140 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the memory, but it did not exercise the ca- 

 pacity for observation and reasoning upon 

 observation, whicla was tlae special value of 

 scientific teaching. ... A daughter of the 

 late Robert Chambers, some years ago, took 

 much interest in introducing the teaching 

 of animal physiology into primary schools, 

 and she used to go into one of the schools 

 in the Cowgate, Edinburgh, twice a week, 

 and give lessons in it, and no doubt her 

 teaching was of the most attractive kind ; 

 at any rate, the children were so much in- 

 terested in it that some of the clerical man- 

 agers of the school were annoyed that the 

 children cared so much more for this sub- 

 ject than for their ordinary lessons. No 

 doubt there was a great deal of teaching 

 about the dimensions of the tabei'nacle, and 

 the number of fringes on the high-priest's 

 garments, and so on, which the children did 

 not appreciate so much as the animal physi- 

 ology, and the result was that Miss Cham- 

 bers was asked to discontinue ; but the chil- 

 dren held a meeting, and passed resolutions 

 that they would not come to school at all if 

 she were not allowed to go on ; and, as she 

 described, the clergy came and requested 

 her to continue her teaching. This was a 

 good illustration of the fact, which all who 

 attended to the subject knew, that science 

 well taught was apprehended by children in 

 a remarkable degree. A very young child 

 apprehended what was put before it intelli- 

 gently ; and, in an older child, reasoning 

 went on concurrently with observation." 

 Dr. Armstrong, who also joined in the 

 discussion, remarked that " schoolmasters 

 might say to men of science : ' You are no 

 doubt right in the main in urging us to 

 teach science, but you have not yet put be- 

 fore us a proper method of teaching sci- 

 ence ; it is not yet sufficiently developed ; 

 there are too few teachers.' And when a 

 schoolmaster asked what book you would 

 recommend him for teaching any particular 

 science, they were compelled to confess that 

 they could not honestly recommend any, for 

 most text-books were tainted, more or less, 

 with the vice which had been alluded to — 

 that they tended rather to teach bare facts 

 than to develop the intellectual faculties. 

 What was wanted was more co-operation on 

 the part of those who understood the sub- 

 ject, not a few people here and there intro- 

 ducing systems of their own. They also 



wanted instruction as to the meaning of 

 science ; the public generally did not know 

 what science meant ; and had no idea that 

 the intention was to teach boys and girls to 

 use their eyes and their minds." 



A Crab-Shell Barometer. — The south- 

 ernmost province of Chili comprises the Chi- 

 loe Islands, on which a remnant of the Arau- 

 canian Indians still exists, in a population 

 of whites, Indians, and mixed. There is so 

 much moist and wet weather on these islands 

 that the prognostications are mainly di- 

 rected to tell the fair weather. The natives 

 use a curious instrument for this purpose, 

 known as the " Barometro Araucano.^'' It 

 is the exuviated or cast-off shell of an Ano- 

 muran crab, probably of the genus Lithodcs. 

 This dead shell is peculiarly sensitive to at- 

 mospheric change. In dry weather it re- 

 mains nearly white, but with the approach 

 of moisture small red spots appear on the 

 shell, increasing in number and size with 

 the increase of humidity, until the rain 

 comes, when the shell becomes all red, and 

 retains this color throughout the wet season. 



The Swiss Society of Natural Sciences. — 



The Swiss Society of Natural Sciences held 

 its sixty-sixth annual reunion at Zurich in 

 August, and was attended by men from 

 many countries. The meeting was opened 

 by M. Cramer, Professor of Botany in the 

 University of Zurich, with an address, in 

 which, besides reviewing the progress of 

 the natural sciences, he laid particular stress 

 upon the study of the minute organisms 

 which have recently been brought into 

 prominence. Professor Meyer traced the 

 progress of chemistry under the influence 

 of the ideas of Mendelejefif and L. Mayer, 

 and showed how a classification had become 

 possible of all simple solids under five dis- 

 tinctly separated families. The likenesses 

 on which the classification is based are so 

 strong that the discovery of gallium was 

 foreseen ; its density and atomic weight 

 were determined three years before the ele- 

 ment was actually separated by the French 

 chemist M. Lecoq de Boisbaudran. Pro- 

 fessor Meyer concluded his address by show- 

 ing how science is indebted to men who 

 think, who found theories on experiments, 

 and then verify the truth of their hypothe- 

 scs by renewed investigations. Professor 



