THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1890.

THE NEW CODES, ENGLISH AND SCOTCH.

THE

HE country is once more within a month of a new Education Code. Once more the Lord President and the Vice-President of the Council are being besieged by representatives of all interests and opinions, anxious to impress them with the exclusive importance of their particular views. Last year, it will be remembered, the Code-great advance as it was on its predecessors-fell a victim to the fears of one party and the lukewarmness of the other. The extreme School Board partisans gave but scant support to any scheme which did not practically embody the recommendations of the minority of the late Royal Commission, while the champions of voluntary schools shrank from any changes which, by raising the standard of efficiency, seemed likely to accentuate the difference between the Board school, which has the ratepayers' pocket to draw on, and the voluntary school, which depends on a fast-shrinking fund of private subscriptions. And so the Code was sacrificed, and the friends of education were condemned to wait another

.ear.

This is what is constantly happening, and what will continue to happen, so long as there are ten experts forthcoming on all matters relating to educational machinery for one who knows and cares about education itself. Whether elementary schools should be free; whether they should be under representative control; whether they should all receive rate-aid-these and the uke disputes are always sure to gain the ear of the public, while the problem of making the education provided worth disputing about is passed by almost unnoticed.

How few among our so-called "educationists" (a newly-introduced word with an ominous ring about it) ever sit down deliberately to face the central problem of elementary education-the only problem of fundamental importance: Given a child between the ages of 5 and 13, with the limitations imposed by its age, by its home surroundings, by the pressing necessity that it should begin to earn a living as soon as possible, and by the fact most neglected of all by theorists) that there are only a certain number of school hours in the day-what is the best kind of training through which it shall pass? How can those few precious years be best utilized?

Theories, indeed, there are, enough and to spare, till we could wish sometimes that all those in high places who talk of education were made to go through an apprenticeship as school managers, in order to gain some practical acquaintance with the limits imposed on the range of instruction by the nature of the child-material with which they have to deal. For no designer trained 10 make "designs-in-the-abstract"-who produces patrerns for carpets which cannot be woven, for wallpapers which cannot be printed, for copper that cannot e beaten, and for wood that cannot be carved-could be more out of touch with the material in which his designs have to be executed than the educational "reformer-in-the-abstract," who sketches fabulous plans for Universal National Systems of Education which have only one defect-that they are impossible to carry out. VOL. XLI.-No. 1061.

And now, having relieved our feelings, we may turn to the question of immediate importance—namely, the prospects of educational advance under the new Code which is so eagerly expected.

It is rumoured that the authorities at the Education Department are earnestly engaged in the attempt to make the Code a real advance on former efforts. They have many difficulties. If they can successfully run the gauntlet of the Treasury, they have to reckon with the factious criticism of political partisans. We hope, however, that we may assume that the draft Code as it issues from the Department will embody at least all the purely educational reforms which appeared in its unlucky predecessor. The clause requiring English as a class subject will go, the curriculum and regulations for evening schools will be made more elastic, an attempt will be made to spread the teaching of drawing, and further facilities will be afforded for science instruction at central schools and classes. It will be the task of outside critics to see that these proposals, already made in last year's Code, are not whittled down, and that they are supplemented by other changes on which al educational reformers are practically agreed. What these changes are may be gathered from the discussion on elementary education, especially in its relation to scientific and technical instruction, which followed Dr. Gladstone's paper at the Society of Arts last November. The programme has been since embodied in a more definite and concrete form in the suggestions which have just been submitted to the Education Department by the Committee of the National Association for the Promotion of Technical and Secondary Education. Among other suggestions they propose that drawing should be made compulsory in boys' schools, of course being allowed a due interval before the regulation comes into operation, during which schools may adapt their staff for the purpose. Elementary drawing should be introduced into infant schools for boys to correspond to needlework for girls, as proposed in last year's Code. The absurd minute of the Science and Art Department-forced on them, it is only fair to say, by the Treasury-confining grants on drawing in girls' schools to departments where cookery is taught, ought of course to be repealed; not so much in the interests of the girls, as of the boys in mixed schools, for whom under the existing regulations provision for drawing cannot well be made. Drawing is not only the basis of all technical instruction, but is a subject of very high educational value, and on both grounds its spread is much to be desired. A further change which is to be hoped for is the extension of the Kindergarten methods from the infant school into the lower standards, and their continuation by means of graduated object-lessons so as to lead up to more distinctive scientific and manual instruction for the more advanced scholars of the school. Manual instruction of some kind ought to be introduced throughout boys' schools to balance needlework instruction for girls.

