ENGLAND'S NEGLECT OF SCIENCE BY PROFESSOR JOHN PERRY, M.E., D.Sc., F.R.S. PRESIDENT OF THE INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS London T. FISHER UNWIN Paternoster Square 1900 A PREFACE S from the leading article in The Times of November 9th, and from the articles and letters now appearing in the daily and weekly papers in which my address as President of the Institution of Electrical Engineers is being criticised, it appears that I am regarded as now putting forward views that are quite new, I think it well to publish some statements which I have made in the past. It will be seen that these amplify certain parts of the address which have not been perfectly well understood. It will be seen that there has been no essential change in my notions as to what kind of reform is needed in what is called our System of Education. I have recently come to know that these notions are in perfect agreement with what Mr. Herbert Spencer and many other educationalists have published. They are certainly the notions of my old colleagues, Professors Ayrton and Armstrong. I cannot lay my hands on certain statements which I published in Japan between the years 1875 and 1879, but these as well as many other of my utterances since are in perfect agreement with my notions now. I claim that these notions are natural to any man of experience who can think for himself and who is not materially interested in the maintenance of existing methods of education. ROYAL COLLEge of Science, London, S.W. November 17, 1900. JOHN PERRY. |