560 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



work of life. But this principle is far 

 from being yet recognized in current 

 education. The lower schools seize upon 

 the higher ethics of university study and 

 pervert them into a defense of their own 

 bad practices. They teach worthless 

 things, on the pretense that the kind of 

 knowledge is of but little account, as 

 education is only concerned with mental 

 training. The crudeness and ineflBcien- 

 cy of teaching are excused upon the 

 plea that mental discipline is the thing 

 aimed at in study. Our whole school 

 system is imbued with this vicious fal- 

 lacy, which is tiie great obstacle to ra- 

 tionalizing school methods. The knowl- 

 edge that is of most worth is either not 

 taught or is taught so loosely and care- 

 lessly that it is of but little practical 

 use; and the consequence is, that our 

 boys are turned out into the world so 

 ignorant and incompetent that they are 

 defenseless in the exposures. of every- 

 day experience. 



"What shall we say of a system of 

 education which throws its students 

 into society unable to protect them- 

 selves from the grossest impostures? 

 To what end is a community filled 

 with colleges, high-schools, and com- 

 mon schools, upon which millions of 

 dollars are spent, when its graduates 

 go out to become the ready prey of 

 charlatans and sharpers, who can en- 

 rich themselves by pushing the most 

 absurd and preposterous projects ? 



"We are led to these reflections by 

 the last curious report of lightning-rod 

 swindles. The proud State that gives 

 us our President and Chief Justice, and 

 makes a great ado about its education, 

 has also the honor of originating and 

 harboring " Chambers's National Light- 

 ning Protection Company" of Cincin- 

 nati. The Americans are a progressive 

 people, great on improvements, and the 

 "Westerners are specially wide-awake in 

 this respect. So the new lightning-rod 

 is a great step forward in inventive sci- 

 ence. It is laid flat upon the ridge of 

 the building, and turned up at the two 



ends, and has no connection with the 

 ground. Its rationale seems to be that 

 the lightning-discharge is caught upon 

 one of the points, and, there being 

 no rod to convey it to the earth, it is 

 obliged to "diffuse back into the air 

 where it belongs and whence it came." 

 Of course, such an arrangement is worth- 

 less for protection, and is, moreover, ab- 

 solutely dangerous, as every intelligent 

 schoolboy ought to know ; and yet such 

 is the grossness of public stupidity that 

 the company drove a thriving business 

 with their contrivance, mounting it upon 

 a great number of private dwellings, 

 and even upon school-buildings. Pro- 

 fessor Macomber, of the Agricultural 

 College at Ames, Iowa, seeing the ex- 

 tent to which people were humbugged 

 by this so-called " Protector," publicly 

 denounced it as a fraud, whereupon he 

 was prosecuted by the company, which 

 laid its damages at $50,000. As the 

 thing was getting serious, the Professor 

 concluded to make thorough work with 

 the exposure, and accordingly appealed 

 to a large number of scientific men of 

 the highest reputation, to give their 

 opinion of the "Chambers rod." He 

 has published the replies of Morton, 

 Anthony, Eood, Mayer, Clarke, Baird, 

 TSTewcomb, Todd, Le Conte, Silliman, 

 Kedzie, Davies, Edison, Trowbridge, 

 Kowland, Young, Hinrichs, Harvey, 

 Pickering, Loomis, and Tyndall, who all 

 agree that it is a worthless humbug, 

 of no use for protection, and an actual 

 danger to any house upon which it is 

 placed. Yet the company will proba- 

 bly suflfer but little interruption in its 

 business, as its main stock in trade is 

 public ignorance and credulity. The 

 lightning-rod fiend may be expected to 

 ply his profitable vocation until the 

 common schools do better work than 

 they have accomplished hitherto. 



Thk abridgment of Judge Daly's re- 

 cent address before the Geographical 

 Society, on the early history of carto- 



