66 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap. 



proposes, but only in the particular form of it which he 

 appears to consider to be alone worthy of consideration. 

 I believe that such a globe can be made which shall 

 comply with the essential conditions he has laid down, 

 which shall be in the highest degree scientific and 

 educational, which shall be a far more attractive ex- 

 hibition than one upon his plan, and which could be 

 constructed for about one-third the amount which his 

 double globe would cost. It would only be necessary to 

 erect one globe, the outer surface of which would present 

 a general view of all the great geographical features of the 

 earth, while on the inner surface would be formed that 

 strictly accurate model which M. Reclus considers would 

 justify the expense of such a great work, and which, as I 

 shall presently show, would possess all those qualities 

 which he postulates as essential, but which the globe 

 described by him would certanly not possess. 



I make no doubt that the eminent geographer would at 

 once j)ut his veto upon this proposal as being wholly 

 unscientific, unnatural, and absurd. He would probably 

 say that to represent a convex body by means of a concave 

 surface is to turn the world upside-down, or rather outside- 

 in, and is fundamentally erroneous ; that it must lead to 

 false ideas as to the real nature of the earth's surface, and 

 that it cannot be truly educational or scientifically useful. 

 But these objections, and any others of like nature, are, 

 I venture to think, either unsound in themselves or are 

 wholly beside the question at issue. M. Reclus has him- 

 self declared the objects of the gigantic earth-model, and 

 the educational and scientific uses it should fulfil. I take 

 these exactly as he has stated them, and I maintain that 

 if the plan proposed by me can be shown to fulfil all these 

 requirements, then it can not be said to be less scientific, 

 or less instructive, than one which can only fulfil them in 

 a very inferior degree. 



Before showing the overwhelming advantages of the 

 concave over the convex globe for all important uses, I 

 would call attention to two strictly illustrative facts. 

 Celestial globes have been long in use, and I am not aware 

 that it has ever been suggested that they are unscientific 



