226 



SCIENTIFIC NEV\^S. 



[Dec. 1st, 1887. 



so graphically described by Mr. Trevelyan in his " Life of 

 Fox " has left its mark on their weight-traces. Many a stroke 

 of gout was there ! From these numbers we find that the 

 age at which the weight reaches its maximum is earlier in 

 the earlier generations. This shows an improvement in 

 later years with regard to fast living. Comparing the 

 weights for age in the selected members of the nobility with 

 those of the professional classes, extracted from the anthro- 

 pometric tables of the British Association, we find that 

 where, in the class of the nobility, the age is 27, the weight 

 is 165 lbs., whereas in the professional classes it is 161 lbs. 

 In the same way, at the age of 30, the weights are respec- 

 tively 165 lbs. and 167 lbs. ; at 40, 171 lbs. and 173 lbs. ; 

 at 50, 175 lbs. and 174 lbs.; at 60, 181 lbs. and 174 lbs. It 

 is so far gratifying to notice that the weights are so gradually 

 rising from early manhood to late years in the nobility as 

 well as in the professional classes. 



TECHNICAL EDUCATION ABROAD.— II. 



THE Hoe School, and the Auchmuty Trade Schools, both 

 in New York, illustrate two modes of foreign tech- 

 nical education. They have in common as their purpose per- 

 fection in special arts. This they seek by the improvement 

 of boys and young men in actual work. In this they have 

 the support of the labour organisations, which allege against 

 the system of general knowledge that, while it displaces 

 apprenticeship, it but sets up in its place, by a short process, 

 a half-educated mechanic. Mr. Edward Atkinson, a dis- 

 tinguished American economist, gives his opinion thus : — 

 " We are training no American craftsmen, and unless we 

 devise better methods than the old and now obsolete ap- 

 prentice system much of the perfection of our almost auto- 

 matic mechanism will have been achieved at the cost not 

 only of the manual, but also of the mental development 

 of our men. Mills and machine shops will become mental 

 stupefactories." The Hoe School, which is that of the well- 

 known printing-machine firm, is for the special training of 

 the firm's working lads, who as the sons, for the most part, 

 of their own workmen, have only had the education of the 

 common schools. They are not apprentices, being under a 

 mere verbal contract, with this condition, however, that 

 they are to attend the evening school attached to the factory. 

 The school is free, and its course of instruction has direct 

 bearings upon the advancement of the calling which the 

 lads have selected. To begin with, they are instructed in 

 mechanical drawing by rule and compass, and in arithmetic, 

 algebra, and geometry. Lectures and conversaziones fol- 

 low, with the outcome, shown by the experience of five-and- 

 twenty years, that the Hoe printing-machine reflects the 

 average excellence of the Hoe mechanic. While attend- 

 ance at the evening school is obligatory upon the lads, the 

 conditions are not irksome. The average number of the 

 working lads is 250, and Mr. Peter S. Hoe, speaking of the 

 system, says : — " The firm did not look for any direct 

 results from the school, nor did he think that, as a matter of 

 dollars and cents, it was a paying affair. He had a con- 

 viction, however, that all labour employers should take an 

 interest in the moral welfare of their employes, and in this 

 particular instance the boys were so circumstanced that it 

 was good to take them away from their associates, and to 

 give them some guidance into better methods of life. The 

 school had resulted in a thoroughly good understanding 

 between the firm and the workmen. He did not believe in 

 attempting high education for poor lads. There was no 

 written contract, but the boys knew that it was part of 

 their duty to attend school." 



Col. Auchmuty, the founder of the Auchmuty Trade 



Schools, is a gentleman of position in New York. His 

 hobby is the production of American specialists in labour, 

 as in the professions. A brief summary of his views, and 

 of what they have led up to, should be preceded by the 

 statement that he regards the trade school graduation at the 

 Imperial Technical School at Moscow, and at the Hampton 

 Institute, Virginia, as the ideal which trade reformers in 

 the United States should seek to establish. Col. Auchmuty's 

 fundamental doctrine is, that the first requirement of labour 

 is strength, which, if applied to doing some one thing well, 

 its value is much increased. This assumption he upholds by 

 such arguments as these. For the most part skill is a thing to be 

 acquired, and its acquisition is by experience. Next, in the 

 modern organisation of labour it does not pay an employer 

 to furnish experience to lads, who as a consequence should 

 be able to acquire it without the profit and loss considera- 

 tions inseparable from engagement in the occupations. In 

 other words as lawyers, physicians, and engineers are ex- 

 pected to learn their professions before they ask for employ- 

 ment, why not also those who seek to live by the labour 

 of their hands ? As for the apprentice system, he holds 

 that it was only suited for the middle ages. The appren- 

 tice has been superseded by the " hired boj'," who is 

 expected to make himself useful ; learning what he can by 

 observation, and putting his hand to such practice as may 

 be afforded him. That many employers give much time to 

 boys is no doubt true, but equally true is it that probably 

 as many more relegate instruction to the foreman and the 

 journeymen. Thus, in a general way, there is little trade 

 teaching. The foreman is interested in turning out the 

 best work at the least cost, which generally would be im- 

 possible with boys. He therefore keeps each workman at 

 what he does best. He is not employed to teach, and may 

 not have any personal interest in a single lad. When old 

 enough to do a day's work, a lad will make the best claim 

 he can for the wages of a journeyman, such skill as he 

 may possess having been acquired in spite of the system 

 which is supposed to teach him. 



Such may be taken as a fair expression of the convictions 

 which led Col. Auchmuty to establish his trade schools. 

 These form a block of four semi-detached buildings of ordin- 

 ary workshops. There are departments for plastering fresco- 

 painting, plumbing, brick-laying, stone-cutting, and carpentry. 

 The course of practical instruction in each of these depart- 

 ments cannot be described withoutentering upon technicalties 

 not interesting to the reader. Suffice it to say, that it is exceed- 

 ingly thorough. Lectures are also given on trade subjects, 

 at which each member of the class is furnished with a 

 printed form, containing a list of questions on these subjects 

 with blank spaces for the answers. The lecturer writes an 

 answer to each question on a blackboard, and the members 

 of the class copy it in the blanks left in the printed forms. 

 Before proceeding to a new question the lecturer explains 

 fully what is meant, and illustrates his meaning by diagrams 

 on the blackboard. The forms are retained by the young 

 men for future reference. As the instruction is intended to 

 be thorough, the course both practical and scientific is not 

 deviated from. The instructors cause each member of the 

 class to begin at the beginning, and each member of a class 

 is advanced as rapidly as proficiency will allow, but no 

 member of a class is taken from any work until he can do 

 it well. 



Cambridge. — A grant not to exceed ,£150 has been made from 

 the Worts Travelling Scholars' Fund to Mr. H. B. Smith, B.A., 

 of Trinity College, for the purpose of archaeological research in 

 Cyprus, on condition that the objects obtained by means of 

 this expenditure become the property of the University, and 

 that Mr. Smith furnish a report on the results of his researches 

 to be published. 



