254 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



was followed by repose yet more uuequalled. Tlie 

 firmament was astir at one time with— 

 " the nations' airy navies 

 Grappling in the central blue." 



This was terrific and lamentable, yet there re- 

 sulted— 



" the parliament of man, 

 The federation of the world." 



Something like this is going ou in the lesser world 

 of education. We see engaged in dire battles the 

 " powers that be," and also the powers that " have 

 been," and those that hope " yet to be ;" every edu- 

 cationist's hand almost is against his fellow, and 

 the skirmishing is so fierce and so confused that the 

 combatants seem to shift their sides ; still, one is 

 tempted to believe that out of this crisis will flow 

 an educational era, which, in some degree, may 

 tend to bring about the poet's ideal. 



Amongst the muLitude of subjects which will be 

 taught to children, when a national plan of educa- 

 tion is fairly set to work, we may suppose that 

 Natural History will be found to occupy the place 

 it deserves. That it uever has, as yet, been effec- 

 tively taught to the plastic mind of youth in Bri- 

 tain, either to lords or labourers in embryo, saving 

 in a few accidental instances, can hardly be denied. 

 The knowledge that has been drilled into children. 

 which professed to be natural history, has been 

 a knowledge of names rather than of things ; and as 

 repellent as catalogues of kings or geographical 

 lists, still the occasional pahulim of those unfortu- 

 nately placed in the hands of rigid adherents to 

 old methods and ideas. No ! let us have " natural 

 history" t&nghi naturallT/; let the pupil work from 

 the knowledge of things, of facts, to the book-lore 

 which names and classifies the objects observed, 

 and elucidates and connects the facts. Beginning 

 early, and working patiently, even amongst what 

 might seem the unhopeful element which a village 

 school ordinarily presents, a teacher being himself 

 or herself well informed as to the main outlines of 

 the different branches of natural history, would 

 achieve results which neither perseverance nor the 

 highest knowledge could bring about on the adult 

 mind. There, granting tliat a measure of informa- 

 tion on some other subjects has been imparted in 

 younger days, the faculty of obseiTation lies mostly 

 in a comatose state, past revival, and the habits 

 which have evolved themselves as the child became 

 the man are only adapted to the somewhat mono- 

 tonous round of rural life, as it presents itself to 

 the ordinary rustic, whose capacity may be so 

 easily gauged in most cases, and when we test it 

 (at least as far as natural history is concerned) we 

 find that it is as dijficult to awaken any liking for 

 it in Sam, who carries the squire's bag while he is 

 shooting partridges, as it is in the humbler Joe, who 

 has ploughed the fields over which the others 

 walk. 



Not every one who can teach the rudiments of 

 ordinary school instruction would be able to impart 

 successfully a knowledge of natural history, sup- 

 posing that he had obtained it in mature years. 

 Let this be granted. To a great extent, the 

 "teachers" must be taught, and this will require 

 time and facilities which are not at present to be 

 had. But would it not be gladdening to the i)hi- 

 lanthropist, i.e. the " man-lover," to see that those 

 who have most to do with Nature, and have, very 

 frequently, opportunities of observing much that 

 the philosopher, coming forth only occasionally 

 from his chamber and his books, is likely to miss — 

 that they, like their father in Paradise, are begin- 

 ning to name the living creatures around them, and 

 have memories more intent on storing curious facts 

 which have been witnessed than the paltry details 

 of village scandal and spite? Nay, then, perhaps 

 to a great extent, shall the rabid " weekly," reeking 

 with police reports, and sedulous to excite discon- 

 tent and ill-feeling, be found to have been sup- 

 planted by Science-Gossip on the table of the 

 labourer or the mechanic, who will then prefer the 

 sweet breath of Nature to the fumes of the pot- 

 house. J. R. S. Clipfoed. 



PROPOSED REMEDIES FOR THE POTATO 

 DISEASE. 



By W. T. Thiselton Dyer, B.A., B.Sc, E.L.S. 



TN the last number of Science-Gossip, Mr. 

 ■^ Worthington Smith has given a very clear ac- 

 count of the results which up to the present time 

 have been obtained by the investigations of scien- 

 tific men in England, Erauce, and Germany as to 

 the nature of the potato disease. It will be seen 

 that it leaves very little more still to be worked 

 out ; it only remains to consider how far the facts 

 as now understood indicate any probability of some 

 effectual remedy, or, at any rate, plan of preven- 

 tion, beuig devised. 



When the disease makes its appearance in a field 

 of potatoes, it seems probable that it originates, in 

 the first instance, at a comparatively small number 

 of centres, from resting spores contained in sets 

 which were infected when they were planted. The 

 Peroiiospora, under these circumstances, grows 

 in the tissues of the potato-plant from below up- 

 wards; and when it reaches the surface of the 

 foliage it finally develops, as explained ^ by 

 Mr. Worthington Smith, the motile zoospores by 

 which it is conveyed from one plant to another, till 

 the whole crop is finally more or less destroyed. It 

 is stated, on good authority, that in the neighbour- 

 hood of chemical works, potatoes escape with httle 

 or no disease. The reason is, no doubt, that the 

 chemical works pour into the air sulpliurous acid 



h«U^) 



