440 
Motes. 
“ The Lancet ” on Competitive Examination. — The competi- 
tive system, as applied to youths, has produced a most ruinous 
effeCt on the mental constitution which this generation has to 
hand down to the next, and particularly the next-but-one ensuing. 
Schoolwork should be purely and exclusively directed to develop- 
ment. “ Cramming ” the young for examination purposes is like 
compelling an infant in arms to sit up before the muscles of its 
back are strong enough to support it in the upright position, or 
to sustain the weight of its body on its legs by standing, while 
as yet the limbs are unable to bear the burden imposed on them. 
Another blunder is committed when one of the organs of the 
body — to wit, the brain — is worked at the expense of other parts 
of the organism, in face of the faCt that the measure of general 
health is proportioned to the integrity of development and the 
functional activity of the body as a whole in the harmony of its 
component systems. No one organ can be developed at the 
expense of the rest without a corresponding weakening of the 
whole. These faults of “ training ” attain their supreme height 
of folly and shortsightedness when they are committed in refer- 
ence to the youths destined for the public services. The work 
of the Civil Service Commissioners in respeCt of these classes is 
individually and racially destructive. Sooner or later public 
opinion must recognise this faCt, and then perhaps the Legislature 
may be moved to intervene — not before, but when it is too late. 
(In faCti for the sake of securing one moderately efficient young 
man for the public service, some five or six, including the suc- 
cessful candidate, are injured for life ! It is impossible to avoid 
invoking a solemn curse on the originator of this scheme.) 
Prof. E. Ray Lankester on Competitive Examination. — We 
are mistaken — indeed very seriously mistaken — in supposing that 
competition for places can do much to raise the standard of 
scientific work. Good patient work, due to the free workings of 
genius, and that unconscious aptitude and insight which belong 
to it, is not fostered, but actually forbidden, — starved at the roots 
by the wear and tear of competition. 
ERRATA. 
Page 364, line 13 from bottom, for “all volcanoes are on the top of moun- 
tains ” read “ nearly all,” &c. 
Page 363, line 6 from bottom, fot “ 48’25o ” read “ 48250.” 
