"This proves how backward elementary scientific education is, that it requires somewhat more serious study than simple literary studies." This is the final observation. We are in 1844, a good 180 years ago, and things don't seem to have changed much these days....
Giovanni Plana was an Italian mathematician, astronomer, geodesist, and senator. Founder of the Turin astronomical observatory, he built the Universal Mechanical Calendar, a sort of proto-computer capable of storing over 46,000 data points!