be well if those 

 who had charge of these matters in the city of London 

 would understand that they were morally bound to do 

 this work for the country, and he hoped if they continued 

 to neglect the obligation they would be legally compelled 

 to do it. 



XOTES 



No more than justice has been done to Sir Joseph Whitworth by 

 granting him a prolongation for five years for his process of manu- 

 facturing fluid -compressed steel. The powerful evidence brought 

 before the Committee of the Privy Council as to the utility of this 

 steel could not be resisted. Mr. James Wright, the Engineer-in- 

 Chief of the Navy, stated that the invention "has met a want 

 Ion" felt for the principal parts of marine engines which have 

 been subject to failures ; " from his experience of it he has per- 

 fect trust in it. Mr. Hotchkiss, the patentee of the revolving 

 cannon used bythe French Government, stated that he never 

 had occasion to reject a single barrel of the steel. The evidence 

 from Mr. J. Davidson, of Woolwich, Mr. Purdey, the well- 

 known gun-maker, and others, showed that by getting rid of the 

 air-cells ihe steel answered perfectly, and is a better metal than 

 had ever been produced by any previous process. Their Lord- 

 ships were satisfied that it would in all probability be highly 

 useful "in carrying out the highest achievements of engineering 

 skill." 



The long-expected experiments by the Thunderer Gun Com- 

 mittee commenced on Tuesday at the proof butts on the 

 Government marshes, Woolwich. In connection with these 

 experiments, Sir William Talliser organised, and last week 

 carried out, a successful series of experiments with a doubly- 

 loaded gun, in order to ascertain whether double-loading was or 

 was not the cause of the burning of the Thunderers gun. Five 



