November 17, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



699 



ing examinations, as a guarantee of an acquain- 

 tance with science method and reasoning. 



The provision now made for the study of 

 scientific and technical subjects accounts, 

 no doubt, for the failure of popular lec- 

 tures in many districts. When there were 

 few institutions of higher education, the 

 thoughtful section of the population took 

 advantage of such lectures to extend their 

 knowledge, but now the same class is pro- 

 vided for in educational institutions and 

 courses. The public science lectures of the 

 present times, therefore, need not be of the 

 same kind, or on the same subjects, as those 

 of a past generation, but should be adapted 

 to more modern needs and interests. Above 

 all, they should be intended for the people 

 as a whole, and not for students or others 

 who propose to devote systematic attention 

 to the subjects of the lectures or devote 

 their careers to them. This distinction is 

 not recognized in the subjoined remarks by 

 Mr. C. F. Procter (Hon. Sec, Hull Scien- 

 tific and Field Naturalists' Club), which 

 represent the views of many scientific so- 

 cieties as to the present position, yet it is 

 most important. 



Mr. Procter says : 



Scientific lectures can only be made popular in 

 the sense that you attract the crowd of unscien- 

 tific people, with a profusion of experiments, or, 

 failing that, lantern illustrations. People will 

 flock to the Egyptian Hall and are vastly enter- 

 tained and educated a little by an exhibition of 

 what is often clever scientific acrobatics. Human 

 nature loves to see what it can not understand, and 

 twenty years ago represents a period when the 

 commonplaces of science were a wonderland to the 

 average mind. The trend of education has altered 

 that, and has sharply divided the same people into 

 a minority of scientific enthusiasts who ' ' ask for 

 more," and a majority of indifferents who remain 

 cold at a display of the old elementary stuff. Edu- 

 cation (and that includes very largely the popular 

 science lectures of the past) has created in this, as 

 in all the arts, a small aristocracy of intellect, or, 

 rather, comparatively small. These are not satis- 

 fied with anything that can possibly be popular. 



They are long past that, but will feverishly attend 

 anything which proposes further to explore the 

 deep water. The crowd — the man in the street 

 and his womenkind — has had its wonder-bump ex- 

 cised in the school laboratory. Modern sensation- 

 alism in amusement and the plethora of scrappy 

 yet crisp literature (which religiously exploits 

 every new thing, scientific or otherwise, that may 

 entertain) has calloused this excision. The appli- 

 cation of the film-pictures to microscopy, etc., is 

 about the only way to popularize science lectures, 

 but — why bother? We can not all be men of sci- 

 ence, and the present system provides that any 

 who get the call may answer it, whilst popular 

 lectures only attempt to entertain individuals of 

 an age who are already past the slightest hope of 

 ever being useful scientists. The proper thing is 

 already being done by our schools, universities and 

 university extension lecturers with our budding 



The following letter from the acting reg- 

 istrar of University College, Nottingham, 

 bears upon some of the foregoing points : 



Popular lectures have been delivered for the 

 past thirty-five years at this college. During the 

 past few years the numbers delivered on science 

 subjects have been less than in previous years, but 

 there is good reason to believe that if some pecu- 

 niary assistance from a central fund could be de- 

 voted to lectures on science much progress might 

 be made, not only in this city but throughout the 

 whole of the East Midland area. At one time it 

 was the practise to arrange during each session two 

 or three series of lectures on scientific subjects 

 during the winter terms. These series consisted of 

 three or four weekly lectures on each subject and 

 were generally delivered by professors of the col- 

 lege. The professors received no extra remunera- 

 tion for this work and as the ordinary college 

 work grew it was almost impossible for the time to 

 be spent in the preparation, which, it can be well 

 understood, was very extensive. Ten to fifteen 

 years back we always had crowded audiences, but 

 these were cut down owing to the opening of so 

 many picture-houses in the city and also to the 

 fact that many of the senior scholars from the 

 secondary and other schools now continue their 

 education at the college and other institutions, at- 

 tending two and three evenings per week. 



CONSTRUCTIVE PROPOSALS 



Many correspondents are of the opinion 

 that the formation of a panel of lecturers 



