CHAPTER XXXII 

 1877 



In this year he delivered lectures and addresses on the 

 Geological History of Birds, at the Zoological Society's 

 Gardens, June 7 ; on " Starfishes and their Allies," at the 

 Royal Institution, March 7 ; at the London Institution, 

 Dec. 17, on Belemnites (a subject on which he had written 

 in 1864, and which was doubtless suggested anew by his 

 autumn holiday at Whitby, where the Lias clififs are full of 

 these fossils) ; at the Anthropological Conference, May 22, 

 on Elementary Instruction in Physiology (Coll. Ess. iii. 294), 

 with special reference to the recent legislation as to experi- 

 ments on living animals ; and on Technical Education to the 

 Working Men's Club and Institute, December i (Coll. Ess. 

 iii. 404) : a perilous subject, indeed, considering, as he re- 

 marks, that " any candid observer of the phenomena of 

 modern society will readily admit that bores must be classed 

 among the enemies of the human race ; and a little con- 

 sideration will probably lead him to the further admission, 

 that no species of that extensive genus of noxious creatures 

 is more objectionable than the educational bore. ... In the 

 course of the last ten years, to go back no farther, I am 

 afraid to say how often I have ventured to speak of edu- 

 cation ; indeed, the only part of this wide region into which, 

 as yet, I have not adventured, is that into which I propose 

 to intrude to-day." 



The choice of subject for this address was connected 

 with a larger campaign for the establishment of technical 

 education on a proper footing, which began with his work 

 on the School Board, or was this year brought prominently 



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