Siberia. The cross between the yak and common ox has the advantage of thriving in a milder climate than that of the mountainous region of the yak. Dr. Hartmann also continues (No. 2) his summary of the available information as to "Lake Dwellings," here discussing their cultivation and preparation of grain and other vegetables. He reaffirms the usual conclusion that the cultivated plants of the lake dwellers of Central Europe indicate connection with the Mediterranean and even Africa. Perhaps the most remarkable point in the paper is the comparison of their large earthen jars for store corn, and their stone grain rubbers for mealing it, with similar jars and grain rubbers in modern Africa.-Prof. Meinicke's "Remarks on Wallace's Views as to the Population of the Indian Islands" are written in strong opposition to the English naturalist's theory as to the ethnological relations of Malays, Polynesians, and Papuans. With regard to Mr. Wallace's argument from contrast of the Malay character with the Papuan as proving difference of race, Prof. Meinicke argues that the Malay's courtesy and reserve may not be a race-character at all, but an effeet of conversion to Mohammedanism; while revenge and bloodthirstiness belong to some Papuans as much as to Malays. In opposition to Mr. Wallace's view of Malays and Papuans being two distinct races, and of the Moluccas being largely populated by their intermixture, Prof. Meinicke claims the natives of the Moluccas as intermediate varieties forming a link of connection between the extreme Malay and Papuan types. As to the relation between Malays and Polynesians, Prof. Meinicke maintains the old and generally received view of an ethnological connection between them. It is good evidence of the activity with which the science of man is now being pursued that Dr. W. Koner's useful biblio. graphy of Anthropology, Ethnology, and Prehistoric Archæology for 1869-70 extends to twenty pages of the journal.-Dr. Bastian's review of Darwin's "Descent of Man," expressing high admiration for its hypothetically-arranged evidence as a contribution to science, protests against the exaggeration of Darwinism, or rather, the return to Lamarckism prevalent among too impetuous followers of the development theory.

IN the July number of the Geological Magazine (No. 85) the editor, Mr. Woodward, publishes a most interesting summary of the evidence extant as to the existence of limbs in the Trilobites, with a discussion of the significance of a remarkable specimen of Asaphus, lately described by Mr. Billings in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society. From a personal examination of the specimen, Prof. Dana was led to declare that the objects described by Mr. Billings as legs were merely calcified portions of the ventral integument destined to support branchial appendages. Mr. Woodward shows, and we think satisfactorily, that Prof. Dana is in error here. This valuable paper is illustrated with a plate contrasting the lower surface of Mr. Billings's Trilobite with that of the Norway lobster.-Mr. Hull contributes some observations on the general relations of the drift deposits of Ireland to those of Great Britain, in which the author confirms and extends the views adopted by Prof. Harkness as to the correlation of the Irish drift deposits with those of Britain, and the accordance of the whole with the principles laid down by Mr. Searles V. Wood, jun. A tabular statement of the phenomena of the three stages of the drift period in Britain concludes this paper.-From Mr. G. A. Lebour we have a note on the submergence of Is in western Brittany, in which, after referring to a Breton tradition that a town named Is was submerged in the Bay of Douarneney some fifteen hundred years ago, he adduces certain evidence to show that a gradual depression is taking place along this coast. notices a submerged forest in the small Bay de la Forêt.-Mr. Mackintosh continues his paper on the drifts of the west and south borders of the Lake district; Mr. A. G. Cameron describes the recently-discovered caverns at Stainton in Furness; and Mr. J. E. Taylor discusses the relation of the Red to the Norwich Crags.

