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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



" These sciences," continues the author, 

 " were chosen less as subjects of study than 

 as instruments of training in order to culti- 

 vate the powers of observation, and to en- 

 courage a habit of inductive reasoning. If 

 the teaching of science in its early stages is 

 thus regarded more as a means than as an 

 end, there is no child, who has begun to 

 learn anything at all, who may not be taught 

 some branch of it with advantage." The 

 attempt was at first made to teach the chil- 

 dren science without making them learn 

 anything by heart. The result was, that 

 they did not know what to do with the 

 facts they had collected, and lost them as 

 fast as they picked them up. "But, since 

 the botany boys have been set to learn the 

 chart by heart, and since the chemistry 

 boys have been using a text-book, the 

 progress made has been far more satis- 

 factory. A young child's reasoning powers 

 are so feeble that he needs to be constantly 

 guided in the use of them, and, before being 

 set to observe, he requires to be furnished 

 with a cadre in which to arrange his bat- 

 talions of facts." 



Fishing for Glass-Sponges. The mode 

 of fishing for the Euplectella, or "Yenus's 

 Flower- basket," on the coast of Zebu, one 

 of the Philippines, is described as follows 

 in the journal of a member of the Chal- 

 lenger Expedition : " The natives use an in- 

 geniously-contrived instrument in taking 

 the sponges. Two long strips of bamboo 

 meet at an angle of 45, and are fixed in 

 that position by an elaborate system of 

 stays of bamboo, which are attached to a 

 piece of wood running back from the angle, 

 between the two arms or wings of the ma- 

 chine. The piece of wood is weighted with 

 stones, and a line is attached to it, so that 

 the machine is pulled along on the bottom, 

 with the angle in advance, and the two 

 wings sloping backward. The outer edge 

 of each of the bamboo rods is armed with 

 between thirty and forty large fish-hooks, 

 with their barbs set forward. The regederas, 

 as the Spaniards call the euplectellas, are 

 found at a depth of about a hundred fath- 

 oms. The Indian lets down the machine 

 with a strong fine line of Manila hemp, and 

 pulls it slowly over the ground. Every now 

 and then he feels a slight tng, and at the 



end of an hour or so he pulls it in, with 

 usually from five to ten regederas on the 

 hooks. Euplectella has a very different ap- 

 pearance, under these circumstances, from 

 the cones of glassy network so well known 

 under that name. Its silver beard is clogged 

 with the dark-gray mud in which it lives 

 buried to about one-third of its height, and 

 the network of the remainder of the tube is 

 covered with a pall of yellowish sarcode. 



Congress of German Anthropologists. 



The Congress of Anthropologists held its 

 sessions for 1875 in Munich, in the early 

 part of August. The president, Prof. Vir- 

 chow, reviewed the history of the Ger- 

 man Anthropological Society since its ori- 

 gin, sixteen years ago. Prof. Zittel called 

 the attention of the delegates to the col- 

 lection of prehistoric relics on exhibition 

 in one of the halls of the Odeon. The col- 

 lection represented the ancient Kelto-Ger- 

 manic period of Bavarian history, and was 

 the result of the joint efforts of various his- 

 torical societies, aided by the Government 

 and by private collectors. " Of Tertiary 

 man," said Prof. Zittel, " no trace is found 

 in Bavaria, any more than in the rest 

 of Germany, nor have we any human me- 

 morials from the period of the preglacial 

 Diluvium. Even the Cavern and the Stone 

 age yield but few human remains. Bury- 

 ing-places furnish both dolichocephalous 

 and brachycephalous crania the latter be- 

 longing to Southern Bavaria, the former to 

 the Allemans and Franks. We must not 

 deny to the Bavarian of to-day a Germanic 

 origin on account of his brachycephaly, for 

 even the Frisians are brachycephalic also. 

 In manners and customs Bavaria is as Ger- 

 man as any other portion of Germany, and 

 it is not to be dropped out of the German 

 organism. Its post is that of guardian of 

 the southern marches." 



The Weddas of Ceylon. A paper by 

 Mr. B. F. Hartshorne, read at the British 

 Association, gives some interesting particu- 

 lars of the social condition and habits of 

 the Weddas of Ceylon. The Weddas de- 

 pend for their subsistence on bows and ar- 

 rows, and pass their lives in the vast forests 

 of the country without any habitation, and 

 without even the rudest attempt at culti- 



