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HARD WICKE 'S S CIE NCR - G SSIF. 



and became a municipal institution in 1S43 directed 

 by a committee of watchmakers. The course of 

 instruction for the students corresponds in its relation 

 to their business to that which we supply to medical, 

 law and divinity students. Like our usual medical 

 curriculum it extends over four years. There are 

 now four more in the Canton of Neufchatel, and 

 two in the Canton Berne. The "Journal Suisse 

 d'Horologie " has been issued monthly since 1S70. 

 Public observatories in Geneva and Neufchatel — that 

 of Geneva built in 1773 and restored in 1829 — 

 regulate the time for the chief watch-making centres, 

 which are now in electrical communication with the 

 observatories. It must not be forgotten in reference 

 to these that the whole population of Switzerland 

 is under two and three-quarter millions — little more 

 than half of the population of London — and that the 

 watch-making district is but a corner where three of 

 the twenty-two cantons meet. 



When shall we have trade universities as public 

 institutions directed by committees of practical 

 artizans ? I suppose we shall wait until our com- 

 mercial advantages have passed, and the trades 

 demanding such education are ruined by the stupidity 

 of our " practical " men. Then, when it is too late, 

 these "practical" men will make a spasmodic effort 

 and fail. The Swiss began in 1824, We are just 

 beginning to talk about beginning. Since 1S24 the 

 Swiss watch-trade has steadily advanced and now 

 commands all the markets of the civilised world. 

 Since 1824 or thereabouts, the Coventry watch trade 

 has steadily declined, and is now i-uined. 



I\Iy old friend the late William Bragge has 

 struggled heroically to- compete with the American 

 machine-made watches, and told me when I went 

 over the works of the English Watch Company in 

 Birmingham, that his greatest difficulty was in fmding 

 workmen who had brains as well as fingers ; men 

 who understood the principles of their trade suffi- 

 ciently to be able to apply their mechanical skill 

 under new and improved conditions. 



The controversy to which I alluded in June (page 

 125) has received from Russia a contribution which 

 will doubtless be accepted and freely used by those 

 who are interested in the continuance of our existing 

 sources of water supply for the metropolis. They 

 cannot of coursp deny that the sewage from the large 

 population of the Thames valley above the intake of 

 the water companies enters the river, but they con- 

 tend that its evil things are oxidized away by the 

 agitation of tlic water in its downward course. This 

 has been much discussed, more discussed than in- 

 vestigated, by the contending parties. Dr. Pehl, of 

 St. Petersburg, has counted the number of bacteria in 

 cubic centimetres of different specimens of water, 

 and finds that the canals of St. Petersburg contain as 

 many as 110,000 to the centimetre in good weather, 

 while the Neva has only 300. The conduits supply- 

 ing the city which are fed by the Neva, contain 



70,000 against 300 m the river itself. There is but 

 little, chemical difference between these waters. He 

 attributes this difference to the motion of the water 

 in the river, and finds by experiment that when 

 water is agitated for an hour by means of a centri- 

 fugal machine, 90 per cent, of the bacteria disap- 

 peared. This is a result of no small practical im- 

 portance ; it indicates that agitation is more effec- 

 tive than filtering. If further investigation confirms 

 Dr. Pehl's results, the threatened doom of the exist- 

 ing water companies may be averted by the skilful 

 application of a little steam power to the work of 

 agitation. The contradictions brought out by the 

 Society of Arts debate and other controversies de- 

 monstrate pretty clearly the worthlessness of the 

 chemical analyses and the reports periodically put 

 forth. It is not the percentage of organic nitrogen, 

 nor the total quantity of organic matter, but the 

 quantity and character of living organisms in which 

 we are vitally interested. 



M. Minard, in a paper read a few months since 

 before the French Academy of Sciences, proposed to 

 diminish the violence of storms by attaching a large 

 number of lightning rods to tall telegraph posts, and 

 connecting them with the metals of railways. Others 

 have proposed to do the like by the discharge of 

 artillery, while at a recent meeting of the Academy 

 j\I. Xamber referred to the deplorable custom of 

 ringing church bells during thunderstorms, which 

 still prevails in certain parts of France. If there is 

 any truth in the theory which assumes that the aerial 

 agitation of sound waves promotes a gradual dis- 

 charge between oppositely electrical strata of air, or 

 between the air and the solid surface of the earth, 

 this bell-ringing may have a better foundation than 

 the superstition which promotes the practice. The 

 sum total of disturbance effected by an hour's con- 

 tinuous ringing of a large church bell would equal 

 that obtainable by the explosion of a very large 

 quantity of gunpowder. 



All who desire the intellectual advancement of the 

 nation must be pleased to see that the reaction 

 against our exaggerated system of examinations is 

 progressing. Its progress would Ije still more de- 

 cided if a satisfactory substitute for it were practically 

 set on foot. As regards science teaching in the 

 universities there is no difficulty in doing this. It is 

 already carried out in Germany, and the method is 

 so well and concisely described in the "Journal of 

 Science " of May last that I quote the passage as it 

 stands. "A young man enters a university, and 

 attends the class-room and laboratory of Professor 

 M. or N. If he shows zeal, industry and intelligence, 

 the professor, who keeps a watchful eye on every 

 student, gives him some idea to work out experiment- 

 ally, and assists him with advice and suggestions.. 

 When the investigation is completed it is sent for 

 publication to one of the scientific journals, and 

 the youth sees his name bracketed with that of a 