He

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES

LONDON

Geologists' Association, July 7.-Prof. Morris, vicepresident, in the chair. Mr. J. R. Pattison read a paper "On the Upper Limits of the Devonian System.' The author did not wish to reopen the controversy which had taken place between the late Prof. Jukes and the supporters of the classification of the older geologists, but simply to lay before the Association a few facts as a prelude to a more complete paper which he hoped to bring forward during the next session. Mr. Pattison referred at some length to the fauna of the continental Devonian rocks, and strongly opposed the view recently put forward, that the Petherwin series is Lower Devonian and not Upper as generally supposed. He quite agreed with the older geologists in their classification, and concluded by recommending the sections exposed in North Devon to the attention of young geologists. After some remarks by Prof. Tennant, Mr. Henry Woodward, and Mr. Lobley, Prof. Morris described the distribution of the Devonian rocks throughout Europe, and remarked on the absence of vertebrate remains in the Devonian rocks of the South of England, in which corals and brachiopods abound, and the abundance of vertebrate remains in the Devonians or Old Red sandstones of Scotland, in which neither corals nor brachiopods have been detected. In the province of Oranburg, in Russia, however, the Devonian rocks contain both a vertebrate and a molluscan fauna.-A note On a New Section of the Upper Bed of the London Clay," by Mr. Caleb Evans, drew the attention of the Association to an interesting exposure of a very fossiliferous bed of the London clay at Child's Hill, Hampstead. From an inconsiderable excavation at this place, Mr. Evans had collected in a short time twenty-three species, chiefly gasteropoda, in a fine state of preservation. This bed Mr. Evans considers to be the uppermost bed of the London clay, and immediately underlying the Bagshot sands, which form the summit of Hampstead Heath.

MAURITIUS

-

Meteorological Society, April 28. The Honorable Colville Barclay, vice-president, in the chair.-The follow ing letters and publications were laid upon the table :-1. A letter from Mr. James Duncan, Government Surveyor, forwarding a copy of observations taken at the Survey Camp, Vacoas, during the month of March last, at about 1,850 feet above the sea-level. 2. A letter from Mr. G. Jenner, Rodrigues, forwarding observations taken there in December, January, February, and March last. 3. From Mr. F. Timperley, Pample mousses, giving a description of a meteor seen by him on the 22nd March. 4. Queensland Observations for October, November, and December 1870, by Mr. Edmund MacDonnell. 5. Singapore Observa ions for January 1871, by Dr. H. L. Randell "On the Converging of the Wind in Cyclones." The Secretary read the following letter addressed to him on the above subject by Captain Douglas Wales, Harbour Master :"Some remarks of yours respecting the uncertainty of the real position of the centre of a cyclone set me th nking, and I send you a few ideas on the subject, which, as a sailor, I think worthy the serious attention of seamen, and the correctness of which they may put to the test of experience, whenever they have opportu nities of doing so. Allow me to premise that I have no intention of dogmatising. I believe our knowledge of the cause of these fearful tempests, of their origin, their progress in this or that direction, their rate of progression, their recurving, the reasons of those recurvings, and their ultimate dispersion, to be still in its infancy. No doubt, the knowledge already acquired has saved many a good ship from becoming entangled in these storms, especially ships approaching them on their equatorial sides; but at the same time it must be admitted that more than one intelligent seaman, who thought himself well up in the subject, has actually run into the very centre of a cyclone, when, by all known rules, he ought to have been certain of avoiding it. There must be some reason for such an error, and it is that reason that I have been seeking for, and which, I trust, I have to some extent discovered. I send you a diagram on a large scale, which will explain my views more clearly than any written description. I assume that within a diameter of 40, 50, 60, 70, o 80 miles, a true circular storm of terrific violence must be found in every so called hurricane, and that to a considerable distance outside and around this central and circular storm winds are to be found gradually decreasing in force from 11, near the outer edge of the

France, of which M. Leverrier is now the chairman. The discussion on the observations is a long work which is not yet finished in consequence of the late war. The observations could not be completed in 1870, but the Association Scientifique de France is resuming its labours, and will be ready to make observations by August 1871 on the former principles.-M. Leverrier sent the description of a bolide observed at 10h. 6m. in the afternoon, 1° 30' higher than o Andromeda, and exploding in Pegasus. He asks for some observations from the astronomical public. The same question is put as to a magnificent falling star seven times larger than Jupiter observed by M. Chapelas 11h. 12m. in the afternoon, on the 18th July, from 3 Pegasus to the horizon in the north-west. It must have been seen in England.-At the last sitting we omitted to mention the presentation of some grains of wheat, &c., burned by electricity in a storm, a few years ago and preserved as a great curiosity.-M. Bert, Professor of Physiology at the Museum, formerly a prefect of Lille during the latter part of the war, sent a most interesting paper on the influence that the diminution of pressure exerts on animal life. Living frogs were placed under the air-pump, and proved to be killed very soon if pressure is diminished quickly to seven or eight inches, but if diminished gradually, they can live in a more perfect vacuum if proper precautions are taken to renew the residual air offered to them for respiration. Certainly the same thing can be said of aëronauts, who cannot reach a high level without inconvenience, except by very gradual ascent.-M. Dumas presented a small pamphlet from M. Janssen, narrating his ascent on December 2 with Volta. Dr. Janssen was himself the aëronaut, and his ascent was the occasion of some interesting observations. He was appointed a commissioner for visiting the meteorological establishments in England, and reporting upon them, and is now on his way to London.-M. Beaugrand, an engineer in the Parisian hydraulic service, presented a report on Roman aqueducts. He has written a very long essay on the matter, which would have been burned by the Communists with his office at the Hotel de Ville, if he had not brought it home on purpose to write out of it a paper for the Academy.

