744 THE PLACE OF RESEARCH IN EDUCATION. 



willing ears; his meaning was clear; he was dealing with a popular 

 subject of which we all have some understanding. I can not but recog- 

 nize that my subject is generally misunderstood, and its public impor- 

 tance greatly underrated in consecpience. Some inscrutable influence 

 has led those who have organized this institute to appreciate the needs 

 of art, and having bad the wisdom to take proper advice, they have 

 put you in possession of the elements of a perfect system of art sani- 

 tation; but the needs of the sister subject, science, have yet to be 

 grasped here and elsewhere. The sanitary condition of the dwellings 

 which science has to put up with throughout our country is most faulty, 

 ill arranged, out of date, and oftentimes abominable; and if this poly- 

 technic, indeed, poly technics and schools generally, desire to place the 

 teaching of science under healthy conditions, heed must be given to 

 the inspector's warnings. 



I might almost take Professor Herkomer's address, write science for 

 art, add a few passages here and there, and redeliver it as my own. 

 Decorative art, that art which enables artists to decorate, you were 

 told can not be taught on the large scale; it can not even be taught in 

 schools — it must be taught in the workshop. Decorative science, sci- 

 ence which decorates its* possessor and enables him or her to be scien- 

 tific, scientific knowledge which can be made use of in the service of 

 the world, also can not be studied except in the workshop and in nature, 

 to whom also the artist must resort. As Professor Herkomer said most 

 truly: all technical education will fail if established on a scheme in 

 which the master's personality is eliminated, and that must follow in 

 any scheme of wholesale tuition. 



But what meaning have the words " science" and " scientific" in Eng- 

 lish ears generally 1 ? Do they excite visions of a complicated picture of 

 things concerning our daily life in its minutest details'? Certainly not. 

 Their utterance before those who know a little chemistry recalls fire- 

 works and smells and perhaps simple salts; whilst those who take an 

 interest in electricity have thoughts of bells ringing, galvanometer 

 needles wagging, or glowing electric lights; and teachers dream of 

 South Kensington certificates and hardly earned grants. In the minds 

 of the general public they call forth no response, especially in those of 

 that very numerous section of the community which is concerned 

 in commercial transactions and has no knowledge of manufactures. 

 Science in the eyes of the average Englishman consists of a newfangled 

 set of ideas, all very well for those who can afford the time to study 

 them, but in his opinion not of such daily practical importance that it 

 is necessary for the nation to pay attention to them. And this unfor- 

 tunately is the opinion even of " educated" men and of many men of 

 culture. This is perhaps the primary defect in our system to which 

 the medical officer of health for science is bound to call attention; it is 

 one "which we must all uuite in overcoming and which polytechnics such 

 as this should do much to remove. 



