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SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT.*

In London we enjoy, in spite of the alleged indifference of the Government, institutions which cover a large area of science, and are supported by the bounty of the State. The British Museum, confined in its scientific character to the illustrations of natural history, has long existed, a noble ornament to the metropolis. Foreign countries had, many years ago, perceived that it was necessary, for the popular apprehension of the connection of the sciences with the industrial arts, to have supplemental museums, connecting the abstract sciences with their applications to the usual industries of the country. It was in 1835 that the necessity for such museums in England was formally brought before Government by a man of rare intelligence and singular perseverance, the late Sir Henry De La Beche. This eminent geologist was then in charge of the geological survey, which, following in the footsteps of the trigonometrical survey, lays down upon maps the geological and mineral features of the various districts, and he proposed to form a museum showing the economic uses of mineral substances.

Museum of Practical Geology.

The collections having commenced in 1835, had assumed such form in 1837, that the Government gave some rooms in Craig's Court, Charing Cross, for their reception, where they accumulated so rapidly, that first one house and then two houses became full; and finally, growing in importance and extent much beyond the capacity of the Government houses in Craig's Court, the handsome structure in Jermyn-street, now known as the Museum of Practical Geology and Government School of Mines, was erected. The importance of giving a mining character to the institution was very obvious. The mineral produce of this country, independently of building stones and clays, exceeds the annual value of 28,000,000 It was becoming, in a country so dependent on its mineral wealth, to rear a palace for the illustration of the manufactures depending upon it. The geological survey of the United Kingdom, a Mining Record office, from which now annually comes the best statistical records of the various branches of mining industry which we possess, and the Government School of Mines, are now associated in the same building under Sir Roderick Murchison, who was appointed Director-General on the death of its illustrious founder.

Government School of Mines.

With regard to the Mining School, a few remarks are necessary. England has been the last nation to found a school for the purpose of instructing those engaged in the practical pursuit of mining and the sciences bearing upon it, notwithstanding that our mining produce is about four-ninths of the produce of the whole of Europe. Now that the school is established, under professors of acknowledged eminence, the mining districts do not as yet send up that number of pupils which was anticipated on its foundation. This is certainly not owing to want of zeal or ability on the part of the professors, nor is it due to want of professional success on the part of the pupils, for most of those who have gone through the courses are now in honorable positions. It is disheartening to the teachers that their labors are not extended over a greater area of usefulness. I believe that this will continue to be the case until a number of local mining schools are spread through the provinces. At present only two exist one in Bristol and another in Truro, while a third is in the act of being established at Wigan. When these extend, they are likely to become feeders to a central metropolitan school. A tree grows best from its roots upward. The mining districts desired the establishment of a central school, but they now perceive that local schools are also necessary, and would establish them, if the activity and intelligence of the few were able to overcome the vis inertia of the many. I believe that the full benefit of this central school to the country will not be realized until the conditions for the erection and support of local mining schools exist.

Introductory Address-On Scientific Institutions in connection with the Department of Sci ence and Art. By Lyon Playfair, Chief Inspector of Science Schools, &c. 1857.

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Museum of Economic Botany.

The institution in Jermyn-street represents the uses to which mineral substances are put, while the Museum of Economic Botany at Kew, under Sir W. Hooker, shows the economic uses of vegetable substances; but, until lately, no illustrative museum was devoted to the practical appliances of animal matter. This want is being supplied by the Royal Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851, who, starting with the coöperation of the Society of Arts, and then obtaining that of this Department, are gradually and satisfactorily developing collections in one of the galleries of this Museum.

Royal Dublin Society.