VIENNA

Imperial Academy of Sciences, April 13.-Prof. von Reuss reported on the fossil remains of a crab found in the Leithakalk of the Rauchstallbrunn pit near Baden. The fossil most nearly approaches the living genera Acteon and Daira.-Prof. A. von Waltershofen reported on a new thermopile of great efficacy.-Prof. V. Graber communicated a memoir on the physiology and minute anatomy of insects, especially the Pediculina, in which he treated chiefly of the Malpighian vessels and trachea. The former in many cases consist merely of prolongations of the peritoneal membrane.--Prof. V. von Lang presented a memoir containing researches upon the influx of gases, undertaken for the purpose of testing the laws which have been established for the dependency of inflowing gases upon the pressure.-Prof. C. von Ettingshausen presented a first memoir upon the flora of Sagor in Carniolia, in which he described numerous species of fossil plants from the brown coal of that locality. This memoir included the Thallophytes, vascular Cryptogams, Gymnosperms, Monocotyledons, and Apetala. The Thallophytes include a Spharia nearly allied to the Greenland species, and a Laurencia, which is the only marine plant found in the deposit. Of the Coniferæ Glyptostrobus europaus and Sequoia Couttsia are the most abundant, and of the latter genus three other species

occur.

A Cunninghamia, very like C. sinensis, is remarkable as adding a new genus to the Tertiary flora. Grasses are rare, but Naiada are abundant and remarkable. A Pandanus and a species of palm occur. Among the Apetale the author noticed two species of Casuarina, one of which is new and allied to C. quadrivalvis. The other orders represented are Myricaceæ 3 species, Betulaceae 6, Cupulifera 15, Ulmacea 4, Celtideæ 2, Artocarpeæ 2, Salicineæ 2, Nyctagineæ 1, Monimiacea 1, Santalacea 4, Daphnoidea 2, Proteaceæ, 21, Moreæ 19, and Laurineæ 18.-Prof. Carl Koritska exhibited and explained a hypsometrical map of the Alban Mountains, with profiles and views. He regarded the district as particularly instructive, from the intimate collocation of the three forms of volcanic craters and their apparent transition one into the other which prevails there.-Dr. E. Klein communicated a contribution to the knowledge of the Malpighian corpuscles in the human kidney, by Dr. Victor Seng; and a contribution to the knowledge of the finer nerves of the buccal mucous membrane, by Dr. E. Elin.-Prof. Ludwig Boltzmann presented a memoir containing several pro

positions on the equilibrium of heat, and another on the man proposition of the mechanical theory of heat.-Prof. E. Wess furnished the elements and ephemeris of the comet discovered by Winnecke at Carlsruhe on the 7th April.

April 20.-Prof. C. von Ettingshasuen presented a me noir on the leaf-skeleton of the Loranthaceae. -Prof. Simony noticed som peculiarities of the glaciers of the Dachsteingebirge. The Gos glacier descends to an elevation of 6030 fest, the Hallstal. glacier to 6115 feet, and the Schladminger Fern.r to 6935 feet. The most instructive moraine phenomena are presented by the lower part of the Hallstatt glacier.-Prof. Seeger presented: memoir on the methods at present employed for detecting sma quantities of sugar in the urine, which he regards as unsatisfac tory.—A paper on the perforations in the vessels of plants, by Dr. Tangl, was communicated by Prof. Ad. Weiss.

April 27.-Prof. Lang communicated some remarks on the abnormal dispersion observed by Christiansen and Kundt in solu. tions of fuchsine, cyanine, &c. He showed that the appearance is due to the defective achromatism of the human eye.-M. F. Schwackhöfer reported on the occurrence and mode of forma tion of phosphorite balls in Russian Podolia. He stated that these balls were originally carbonate of lime formed by concretion, and converted into phosphate of lime formed by the lixiviation of the Silurian clay slate in which they occur, which contains phosphoric acid. The analysis of these balls led to the formula 3 (Ca3 P2 08) + Ca F12, agreeing with that of apatite in the proportion of fluorine.