By manual instruction we do not merely mean instruction in woodwork (called, rather unhappily, the "use of tools" in the recent Act), which is evidently only suitable for the higher standards, say the sixth and seventh. We doubt if it can be profitably given to children below the age of 11, and even in the case of these it can of course only take the form of the "hand and eye" training-not of specific

S

an apathetic House, has fallen flat, while the English Art, badly drawn as it is, is arousing a great and increasing amount of interest in the country, and within the first six months is already in full swing in several

districts.

But this is a digression. The recasting and improvement of the system of class subjects in Scotland is in. teresting not only in itself but as indicating a probable change of a similar kind in the English Code. Under] these circumstances we must not fail to note the paralle' change carried out in the schedule of "specific subjects.' Almost the whole of the schedule which relates to science subjects-chemistry, mechanics, electricity, light and heat, physiology, botany, and physical geography-is entirely cancelled, and for the detailed syllabuses of these ubjects is substituted a simple invitation to school Tanagers to submit graduated courses in subjects not mentioned in the schedule. At first sight this seems a oss-as though the Department were moving in the direcnon of paying less instead of more attention to science. The alteration, however, must be read in conjunction with the reforms in class schedules and the observations on ss and specific subjects in the last Report of the Scotch Education Department. Commenting on the fact that "the general development of class subjects tends to restrict the specific subjects," the Report proceeds: "this is a result not altogether to be regretted, as the influence of the class subjects is general, while that of the specific Subjects is restricted to a few selected scholars."

Again, in the instructions to inspectors just issued, Mr. Craik explains one of the objects of the Department to leto spread the beneficial results of any such higher teaching as may be given, to the whole school, instead of onfining it to a few selected scholars."

It is clear, therefore, that the changes in the fourth and Fifth schedules (which are probably the precursor of mar changes in the English Code) are dictated by a desire to extend class instruction in science, even if at the expense of specific subjects; in other words, to transfer ateral science from its former position, as a smattering of a few special branches of physics imparted to a few pupils, to its proper place as a course of general stimulating instruction in the elements of "nature knowledge," ven as an integral part of the school course to the hool as a whole. More specialized science teaching can still be provided if desired in the form of specific instruction framed to suit local wants by the various school managers, or it may be given, as is already the rase in many elementary schools, by means of science classes in connection with the Science and Art Department.

We cannot doubt that the Scotch Department is right its policy, but the probable extension of class teaching der the new and more elastic régime suggests a doubt whether the proper way of introducing manual instruction s by means of including it among the class subjects, so integ at least as the possible number of class subjects is estricted. Drawing-the only form of manual training previously recognized for boys--has already been put outde the range of class subjects. Needlework-the only ther manual subject in the Code--may be taught either 5 a class subject or as part of the ordinary curriculum of the -chool. Is there not a chance that in including manual

instruction among the class subjects an unnatural rivalry may be set up between this subject and elementary science, which may restrict the spread of both? All this, however, is a matter for the future. Meanwhile we have only to congratulate the Scotch on the improvement of the conditions under which in the future their schools will be carried on, and to express the hope that England will not lag behind.

One word in conclusion. It may be wondered why in this article, dealing with scientific and technical instruction in elementary schools, so little reference is made to the Technical Instruction Act of last session, either in respect of the powers which it confers on elementary school managers, or of those which, much to the regret of many politicians, it appears to withhold.

out.

