The following paper was then read by the Rev. T. M. Gorman, the Author 
being unavoidably absent. 
THE PLACE OF SCIENCE IN EDUCATION. By H. 
Alleyne Nicholson, M.D., D.Sc., E.R.S.E., Professor 
of Natural History in the University of St. Andrews. 
T HE subject of the place which Science ought to occupy in 
an ideal scheme of education is one which can only receive 
its full exposition at the hand of one who is at the same time 
practically acquainted, both with the methods and aims of 
Modern Science and with the merits and defects of our present 
Educational System. Having no claim to the rare combination 
of knowledge thus implied, I shall treat the question in a 
simply partial manner, taking, of course, the aspect in which it 
presents itself to a scientific worker. Nor is there any apparent 
reason why this aspect should lead to conclusions materially 
different from those which would be arrived at from the stand- 
point of the educational reformer. In any case the subject is 
one of vast extent, involving a number of theoretical questions 
of the utmost complexity, environed by formidable practical 
difficulties, and more or less overshadowed by the great diver- 
gencies of opinion which exist as to what is its true solution. 
I shall, therefore, simply touch upon some of the more salient 
and more purely theoretical features of this question ; and I 
would wish, whilst expressing my own personal views, to 
approach the matter at issue in a spirit entirely free from dog- 
matism, fully recognizing that it is not only inevitable, but also 
right, that there should be many differences of opinion on 
such a subject. 
Amongst the many problems, however, in our complex 
civilization which press with an ever-increasing urgency for 
solution, none, perhaps, is more pressing than the question of 
Education. Many burning questions may have grown cold, but 
this is one which will ever remain warm, until men shall have 
arrived at some general consent as to what constitutes its true 
basis of settlement. Many elements must go to form such a 
basis, but we have at present to deal only with one of these — 