PHILADELPHIA

American Philosophical Society, April 21.-Dr. Genth described the results of recent investigations by himself into Corundun pseudomorphs of Hersinite, an aluminate of oxide of iron, from specimens from Bengal. He reported finding specimens of Hersinite in N. Carolina Corunduns, and believes the emery of Massachusetts is to be referred to the same mineral. In Chester County, Penna., "Corundun pseudomorphs occur which are quite soft like tale or scaly talc, which prove to be Margarite. A third pseudomorph very much foliated has not yet been determined.-Prof. Cope presented a paper entitled, "A preliminary report on the Vertebra discovered in the Port Kennedy Cave."-Prof. Cresson stated that the young and tender shoots of the Symplocarpus fortidus (skunk cabbage) had forced themselves through a solid asphaltum composition pavement two inches in thickness in many places in "Belmont Glen," Park. The road was used for heavy hauling at the time. -Prof. J. P. Lesley described a discovery which he had made in East Tennessee of a sharp anticlinal axis crossing the coal measures of the Cumberland Mountains at right angles to the dominant system of disturbances, and showed its important bearing on the question of the conversion of the northern anticlinals of the Alleghanies, into the southern system of downthrows. Also its relationship to the latter and to the cross undulations worked out by Joseph Lesley in his instrumental survey of E. Kentucky thirteen years ago; and to the N.W.-S. E. system of faults described by Owen, Hall, and other geologists in the Valley of the Mississippi.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 3, 1871

THE ADVANCEMENT Of science IN

WHIL

SCHOOLS

WHILE the leaders of Science are in session, and every topic of scientific interest can be brought before them with unusual force and most favourable pub licity, we desire to urge the claims of one particular subject as lying at the foundation of all real scientific progress in this country. It is impossible that Science can take root amongst us, that it can inform the national mind or raise the national reputation, while it is excluded from the vast majority of our schools, and while the few schools which have ventured to introduce it are left to struggle unassisted against almost overwhelming difficulties. There are those who congratulate us on the advances made within the last two years, who point with pride to the Eton telescope and the Rugby laboratory, to the Botanical Garden of Clifton and the Scientific Society of Harrow. No doubt the evidence thus cited is most gratifying; no doubt the thanks of the community are due to the men whose individual wisdom and energy have made so admirable a beginning; but if their success is to produce in us only self-complacency, and to hide the enormous deficiencies which it ought to make more glaring and conspicuous, their efforts have been worse than vain.

Let us ask the following questions. Of our countless Secondary Schools how many teach or profess to teach Natural Science in any shape whatever? Are there twenty schools in England which teach it systematically on a scale at all extensive, with special master and necessary apparatus? Is there one which accords to it such a place in comparison with other subjects of school teaching as is due to its inherent educational value, its practical use in after life, and the extent to which it is attracting and unfolding the chief intellects of the day? Lastly, are the schools which teach it honestly working on a well-considered plan, agreed amongst themselves as to the economies of methods, subjects, tests; or are their systems contradictory and chaotic, are they ignorant of each others' experience, are their efforts tentative and independent, their results often nugatory, their progress necessarily slow?

There is but one answer to these questions. Science teaching in our schools is as yet potential merely. It rests with those whom we are addressing to make it actual. Observers most conversant with the difficulties which have hitherto kept Science out of schools or paralysed it when nominally admitted, feel most strongly that combined and intelligent action on its behalf, undertaken by men of commanding influence and reputation, is the one thing needful to ensure for it existence, vitality, and permanence. So long as the necessity of teaching it to boys was denied, the action of authority would have been premature. It was necessary that public opinion should be formed, and that experience and argument should work the slow process of conversion. But its claims are now, in theory, established. The most bigoted no longer venture to question its utility; the champions of the old exclusive and one-sided culture are silenced, if not convinced; the VOL. IV.

general public has pronounced warmly in its favour; the masters and managers of schools are prepared in almost all cases, freely or grudgingly, to admit it. And if this be so; if the principles of opposition are surrendered, and objection rests only upon details; if, further, the deterrent details thus interposing are notorious, and are of a kind which authority, or enlightenment, or guidance, placed in sufficient hands and wielded with sufficient energy, can obviate, surely we may call upon the men whom the suffrage of the scientific world has saluted as its leaders to originate such a plan and to carry out such measures as may supplement the victory of reason over prejudice by assisting willing votaries and kindling half-roused enthusiasm.

