Abstract
THE spread of scientific instruction among the labouring population is a subject of greater importance than a superficial consideration might allow to it. Our scientific work is at present done almost entirely by our middle class, and mainly by those who have had such an education as is afforded by our universities or technical schools, or by foreign colleges. Not only do we look in this direction almost exclusively for the scientific training of the next generation, but also for the greater part of the work actually done in the field. Were statistics obtainable, it would surprise outsiders to learn how large a proportion of the practical observations in Astronomy, Geology, or Natural History is accomplished by men, the greater number of whose working hours are spent in towns or in some totally uncongenial occupation, and who can only devote a few precious hours stolen from their rest, or their brief summer holiday, to those pursuits which they have done so much to encourage.
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Science and the Working Classes . Nature 3, 21–22 (1870). https://doi.org/10.1038/003021a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/003021a0