The real fact is that we have our doubts as to the need of any general Technical Instruction Act for elementary schools, and have a suspicion that their exclusion from the late Act was in reality a blessing in disguise. Of course, if the opinion of Sir Horace Davey (and now we are glad to be able to add, of the Scotch Education Department) should be upset in the law courts, it may be necessary to rectify the anomaly by a short Act of a single clause recognizing the legality of manual instruction. But, with this possible exception, no new powers are required by School Boards, and no new rate need be imposed. Mr. Mundella, in complaining of the exclusion of elementary schools from the late Act, compared the scheme to an educational ladder with the lower rungs left Let him be reassured-no rung is wanting so far as legislation is concerned. As at present advised, we feel clear that the managers of a public elementary school, so long as they comply with the requirements of the Department, may teach what extra subjects they please. The rating power possessed by a School Board is limited only by the wishes of the ratepayers. What really retards the introduction of technical and manual instruction is the want of imperial grants (which may and ought to be given through changes in the Code), the want of time, the pressure of other subjects, the ignorance of the public, and the parsimony of the ratepayers. But none of these obstacles can be removed by legislation. What legislation could and probably would do, would be to restrict the present powers of School Boards by defining them; and, perhaps, even to confine the rate for technical instruction within the limit of a penny in the pound. But this can hardly be what Mr. Mundella wants.

A DICTIONARY OF APPLIED CHEMISTRY.

A Dictionary of Applied Chemistry. By T. E. Thorpe,
B.Sc. (Vict.), Ph.D., F.R.S., &c. Assisted by Eminent
Contributors. In Three Volumes. Vol. I. (London :
Longmans and Co., 1890.)
THE first volume of the "Dictionary of Applied

Chemistry," edited by Prof. Thorpe, is a welcome addition to our scientific books of reference, and forms an admirable companion to the "Dictionary of Theoretical Chemistry," the second volume of which was reviewed some weeks ago.

In the preface Prof. Thorpe points out that, as this

work has special reference to the applications of chemistry to the arts and manufactures, it deals but sparingly with the purely scientific aspects of the science, unless these have some direct and immediate bearing on the business of the technologist. How direct and how immediate such a bearing is at the present day, and how difficult, not to say impossible, it is to separate theory from practice, may be judged of by turning over the pages of this most useful volume.

Take, for example, the article on the azines, written by the most competent authority on that subject, Dr. Otto Witt, of Berlin. The untrained technologist will be completely at sea with the honeycomb of benzene rings with which he clearly explains the constitution of such wellknown compounds as the safranenes, the splendid yellow dyes so ably investigated by Dr. Witt himself, whereas the manufacturer who has the theory of the subject at command is complete master of the situation. Or, again, let us turn to the next article, on the azo-colouring matters, communicated by another equally trustworthy authority, Prof. Meldola, covering 28 thickly-printed pages, in which the same necessary connection is seen. And no other! example, perhaps, indicates more forcibly the enormous advance which applied chemistry has made in the last ten years, and its entire dependence upon abstract research. In proof of this, it needs only to be pointed out that the article concludes with a list of no less than 95 distinct patents on this one group of colouring matters, from March 12, 1878, to June 30, 1888, all of which are the result of original, chiefly German, research.

An examination of other important articles written by specially-qualified contributors indicates that each subject is brought up to the level of the present state of our knowledge. Let us look for a moment at the article on ammonia, contributed by Prof. Lunge, of Zurich. Here we find detailed reference to the newest forms of apparatus for the manufacture of ammonium salts, illustrated by excellent woodcuts of the Feldmann-still. Again, turning to the article on chlorine, we have to note the same completeness and technical grasp of the questions discussed. Thus, on p. 526, we find the method patented so long ago as 1866 by Mr. Brock, of Widnes, and now for the first time coming into general use, which has for its object the treatment of the exit gases from the bleaching-powder chambers by means of a dry limesprinkler, this not only removing a serious nuisance in the manufacture, but also recovering chlorine otherwise wasted.