Dublin is rich in scientific institutions, chiefly supported by the State. The Royal Dublin Society was founded by royal charter in 1749, and is supported partly by the subscriptions of its members, and partly by considerable public grants, greater, however, in former years than at the present time, when they amount to 6,000l. Its connection with the Department dates from 1853. The objects of the Royal Dublin Society are carried out wholly under the responsible management of its Council, the duties of the Department in regard to them being confined to inspection and publicity, and to giving such suggestions for improvement as may occur to its officers. The Royal Dublin Society possesses a Museum of Natural History of high value; within the last few years it has been much improved in its scientific arrangements and facilities for instruction. There is also an Agricultural Museum, still imperfect in its character, but the Society is now engaged in reorganizing and placing it on a basis worthy of the successful agricultural shows of live stock and produce annually held in its premises. The library of the Society is large and catalogued, but while the admission is under rules which enable the middle classes to have ready access, its portals are not yet thrown widely open to the working classes in the evening. The Botanic Gardens at Glasnevin are well arranged, and visited freely by the working classes under liberal terms: last year 33,000 persons visited these gardens. In financial connection with the Society, but under the responsible management of the Council of the Zoological Society, are the Zoological Gardens, aided to the extent of 500l. per annum by the State. These gardens on certain days have penny admissions, and in summer are open also on Sunday, after hours of Divine service, and are visited by 125,000 persons annually.

Museum of Irish Industry,

The Museum of Irish Industry was founded by the Government in 1845, and was transferred from the Woods and Forests to this Department in 1853. Although corresponding in many points with the Museum of Practical Geology, it embraces a wider field of illustration, for it includes the three kingdoms of nature-animal, vegetable, and mineral. Its name is scarcely appropriate, for while it gives prominence to the resources of Irish industry, it includes also extensive illustrations in manufactures having neither birth-place nor adoption in Ireland. The annual votes for the museum and educational courses connected with it are 4,336

The educational character of this institution is peculiar. The professors lecture during the day in short courses, chiefly attended by the upper classes of society; these courses, which are given in the premises of the Royal Dublin Society, being in fact a continuation of the system adopted by that Society before the professors were made common to both institutions. But more extended courses are also held in the evening, and are then attended by shopkeepers and working men. Examinations on the subject of each course follow, and prizes are given to the most successful students, while a general competition on all the courses attests the general progress during the year. The prizes are valued and keenly competed for, and I am glad to say that some of the most successful competitors are of the gentler sex,

There is a peculiar system in Ireland of sending lecturers in science to the provincial towns, the expenses being paid partly by the locality, but mainly by a Parliamentary vote of 5001. These lectures are superintended by a committee of eminent men, who arrange that examinations should be held in each town after the delivery of the course. The success of these examinations, so far as

they go, has induced the Government to consider a more widely extended plan, calculated to make the permanent results greater than can be expected from the present arrangements.

Edinburgh Industrial Museum.

While England in 1837 and Ireland in 1845 got their industrial museums, Scotland only had a promise of one in 1854. During that year, Parliament, in consequence of the memorials to the Government from the chief learned bodies in Scotland, and from the representations made by deputations of the leading men of the manufacturing and agricultural districts, agreed that the time had arrived when Edinburgh should have a museum similar to the institutions in London and Dublin. In the votes for that year the House of Commons gave 7,000 for the purchase of a site upon which the museum was to be built, and Government appointed Professor George Wilson as its director, his duties being to make and organize collections, with the view of having them ready to display in the new building when completed. The site, one immediately contiguous to the Edinburgh University, was purchased, and for three years the director and his assistants have been engaged in amassing collections.

In Edinburgh, in connection with this Museum, are most valuable collections of natural history, now displayed in rooms of the University building. These came into connection with the Department in 1854, and a remarkable result attended the increased facilities for admission then given. Formerly the charge for admission had been one shilling; it was reduced to sixpence, and one day in the week was made free. The attendance, which formerly averaged about 800 visitors, suddenly sprung up to above 100,000 annually.

The collections, both of natural history and of technology, are made available for instruction through lectures of their respective curators.

Provincial Schools of Science.

