First issue of Nature
Nov 4, 1869
Notes
BY offering Dr. Temple the Bishopric of Exeter, Mr. Gladstone has removed from his post the most eminent schoolmaster in England. Dr. Temple had done much for the education, present and future, of all classes; and although this is not the place to comment on all he had done in this direction, we may note here what he has done for education in Science. He may fairly claim to be the first headmaster who has recognised its importance, and effectively introduced it into his school. And its introduction at Rugby is of special importance, because it is the acknowledged leader in educational progress, and because so many head-masters have been trained there. Now Harrow and Eton, and several other schools are doing something, though none yet with quite the same liberality as Rugby: but it will be instructive to look back ten years, and thus to estimate the advance. Rugby was then the only public school where science was taught at all. But even there it was under great disadvantages. No school was assigned to it; it was an extra, and heavily weighted by extra payment. There was no laboratory, scarcely any apparatus, and scarcely any funds for procuring it. About forty to fifty boys attended lectures on it, but there was no possibility of making those lectures consecutive, and of dealing with advanced pupils. Now there is a suite of rooms devoted to science. A large and excellent laboratory, where thirty boys are working at the same time at practical chemistry with the assistance of a laboratory superintendent, opens into a smaller private laboratory, which is for the use of the master and a few advanced students. This again opens into a chemical lecture room, in which from forty to fifty can conveniently sit. The seats are raised, and the lecture table fitted with all that is required. Adjoining is the physical science lecture room, in which sixty can sit, and of which a part is assigned to work tables. And out of this the master's private room is reached, in which apparatus is kept, and experiments and work prepared. There is a considerable geological museum, and an incipient botanical collection. A Natural History Society meets frequently, and publishes reports and papers contributed by the boys. Five masters take part in teaching natural science. It is introduced into the regular schoolwork (about 360 out of 500 appear to be in the Natural Science classes); being compulsory on all the middle school; an alternative in the upper school; and optional in the Sixth Form. And the result of the teaching has been satisfactory. It has not damaged classics. It has been the means of educating many boys, and has been a visible gain to the great majority; and it has steadily contributed to the lists of honours gained at the University. If Dr. Temple had done nothing else, his name would deserve honour at our hand for having brought about this change. Let us hope that his successor will be equally liberal to science, and maintain its efficiency.
THE public anxiety about the fate of our great explorer, Dr. Livingstone, has been anything but allayed by the recent telegrams from Bombay and Zanzibar, wanting, as they seem to do at present, the stamp of the approval of Sir R. Murchison. The Bombay mail is now hourly expected; and, by the opening meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, Sir Roderick will be in possession of all the data on which to form a complete estimate of the recent intelligence, and will then communicate the results. In the meantime, we wait and hope; Livingstone is not the man to do his work hastily or incompletely, or to return leaving anything unexplored.
THE President of the Royal Society, Sir Edward Sabine, being unable, through pressure of official duty, to accept the Khedive's invitation to be present at the opening of the Suez Canal, was allowed to nominate a gentleman to represent the Royal Society on the memorable occasion. The President's choice, which has been approved by the Council, fell on Mr. J. F. Bateman, C.E. This selection will perhaps gratify the civil engineers as well as the Royal Society, for Mr. Bateman, who is now on his way to Egypt, has made himself known on the Mediterranean, by his land-reclamations in Majorca and at the mouth of the Ebro.
DRS. CARPENTER and WYVILLE THOMSON have just concluded a remarkably successful dredging expedition in the surveying ship Porcupine, the scientific results of which will shortly be laid before the Royal Society. They succeeded in bringing up large quantities of ooze from a depth of more than 2,400 fathoms, and have established the wonderful facts, that at such enormous depths, in total darkness, and with a temperature below the freezing-point, there is not merely life but life in abundance; not merely the lowest organisms, but highly developed Mollusca, Echinoderms, and Starfishes. Many practical points of great importance for future investigation have been established during this cruise, more especially the proper mechanical arrangements by which dredging can be carried on in almost all weathers, thus enormously increasing the amount of work that can be performed in a given time; and, what is perhaps of equal value, the discovery by Captain Culver of a far more effectual method than the dredge for obtaining in large numbers many of the characteristic inhabitants of these profound ocean depths. Copious series of thermometric observations have also been taken, which point to results of great theoretical interest.
THE "Female Physicians" question, thanks to Professor Masson, has made a great stride during the past week. Ladies are to be admitted to study Medicine at Edinburgh University. Imagine the of the non-contents when Professor Masson, in a final outburst, described their argumentation as mysticism, dashed with drivel from Anacreon!
WE are glad to learn that, through the generosity of a friend of science who forbids the mention of his name, the publication of the Astronomical Journal is about to be resumed. Dr. Gould will edit it, as before.
THE Fellows of the Chemical Society reassemble this evening (Thursday), and begin the work of the session by discussing the President's elaborate paper on the Atomic Theory, which has been printed at length in the Journal of the Society. Any contribution to chemical philosophy from the pen of Professor Williamson must command the attention of those who have studied the history of chemistry, and the discussion he has invoked will doubtless be sustained by able supporters and opponents. Prof. Williamson holds that the atomic theory is the consistent general expression of all the best known and best arranged facts of chemistry, and professors is not large enough to do all the teaching in Natural Science that is required. We congratulate the University on the increased desire for instruction in these subjects; but is the number of men in the University competent to teach them so small that it has been found necessary to entrust Electricity and Botany to the same lecturer?