There are cases in which the support of external authority is needful for the introduction of Science into schools. Probably few of the readers of NATURE are aware how bitter an opposition is offered to Science teaching by the clergy in many parts of England. The schoolmaster, who, being himself a clergyman, ventures to insist on Science as a necessity in his school curriculum, finds himself the object of a conspiracy as adroit as it is unscrupulous. No matter how able and energetic he may be ; no matter how unmistakeably he may care for the moral and religious training of his boys; there is an accursed thing in the midst of him; the word goes forth to ostracise him ; the dextrous calumny is dropped in fitting places, his neighbours send their sons elsewhere, and his schemes are broken up. This, which has happened more than once, must happen many times, unless such hapless pioneers of Science can be made to feel that they are backed by men of character, by men whose names are known, to whom they can appeal, who will interfere on their behalf with weight to convince or to overawe their persecutors.

In quite another way again authority is needed. Public competitive examinations, for the universities or elsewhere, must always exercise a paramount influence upon the schools, and must stamp in great measure the value of the subjects taught. It may well be doubted whether in the examinations for India and for Woolwich scientific excellence is appraised sufficiently high. It is quite certain that the influence of the universities both on the higher and lower schools is what it ought not to be in this respect. The local examinations, excellent in many points, vicious in some few, are most vicious in their operation upon Science. The unwise limitation of the subjects taken up, with the certainty that classical and mathematical papers gain many more marks than chemistry or mechanics, prevent the boys in a widely taught school from taking Science in at all, and help to deter masters from a subject which will not count in the examination. And unless they are closely watched, the "matriculation" or "leaving" examinations now contemplated both by Oxford and by Cambridge will be more disastrous still. Between the universities clinging to old subjects as desperately as they distrust the new, and the schoolmasters defeating by nearly ten to one the proposal to give boys the choice between a "linguistic" and a "scientific" matriculation, an obstacle more serious than any which now exists will be built up in the path of Science teaching, if its natural supporters stand aloof from the progress of a mischief which it now lies within their power to avert.

P

But if School Science lacks authority to help it, it lacks guidance and enlightenment still more. For it may be taken as an established fact that the head masters are, as a body, absolutely helpless. No one can doubt this who will peruse their published utterances on the subject at the Sherborne Meeting in December last. Nor need they be ashamed of the imputation. They owe their position in almost every case to their high classical or mathematical reputation. They are so large minded as to appreciate and to wish to foster in their school studies of whose details they know nothing, and should be allowed to feel that in opening their doors to Science they may fall back with confidence upon supreme and accredited advisers.

Think of the difficult points which, without previous experience of any kind, they are called upon to settle. The main subjects of teaching, their relative value, and the order in which they should be taught, the age at which scientific study should commence, the extent to which it may be optional or must be compulsory, the merits and demerits of bifurcation, the text-books to be used, the time to be allowed, the methods of teaching, the frequency of examinations, the mode of obtaining teachers, the necessary apparatus, the arrangement of museums, laboratories, botanic gardens,-on all these points and on more blank and total ignorance holds the minds of many masters, while others are puzzling them out with cruel

waste of force, destitute of traditions, ignorant of each others' experience, lacking central guidance.

For such guidance where are they to look, if not to the British Association? It includes men fitted for such a task beyond any others in the country, men individually of commanding reputation, representing severally the great towns, the Universities, the commercial centres. Is it too much to hope that a board of such men as these might assume, at the request and by the appointment of their brethren, the task of counsellers and supporters to the schools in the difficult task which lies before them? They might deliberate on the points which we have noticed, and draw up rules for a scientific course which all schools would adopt. They might send missionaries

to schools newly entering upon their task, who should advise upon the many points no published rules could cover. They might suggest and accredit text-books, might bespeak and cheapen apparatus, might secure from Government facilities for obtaining specimens, for stocking gardens, for borrowing or renting instruments. Established more and more securely as the representatives and controllers of scientific education, they would see their power spread from the schools to the Universities, from the Universities throughout the country.

But we forbear. We have stated the difficulties which beset scientific education in our schools, we have hinted at means which may remove them. Our description is only too real, our project may be too chimerical. Be it