Prof. Hummel, of Leeds, contributes an excellent article on bleaching; and here again we see that the newest processes are fully described, e.g. on p. 323 the Mather-Thompson bleaching process is fully noticed, and the electrical bleaching process of Hermite likewise referred to. As regards this latter, the conclusion arrived at is that now generally admitted by practical authorities, viz. that electrolytic bleaching cannot reasonably be

As we all know, it was Pasteur who first directed attenti to those other forms of Saccharomyces known as "will yeasts in fermenting yeasts and beer; but it is not commonly understood that it was Hansen who taught s how to introduce into the liquid a seed yeast really fre from "wild" forms. Since 1883 carefully selected typ of yeast from pure cultures, according to Hansen's researches, have been introduced into Denmark, Norway, and Bavaria, with the most satisfactory results, whilst e England nothing of the kind has yet been done, although at Burton several experiments have been made in the direction. Sufficient has already been done to show the several varieties of Saccharomyces cerevisia can te separated, which, however, do not differ morphologicall but may be distinguished from each other, inasmuch 24 they give entirely different results, both as to flavour brightness, attenuation of the beer, and to the mode separation of the yeast. The proportion of these different varieties in various breweries seems to remain constar, and to give the peculiar flavour and appearance which the various fermented liquors possess.

Another article is that by Prof. Noel Hartley r cements, a subject which though of great importance u not usually considered of great chemical interest, but of has been made so by the writer. He points out the fact, certainly not known to the majority of chemists, that se owe to Lavoisier the first explanation of the phenomen of the baking and hardening of plaster of Paris. At so early an age as 21, he published a short note in the Comptes rendus of February 17, 1765, in which te showed that water is removed from the gypsum in twe stages, that the first three-quarters of the combined water must be removed in order that the plaster shal afterwards set, but that if the whole of the combin water be removed, the gypsum becomes overburnt and loses its value as plaster.

It is probable that this volume will have even a large sale than that of the corresponding "Dictionary of Pare Chemistry," and, as with that important work, so with this, the public may well be congratulated on possess such a valuable book of reference so creditable to zl concerned in its production. H. E. ROSCOL

OATES'S ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon a Burma. Published under the authority of the Secretar of State for India in Council. Edited by W. I Blanford. Birds.

Vol. I. By Eugene W. Oate Pp. i-xx., I-556. (London: Taylor and Franc 1889.)

The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds. By Allan Hume, C.B. Second Edition. Edited by E. W. Oate. Vol. I. Pp. i-xii., 1-397. (London: R. H. Porte: 1889.)

per ton.

One of the most valuable articles in the book is written by Mr. John Heron on brewing, in which he not only describes the most modern forms of brewing plant and processes, but gives a clear statement of the important researches of Pasteur and Hansen on the alcoholic ferments.

HE two volumes on the birds of India, which Mr Oates has recently published, will supply a mech needed want. The period of twenty-six years which las elapsed since the publication of Jerdon's Birds of Inda has been prolific in ornithological work, to such 27 extent that a new adjustment of the scattered dea which had accumulated since that time had become s

absolute necessity. Mr. Oates has already won his spurs in the field of Indian ornithology; for his "Hand-book of the Birds of Burma," published in 1883, has always been looked upon as a standard work; and by coming to England, at great personal sacrifice, to write the bird volumes of the "Fauna of British India," he has deserved the gratitude of all zoologists. Those of us who are acquainted with the "Hand-book" before mentioned, will not be surprised to find that in the present volumes Mr. Cates has done his work in a thoroughly conscientious manner. Without commencing, as Jerdon did, with a neral outline of ornithology, for which space was not available, Mr. Oates has contrived to give a condensed introduction, which will give the student some small idea of classification of passerine birds, with which this volume deals. We could have wished that the author had followed a more natural arrangement of passerine families, as his scheme of arrangement results in some very incongruous affinities, but these will doubtless be further explained when the author gives a detailed arrangement of the orders and families of birds in his third volume. As the furlough which has been granted to Mr. Oates is quite insufficient for him to finish the work in anything like a reasonable period, we are glad to learn that a representation has been made to the Government of India, by some of our leading men of *cience, for a further extension of leave, to enable the whor to finish the work, which he has begun so creditably. It would be a thousand pities to see the completion of this book intrusted to less capable hands, of which there seems to be some fear expressed in Mr. Blanford's preface.