The promotion of provincial Art Schools began in 1837, and in the first ten years, on a system of direct grants in aid of the schools, 23 schools were established, or at the rate of 23 schools per annum. When the Department of Practical Art was established in 1851, it proceeded to reorganize the system under which the Schools of Design had been aided. The grants had continually been increasing, while the local support had been decreasing. The plan adopted by the Department was to make the schools as much as possible self-supporting. The master received a sum varying in amount according to his qualifications, but not exceeding 50%. His chance of adequate remuneration therefore depended upon his success in teaching, the fees necessary to reward his exertions being derived from various classes of the community. Drawing is an accomplishment desired by the rich, and for which they are willing to pay. Accordingly, classes for the sons and daughters of wealthy manufacturers can be opened at high fees. But it is made a condition that when they are, classes must also be established for artisans at charges compatible with their means. The high fees of the rich render it possible to have classes at comparatively low fees for the less rich, without materially disturbing the action of a system aiming at being mainly self-supporting. Under this plan, 46 Schools of Art arose between 1852 and 1856, or about 9 annually.

It was desirable to see whether the same system could be applied to the establishment of Schools of Science, which, as regards the provinces, only began in 1853, and are therefore sixteen years in date behind the Schools of Art.

The conditions of the two kinds of schools were, however, clearly dissimilar. The manufacturing towns offered no rich pupils to learn science. The sons of wealthy manufacturers very properly went to the Universities, where they could learn science better than in a provincial school, and it did not enter into the scheme of education of their daughters. The two classes, therefore, which mainly supported Schools of Art were wanting for the support of Schools of Science. The working men formed, no doubt, the most desirable constituency which they could have, but one unable by fees to render such schools self-supporting. Suppose, for instance, a case of decided success in the new establishment of a School of Science, where a hundred working men at once entered as pupils: they could not be expected to pay more than 20s. for their instruction,

and as half of this sum, on the principle of Art Schools, goes to the committee of the school to meet local expenses, only 50l. would remain for the annual remuneration of the master. But while it was thus clear that Art and Science Schools could not be established upon an exactly similar basis, it would have imperiled the self-supporting system, growing so well in the case of Art Schools, if another division of the same department resorted to the old system of money grants, and adopted them without first seeing whether any less objectionable system could be devised; it was far better to win experience in the working of some provincial Schools of Science on grounds of action common to the whole Department, than to create rapidly a system of schools before practical expe rience was obtained as to how they would be supported.

Navigation Schools.

The officers of the mercantile marine are now obliged to pass examinations under examiners in connection with the Board of Trade, and it was desirable to establish at the outports, schools in which the officers might obtain instruction in the subjects of their examination. This at once offered a constituency which could pay fees corresponding to the high fees of the upper and middle classes in Schools of Art, thus enabling us to extend the advantages of the schools to the common seamen, who could not pay high fees, and to their sons who were about to enter upon a seafaring life. Schools of this kind have now been founded at the London Docks, Poplar, Shadwell, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sunderland, Hull, Yarmouth, Waterford, Aberdeen, Leith, and Glasgow, and could readily be established in the other outports, if we could train masters fast enough to meet the demand. I must not omit one other school, whose present locality I can not more precisely designate, than that it is somewhere in the ocean between England and India. It is one of the finest ships of that spirited merchant, Mr. Green of Poplar, who has fitted it out as a School of Navigation, carrying a number of midshipmen under one of our masters, who is bound also to instruct the common sailors in the principles of navigation. I trust it will not be long before this noble example is followed by others, for I can conceive nothing more calculated to raise the tone and position of our mercantile marine, than to unite a thorough instruction in the science of navigation with the actual practice of seamanship as learnt afloat.

The amount of real scientific knowledge required for Board of Trade certificates is remarkably small. A mere empirical power of computation is all that is requisite, and no scientific or intelligent understanding of the reasons of the processes is required. The seamen come for a few weeks to the schools and cram themselves in the use of logarithms and the Nautical Almanac at high pressure, blowing them off to the examiner under the same pressure, so that little remains after the operation, and then they go out again to sea. The Board of Trade had great difficulty in establishing examinations at all, and the time may not yet have arrived for their improvement, but, gradually at all events, they might be made a little more rational. There are a few honorable exceptions of mates and masters who come, voyage after voyage, to our schools, until they thoroughly acquire a mastery of the principles engaged in their pracfice. As a rule, however, the officer only takes that amount of crammed instruction requisite to pass his examination, expecting the master to shovel into his brain longitudes and latitudes, logarithms, trigonometry, celestial phenomena, and the like; a large amount of fuel, but without one true spark from the torch of knowledge to set it on fire and keep it alight.

