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SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION. 
Physics lies at the foundation of all science; and if nothing else were taught, it 
would be a great gain to have the youth of this country soundly instructed in the laws 
of the elementary forces—gravitation, heat, light, and so forth. The purely physical 
sciences furthermore have the great practical advantage that they can be pursued to a 
great extent without what have been felicitously termed “stinks'or messes,” while the 
state of knowledge regarding them is such, that these elements can be taught as 
thoroughly as those of grammar or those of mathematics. The practical difficulties in 
the way of teaching boys chemistry thoroughly and as a discipline, appear to me to be 
much greater. Still greater obstacles beset the teaching of most of the biological 
sciences thoroughly and as disciplines. For the latter purposes and for boys, zoology 
and animal physiology are out of the question; though I do not see why the rudiments 
of both, or at any rate of human physiology, should not be made a part of instruction. 
Human physiology could be made quite as intelligible as either history or geography, 
and might be much more readily brought practically home to a boy’s mind. But botany, 
with its readily accessible subjects, easy and not disagreeable anatomy, and clear and 
definite terminology, might be made the means of giving a thorough training in the 
elementary biological science. By the well-guided study of a score of common plants a 
boy would not indeed be made a botanist (nor is it necessary or desirable he should be 
one), but he would learn the use of his eyes and of his fingers, the employment of ter¬ 
minology, the meaning of classification, the general laws of vitality, and the scope and 
signification of the leading ideas of biology. He would be put on the same level with 
respect to biological science as a boy who had been well grounded in Latin grammar, 
Caesar, and Virgil, would occupy with respect to the classics. On the whole, I am 
strongly in favour of confining instruction in science for disciplinal purposes to ele¬ 
mentary physics (with incidental chemistry) and botany, with the addition of the outlines 
of human physiology. A boy well grounded in the rudiments of these sciences would 
find none of the methods and very few of the conceptions of the others absolutely strange. 
If it should be found practicable, in addition, to teach the outlines of geology as infor¬ 
mation, so much the better; but I am sure that the great aim should be to teach only 
so much science as can be taught thoroughly; and to ground in principles and methods 
rather than attempt to cover a large surface of details. I believe that the most perfect 
method of teaching science is that pursued by chemists and anatomists, who combine 
lectures with practical demonstrations, and thus unite all that is excellent in both the 
professorial and the tutorial systems. But it should be understood that scientific teach¬ 
ing will be a mere sham and delusion, and had better not be attempted at all, unless a 
fair share of time and attention be given to it, and unless the rewards attainable by 
proficiency are fully equal to those within the reach of the boys who devote themselves 
more especially to other lines of work. If no scholarships at the Universities are open 
to boys, and if no fellowships at the colleges are attainable by men, who show a special 
aptitude for science, the introduction of scientific teaching into public schools will be a 
mere farce .—Professor Huxley , in Evidence before Select Committee of the House of 
Lords. 
POISONING BY STRYCHNINE. 
On Thursday, September 21st, at Salisbury, the adjourned inquest on the body of 
Miss Emily Sophia Blake w^as resumed before Mr. R. M. Wilson at the Council-house. 
The deceased was daughter of Mr. T. J. Blake, surgeon, of Castle Street, Salisbury, 
and was 19 years of age. It appeared from evidence taken previously that on the night 
of Tuesday, the 5th inst., Mr. and Mrs. Blake were alarmed by hearing cries from the 
bedroom of the deceased. They proceeded to the spot, and found her in great agony and 
screaming loudly. Her body was rigid, and she exhibited all the symptoms of having 
been poisoned by strychnine. They sent for Dr. Roberts and Mr. W. M. Coates, who 
shortly afterwards arrived. She admitted to Dr. Roberts, when told she was dying, 
that she had taken three pills which had been given her by Mr. William John Storer, 
who had been her father’s assistant some time before. Dr. Roberts asked her if any of 