Since Mr. Seebohm, in the fifth volume of the "Cataigue of Birds in the British Museum," laid stress on the importance of the plumage of the young as distinguishing characters between the Thrushes and the Warblers, this character has been thoughtfully considered by many omnithologists; but Mr. Oates has been the first to apply it in any large measure to the bulk of the passerine birds, and it enables him to divide them into five sections, characterized by the plumage in the nestling. This arrangement brings about some rather startling results, for the Titmice (Parida) become merged in the family Coride, and the Dongos (Dicrurida) range in close proximity to the Nuthaches (Sittida) and the Creepers Certhiide). This character of the plumage of the nestlings, like all single characters, carries the author too far, and it is becoming more and more plain every day that the natural classification of birds in the future will be founded on a combination of characters, not on any single one alone. Mr. Oates himself, in his arrangement of the Crateropodide, shows how this can be done.

It is impossible to praise too highly the method in which the present book has been worked out, though it is to be regretted that four volumes were not allowed for the birds, instead of three, for the constriction of the work has compelled the author to treat of 563 species in 544 pages, which is an allowance of less than a page to each species, including the space necessary for family characters and "keys" to genera and species. We notice hat the author has been driven to create a good many new genera, but we are not disposed to quarrel with him on this account, though we notice that, like ourselves,

in writing the "Catalogue of Birds," he has found it hard to be consistent, and he certainly varies somewhat in his estimate of characters in different families. Thus he divides the Bulbuls into a number of slenderly defined genera, yet he places the Rook and the Jackdaw in the same genus, Corvus, as the Raven. What was sauce for a Bulbul ought to have been sauce for a Rook! It is very interesting to notice the immense strides which our knowledge of Indian ornithology has made in the last twenty years. This is mostly due to the energy of Mr. Allan Hume, whose marvellous collection of Oriental birds was given by him to the British Museum in 1885. Since that date the registration and arrangement of the Hume Collection, has occupied the bulk of our own time and that of our colleagues in the Bird Room, so that the whole of the Indian Passeres have been placed conveniently at Mr. Oates's disposal for the present work. It may, indeed, be said that Mr. Hume sowed, the officers of the British Museum watered, and Mr. Oates came over from India in time to gather the increase. It must be a great pleasure to Mr. Hume, and to Major Wardlaw Ramsay, who gave the Tweeddale Collection and Library to the Museum two years ago, to see that already their magnificent donations have been turned to such good account.

The number of new species described by Mr. Oates is, as might be expected, small; but ornithology has now reached a stage when the description of new species will be surpassed in interest by the study of greater facts, of which the geographical distribution of birds is likely to prove the most absorbing. For this purpose the splendid Collection of skins amassed by Mr. Hume will be invaluable, for in most instances the specimens in the Hume collection trace out definitely the range of each species, and Mr. Oates has shown great talent in condensing into his limited space the large amount of material which was at his command. It is, in fact, impossible to speak too highly of the way in which he has performed his task.

The volume before us is profusely illustrated with woodcuts, which will undoubtedly be of great service to the student in enabling him to identify the species of birds which are to be met with in India. These woodcuts are, almost without exception, well executed, and are the best specimens of ornithological work which we have seen from the pencil of Mr. Peter Smit. We are not quite able to grasp the plan on which the names of Indian localities have been altered in the present book to bring them into a recognized system of correct orthography, but we suppose that there is some sound reason for the changes. If, however, our old friend "Mooleyit" is to become "Muleyit," and "Malewoon" to become "Malawun," why does not "Masuri" take the place of "Mussoorie"? Surely it is pedantic to alter the specific name of "nipalensis" to "nepalensis," because it suits modern notions to speak of" Nepal" instead of "Nipal." As this mode of orthography does not appear in any of Mr. Oates's previous writings, we suppose that the editor is responsible for the changes in the spelling of the names of places. We would gladly adopt a complete method of spelling the names of Indian localities, but that adopted in the present work seems neither one thing or the other.

It was a happy idea of Mr. Oates's to issue the new edition of Mr. Hume's "Nests and Eggs of Indian