374 



NATURE 



[March 9, 1876 



honourable position in our curriculum. At other schools, 

 as, for example, the Manchester Grammar School, I 

 am told that even a larger proportion of the time of the 

 boys is given to work of this kind ; and on the whole I 

 am inclined to think that, notwithstanding the reluctance 

 of some of the old foundations to admit the interloper, yet 

 that the prospects of science in connection with general 

 education are exceedingly satisfactory and encouraging. 



It would be a mistake to attempt to displace classical 

 studies, as some people seem to wish, in favour of science 

 or any other subject. It cannot be expected that all boys 

 should have the same tastes or capabilities. It would be 

 as much an error to compel a boy, who has shown no 

 aptitude for science, to devote any large proportion of 

 his time to that subject, when he might be getting on with 

 his classics, as it would be to doom another to Latin 

 prose when his heart was all the time in the laboratory. 

 The true system I believe to be this. After passing 

 through a junior school, in which all should be equally 

 instructed in some branch of natural history or experi- 

 mental science, boys should then be drafted off into one 

 of three departments. There should be (i) a classical 

 school, in which Latin and Greek should be the staple, 

 though not to the exclusion of a certain modicum of 

 mathematics and science ; (2) a modern school, in which 

 mathematics are predominant ; and (3) a science school, 

 in which languages, though subordinate to science, should 

 not be altogether extinguished. This is very nearly the 

 system pursued at Clifton, and I can testify to its prac- 

 tical convenience and success. 



As regards the choice of subjects, though I believe 

 chemistry is pre-eminent in its capacity for developing 

 certain of the mental powers, I consider that the fullest 

 advantage is not derived from it, unless it is taught in a 

 certain way. I hold that teachers of chemistry in schools 

 are wrong when they set about teaching boys according 

 to the methods commonly in use in the instruction of 

 ordinary chemical students. The latter have to apply 

 their knowledge to practical purposes, and this is not the 

 prime object to be kept in view in determining the edu- 

 cational value of a given subject. 



And this leads me back to the question of examination 

 papers. I consider that examiners have as much to learn 

 as teachers in connection with their respective functions. 

 At present it is too frequently, " How do you make this ?" 

 or, " What are the properties of that ?" a style of question 

 which is good enough in its way, but to answer requires 

 very little intellectual effort. The preparation for such an 

 examination is little better than " cram," and is of propor- 

 tionately small educational value. 



If examiners, whether in school or university, would 

 take more pains in framing their questions so as to extract 

 not alone that which is in the memory of the candidate, 

 but to get the product of his brain, I believe great and 

 important service would be rendered to scientific educa- 

 tion. William A. Tilden 



Clifton College, Bristol, March 6 



PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS OF THE 

 DINOCERATA 



T TNDER the above title, Prof. O. C. Marsh, of Yale 

 ^ College, has published several facts of great import- 

 ance with reference to the structure of the huge Eocene 

 Mammals of Wyoming, of which we have already given 

 a short description (Nature, vol. vii. p. 366) from the 

 same author's memoirs. 



We now learn that the brain as known from the inside 

 of the skull vyas very remarkable, being proportionately 

 smaller than in any other known mammal, the Spermaceti 

 and some other whales alone excepted. In Dmoceras 

 viirabilis the entire brain was not greater in any of its 

 transverse dimensions than the spinal canal in the 



cervical region. Its relative size and position can be 

 best estimated from the accompanying drawing, copied 

 from one given by Prof. 

 Marsh, the brain in it 

 being shaded, with a por- 

 tion of the spinal cord 

 attached. From the figure 

 it is also evident that the 

 olfactory lobes are pro- 

 portionately large, at the 

 same time that the cere- 

 bral lobes are hardly big- 

 ger than in some reptiles. 

 The cerebellum must also 

 have been small, whilst 

 the cranial as well as the 

 spinal nerves and the cord 

 were immense. 



The teeth are figured 

 with their prominent V- 

 shaped ridges, the dental 

 formula being given as : — 



i Z c i pmlmh X 3=34. 

 31 3 3 



The upper canines were 

 very long and pointed, 

 and peculiar expanded 

 descending processes on 

 either side of the lower _ 

 jaw seem to have acted 

 as guards to protect them 

 whilst the mouth was 

 closed. The condyles of 

 the lower jaw were trans- 

 verse, and therefore only 

 allowed of an up-and- 

 down movement. The molars were peculiarly small for 

 the size of the animal and of the skull. The creature 

 must have been carnivorous, as mastication could only 

 have been slight, and the food therefore nutritious. 



The feet are figured. They were very elephantme, there 

 being five digits on each ; these, with the carpus and 

 tarsus, being short and compressed from above down- 

 wards. The terminal phalanges were well developed. 

 The other bones much resembled those of the elephant in 

 size as well as contour. Prof. Marsh tells us that the 

 head could evidently reach the ground, and that there is 

 no evidence of a proboscis. 



These characters all point to the fact that in Eocene 

 times there lived an order of animals which have no 

 representatives at the present day, and that they were 

 highly specialised in some points of their structure, whilst 

 in others they were equally ill- developed. 



NOTES 



We learn that a scheme is on foot for a memorial of the lat< 

 Prof. Rankine. Students of Thermodynamics, Engineering, &c., 

 will be doubly delighted to hear that the memorial is to take the 

 form of an edition, in two handsome quarto volumes, of his 

 valuable papers contributed to the various scientific societies and 

 magazines. 



A SERIES of lectures upon zoological subjects will be delivered 

 after Easter in the Zoological Society's Gardens, in Regent's 

 Park, on Thursdays, at 5 P.M. The following are the titles, j 

 j together with the days on which they will be delivered by the j 

 I respective lecturers : — April 27, Mr. P. L. Sclater, F. R. S., on 

 ' the Society's Gardens and their inhabitants ; May 4, Prof. I 

 ] Flower, F.R.S., Rhinoceroses and Tapirs; May 11, Prof. 1 

 j Flower, Horses and Zebras j May 18, Dr. J. Murie, the 

 I Manatee ; May 25, Prof. Garrod, On Birds ; June i, Prof. 

 i Mivart, On Bats ; June 8, Mr. Tegetmeier, On Homing Pigeons ; ■ 



