P OP ULAR MIS CELL AN Y 



429 



road. Men who have for years been con- 

 nected with railways admit that at most 

 they can distinguish the sounds of only very 

 few locomotive-bells as compared with the 

 great number Hicks can name almost with- 

 out thought. Not long ago an old switch- 

 engine, used in the yards at Buffalo, was sent 

 to Rochester for some special purpose. As 

 it passed near Hicks's house he heard the 

 bell, and remarked that the engine was num. 

 ber so-and-so, and that he had not heard its 

 bell for six years. A boarder in the house 

 ran to the railroad and found that the num- 

 ber given was the correct one. Not long 

 since the young man went to Syracuse, and, 

 while there, hearing an engine coming out 

 of the round-house, remarked to a friend 

 that he knew the bell, though he had not 

 heard it in five years. The number which 

 he gave proved to be the correct one. 



Lnbbock on Science in the Primary 

 Schools. — Sir John Lubbock, advocating in 

 the British House of Commons the cause of 

 Science-teaching in schools, urged that ele- 

 mentary science should be placed on an 

 equality in the education-code with gram- 

 mar, geography, and histoi-y. The practi- 

 cal difficulties in the way could be easily 

 overcome, and his proposal, so far from up- 

 setting the equilibrium of the code, would 

 really establish it, seeing that, at present, 

 the code was entirely one-sided, all knowl- 

 edge of natural phenomena being excluded. 

 It was often said, he urged, that it was 

 ridiculous to teach " ologies " before the 

 children could read and write thoroughly. 

 But, in the first place, it was a misnomer 

 to call the lessons he proposed " ologies " ; 

 secondly, it should be remembered that, 

 when children were leai'ning to read, they 

 had to read something, and the question 

 was what that something was to be. He 

 wished for nothing difficult or abstruse, 

 nothing beyond the range of the children's 

 minds and daily experience. " In mechan- 

 ics, the simple forces might be explained to 

 them — why carts were put on wheels, how 

 levers and pulleys acted, the use of the 

 screw and wedge ; then the nature and 

 relative distances of the principal heavenly 

 bodies, the primary facts relating to air and 

 water in agricultural districts, the charac- 

 ter of the soil, the reason for the rotation 



of crops, the origin and principal qualities 

 of such substances as chalk, coal, iron, cop- 

 per, etc. ; the succession of the seasons, the 

 flow of rivers, the growth of plants; the 

 fundamental rules of health, the necessity 

 for ventilation and cleanliness, and, last, 

 not least, the need for industry, frugality, 

 and economy. Explanations of these sim- 

 ple and every-day things would be most in- 

 teresting and useful to the children. So 

 far from cramming and confusing them, you 

 would introduce light and order into their 

 minds, and give them an interest in their 

 lessons, which, under the present system, 

 they rarely felt." 



j Ancient I'ses of Corli. — A writer in the 

 i " Pharmaceutical Journal " has collected 

 ' a large amount of interesting information 

 on the subject of the cork-tree and its 

 bark, and the uses of the latter in both 

 ancient and modem times. The tree, and 

 the application of its bark to useful purposes, 

 was well known to the Egyptians, Greeks, 

 and Romans. The former used to construct 

 their coffins of this material. Theophrastus, 

 the Greek philosopher, who wrote on bot- 

 any, etc., four centuries b. c, mentions this 

 ; tree among the oaks, under the name of 

 i phellus, and says that it has a thick, fleshy 

 bark, which must be stripped off every 

 three years to prevent it from perishing. 

 He adds that it was so light as never to 

 sink in water, and on that account might 

 be used for many purposes. Pliny de- 

 scribes the tree under the name of subcr, 

 and relates everything said by Theophras- 

 tus of phellus. From his account we learn 

 that the Roman fishermen used it as floats 

 to their nets and fishing-tackle, and as 

 buoys to their anchors. The use of these 

 1 buoys in saving life appears to have been 

 well known to the ancients, for Lucian 

 ("Epist. 1," 17) mentions that two men, 

 one of whom had fallen into the sea, and 

 another who jumped after to afford him 

 assistance, were saved by means of an 

 anchor-buoy. The use of this substance 

 in assisting swimmers was not imknown to 

 the Romans. By Plutarchus, in his " Vita 

 Camilli," we are told that, when the impe- 

 rial city was besieged by the Gauls, Camil- 

 lus sent a Roman to the Capitol, who, to 

 avoid the enemy, swam the Tiber with 



