3^ 



NATURE 



{Nov. 14, 1878 



The Colour-Sense 



With reference to Dr. Pole's valuable papers on Homer's 

 colour-blindness, it may interest your readers to learn that 

 I have now nearly completed a work on " The Origin and De- 

 velopment of the Colour-Sense," which will be shortly published 

 by Messrs. Trilbner and Co. In it I have endeavoured to show 

 (inter alia) that the use of colour-terms in the Homeric poems 

 is strictly analogous to that of other races, existing or extinct, 

 at the corresponding stage of culture ; and that both depend, 

 not upon dichromic vision, but upon a defect of language closely 

 connected with the small number of dyes or artificial pigments 

 known to the various tribes. To establish this result I have 

 sent a number of circular letters to missionaries, Government 

 officials, and other persons having relations with native uncivi- 

 lised races in all parts of the world ; and their answers to my 

 queries, framed so as to distinguish carefully between perception 

 and language, in every case bear out the theory which I had 

 formed. As my results will so soon be published elsewhere, I 

 shall not burden your columns with them at present, but may 

 add that my researches lead me to place the origin of the colour- 

 sense far lower down in the animal scale, as evidenced both by 

 the distinctive hues of flowers and fruits, and by the varied 

 integuLuents of insects, birds, &c., so far as these are the result 

 of sexual selection, or of mimicry and other protective devices. 



Grant Allen 



' -Magnus's "Hydrostatics" and the "London Science 

 Series " 



1 KNOW it is unusual for an author to offer any reply to the 

 Favourable or unfavourable criticism of his reviewer ; but I shall 

 be glad if, by way of exception to this wise rule, you will allow 

 me to make a few remarks on the notice of my little book which 

 appeared in Nature, vol. xviii. p. 693, as they refer to a subject 

 of wider interest than the contents of the work itself. It un- 

 fortunately often happens that an author is able to detect that 

 the reviewer has taken no further trouble than to make a few 

 quotations from the preface of the book under review. For my 

 own part I have no complaint on this gi'ound. On the contrarj', 

 if the reviewer had even glanced at the preface he would have 

 seen that the book has not been written for the use of very young 

 boys, but that it "is intended for the use of those pupils in the 

 upper Forms of schools who have already acquired some elemen- 

 tary knowledge of the principles of mechanics" — for those, in 

 fact, to whom, after some adverse criticism, he is good enough 

 to say "the book will undoubtedly prove useful." 



My object in WTiting, however, is less to disprove anything 

 that may have been said with regard to my own book than to 

 take away the point of '.he criticism which has been directed 

 against other volumes of the "London Science Series." As 

 •one of the Editors of this Series, I am anxious to correct an 

 erroneous but somewhat prevalent impression that these books 

 ^re intended to be "science primers." Nothing could be farther 

 from the intentions of the Editors of this Series than the attempt 

 to rival the excellent and original science primers published by 

 Messrs. Macmillan. Judged by such a standard they must 

 necessarily appear difficult and elaborate. But the standard is 

 incorrect. The books of the present series are, as they purpose 

 to be, essentially class-books, and many of them have been 

 expressly written to meet the wants of the pupils of the higher 

 forms of schools. 



Although my reviewer "cannot imagine" that I "can be 

 acquainted with science teaching in schools or its requirements," 

 I may lay claim to so much experience as a teacher and school- 

 examiner as shows me that a class-book should be rather above 

 than below the average attainments of the form, and should be 

 so w ritten as to encourage the more advanced pupils to pursue 

 Iheir studies to a higher point. 



If Science is to take the place of Classics in any of our schools 

 it should be so taught as to afford an equivalent amount of men- 

 tal discipline. If this is not the case the modern school will 

 always rank below the grammar school, and there will be some 

 gi'ound for the alleged inferiority of the modern, with respect 

 to the classical side of a public school. To teach science 

 properly several hours a week ought certainly to be given to it, 

 and I should be disposed to criticise somewhat severely the time- 

 table of any school in which the boys " probably have one hour, 

 or at most two, to devote to the subject in a week." Indi- 

 cations of showy and superficial knowledge on the part of boys 

 «-ho take up Science instead of Classics are not wanting, and this 



showiness may be partly due to the want of thoroughness of 

 some of the text-books commonly in use. Philip Magnus 

 Savile Club, London, November 3 



[We have sent Mr. Magnus' letter to our Reviewer, who replies 

 as follows. — Ed.] 



