156 



HARD WICKE 'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



but it rarely happens that a bold innovator brings 

 upon himself an embarrassment of over-reception. 

 This appears to be the dilemma of M. Pasteur in 

 reference to his antidote to hydrophobia. He has an- 

 nounced his belief or hopes of being able to prevent the 

 outbreak of this dreadful malady by inoculation with 

 modified virus ; is extending his researches on animals, 

 on dogs bitten by mad dogs, and finds himself already 

 besieged by human applicants desiring to be mildly 

 maddened in order to escape a possible attack of 

 malignant madness. As ninety-nine and some odd 

 tenths per cent, of the angry dogs who bite people, 

 and are therefore supposed to be mad, are no more 

 rabid than those they have bitten, the inoculation of 

 all the latter with virus of questionable potency would 

 constitute a very responsible series of experiments, 

 which M. Pasteur, in spite of his enthusiasm, refuses at 

 present to undertake in France. When he has done 

 with the dogs, and is prepared to commence operations 

 on human beings, he may do well to come to England, 

 where the laws for regulating surgical practice are so 

 stringent for the protection of frogs, but appear to 

 empower no interference on behalf of human beings, 

 provided the practitioner has the ordinary qualifi- 

 cations. 



The conferences and lectures have commenced at 

 the Health Exhibition with but small audiences on 

 the spot, though practically extending to much larger 

 audiences through the official reports and newspaper 

 abstracts. I had the honour and misfortune to " open 

 the ball," so far as the lectures are concerned, and 

 found that only a very small percentage of the visitors 

 knew of the existence of any such lectures. The 

 difficulty of competing with the illustrated soap- 

 makers, &c., in advertising them is very serious, but 

 we may hope that as the fact of lectures being pro- 

 vided becomes better known, the attendance will be 

 larger ; it cannot be more appreciative than was the 

 first and very select audience. 



A good deal of flippant criticism has been applied 

 to this "show" as regards its scientific pretensions- 

 To those who understand no more science than is 

 necessary for obtaining university degrees, all such 

 popular efforts, such promenade science, mingled 

 with military bands and bazaar business, must be 

 shockingly frivolous ; but the true philosopher, who 

 has plunged through the superficial crust of text- 

 book technicalities into the profound simplicities of 

 actual science, of which these technicalities are 

 merely the working tools ; who understands the 

 relations of science to the human mind and human 

 progress, sees in all such efforts to intermingle 

 science with practical daily work, and above all, 

 with joyous recreation, the fulfilment of the great 

 object which alone justifies the existence of science 

 schools, universities, learned societies, original re- 

 search, &c. I put recreation above all, because the 

 elevating moral and intellectual influences of science 

 operate most powerfully on those who make it a 



recreation, and least upon the specialist who uses, 

 it as a matter of business, like any other trade, or 

 in order to obtain social status by public displays. 

 It is even possible that these latter may be morally 

 degraded, by their scientific attainments; they cer- 

 tainly are so whenever they assume the pharisaical 

 airs of a scientific priesthood, by looking down with 

 pedantic self-complacency upon vulgar people who. 

 are not as they are. 



W. Mattieu Williams. 



AT THE GATE OF NORTH WALES. 



a midsummer holiday. 



By the Editor. 



I DO not know a single holiday place, among the 

 many I am privileged to remember, which 

 strikes one so much as Llangollen. As soon as we 

 step out of the train, we feel that the place will suit. 

 The famous river Dee rushes and brawls and seethes 



Fig. 85 — Cardiola iniemipta, a Common Upper Siluriaa 

 Fossil Bivalve. 



Fig. 86. — Sicnopora fibrosa, a Common Fossil Coral at 

 Glen Ceirog. 



in and out of the huge masses of slate-rock which 

 crop out irregularly in its bed, before it shoots 

 through the pointed arches of its fourteenth-century 

 bridge. The picturesque buildings of the older part 

 of the town near the river hide the higher and newer 

 houses. Beyond the town rise the slate hills, clad 

 with rich foliage almost to their summits, and in 

 front stands the bold, white, and precipitous escarp- 

 ment of the Eglwyseg rocks, forming the north- 



