Excerpt from Dictionary of Scientific Terms A select committee, consisting of nineteen members of the House of Commons, was some time ago appointed to inquire into the provision for giving instruction in theoretical and applied sciences; and in July of last year they published their Report. The witnesses examined by them included teachers of science, schoolmasters, engineers, architects, gun-makers, and several skil ful manufacturers. In this Report the committee, after suggesting the importance of a reorganization of secondary instruction, so as to provide for a larger amount of scientific knowledge, arrive at the following conclusion - That certain endowed schools should be selected in favourable situations for the purpose of being reconsti tuted as science schools, having in view the special requirements of the district. That superior colleges and schools for Special scientific instruction would require extraneous aid for their support, in addition to fees. The committee expressed an opinion that some slight addition to the emoluments of science teachers would probably tend most materially to promote the establishment and permanence of elementary science classes, and that the provisions of the Public Libraries and Museums Act should be altered so as to enable public bodies to levy a slightly-increased rate for scientific purposes, and that the education of higher science teachers should be encouraged by the granting of degrees in science at Oxford and Cambridge, as at other universities, and by the opening of a greater number of fellowships to distinction in natural science as well as in literature. When we consider (writes a learned contemporary) that many of our grammar schools are now quite out of date, it will be a great boon to empower some authority to reconstruct them according to more approved models, and more especially to convert some of them, at least, into schools of science. It is gratifying, therefore, to find that the committee of the House of Commons have come to pre cisely the same conclusions respecting these endowed schools. Having recommended that elementary instruction in physical geo graphy, and in the phenomena of nature, should be given in elemen tary schools, and that all whose necessities do not oblige them to leave school before the age of fourteen should receive instruction in the elements of science as part of their general education, the committee of the House of Commons resolved that the reorganization of secondary instruction, and the introduction of a larger amount of scientific teaching into secondary schools, are urgently required, and ought to receive the immediate consideration of Parliament and of the country. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.