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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 871 



Joseph Banks, and other Fellows of the 

 Royal Society; in 1807 it was followed by 

 the Geological Society; at a later date the 

 Society of Antiquaries, the Chemical, the 

 Zoological, the Physical, the Mathematical, 

 and many other societies were founded. 

 And it was felt by those capable of form- 

 ing a judgment that, as well expressed by 

 Lord Playfair at Aberdeen in 1885, 

 "Human progress is so identified with 

 scientific thought, both in its conception 

 and realization, that it seems as if they 

 were alternative terms in the history of 

 civilization. ' ' This is only an echo through 

 the ages of an utterance of the great Eng- 

 lishman, Roger Bacon, who wrote in 1250 

 A.D. : ' ' Experimental science has three 

 great prerogatives over all other sciences: 

 it verifies conclusions by direct experi- 

 ment; it discovers truths which they could 

 never reach ; and it investigates the secrets 

 of Nature, and opens to us a knowledge of 

 the past and of the future." 



The world has greatly changed since 

 1831 ; the spread of railways and the equip- 

 ment of numerous lines of steamships have 

 contributed to the peopling of countries at 

 that time practically uninhabited. More- 

 over, not merely has travelling been made 

 almost infinitely easier, but communication 

 by post has been enormously expedited and 

 cheapened; and the telegraph, the tele- 

 phone, and wireless telegraphy have simpli- 

 fied as well as complicated human exist- 

 ence. Furthermore, the art of engineering 

 has made such strides that the question 

 "Can it be done?" hardly arises, but 

 rather ' ' Will it pay to do it ? " In a word, 

 the human race has been familiarized with 

 the applications of science; and men are 

 ready to believe almost anything, if 

 brought forward in its name. 



Education, too, in the rudiments of 

 science has been introduced into almost all 

 schools; young children are taught the 



elements of physics and chemistry. The 

 institution of a Section for Education in 

 our Association (L) has had for its object, 

 the organizing of such instruction, and 

 much useful advice has been proffered. 

 The problem is, indeed, largely an educa- 

 tional one; it is being solved abroad in 

 various ways — in Germany and in most 

 European states by elaborate governmental 

 schemes dealing with elementary and ad- 

 vanced instruction, literary, scientific, and 

 technical; and in the United States and in, 

 Canada by the far-sightedness of the peo- 

 ple: both employers and employees recog- 

 nize the value of training and of origin- 

 ality, and on both sides sacrifices are made 

 to ensure efficiency. 



In England we have made technical edu- 

 cation a local, not an imperial question; 

 instead of half a dozen first-rate institu- 

 tions of university rank, we have a hun- 

 dred, in which the institutions are neces- 

 sarily understaffed, in which the staffs are 

 mostly overworked and underpaid; and 

 the training given is that not for captains 

 of industry, but for workmen and foremen. 

 "Efficient captains cannot be replaced by 

 a large number of fairly good corporals." 

 Moreover, to induce scholars to enter these 

 institutions, they are bribed by scholar- 

 ships, a form of pauperization practically 

 unknown in every country but our own; 

 and to crown the edifice, we test results by 

 examinations of a kind not adapted to 

 gauge originality and character (if, indeed, 

 these can ever be tested by examination), 

 instead of, as on the Continent and in 

 America, trusting the teachers to form an 

 honest estimate of the capacity and ability 

 of each student, and awarding honors ac- 

 cordingly. 



The remedy lies in our own hands. Let 

 me suggest that we exact from all gainers 

 of university scholarships an undertaking 

 that, if and when circumstances permit,. 



