468 



NATURE 



{March 20, 1890 



We believe that those qualified to give an opinion w^ill 

 agree as to the tendency of papers like these. They are 

 direct incentives to learning propositions by rote — a 

 practice to which beginners are by nature only too prone, 

 without being encouraged by the grave authority of an 

 ancient University : and they tend to paralyse any efforts 

 a tutor may make to teach his subject intelligently. How 

 is he to get pupils to listen to any discussion of difficulties, 

 or to care for any deductions from the propositions, when 

 they know as well as he does that not a mark can be 

 gained by anything which goes beyond a bare knowledge 

 of the Simsonian text ? 



Well might the Council of the Association for the Im- 

 provement of Geometrical Teaching, in its last Report, 

 " regret to notice that the Euclid papers set for Responsions 

 at Oxford still consist exclusively of bookwork," and re- 

 mark that "the entire absence of riders or other questions 

 designed to test the real knowledge of the student seems 

 calculated to foster ' cram.' " The Council confined itself, 

 as we have done, to the " Responsions " papers, but its 

 remarks apply with equal force to " Moderations." The 

 Euclid paper in the " First Public " and " Second Public" 

 of Michaelmas 1 889 are, in effect : — 



"Write out IV. i, III. 10, 3rd case of III. 35, III, 2, 



III. 25, III. 28, III. 12, III. 17, IV. 4, IV. 7. 



" Define plane superficies, rhomboid, sector, similar 

 segments, ratio, ex aequali. 



" Write out the three postulates and the twelfth axiom. 

 "Write out I. 7, I. 29, I. 48, II. 12, III. 15, III. 26, 



IV. 6, VI. 5, VI. 18." 



Though we regret the absence of " riders," we do not 

 attach so much importance to it as to that of " other " 

 questions arising naturally from the definitions, axioms, 

 postulates, and propositions set to be written out : ques- 

 tions, for instance, on the redundancy of the definitions ; 

 on the distinction between the general and the geome- 

 trical axioms ; on the axioms tacitly assumed by Euclid ; 

 on the truth or falsehood of the converse of a given pro- 

 position ; on the interdependence of two contrapositives ; 

 or on the difficulties of Euclid's treatment of parallels. 



It is instructive to contrast the Mathematical Respon- 

 sions papers with those set in the classical part of the 

 same examination. In these the University is by no 

 means satisfied, as in the mathematical, with a know- 

 ledge which may be obtained by efforts of the memory 

 alone, but applies the sharp test of prose composition 

 and "unseens." To this inequality we draw the special 

 attention of readers of Nature. Compare the course 

 open to a classical man with that which lies before one 

 who intends to take his degree in science or mathe- 

 matics. The classical man appears to have everything 

 in his favour : he most likely knows enough mathematics 

 to feel quite comfortable as to the paltry modicum re- 

 quired at Responsions. The other is in a very different 

 position. If he has attained to anything like scholarship 

 in his own subject, it will only be in rare cases that he 

 can hope to get through Responsions without devoting a 

 large amount of valuable time towards the acquirement 

 of some facility in prose composition. We should like 

 to see a vigorous protest by the science graduates against 

 this anomaly. 



PRZEWALSKY'S 

 ZOOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES} 



■\17'ITH great satisfaction naturalists will observe that 

 ^^ a complete account of Przewalsky's zoological ob- 

 servations and discoveries is to be given to the world, and 

 has in fact been for some time in course of publication. 



' " Wissenschaftliche Resultate der von N. M. Przewalski nach Central- 

 Ajien unternommenen Reisen : auf Kosten einer von seiner Kaiserlichen 

 Hoheit dem Grossfiirsten Thronfolger Nikolai Alexandrowitsch gespendeten 

 Summe." Herausgegeben von der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissen- 

 schaften. Zoologischer Theil. (St. Petersburg, 1888-89.) 



The great Russian explorer, although perhaps best known 

 in Western Europe as a geographical traveller, was at 

 heart a naturalist, and one of no mean rank. Those who 

 have read the narratives of his four great journeys will 

 recollect how full they are of notes on the animals and 

 plants met with during his routes. The specimens ob- 

 tained by him and his companions were carefully pre- 

 served, and deposited in the Museum of the Imperial 

 Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg. Up to the 

 present time these collections have only been made 

 known to the public by various fragmentary accounts of 

 them in scientific journals, and in the appendices to Prze- 

 walsky's volumes of travels, which were in many cases of 

 the most unsatisfactory character. The Imperial Crown 

 Prince Nicolas of Russia has now, however, placed at 

 the disposal of the Imperial Academy, in whose Museum 

 Przewalsky's collections are stored, a sum sufficient to 

 cover the cost of the publication of a connected account 

 of them. To no more worthy object could Royalty devote 

 its income, and the resulting volumes promise to be alike 

 a credit to the great nation to which Przewalsky belonged, 

 and to form a very material contribution to zoological 

 science. 



As is almost the universal and necessary custom now- 

 adays, the different branches of the collections to be 

 investigated have been placed in the hands of different 

 specialists. The mammals had been undertaken by 

 Eugene Biichner, the Conservator of the Division of 

 Mammals in the Academy's Zoological Museum. Herr 

 Theodor Pleske, who has lately succeeded Herr Russow 

 in the charge of the birds of the same Museum, supplies 

 the portion of the work relating to the objects under his 

 care. Similarly, to Herr S. Herzenstein have been as- 

 signed the fishes. Each section is prepared on a similar 

 plan. The text is given in parallel columns of Russian 

 and German. We cannot complain of a great national 

 work like the present being published primarily in the 

 national language, but our thanks should be given to the 

 learned Academy for letting us have it also in a tongue 

 generally understood by scientific men. The work is 

 well illustrated, and the plates are excellently drawn, 

 those of the mammals and birds mostly by Miitzel, the 

 well-known German lithographic artist. Up to the pre- 

 sent time we have seen three parts of the mammals, one 

 of the birds, and two of the fishes of this important work, 

 which is a credit alike to the Academy which has pro- 

 duced it, and to the distinguished personage who has 

 supplied the necessary means. 



NOTES. 

 The Chemical Society will this year for the first time hold its 

 anniversary meeting (March 27) in the afternoon at 4 p.m., and 

 the Fellows and their friends will dine together in the evening at 

 the Whitehall Rooms, Hotel Metropole. It is hoped that the 

 Fellows will signify their approval of this alteration by attending 

 in considerable numbers. 



A MEETING was held in Berlin on Monday, March 10, under 

 the auspices of the German Chemical Society, to celebrate the 

 25th anniversary of the promulgation of Prof. Kekule's theory 

 of the constitution of the aromatic compounds. A very large 

 number of chemists assembled in the Rathhaus in the afternoon. 

 After an introductory address by the President, Prof. v. Hof- 

 mann, Prof. A. Bayer delivered a lecture in which he pointed 

 out how completely modern investigations had confirmed 

 Kekule's views. A congratulatory address from the German 

 Chemical Society was then presented to Prof. Kekule. Prof. 

 Armstrong attended on behalf of the London Chemical Society, 

 Prof. Korner on behalf of the Italian chemists, Prof. Bischof on 

 behalf of the Russian chemists ; and besides the addresses pre- 

 sented by those representatives, there were very numerous letters 