To give only this cramming would not justify the existence of Navigation Schools, and therefore each school has attached to it, as a necessary condition, a school for the preparation of boys destined for a seafaring life. This labors, however, under similar difficulties which all juvenile schools experience, that just as the boys have got over their preparatory studies, and are ready for the higher branches, their parents send them to sea. The Trinity House at Hull has successfully met this difficulty, by selecting the best forty boys of twelve years of age, and giving them free schooling and a uniform, on condition that their parents bind them to stay for two years longer. This inducement has been entirely successful, and the school is in an admirable state of efficiency.

Causes of the Failure of Scientific Courses and Institutions.

In addition to the Schools of Navigation opened in the places already named, special Schools of Science, in connection with this Department, now exist in London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Poplar, Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds, Truro, Stokeupon-Trent, Wigan, and Aberdeen, some, in fact all, successful as to the disposition of the working classes to support them, but even those most numerously attended and increasing in numbers running the risk of abandonment at any time, because, with few exceptions, the expenses are greater than the receipts. In recent years, the most meritorious efforts have been made by the public, with the cooperation of the State, to establish primary schools; but it has been too much the practice to consider these as sufficient for the education of the people. The public have labored zealously to bring together the materials out of which an educational edifice may in future be constructed, and have well laid some of the stones which are to constitute its foundation. Milton describes a complete and liberal education to be that "which fits a man to perform justly, skillfully, and magnanimously, all the offices, private and public, both of peace and war." Whether the primary schools of any country, and particularly of this country, are calculated to answer the objects thus demanded of education, will be seen by a little consideration. The average period given to education by the children of the working classes, between the ages of six and fifteen, is only three years; after that age, labor seizes them with an iron grasp, and refuses the chance of further improvement. Now, only think of this in a practical point of view. Many of us here have sons and daughters, and would one of us dream of calling that education which they could get at any time in a period limited to three years between the ages of six and fifteen? Only about 53 per cent. of the whole school population of our public schools have remained more than four years, commencing from the time when they learn the elements in the lowest class. It is certain that the indifference of the working classes to avail themselves of the advantages offered to their children is, to some extent, to blame here, for it is found that (in round numbers) 970,000 children in England and Wales, between the ages of five and twelve, are not at school at all, their absence being unaccountable by illness, occupation, professional home instruction, or legitimate excuse of parents.

What causes this indifference? I believe the most important cause to be explained in the following passage from a recent speech by Lord Stanley: "The school teaching of the boy has no connection with the after life of the man. Without a well considered system of instruction for youths and men, the school system, by which children only are taught, remains imperfect and almost useless, an ample foundation, but left without a superstructure." No doubt the early demand for labor removes many boys from school, but it has this effect because the parents do not see that the labor would have more value if the boy remained longer. The same moral feelings and kindly affection exist in the minds of artisan parents as in our own, and they would not be slow to bestow benefits upon their children, if they had a real faith in the system which was to confer the benefit. But parents do not see how the character of continued instruction in the primary schools is to act upon the future life of the child. A natural mode of communicating scientific knowledge is by the lecture system, established in remote antiquity, and pursued in our existing universities. Mechanics' Institutions of course adopted the system sanctioned by so much experience. It was natural that a lecture system should arise in ancient times. Manuscripts were rare and expensive; people who could read them were not numerous, and persons readily congregated around the more gifted to hear their own wisdom or that of others. But printing and a cheap press has altered all this. It enables mankind to get at the sources whence most instructors derive their information. If the lecturer communicate only second-hand discoveries, he must be an able expositor indeed to render it really worth while to listen to him. Ejecting a certain quantity of known matter in the face of an audience is not education; that consists in drawing out the faculties of a man so as to enable him to apply them to the conditions of his existence. Unless the mind of the teacher actually grapples with the mind of the pupil, he can not find the dark holes in which the faculties lurk, so as to drag them to the light of day. The lecture system looks upon the audience as a mass; the school system looks upon each pupil as an individual. For instruction, I would rather leave a man

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