IV NOTES BY THE EDITOR 



friends, or relations. He discussed, also, the peculiarity of the word 

 used in the signification of magistrate, and pointed out that he 

 appeared to have been a man of consular dignity, who had com- 

 manded a ship or fleet which came to Britain, and that this and other 

 circumstances pointed to the earlier period of the history of Tyre. 



At the conlusion of the reading of the paper, another member, 

 Mr. Wright, arose, and in a few words showed that the monument 

 was sepulchral ; that the inscription was not in Phoenician, but in 

 rudely-formed Roman characters, and- that its antiquity was of a 

 period subsequent to what is usually termed the withdrawal of the 

 Romans from Britain. He then read the inscription, which showed 

 that the stone simply marked the burial place of some person named 

 Constantine, and recorded his own name and that of his father. 



Mr. William Fairbairn, the eminent engineer, who presided over 

 the Section of Mechanical Science, thus expressed himself, in an 

 opening address, on the importance of making instruction in the 

 theory of steam and its applications an essential part of all general 

 elementary education : 



" The general principles of the steam engine and the locomotive are, 

 however, easily acquired, and in this age of steam it should, in my 

 opinion, form a separate branch of education for the benefit of both 

 sexes, to whom it would be highly advantageous. It is a branch of 

 knowledge of deep importance to the present and rising generation ; 

 and as steam and its application to the varied purposes of civilized 

 life becomes every day more apparent, a knowledge of its powers 

 and properties is much wanted, and ought not to be neglected. I am 

 the more desirous that instruction of this kind should be imparted to 

 the rising generation in our public schools, as it would lead to practical 

 acquaintance with instruments and machines in daily use, and would 

 familiarize the more intelligent classes with objects on which at the 

 present day we almost exclusively depend for the comforts and enjoy- 

 ments of life. I do not mean that we should make scholars engi- 

 neers ; but they ought to be taught the general principles of the arts 

 in order to appreciate their value, and to apply them to the useful 

 purposes by which we are surrounded." 



In this connection we would also call' attention to certain educa- 

 tional views expressed by Sir John Packington, a well-known British 

 statesman, in an address recently made before the citizens of Bir- 

 mingham, on the opening of a new industrial school. The speaker 

 urged the importance of making the study of physiology a branch of 

 elementary education, as follows: " The study of physiology and the 



