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Friday, October 24, 1919 



CONTENTS 

 Scientific Education and the Teaching of 

 Physics: Pkofessor A. Gray 377 



Engineering Science before, during and after 

 the War: Sie Charles A. Parsons 383 



Cyril G. EopUns 387 



Scientific Events: — 

 Atomic Energy; The Natural Gas Industry ; 

 Leather from Aquatic Animals; Vacation 

 Nature Study; A Compendium of Chemical 

 and Physical Constants 388 



Scientific Notes an-d News 390 



University and Educational News 393 



Discussion a7id Correspondence:— 

 Double Use of the Term Acceleration : Dr. 

 Oarl Hebing. An Ornithomimid Dinosaur 

 in the Potomac of Maryland: Charles W. 

 GHiMORE. An Elephant with Four TusTcs: 

 Dr. John M. Clarke 393 



Quotations : — 



The Work of the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science 396 



Special Articles: — 



The Bourdillon Water Still: J. P. Bennett 

 AND James 6. Dickson 397 



MSS. inteDded for publication and books, etc., intended for 

 review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garri80n-on- 

 Hudson, N. Y. 



SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION AND THE 

 TEACHING OF PHYSICSi 



The real cause of the prevailing neglect of 

 science, witii all its pernicious results, is that 

 almost all our political leaders have received 

 the most favored and fashionable form of pub- 

 lic school education, and are without any sci- 

 entific education. An education in classics 

 and dialectics, the education of a lawyer, may 

 be a good thing — for lawyers; though even 

 that is doubtful. Tor the training of men who 

 are to govern a state whose very existence de- 

 pends on applications of science, and on the 

 proper utilization of available stores of energy, 

 it is ludicrously unsuitable. We hear of the 

 judicial frame of mind which lawyers bring to 

 the discussion of matters of high policy, but in 

 the majority of scientific cases it is the open 

 mind of crass ignorance. The result is la- 

 mentable : I myself heard a very eminent coun- 

 sel declare in a case of some importance, in- 

 volving practical applications of science, that 

 one of Newton's laws of motion was that " fric- 

 tion is the cause of oscillations " ! And the 

 helpfulness of some eminent counsel and 

 judges in patent cases is a bjTvord. 



As things are, eminence in science is no 

 qualification, it would even seem to be a posi- 

 tive disqualification, for any share in the con- 

 duct of the affairs of this great industrial 

 country. The scientific sides of public ques- 

 tions are ignored, nay, in many cases our 

 rulers are unconscious of their existence. Re- 

 cently in a discussion on the Forestry Bill in 

 the House of Lords a member of that illus- 

 trious body made the foolish assertion that for- 

 estry had nothing to do with science; all that 

 was needed was to dig holes and stick young 

 trees into them. Could fatuity go further? 



1 Concluding part of the address of the president 

 to the Mathematical and Physical Science Section 

 at the Bournemouth meeting of the British Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science. 



