FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



285 



able suggestions on the teaching of mathe- 

 matics and the sciences. The conferences 

 consisted each of ten members, selected on 

 account of their scholarship and experience, 

 and discussed the questions submitted to 

 them with much thoroughness. The confer- 

 ence on mathematics recommends that the 

 course in arithmetic be at once abridged by 

 omitting the subjects which perplex and ex- 

 haust the pupil without contributing valuably 

 to his mental discipline, and enriched by a 

 greater number of exercises in simple calcu- 

 lation and in the solution of concrete prob- 

 lems ; that instruction in concrete geometry, 

 with numerous exercises, be given in connec- 

 tion with drawing ; and that in demonstrative 

 geometry, as well as in all mathematical teach- 

 ing, great stress be laid on accuracy of state- 

 ment and elegance of form, as well as on clear 

 and rigorous reasoning. In physics, chemis- 

 try, and astronomy the conference urges that 

 the study of simple natural phenomena be 

 introduced into elementary schools, and that 

 at least one period a day from the first year 

 of the primary school should be given to 

 such study ; emphasizes the necessity of a 

 large proportion of laboratory wcrk in the 

 study of physics and chemistry, and advocates 

 the keeping of laboi-atory note-books by the 

 pupils, and the use of such note-books as 

 part of the test for admission to college. 

 More work, it is held, is required of the 

 teacher to give good instruction in the sci- 

 ences than to give good instruction in mathe- 

 matics or the languages. The conference on 

 natural history advises that the study of bot- 

 any and zoology be introduced into the pri- 

 mary school course, and be pursued stead- 

 ily, with not less than two periods a week, 

 throughout the whole course below the high 

 school. In the early lessons no text-book 

 should be used, but the study should be con- 

 stantly associated with the study of literature, 

 language, and drawing. Physiology should 

 be postponed till the later years of the high 

 school, and in the high school some branch 

 of natural history proper should be pursued 

 every day throughout at least one year. The 

 value of laboratory work and of the cultiva- 

 tion of exact, elegant expression in descrip- 

 tion is again insisted upon. The most novel 

 suggestions are given in connection with the 

 teaching of geography, of which the confer- 

 ence takes a far more comprehensive view 



than the usual one, and which it evidently 

 regards as including the whole physical en- 

 vironment of man, and as requiring a knowl- 

 edge of many of the elementary facts of the 

 other subjects. Meteorology may be taught 

 as an observational study in the earliest years 

 of the grammar school. 



Hereditary Crime. An interesting in- 

 vestigation is reported by Prof. Pellmann, of 

 Bonn University (Germany). He has made 

 a special study of hereditary drunkenness, 

 which, in the case of a certain Frau Ada 

 Jurke, he followed through several genera- 

 tions. She was born in 1740, and was a 

 drunkard, tramp, and thief for the last forty 

 years of her life, which ended in 1800. Her 

 descendants numbered 834, of whom 709 

 have been traced in local records from youth 

 to death. Of the 709, 106 were born out of 

 wedlock. There were 142 beggars and 64 

 more who lived upon charity. Of the women, 

 181 led disi'eputable lives. There were in 

 this family 76 convicts, 7 of whom were sen- 

 tenced for murder. Prof. Pellmann says 

 that in seventy- five years this one family 

 rolled up a bill in the almshouses, trial courts, 

 prisons, and correctional institutions of $1,- 

 250,000. With such a record before it, the 

 state seems justified in adopting measures 

 for preventing the breeding of such char- 

 acters. 



The Newspaper and Periodical Indastry. 



A recent article in the Hartford Times 

 gives some interesting semi-statistical figures 

 regarding the newspaper industry in the 

 United States. It estimates that there are 

 about 2,100 daily and over 1,100 weekly 

 newspapers and periodicals published in the 

 United States, besides the hundreds of month- 

 ly magazines, reviews, and trade journals. " It 

 is probably a low estimate to say that there 

 are 100,000 men and women occupied in 

 their production. Adding to these figures 

 the people employed in the various printing 

 establishments and publishing houses, we 

 should have a total of about 250,000, and 

 including those dependent on them, probably 

 more than a million of the population who 

 are thus supported. Nearly every newspaper 

 has one or more presses, costing thousands 

 of dollars each ; $50,000,000 would not 

 begin to pay for the printing presses now 



