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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



is a vulgar and sordid inducement to 

 study, and convicts the school that re- 

 sorts to itf of inefficiency in its legiti- 

 mate and most essential work. It is, 

 moreover, an injurious agency in edu- 

 cation, as it is constantly used to stim- 

 ulate students in false directions, and 

 to the excessive cultivation of unim- 

 portant subjects. Our education is in 

 a state of chaos in regard to the rela- 

 tive values of different kinds of knowl- 

 edge. The waste of time and effort 

 over comparatively worthless studies is 

 something quite appalliDg, and it is 

 everywhere aggravated by plying schol- 

 ars with premiums for special attain- 

 ments. Rich blockheads, with narrow 

 notions and tenacious crotchets, smit- 

 ten with the vanity of becoming public 

 benefactors, go into the schools and 

 found prizes and medals which set 

 the students to racing in any direction 

 which the whim or caprice of the donor 

 may indicate. This evil is confessed, 

 and has become so glaring that some 

 institutions have wisely put a stop to 

 such interference. But, as it is driven 

 from the schools, it is taken up by out- 

 siders, as we have seen in the intercol- 

 legiate contests that have lately come 

 into vogue. Against this whole system 

 the Philadelphia policy, as presented in 

 Mr. Beckwith's report, is a tacit but 

 powerful protest. To get things upon 

 their real merits is a victory anywhere 

 to do this upon a great, unprecedent- 

 ed national occasion is a triumph but 

 there is no reason for adopting the prin- 

 ciple in an exhibition of the products of 

 manufacture that will not apply with 

 increasing force to the management of 

 educational establishments. 



JUDGE DALY'S ADDRESS. 



It is not easy to deal with the an- 

 nual presidential addresses of Charles P. 

 Daly before the Geographical Society. 

 They are so fresh, readable, and full of 

 novel and instructive matter, that there 

 is a temptation to reprint them bodily. 

 We have formerly spoiled them by sum- 



marizing ; this year we publish in full 

 the introductory portion, in which he 

 glances at the achievements of geo- 

 graphical explorers during the third 

 quarter of the nineteenth century end- 

 ing in 1875, and shows what the state 

 of things was at the beginning of that 

 age, and what it is now. The main 

 portion of the address, however, is de- 

 voted to an account of the researches, 

 discoveries, and geographical work, of 

 the past year. We are tempted to 

 make some further use of Judge Daly's 

 labors, which may incite our readers to 

 procure the full address and read it 

 themselves. Beginning with what has 

 been done in our own country, Presi- 

 dent Daly suras up the results of the 

 various exploring expeditions and sur- 

 veys undertaken or aided by the Gov- 

 ernment, in the great Western, North- 

 western, and Southwestern tracts of 

 the continent. The results are varied 

 and interesting. In the prehistoric sec- 

 tion, on the ancient inhabitants of 

 America, the evidence has been much 

 extended in regard to the life of the 

 old race of mound-builders. In refer- 

 ence to the antiquity of man on this 

 continent, it is remarked : 



" Prof. J. D. Whitney, from the remains 

 found by him in California, is of the opinion 

 that man existed there as long ago as the 

 Tertiary period ; that he was then the maker 

 of instruments for grinding corn, as well as 

 other implements of stone, and, as far as tho 

 examination of the imperfect skull which 

 was found warrants a conclusion, that ho 

 was, at that remote period, the same ana- 

 tomically that he is now. These discoveries 

 of Prof. Whitney's go to show that man ex- 

 isted during the Glacial epoch, which is con- 

 firmed after seven years' examination of the 

 deposits in the Victoria Cave, in England, 

 and by recent discoveries in the inter-glacial 

 coal-beds of Switzerland. The Glacial epoch 

 is computed by Mr. Croll, in his recent work, 

 to have ended about 80,000 years ago ; and 

 Mr. Croll is not only one of the best au- 

 thorities, but the one whose estimate of the 

 time is the lowest." 



Tho work of arctic exploration con- 

 tinues to be vigorously pushed, and with 

 promising results. A point of interest 



