586 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of elementary education. Of the third type 

 some admirable examples were to be seen 

 in Paris. Some very interesting particulars 

 were given of the progress of the horologi- 

 cal school at Besan9on. The fourth type 

 or half-time school, which was English in 

 its origin, was rarely to be found in France. 

 Since the old apprenticeship had virtually 

 lapsed, there was nothing to save the young 

 artisan of the rising generation from de- 

 generating into a mere machine, unless a 

 new agency could be practically organized. 

 What was claimed for the apprenticeship 

 school was that its pupils do not possess 

 just a bare minimum of knowledge suffi- 

 cient to procure them means of subsistence 

 in one narrow department of one restricted 

 industry, but that they possess both manual 

 dexterity and a fair technical knowledge 

 which would enable them not only to earn 

 more and to turn out better work, but also 

 to be less at the mercy of the fluctuation 

 of trade for the means of subsistence. Be- 

 sides the new apprenticeship being better 

 for real instruction in technical principles, 

 it was also better for practical work in so 

 far as it shortened the needlessly long years 

 of the apprenticeship, and imparted at an 

 earlier age all the manual capacity that ap- 

 prenticeship in any form could impart. 

 There were not wanting on our horizon 

 signs of significance in the problem of the 

 relation of science to labor. We had real- 

 ly skilled workmen, and no foreign work- 

 men were their equals, but they were only 

 units in a crowd. Take which view they 

 would, technical education, and, above all, 

 the technical education of the artisan classes, 

 was a sine qua non of the future industrial 

 prosperity of Great Britain. What steps, 

 then, must be taken to give effect to the 

 new apprenticeship? Two things would 

 determine the success or failure of the 

 school : 1. The obtaining of the right kind 

 of teachers ; and, 2. The adoption of a sys- 

 tem of instruction based upon drawhig, 

 which was the language of the manufac- 

 tures, the handicrafts, the constructive in- 

 dustries of all kinds. It was evident that 

 the first step would be the foundation of a 

 system for training competent teachers. 

 Then there must be a central technical col- 

 lege, for through such an institution alone 

 could community of thought and method of 

 work be obtained. 



Two Remarkable Epidemics. — In the 



spring of 1878 an epidemic of typhoid fever 

 broke out at Zurich, Switzerland, which 

 possesses peculiar interest. A musical fes- 

 tival was held in that town in May, and out 

 of the seven hundred persons who attended 

 it five hundred were attacked by typhoid 

 fever, of whom one hundred died. A mi- 

 nute inquiry into the circumstances left but 

 little doubt that the epidemic was due to 

 the use of bad veal furnished by an inn- 

 keeper of the place. It may be claimed by 

 those who attribute to general causes the 

 power of originating specific diseases that 

 the typhoid fever was due to a septic poison 

 present in the veal, depending possibly on 

 a beginning fermentation, which was not 

 destroyed by the cooking to which it had 

 been submitted. On the other hand, as the 

 animal from which the meat was taken was 

 sick, it may be asked whether it might not 

 have been suffering from typhoid fever, al- 

 though this disease has never yet been rec- 

 ognized among animals. It is a remarkable 

 fact that in 1839 a similar but much less 

 fatal epidemic occurred in a neighboring 

 locality. After a reunion that took place 

 under similar circumstances, four hundred 

 and forty persons were taken sick with all 

 the symptoms of typhoid fever. It is proba- 

 ble that in this case also the meat of a sick 

 calf gave rise to the disease. 



South - African Cannibals.— At the late 

 meeting of the British Association, the French 

 explorer Brazza read a paper on " The Na- 

 tive Races of the Gaboon and Ogowai." A 

 preceding speaker, Major Serpa Pinto, had 

 spoken of races having European character- 

 istics inhabiting the region about the head- 

 waters of the Zambesi. M. de Brazza was of 

 opinion that these people had come from 

 the north of Africa, because, under the 

 name of Ubamba, he had found races very 

 much resembling them to the south of the 

 Congo. The negroes Pinto saw wei'e prob- 

 ably the advance-guard of an invasion which 

 had overrun the country to the east of the 

 Gaboon. Stanley spoke of a great emigra- 

 tion very much resembling what had taken 

 place among the Fan cannibals. There had 

 been much talk indulged in adverse to the 

 cannibal races of this part of Africa. Du 

 Chaillu, who had visited for one day only 

 one of the Fan villages, had given a descrip- 



