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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



chemicals ; and the process, together with 

 the peculiar methods of fixing up tea for 

 foreign markets, not only renders the plant 

 less palatable and beneficial, but more ex- 

 pensive. The adulteration and coloring of 

 teas for the foreign market, he said, are 

 wholly in consequence of the demand which 

 has existed for such teas ; and the minister 

 expressed the opinion that if the Boards of 

 Trade in New York and China would make 

 known the fact that pure teas are not only 

 better but cheaper, it would benefit both 

 producer and consumer. There is, he said, 

 really only one kind of tea-plant, and from 

 this both the green and black teas are pro- 

 duced. The equivalents for the two terms 

 " green " and " black " do not signify to the 

 Chinese the color of the tea, as in America, 

 but have reference to the period of gathering, 

 " green " indicating to them, as in " green 

 corn," not a color, but a state of immatu- 

 rity. 



Prof. Winchell on College Edncation. — 



Prof. Alexander Winchell, in a recent ad- 

 dress, said that the ratio of college graduates 

 to our population is continually diminishing ; 

 this, he held, would not be the case if col- 

 lege education were, under the conditions of 

 modern life, as good a pi'eparation for a sue- 

 cessful career as it was in former times. 

 But while the requirements of our time are 

 totally different from those of earlier periods 

 in the history of man, our system of educa- 

 tion is still, to all intents and purposes, what 

 it was in mediaeval times. Among the defi- 

 ciencies of our collegiate education, the most 

 serious, according to Prof. Winchell, is ig- 

 norance of our national organization, laws, 

 and political history, and of the principles 

 and laws of political life ; then, insufiicient 

 knowledge of the governments and history 

 of modern European states and of their 

 statesmen. Last, but not least, comes com- 

 parative ignorance of the natural sciences 

 and of mechanical and free-hand drawing. 

 Our so-called liberal education embraces but 

 a pitiful amount of the systems of knowledge 

 which are moving the world. Nor are these 

 shortcomings confined only to our colleges 

 and universities. In our elementary schools, 

 at the age when every active power is ready 

 to spring forth and seize the living truth, we 

 try to satisfy with syntax, and a list of names 



from Siberia. " All children like to see pict- 

 ures, and to make pictures ; but, instead of 

 fostering this useful instinct, a picture on 

 the slate is as horrifying to Miss Nancy or 

 Mr. Petrifact as the name of science is to 

 our medisevalized theologian. When a boy 

 is aching to take a locomotive to pieces, 

 we set him to dissecting a verb. Let him 

 gratify his curiosity ; let him entertain 

 himself with chemical reagents ; give him 

 means to make a telephone or a steam- 

 engine ; allow him to drive nails and a jack- 

 plane; give him a microscope and a geo- 

 logical hammer. With these things he will 

 unite hand-work with head-work in a most 

 fruitful alliance ; and when he becomes a 

 man, he may be either a mechanically ex- 

 pert scholar or a scholarly mechanic. As a 

 scholar he will understand affairs and pos- 

 sess the common-sense which will turn every 

 situation to account. As a mechanic he 

 will understand his business, and make a 

 ' boss ' who may be trusted without misgiv- 

 ing." 



History of an int-Commnnity. — Like Sir 

 John Lubbock, the eminent French chemist 

 Berthelot devotes much of his leisure time 

 to studying the ways of ants. He has for 

 years closely observed an ant hill, which at 

 first presented the form of a little conical 

 hillock, peopled by thousands of inhabi- 

 tants. The history of this community, as 

 recorded by Berthelot, has a striking re- 

 semblance to human history — the same arts 

 of peace and of war, the same distinctions 

 of classes, the same fluctuations of fortune. 

 The ants excel as hunters, as marauders ; 

 they have among them skilled architects, 

 thrifty housewives. Division of labor is en- 

 forced. There are civilized ants and bar- 

 barians. The warriors despise the toil and 

 drudgery of civil life, and they delight in 

 making set raids, taking numbers of pris- 

 oners, and reducing them to servitude. 

 While their betters are taking their walks 

 abroad, or carrying on their wars, the 

 slaves care for the young, and attend to the 

 household affairs and economies. It is in- 

 teresting to observe them while engaged in 

 building. There are superintendents of 

 work, and there are simple workers. Some- 

 times the latter make mistakes ; for in- 

 stance, suppose they have to build an arch, 



