SCIENCE 



FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23, if 



The most casual reader of magazines and reviews cannot have 

 failed to notice the increasing share of attention being given by them 

 to educational matters. The Century has honored the memory of 

 Dr. Edward Thwing, and described Uppingham School ; it has also 

 given space to a discussion of manual training and to other school 

 subjects. The Atlantic Monthly printed in a prominent position 

 President Eliot's suggestions as to how the school courses might 

 be enriched and shortened. And now comes the Nineteenth Cen- 

 tury, which, in its November issue, gives the post of honor to a 

 document which, it is safe to say, will rank as one of the most im- 

 portant and significant of modern times. It is a protest against 

 the sacrifice of education to examination, and is signed by several 

 hundred of the most prominent and influential men and women in 

 Great Britain. We notice in the long list the names of Professor 

 Bryce, Henry Bradlaugh, Lord Lytton, Grant Allen, Prof. J. S. Blackie, 

 Oscar Browning, Canon Creighton, Edward A. Freeman, Edmund 

 Gosse, Frederic Harrison, Dr. James Martineau, Frederick Pollock, 

 G. J. Romanes, Professor Westcott, Lionel Beale, Dr. Cnchton- 

 Browne, Sir Morell Mackenzie, Sir Edwin Arnold, Mrs. E. Lynn 

 Linton, and Miss Charlotte M. Yonge. 



The document records the " strong protest of the signers against 

 the dangerous mental pressure, and misdirection of energies and 

 aims, which are to be found alike in nearly all parts of our educa- 

 tional system. Alike in public elementary schools, in schools of all 

 grades and for all classes, and at the universities, the same dangers 

 are too often showing themselves under different forms. Children 

 are treated by a public department, by managers and schoolmas- 

 ters, as suitable instruments for earning government money ; young 

 boys of the middle and richer classes are often trained for scholar- 

 ships with as little regard for the future as two-year old horses are 

 trained for races ; and young men of real capability at the uni- 

 versities are led to believe that the main purpose of education is to 

 enable them to win some great money prize, or take some distin- 

 guished place in an examination. We protest most emphatically 

 against such a misdirection of education, and against the evils which 

 necessarily arise from it." The resulting evils are then specified in 

 detail and at some length. They are classified as physical, in- 

 tellectual, and moral. The Nineteenth Century prints, together 

 with the protest, comments on it by Prof. Max Miiller, by Professor 

 Freeman, and by Frederic Harrison. Professor Miiller recalls the 

 fact that he was, forty years ago, an ardent supporter of a system 

 of examinations for the civil service. He now sees that this has been 

 carried too far, and the fault has been, not with the application of 

 the principle of examination, but with the principle itself. Mr. 

 Harrison's paper is the most pungent and practical of all. He 

 points out that " examination, having been called in to aid educa- 

 tion, has grown and hardened into the master of education. Edu- 

 cation is becoming the slave of its own creature and servant. I do 

 not deny that examination has its uses ; I do not say that we can 

 do without it. I say that it is a good servant, but a bad master ; 

 and, like good servants turned bad masters, it is now bullying, 

 spoiling, and humiliating education." 



schoolmasters. There are men who regard the examination as 

 sacred, and not to be touched or altered, and there are systems, 

 that of New York City, for example, that are built upon a vicious 

 examination system as a foundation. Some time since, we called 

 the attention of the readers of Science to this examination question, 

 and printed some valuable articles on the subject. We can only 

 hope that our American teachers will listen to the voice of Eng- 

 land's experience, and take some steps that will make such a pro- 

 test both unnecessary and impossible in the United States. 



It will be interesting to notice how much attention this important 

 paper attracts in this country, and how much influence it will have 

 with these slaves of routine and examinations, our old-fashioned 



The question whether the growth of forests causes an in- 

 crease of rainfall is both a scientific and an economic one; and as 

 not only in this country, but also in Europe, great corporate or 

 private interests are to be affected by its decision, much of the dis- 

 cussion of it, unfortunately, has not been of a purely scientific char- 

 acter. It has not been carried on for the purpose of arriving at the 

 truth, but to sustain some proposition asserted in advance to be 

 true. It has been what Professor Henry would have called ' debate ' 

 as distinguished from ' discussion.' In Europe there is a great out- 

 cry among the common people against the maintenance of forests 

 over such great areas for the preservation of game and to promote 

 the personal pleasures of a few nobles, while the peasants are starv- 

 ing for the want of land to cultivate. But the nobles reply, that, if 

 the forests are cut down, the rainfall will be diminished, the lands 

 that are now fertile will become barren, so that the common people 

 will be worse off than ever; and they send forth their well-paid 

 scientific men to establish stations, make investigations, and prove 

 the truth of this proposition. We do not mean to say that scien- 

 tific men in Europe consciously prostitute themselves in this way, — 

 they earnestly seek the truth, and do so with much learning and 

 diligence, — but, so often has it been asserted that the growth of 

 forests promote rainfall, that it has almost become an axiom in 

 science as well as among the people ; and the results of any inves- 

 tigations that seem to sustain it are of necessity more readily enter- 

 tained than those which point to the converse. An interesting 

 account of the latest and the most thorough examination of a small 

 area for the purpose of solving this question is given in the ab- 

 stract of Professor Fernow's paper, read before the Philosoph- 

 ical Society of Washington at a recent meeting. In this country 

 many of the great railroad corporations have vast areas of land 

 to sell in the Far West. They desire to induce Eastern people to 

 go there, settle on these lands, and build up cities and towns, so 

 that the business of their lines may be increased. But an idea 

 prevails in the East that the best lands have already been occupied ; 

 that the rainfall beyond the present line of civilization is either so 

 small, or so unevenly distributed throughout the year, as to make 

 the successful production of a crop a matter of great uncertainty ; 

 and they hesitate. But the agents of the railroad companies reply 

 that the climate of the Far West has changed ; that the planting 

 of trees upon what was once arid lands has increased the amount 

 of rainfall, and caused a more equal distribution of the water in the 

 streams ; so that now lands that were once unfit for cultivation 

 have become fertile, and certain to produce crops every year ; and 

 they quote figures to prove it. Fortunately there are men engaged 

 in the investigation of this subject who have no interests to ser\-e 

 but the discovery of the truth ; and Science, in its present issue, 

 presents contributions to this branch of the discussion by two men 

 of this class. The truth can be reached onlv after a thorough dis- 



