Notes

Abstract

AMONG other noteworthy remarks made by speakers at the jubilee dinner of the Royal School of Mines, on March 13, was one in which Sir George Kekewich, secretary of the Board of Education, acknowledged that science must occupy a place in any wise system of education. He said, “I should like to see the day when no education can be regarded as a liberal education which excludes a knowledge of science. In addition, I should like to see no one matriculating at any University in this kingdom who does not possess some knowledge of science. Indeed, I should like to see it recognised as part of the general education of every man who has any claims to possess a liberal education.“ The dinner was largely attended by past and present professors and students at the College. The chair was occupied by Sir George Gabriel Stokes, and toasts were proposed and acknowledged by the chairman, Sir Kenelm Digby, Prof. J. W. Judd, Sir William Roberts-Austen, Sir George Kekewich, Sir William Huggins, Prof. Le Neve Foster, Mr. Bennett Brough, Prof. W. A. Tilden, Prof. Milne, Mr. F. W. Rudler, Prof. Bauerman, Prof. J. Perry and Mr. Hugh McNeill, the secretary. The chairman described the gradual development of the School of Mines, and referred to the humble way in which it was established. “Even still,” he remarked, “it bears indications of the tentative mode of proceeding to which I have already alluded, for Sir Norman Lockyer's elaborate work in astronomical spectroscopy, so far as taking observations on the heavenly bodies is concerned, is carried on in buildings of the nature of sheds.” Sir William Roberts-Austen made mention of Stokes, Playfair, Hofmann, Huxley, Tyndall, Warington Smyth, and other brilliant men of science who had been connected with the College; and other speakers showed how professors and students have played important parts in various fields of scientific and industrial activity.