SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



still more definitely on fixed lines, and present a 

 coherence and homogeneity that would be self- 

 evident. Here we come to a serious point in our 

 consideration of the subject — that is the evil of too early 

 specialisation. I will go so far as to state my per- 

 sonal opinion that there should be no specialisation 

 in science in our schools. Even in the upper 

 standards it tends to stultify individual effort and 

 concentrate the particular line of mental develop- 

 ment into a fixed groove, whilst the working for 

 examination results must necessarily train the memory 

 instead of the faculties. If the evils of specialisation 

 in the upper standards are thus evident, what must 

 they be in the lower classes where the mental pro- 

 cesses are slow and need gradual unfolding under the 

 guidance of the teacher ? 



" It is, I assert, no part of an elementary teacher's 

 work to attempt to finish a child's education, but only 

 to put it in the right way of completing that education 

 for itself. The elementary course, then, should be 

 homogeneous. It should not be ' animals ' in the 

 first year, 'plants' in Standard II, 'magnetism' in 

 Standard III, 'mechanics' in Standard IV, and so 

 on, arranged, maybe, according to some special 

 qualification that the teacher of each successive class 

 through which the boy passes may possess, nor 

 should it be restricted to a single subject continued 

 through successive years, for this would bring about 

 that specialisation to which I have already strongly 

 objected. 



"There are a few general principles involved in 

 the study of chemistry, physics, mechanics, botany, 

 zoology, and geology, that we are all agreed should 

 form the basis of all advanced and later study in 

 every branch of science. Every standard should 

 have some five or six practical lessons in each of these 

 branches, and there should be a close connection 

 between the lessons from Standard I— VI, each 

 succeeding series being based on the preceding year's 

 work. If this were done in every school under the 

 Board that at present takes elementary science for 

 object lessons, we should educate children in such 

 a way that they would leave school with a really 

 good basis for future scientific work. 



"It will be observed that I have not offered any 

 special plea for natural science as apart from physics 

 and chemical science, as I consider that all science 

 work in schools should be somewhat general in 

 its character, and these branches are really in any 

 general system complementary one to another. 

 Still, the lessons should be absolutely definite as to 

 their nature and character, and, as far as possible, 

 from the very first, put only into the hands of 

 teachers who can deal with them practically. One 

 can hardly help girding at the present more or less 

 rigid method of class teaching still adopted in too 

 many of our schools, because it necessitates, if the 

 work is to be strictly educational, that the teacher's 

 knowledge should be more or less encyclopaedic, and 

 beyond the powers of the average intellect. There 

 should be in every senior school under the Board at 



least one teacher who has a real practical acquaint- 

 ance with the general principles of elementary 

 science, and who should be mainly employed in 

 teaching them. To give general information on a 

 so-called scientific subject is one of the easiest things 

 possible ; to give a science lesson that shall involve a 

 real scientific training to the child is quite another 

 matter." 



As Mr. Tutt rightly remarks, it seems the opinion 

 of many excellent educationists that it should be 

 part of our aim to turn out biologists, physicists, 

 chemists, electricians, and so on ; whilst the really 

 necessary point is to train keen, well-informed, 

 thoughtful boys and girls, with ability to observe, 

 draw deductions from their observations, and form 

 correct conclusions from facts presented to them. 



The merely utilitarian side of school work, as illus- 

 trated by the fact that so much attention is paid in 

 the form of government grants to subjects tending 

 only to wage-earning, is heartily condemned by the 

 speaker. Again, he says there is an assumption that 

 education is only to be a means for earning immediate 

 £ s. d. He points out that in the science schools 

 earning grants from the Science and Art Department, 

 results are required not in the general intelligence of 

 students in scientific subjects, but in a knowledge of 

 the facts of chemistry, physics, etc. " Here, it ap- 

 pears, almost the pinnacle of scientific educational in- 

 efficiency is reached, for the subjects taught are not 

 considered means to an end (the end being the proper 

 training of the student), and the manner in which the 

 instruction is given is a purely secondary matter." 



Mr. Tutt ends by pointing out that the most per- 

 fectly educated man or woman is he or she who has 

 the greatest power of interesting himself within him- 

 self, or by himself, and we find this in the man or 

 woman who has an intellectual hobby to set off 

 against the worries consequent on the struggle for 

 existence. The elements of natural science taught 

 rationally in school would lay the foundation of many 

 a scientific naturalist, and may help to produce a 

 Lamarck, Buffon, Huxley, or Darwin in the future. 



Wasps and Moths.— On September 6 last I 

 was awoke in the morning by a curious sawing noise 

 in my room. On looking around to see whence the 

 noise proceeded, I discovered it came from some 

 setting boards which I had hung on the wall con- 

 taining specimens of Triphaena fimbria. On ex- 

 amining the boards I found five or six wasps there. 

 Three of the wasps were settled on the boards at 

 the grooves busily engaged in severing the wings of 

 the moths from the bodies. The wings were covered 

 over with paper so that the wasps could only get the 

 moths by disjoining them at the junction of the wings 

 to the bodies. The wasps had entirely severed the 

 wings of three moths, and were cutting out their 

 heads when I interrupted them at their work. I have 

 never come across an instance of this kind before, 

 though I have frequently had the bodies of micro- 

 lepidoptera eaten by spiders. I should therefore be 

 glad to know if any of your readers have met with 

 similar instances. — Aubrey C. Stoyel, The Briars, 

 Watford, Janita)y 1 900. 





