FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



429 



sand objects. Valuable contributions 

 have been received from the expedition 

 of the curator of the anthropological 

 (physical) department to Arizona. The 

 herbarium of the late Mr. M. S. Bebb, 

 added to the botanical department, rep- 

 resents much of the flora of the Western 

 States, and " about all " that of Illinois. 

 Numerous other botanical collections 

 and additions to the geological and 

 zoological departments are mentioned. 

 Field work was prosecuted by Mr. G. A. 

 Dorsey among the Hopi Indians in Ari- 

 zona, C. F. Millspaugh in the collection 

 of North American forest trees, and O. C. 

 Farrington in the Tertiary geology of 

 South Dakota, Nebraska, and Wyo- 

 ming. Other excursions were made 

 among the zinc-lead deposits of south- 

 east Missouri, to the Olympian Moun- 

 tins of the Northwest, to " a point be- 

 yond which nothing unless provided 

 with wings could go," etc., all resulting 

 in collections of one kind or another. 

 The museum was visited by 3,963 more 

 persons than in the year before. 



A Year at Harvard Observatory. 

 — The director of Harvard College Ob- 

 servatory reports the addition to the re- 

 sources of the institution of twenty 

 thousand dollars bequeathed by Char- 

 lotte Maria Haven, and twenty-five thou- 

 sand dollars by Eliza Appleton Haven, 

 without further restriction in the appli- 

 cation of the income than that it shall 

 be for direct purposes connected with 

 astronomical science. In these bequests 

 the legators fulfilled the wishes of their 

 brother, Horace Appleton Haven, as ex- 

 pressed half a century ago. By the pe- 

 culiar organization of the force of the ob- 

 servatory, with a single director to over- 

 see all and a large force of assistants, 

 each having a special work and many 

 of them skillful only in that, an in- 

 creased amount of work can be done for 

 a given expenditure, and great advan- 

 tages for co-operation are secured, but 

 too much depends upon a single person 

 — the director. In the examination of 

 the spectra of stars photographed in the 

 Draper, Bruce, and Bache telescopes by 

 Mrs. Fleming, twelve new variable stars 

 were discovered by means of their bright 

 hydrogen lines, and the spectra of a con- 

 siderable number of other stars were 

 determined. Valuable results, obtained 

 by other examiners, are mentioned. An 



instrument has been constructed by 

 which prismatic spectra can be converted 

 into normal spectra or any other desired 

 change of scale can be effected. By pho- 

 tographs obtained of stars in the vicinity 

 of the north pole material is believed to 

 be furnished for an accurate determina- 

 tion of the constants of aberration, nu- 

 tation, and precession. Sixteen circulars 

 were issued during 1897-98. When fifty 

 of these circulars have been issued, a 

 title-page and index are to be published 

 for binding. 



Putting Life in the School.— The 

 discussion of the hygiene of instruction, 

 said Dr. G. W. Fitz, in addresses which 

 are published in the American Physical 

 Education Review, brings us at once face 

 to face with one of the gravest problems 

 of our educational system — the depress- 

 ing effect of school routine. In the 

 search for a remedy " the school pro- 

 gramme has been pronounced poor, and 

 efforts have been made to enrich it. The 

 work has been pronounced abstract and 

 object lessons have been introduced; un- 

 interesting and bright colors, varied 

 shapes, pictures innumerable, have been 

 rushed upon the child until he has been 

 bewildered by the multiplicity of detail, 

 and further exhausted by the demand 

 for more discriminating attention. The 

 fundamental difficidty has been that too 

 much has been required of the child in 

 the beginning, and the attempt at en- 

 richment and greater variety has but 

 increased the burden." Children begin 

 learning to read before they have ac- 

 quired experience and ideas to match the 

 text; and "experience has sho\vTi over 

 and over again that the child who begins 

 to read at eight or even ten years of age 

 is in no wise handicapped in his later in- 

 tellectual progress. He has the ines- 

 timable advantage of intense interest, 

 roused by his growing ability to unlock 

 the secrets of books and papers after the 

 fashion of his elders." Writing is taught 

 before the child has acquired the art of 

 fine co-ordination, and the effort de- 

 manded in the use of the pen " leads to 

 a degree of nervous exhaustion unap- 

 proached by any other school work." 

 In arithmetic the children " are unable 

 to grasp the numerical relations in- 

 volved, and the drill, which makes it a 

 pure exercise of memory, is necessary. 

 Much of the aversion to arithmetical 



