Sir John Lubbock made an effective first speech yesterday week
on the value of a scientific training for the officers of the Army, a propos of the recent report of the Military Education Commis- sion appointed in 1868, which has discouraged the study of natural and physical science. The Commissioners have recommended an increase of the total number of marks, without any increase in the marks for English and physical science,—in other words, a relative diminution in the weight to be attached to English and physical science. With regard to the entrance examination for Woolwich and Sandhurst, whose officers are trained for the Scientific Corps and for the Staff, the entrance examination involved exceedingly little science, and the course of training even after entrance left out much of the first importance. At the Ecole Polytechnique, out of 673 lectures given in two years, 150 were devoted to scientific subjects, or nearly a quarter. Again, in Prussia, at the Artillery and Engineer School, out of 32 hours per week, 6 were devoted to physics and chemistry. The English training for the Army seemed to be leas thorough in scientific sub- jects than that of any great Continental State.
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