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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



not also edit the advertisements. We must 

 draw the line somewhere, and we stop at 

 the one hundred and forty-fourth page. We 

 do not think it would be easy to edit the 

 advertisements. If the rule should be, not 

 to publish lies, it would abolish the depart- 

 ment, for they are by no means confined to 

 quack medicines. St. Jacob's may he about 

 his " oil," and Aunty Pinkham about her 

 " compound " ; but there is this mitigation 

 in such cases, that everybody knows it. 

 The worst difficulty begins with those ad- 

 vertisements in which truth and falsehood 

 are mixed, for 



"A lie that is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies." 



Our correspondent had better address him- 

 self to the managers of the advertising de- 

 partment, and convince them that they 

 should not work down to the low standard 

 of the religious and secular press. Mean- 

 time we agree not to sandwich advertise- 

 ments through the text of the " Monthly," 

 as is the custom with some journals. Ed- 

 itors. 



SCIENCE IX THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



Messrs. Editors. 



I have read with great interest the arti- 

 cles you have recently published, explain- 

 ing improved methods of teaching various 

 branches of science in public schools. 



At the opening of this school last Sep- 

 tember, we found ourselves with a class of 

 a dozen boys and girls from fourteen to 

 eighteen vears of as:e, who were ready to 

 begin the study of ''natural philosophy." 

 I suppose we might have provided those 

 boys and girls with copies of some one of 

 the many text-books which profess to carry 

 students over the entire subject in " four- 

 teen weeks," or some other incredibly short 

 time ; we might have set those students to 

 committing and reciting that text, but we 

 didn't. 



After some experimental work with im- 

 provised apparatus in illustration of the 

 properties of matter, the students provided 

 themselves with copies of Tyndall's " Les- 

 sons in Electricity." We chose that branch 

 of physics rather than any other, because 

 the school owned a set of Tyndall's appa- 

 ratus especially designed to accompany the 

 "Lessons." The class then began a sys- 

 tematic course of experiment, following, in 

 a general way, the order of their book, but 

 making also many other experiments. The 

 students took turns in conducting the work, 

 and all were enthusiastic. Nothing was 

 taken without proof, and, the better to as- 



sure myself of the thoroughness of the work, 

 I had them write up from memory weekly 

 reports of the experiments performed. Of 

 course, our work was slow, but I think it 

 was sure, a real scientific spirit manifesting 

 itself in every member of the class. We 

 have now reached a part of the work where 

 a more powerful electrical machine is nec- 

 essary, and of course we shall get it. I 

 think it is a mistake to begin with the ma- 

 chine. It is too complicated to be easily 

 understood at first, and the result is a lack 

 of clear ideas. The simple experiments rec- 

 ommended by Professor Tyndall are excel- 

 lent. They lead the student along so grad- 

 ually and so surely that when he reaches the 

 explanation of the electrical machine, or the 

 Leyden-jar, he finds very little difficulty. 



We have in the school other scientific 

 work than that described above ; but this 

 is the one subject where we have the best 

 chance to cultivate accuracy and an interest 

 in scientific methods. 



Yours, respectfully, 



Charles J. Bfell, 

 Principal of Boonville Academy. 

 Boowille, New York, February 18, 1SS2. 



INFLUENCE OF EAETH-WOEM3 ON 

 PLANTS. 

 Messrs. Editors. 



I notice much discussion concerning the 

 effects of earth-worms upon plants in pots, 

 in regard to their eating the roots of plants, 

 and also the injury their acid excretions 

 may do the plants. Having kept house- 

 plants for many years and in all sorts of 

 vessels, from unglazed earthen pots to 

 glazed delf, and in iron and in tin vessels 

 also, and having had good success without 

 drainage at all, even by having a hole in 

 the vessel, and also having had the earth- 

 worms under consideration, before Mr. 

 Darwin was heard from on the subject, I 

 feel that I may add an item of interest 

 about them. The complaints that I have 

 seen come from florists. Florists, like all 

 other specialists, have notions, and I believe 

 this about earth-worms hurting plants is 

 one. I have found women who, when their 

 house-plants did not thrive, laid it to earth- 

 worms. I do not agree with them nor with 

 the florists, as I do not believe, from nearly 

 twenty years' handling of house-plants, that 

 earth-worms injure pot-plants. I have used 

 all sorts of soil, from good garden to leaf- 

 mold, and have always used well-rotted 

 manure, in which earth-worms abound, to 

 mix with the soil, and, if I can, have had 

 good air, plenty of light, correct tempera- 

 ture, and have watered properly. I have 

 never failed to have a plant thrive, even if 

 the pot was full of worms, and was tin, delf, 

 iron, or unglazed pottery, and I have grown 