Mr. Magnus complains that if his reviewer "had even 

 glanced at the preface he would have seen that the book has not 

 been written for very young boys, but that it is intended for the 

 use of those pupils in the upper Forms of schools who have 

 already acquired some elementary knowledge of the principles 

 of mechanics." To this I may reply, firstly, that I did much 

 more than glance at the preface ; secondly, that I nowhere 

 assert that the book is intended for " very young boys ; " and 

 thirdly, that I assert my belief that "for advanced boys in 

 Upper Fifth and Sixth Forms the book will undoubtedly prove 

 useful." By " young boys " I meant boys in the Upper Fourths, 

 Removes, and Lower Fifths, whose average ages range between 

 fourteen and sixteen. It is in these Forms that the principal 

 science teaching in a Public school takes place. 



I nowhere have asserted that the book is intended to be a 

 " science primer," and my remark that it is intended for " school 

 purposes" is taken from the commencement of the Editor's 

 preface. 



I am the more constrained to repeat my belief that the author 

 cannot " be acquainted with science teaching in schools or its 

 requirements " when I read his remarks on" the character of a 

 school class-book, and when I notice that he speaks of "science 

 taking the place of classics." 



I believe I am right in stating that in no school in England 

 does science take the place of classics. I should sincerely de- 

 plore such a result. Any attempt to enforce it could only result 

 in utter failure from an educational point of view. Science can 

 never "afford an equivalent amount of mental discipline" to 

 classics. Mr. Magnus may not be aware of the fact that science 

 is taking the place of Latin verses in our public schools, and 

 that no proposition has ever, as far as I know, been made to the 

 effect that classics should be abandoned. 



Finally, Mr. Magnus tells us that he "should be disposed to 

 criticise somewhat severely the time-table of any school in which 

 the boys probably have one hour, or at most two, to devote to 

 the subject in a week." Possibly he would ; but the fact is no 

 less true that in almost all our principal schools two hours a 

 week is the maximum time which is given, in the ordinary course 

 of school work, to any one subject of science, and class books 

 must be framed in accordance with such usage. 



The Reviewer 



The Discovery of a Crannog in Ayrshire 



In his letter reporting this interesting discovery (Nature, p. 

 695), Dr. Munro remarks that amongst the constituents of the 

 crannog was " brushwood, ajaongst which beech, birch, and 

 hazel were readily recognised." 



Now as biech is certainly not at present a native of Scotland, 

 and as, to the best of my knowledge, it never has been claimed as 

 an indigenous tree at any period, the finding of beech branches in 

 the Tarbolton crannog is not the least interesting part of the 

 discovery, and I venture to hope that Dr. Munro will be able 

 to give us proofs thatthe brushwood he mentions is, beyond any 

 doubt, beech. 



Of course the other trees — oak, birch, and hazel — are truly in- 

 digenous. The absence of Scots-fir is also not without interest. 



F. Buchanan White 



The Power of Stupefying Spiders Possessed by Wasps 



Mr. Cecil's letters on "The Power of Stupefying Spiders 

 possessed by Wasps" give details of a fact perfectly well known 

 to entomologists, certainly to all those who have studied the 

 Aculeata ; but it is well known to the latter that no true wasp, 

 according to the popular understanding of that name, ever sup- 

 plies its larvae with insects stupefied in the manner described. 

 The insects alluded to in Mr. Cecil's letters probably belong to 

 the section of aculeate insects usually known as sand-wasps by 

 naturalists, a very misleading name, since a large number are 

 wood-borers. It would render the subject of stupefying much 

 more understandable to the general reader if this was more 

 clearly elucidated ; the general term v/asp gives no clue in this 

 instance to the insect observed. We have in this country fos- 

 sorial inseciS belonging to the genera Pompilus, Priocnemus, 



