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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the special case as compared with a smaller 

 one, ten inches — are summarized by Prof. 

 George E. Hale as consisting of, first, its 

 power of giving much Ijrighter star images 

 and thus of rendering visible faint stars that 

 can not be seen with the smaller telescope ; 

 second, in the fact that it gives at its focus 

 an image of the object enlarged in propor- 

 tion to its greater diameter ; and third, in its 

 capacity of rendering visible as separate ob- 

 jects the components of very close double 

 stars or minute markings upon the surface 

 of a planet or satellite. The large glass has 

 its disadvantages too, among the chief of 

 which is that it requires better atmospheric 

 conditions to bring out its best qualities. 

 The discoveries of the fifth satellite of Jupi- 

 ter and the two satellites of Mars were made 

 with large telescopes, and could hardly have 

 been made with smaller ones. Much fine 

 detail on the moon which the author has 

 never been able to see with the twelve-inch 

 telescope is " clearly and beautifully visible " 

 with the forty- inch. Micrometrical measures 

 are effected with much more ease and cer- 

 tainty with the large telescope. " It is par- 

 ticularly in astrophysical research that a 

 great telescope is advantageous. It is ne- 

 cessary in spectroscopic observation to have 

 as much light as can be gathered into a sin- 

 gle point, and for this a large glass is essen- 

 tial. It follows from these facts that great 

 telescopes really have a mission to perform. 

 "While, on the one hand, they are not endowed 

 with the almost miraculous gifts which im- 

 aginative persons would place to their credit, 

 they do possess properties which render them 

 much superior to smaller instruments and 

 well worth all the expenditure which their 

 construction has involved. In answering the 

 question, ' Do large telescopes pay ? ' it»is 

 simply a matter of determining whether the 

 work which can not be done without the aid 

 of large telescopes is really worth doing." 



New Features In Sclioo]. — The report of 

 the Superintendent of Schools of Springfield, 

 Mass., tells of a new departure in the read- 

 ing classes by substituting literary reading 

 for the school readers of the old sort. " Ten 

 years ago all the fourth and fifth readers 

 were taken out of the schools, and literature 

 and reading matter bearing directly on geog- 

 raphy and history were introduced in their 



place. Since then all the third readers and 

 nearly all the second and first readers have 

 been displaced by reading matter which is 

 intrinsically interesting to children. In point 

 of quality, pupils in going through the gram- 

 mar schools now read more good literature 

 than pupils in any of the courses in the high 

 school read a few years ago. Much of this 

 literature is read in connection with the study 

 of history." The superintendent expresses his 

 belief that the time has come when no new 

 schoolhouses shall be erected in the city with- 

 out some provision for personal cleanliness in 

 the way of facilities for bathing. This he 

 regards as necessary for the health of the 

 school, on account of the number of pupils 

 who come from tenement houses and unsan- 

 itary quarters with skins in such a condition 

 as to contaminate the air of the schoolroom. 

 A school bath was first established in Got- 

 tingen, Germany, in 1883 ; and the example 

 of that place has now been followed in about 

 forty German, Swiss, and Scandinavian cities, 

 where warm shower baths have been intro- 

 duced into the common schools. At Char- 

 lottenburg, Prussia, the entire equipment of 

 a bath accommodating fifty or sixty chil- 

 dren an hour cost only three hundred and 

 fifty-seven dollars. The study of music 

 has been made elective in the Springfield 

 school ; and a department has been estab- 

 lished in the high school, with the aim not 

 of teaching the children to play or sing, but 

 to appreciate the best classical music. The 

 system of savings, auxiliary to the savings 

 banks, established in the schools, works well, 

 and the savings have materially increased. 

 The teachers are supplied with stamps, which 

 are sold to the children, and entries to their 

 credit are made for the amounts. When the 

 sum reaches a dollar, the child is urged to 

 deposit it in one of the city savings banks, 

 or he can draw it out for the purchase of 

 necessaries. 



Working of the Eleetive System in Col- 

 leges. — The results of the discussions con- 

 cerning the elective system of study courses, 

 as presented by Prof. A. P. Bingham in the 

 Educational Review, have been its adoption 

 into the common thought and the quiet ex- 

 tension of its range into our higher schools. 

 " That can liardly be called a reputable col- 

 lege which has not admitted it in some meas- 



