The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-08-24 00:00:00

THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.

The following papers !amongst many others) have been
read before the Amoctation :
A paper by Miss Lydia Becker, "On the Attend-
annce and Education of Girls in the Elementary
Schools of Manchester." The paper was a very lengthy
one, and in it Mire Becker complained that a higher
education was given by the Manchester School Borinl
to the boys than to the girls—" four pennyworth a
week being given to the one sex and three pennyworth I
to the other." This she regarded as &wrong to woman,
and then, moreover, the girls were put to needlework
as a subject, anti this she deprecated. Another thing,
a "reasonable ex, use" was permitted to be nistle for a
girl if she was at home minding a baby, and this the
sperker mg iriled as a means of keeping the eex in a
state of inferior instruction.
Mr. Fitch, the Scheel inspector, explained, In roes.^.l to
the ditto ent 1111101110/1 of the girls and boys' Inc., that the
teachers In the girl,' at boots coat only £BO a year, white the
boys' C,,Ft £l2O. V at being the price in the labour mutt,
and the different amount of attention paid to the boys was
wholly the parents' aft Air, for a father lound that a little
learning madi a boy valuable, but a motto r did not liod
girls' services of gl eater value by reason of her being better
educate&

Mr. Bolin cmtinued the dbenssion, and opening on (hi
Wolyri Rights question, sari ttie reason wmy Ydualcn were
not educated " ht;dier" we, that young men•preferreit a
homely woman to a learned one, and for bis p‘rt, if lie
wanted awdber wife, he wi.uld pr, fee a woman aho could
sew on a button to having a learned laity like Miss Becker.
The Rev. Pr Binney pointed out that the ladies of Man-
chester could do more try practical work In betiding to send
girls to school by establi,hing rmieheo where the babies could
be taken care if without the mothers repiiring the girls to
mind them, and if the ladies of Manobeeter did this they
would be doing more good than by entering upon fine
theories: (Cheers.)
•

'The discu.sion was continued by Sir Francis Llcett, who
pointed out that the fees in London School Board schools
were SI. anti Id., and Miss Recker, in reply, held that
female teachers ought b, be placed on the same footing as
male teachers in regard to subjects of pay.

A paper WAR read by Mr. Hyde Clarke, on " roiy-
gamy as affecting Population."
_ . .

The object of the paper was to chow that by the invest'-
getter of new facia obtidued from the lives of the Turkish
Sultans and the K ings and Princes of Europe, polygamous
individuals do not produce a larger permanent progeny than
the monogamous, and that population is not increased by the
union of one man with a large number of women, but is
limited by the law of fecundity in man ; and that although
the total number of births the offspring of one man may be
large—and cases were cited of above one hundred—tie pro-
geny Muddying In his lifetime, or perpetuated afterwards in
case exceeds that of a man married to one woman at a
tire or successively. It Ives further suggested that an ele-
ment In the perpetuation of polygam,s issue is intermarriage
with the offiipring of the monogamous.
A discussion followed, in the course of which Sir" John
Booting card hi- persuasion was that many wives produced
ninny embarasaments, and that hail been the experience of
every missionary in every eastern country. lie spoke
especially of the Roman Catholic missionaries. As he once
told the King of Siam, we found one wife quite enough in
this country, and that he thought him nureasonable to have
;00 but his Majesty replied that he thought he was very
moderate, seeing that his father had 700. (A laugh.) fie was
once a guest of a Matiommedan priest, who said lie should
. like to add an Eoglish wife to his household, and he asked
hire if he thought he could get one for 0, but he toil
him that English women could not be bought or sold, and
that they were priceless.
• •• • •• •

Mr. Fellowes said it appeared to him that the conclusion
Mr. 11)de Claike had arrived at, that population did not
increase where pcl3 gamy prevailed, wan the correct conclu-
sion, and he moved a vote of thanks to lit. Clarke for his
piper.

Professor Wanklyn read a paper describing a new
process for the analysis of ethers. The acid in acetic
ether has, as is well known to chymists, been accurately
determined by alkalimetry. The new process consists
in determining the alcohol got by the decomposition of
...he ether by means of alkali. This determination was,
fleC wcling to Professor Wanklyn, capable of bring
effected with the ntmoit acatracy. A suggestion to
convert the glycerine in the ethers of glycerine into
iodide of isopropyl, and to weigh or measure the iodide,
was also made.