370 



NA rURE 



[February 14, i90[ 



on these grounds is not exaggerated, and whether a 

 student who studies chemistry for one year could not fill 

 his time with practical problems of greater value. 



J. B. C. 



Microbes et Distillerie. Par Lucien Ldvy. Pp. vi + 323. 



Paris : Carrd et Naud, 1900.) 

 This book, which deals with the micro-organisms con- 

 nected with distilling operations, supplies a good illustra- 

 tion of the rapid progress that is bein« made in the study 

 of technical mycology. M. Levy confines himself strictly 

 to his subject, and does not wander into the details of 

 practice, and yet the three hundred and twenty odd pages 

 of his book are none too many for a very brief resum^ of 

 much that is known concerning the relations of micro- 

 organisms to the distilling industry. But brief and 

 condensed though it is, it is accurate and very fairly 

 complete, and, moreover, possesses that charm of simple 

 rendering which is so characteristic of the best class of 

 French scientific literature. 



The book will be useful to all interested in the 

 technology of the fermentation industries ; but we are 

 inclined to go farther, and also recommend it to the 

 notice of students of pathogenic micro-organisms. There 

 appears to be some little danger of too wide a separation 

 of this branch of bacteriology from the science as a 

 whole, and any such artificial division can only work for 

 harm. Probably much of the knowledge gained con- 

 cerning the micro organisms of fermentation and their 

 actions has some bearing on pathological bacteriology, 

 and for this reason we recommend M. Levy's book to 

 pathological bacteriologists as a concise and suggestive 

 n*>«;«/ of another branch of their science. Doubtless it 

 reflects more especially the work and views of the French 

 school, but then it is published in the land of Pasteur. 



A. J. B. 



7"-^!? Fifth Report upon the Fauna of Liverpool Bay attd 

 the NeighbouritiiC Seas. Edited by Prof. W. A. 

 Herdman, F.R.S. Pp. ix -f- 336. Twelve plates. 

 (Liverpool Marine Biology Committee, 1900.) 



The reports and other publications of the Liverpool 

 school of naturalists have provided material for many 

 paragraphs in our " Notes " columns, the latest " Memoir " 

 published by the Liverpool Marine Biology Committee 

 having been noticed quite recently (p. 330). The present 

 volume contains reprints of the annual reports of the 

 Committee, from the ninth to the thirteenth inclusive, 

 papers communicated to the Biological Society of Liver- 

 pool on Copepoda, Hydromeduste, Turbellaria, Actinia, 

 and an abnormal Echinus, and a list of the marine fauna 

 and flora of the Irish Sea. The record of the L.M.B.C. 

 is brought down to the end of its sixteenth year, and 

 observations extending over several years, referring to 

 the marine biology of Liverpool Bay and the Irish Sea, 

 are rendered available in a convenient form. The volume 

 stands as substantial evidence of what valuable work a 

 few good naturalists can do, even when the financial 

 resources are limited. 



Analytical Tables for Complex Inorganic Mixtures. 

 Arranged by F. E. Thompson, A.R.C.S. Pp. 7. 

 (Stafford : Chronicle Office.) Post free, is. yd. 



A SERIES of tables suitable for use in chemical labora- 

 tories where students are working at qualitative 

 chemistry, with an examination like that of the advanced 

 stage of practical inorganic chemistry of the Board of 

 Education m view. The tables show how to conduct a 

 preliminary examination of a substance in the dry way, 

 and in the wet way for metals ; and they describe the 

 usual treatment of group precipitates and filtrates. There 

 are also tables for examination for acids and giving con- 

 firmatory tests for acids. 



NO. 1633, VOL. 63] 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



\The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 

 pressed ln> his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 to return, or to correspond ivith the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications, \ 



Mathematics and Physics in PubJic Schools. 



A WELL-AITENDEI) conference of science masters in public 

 scho lis WHS held last month at the University of London, and 

 among ihe many interesting papers read was one by Mr. W. D. 

 Eggar, of Eton, on the coordination of mathematics and physics 

 in our public schools. 



In answer to that paper I endeavoured to point out at the 

 time that the present want of cohesion between these studies 

 was due, not to the incapacity of the instructors in these 

 subjects, but to the illiberality of the system still prevailing, not 

 only in the Universities to which many of the boys eventually go, 

 but also to an equal degree in these public schools themselves. 



I will here take the opportunity of thanking the editor of 

 Nature for his courtesy in inviting me to express my views at 

 greater length. This letter is a plea for a change in the order 

 of teaching mathematics in the older public schools, and con- 

 tains a suggestion as to how such a change could be effected. 



The points I wish to call attention to in this letter are that 

 (i) the hands of mathematical teachers in these schools are tied 

 by the conditions of the University examinations ; (2) in arith- 

 metic more attention should be paid to the decimal system ; 

 (3) the Euclid should be curtailed and some of it put into 

 algebraical form ; (4) too much time is given to artificial ques- 

 tions in algebra ; (5) trigonometry ought to be begun earlier ; 

 (6) more hours might be allotted in the week to mathematics 

 and physics ; and (7) the classics are given an abnormal and 

 unjustifiable preponderance in an ordinary boy's education. 



I am quite aware that the difficulties to be overcome in effect- 

 ing any rational common-sense change in the methods and order 

 of teaching elementary mathematics will be very great, but let 

 us hope they will not prove insurmountable. 



To begin with, the public schools for boys of average ability 

 are bound to more or less base their scheme of work on the pass 

 requirements of the Universities, though perhaps at Eton this 

 may be less the case than at many other schools. After those 

 requirements have been satisfied the teaching does not by any 

 means always shape itself in the direction of the work a boy may 

 afterwards follow while at the University or in after life. As 

 things are, what is the present condition of the average boy at 

 our older public schools ? 



In arithmetic he gains a certain amount of proficiency in those 

 fractions known as vulgar, he learns the artificial rules for 

 extracting square and cube roots, he works out problems 

 involving questions of time and work, or of time and distance, 

 or of areas, he becomes quite proficient in the ordinary matters 

 of compound interest, discount, stocks and shares, and he even 

 gains an idea of what a stockbroker is. I am not prepared to 

 say that all this has not its educational, and even its com- 

 mercial, value later on, for it certainly has ; but what I maintain 

 is that we do not go far enough. There is not enough chance, 

 our pass examinations being what they are, of boys seeing the 

 value and importance of the decimal system as applied to 

 physical measurements and problems. They are often apt to 

 imagine that a result must be absolutely correct to its last decimal 

 place, or it is valueless ; and the methods of approximation are 

 often excluded from their course altogether, either as being 

 not sufficiently accurate or not required for the University 

 entrance or pass examinations. 



Let us turn now to the question of Euclid. Geometry is an 

 excellent form of mental gymnastics when it is taught in the 

 proper way, but the manner in which it is presented to the boy 

 in our editions- of the great geometer is antiquated and out of 

 date. Far too much in this abstract science is left to the 

 imagination, a quality which the ordinary boy frequently lacks ; 

 and ocular demonstration is but little resorted to in order to give 

 him, by means of figures and models cut out of cardboard, a 

 clearer idea of what he is required to prove. I also venture to 

 think that the Euclid, such as we know it, is spun out to an 

 excessive length, and too often the patience and courage of the 

 average boy is well-nigh spent before he gets to the end of it. 



I am fully aware of the existence of that useful body known 

 as the Association for the Improvement of Geometrical Teach- 

 ing, or, as it is now called, the Mathematical Association, of 



