

January 19, 1893J 



NATURE 



279 



Mr. C. F. Maxwell writes to Science from Dublin, Texas, 

 ithat on the night of November 29, about 8 o'clock, a very large 

 meteor was seen passing westward, a little to the south of that 

 place. Just as it seemed to be passing the body exploded, 

 producing a sound that was distinctly heard, resembling that of 

 a rocket explosion or a pistol-shot. After the explosion a body 

 lialf as large as a full moon moved away to the westward, mak- 

 ing a hissing or frying sound. Mr. Maxwell has seen no one 

 -who saw the meteor before the explosion. The whole country 

 Tvas brilliantly lighted for a moment as if by a continued 

 ^electric discharge, but at the time of the explosion the light 

 was red and blue, or perhaps violet. The sound of the explo- 

 sion was heard by parties five miles west and seven miles east 

 of Dublin, who could not have been less than ten miles apart 

 ■on an air-line, and they report the sound together with the 

 -other phenomena to have been about the same as they were at 

 Dublin, 



When commanding the Naiade during the cyclone of 

 November 6, 1891, Rear Admiral Cavelier de Cuverville had 

 ^he opportunity of testing the efficiency of oil in calming the 

 troubled waves of the North Atlantic. The last number of the 

 .Revile Maritime contains an account of his experiences and 

 conclusions. When the waves threatened to become dangerous 

 he gave orders to fill two coal sacks with tow steeped in oil, one 

 of them to be suspended freely at the extremity of a spar spanned 

 to the cat-head, the other near the bridge. The effect was 

 excellent. No seas were shipped, and the vessel escaped with- 

 out breaking a spar. It appears that the oil takes effect upon 

 the •' breakers" due to horizontal translation produced by the 

 wind, leaving the orbital motion or "swell" unaffected. The 

 former is the only element of danger in a rough sea. It was 

 found that two sacks, filled with 5 kgr. of tow, holding 5 

 litres of colza or machine oil each, were sufficient to protect a 

 vessel 75 m. long. The oil had to be renewed every six 

 hours. Too much oil has the disadvantage of spreading more 

 slowly, and theoretically the best system of distribution would 

 be one in which the oil would reach the surface from below in 

 a large number of small drops. 



Herr J. Naue has been fortunate enough to discover at a 

 prehistoric station near Schaffhausen a piece of limestone, on 

 both sides of which are drawings like those which have been 

 found in caves in France and in the cave at Thayngen. It was 

 found in the lowest part of the yellow " Kulturschicht " among 

 bones and teeth of reindeer, horses, and other animals. On one 

 side are a horse, a foal, and a reindeer, while several horses 

 appear on the other. The style is not so fine as that of the 

 Thayngen drawings, but, according to Herr Naue, they display 

 a power of keen observation, and he points out that it was more 

 difficult to work on stone than on a bone still fresh. 



The remarkable address delivered by Prof. Virchow on his 

 assumption of the office of Rector of the University of Berlin has 

 been issued by the German publisher, August Hirschwald, of 

 that city. The title is " Lernen und Forschen." 



The Pharmaceutical y ournal oi the present week prints the 

 first of what promises to be a good series of papers, which are 

 intended to make bacteriology intelligible and interesting to 

 students, and to be of some practical value to pharmacists in 

 business. The Journal rightly thinks that the time has come 

 when pharmacists ought to make themselves familiar with 

 the principles of " this newest department of experimental 

 science." 



Last week Lord Kelvin delivered an interesting speech at a 



dinner given to the members of the new watch factory at 



Prescot. He said it was something to be proud of that the 



article they were making was a triumph of mechanism. There 



NO. 12 12, VOL. 47] 



was nothing in the whole of scientific art, nothing in the results 

 of mechanics applied to the useful purposes for mankind, that 

 was a more splendid success than the science of watchmaking. 

 He had been all his life engaged more or less with scientific 

 experiments, with measurements, and with instruments which 

 their French friends would call instruments of precision. They 

 knew something of instruments of precision in electricity, and 

 they were thankful if they could make a measurement which 

 was accurate to one-tenth or one-twentieth per cent. But what 

 did watchmaking do? The commonest cheap watch — cheap 

 but good — which would issue from the Prescot works would 

 keep time to a minute a week. Now a minute a week, if they 

 made a little calculation, was something like one-hundredth per 

 cent, of accuracy, or just about ten times as accurate as they 

 considered exceedingly good work in electrical measurements. 



At a recent meeting of the College of Preceptors, Mr. Foster 

 W^atson read a remarkably interesting paper on Richard Mul- 

 caster, who was head-master of St. Paul's School from 1596 to 

 1598. The paper is printed in the current number of the 

 Educational Times. Mulcaster's ideas were in some respects 

 far ahead of those of his time. The following, according to Mr, 

 Watson, were his "main educational contentions": — (i) Cul- 

 ture and learning for those who have the wit to profit by it, 

 whether rich or poor. Adequate knowledge for those who go 

 into trade. (2) Education for girls and women, as well as boys 

 and men. Higher education for girls who have good abilities. 

 (3) Training colleges for teachers. (4) Physical training for 

 all— boys and girls, teachers and pupils, and this to be continued 

 in after-life. (5) Liberal education, with disinterested aims for 

 the elementary schools. (6) The best masters to take the lowest 

 classes, (7) Drawing and music to be taught in every school, 

 not as "extras," but as essentials, " You will notice," says 

 Mr. Watson, "that the last-named five aims are only within 

 the field of discussion even yet ; they are not fails accompKs. 

 All this time they have been in Mulcaster's book, and Mulcas- 

 ter's book — a few copies of it, very few — have been gathering 

 dust." 



The Association of Officers of Colleges in New England 

 have recommended the gradual adoption of the following 

 changes in the curriculum of New England grammar schools : — 

 (i) The introduction of elementary natural history into the 

 earlier years of the programme*as a substantial subject, to be 

 taught by demonstrations and practical exercises rather than 

 from books. (2) The introduction of elementary physics into 

 the later years of the programme as a substantial subject, to be 

 taught by the experimental or laboratory method, and to in- 

 clude exact weighing and measuring by the pupils themselves. 

 (3) The introduction of elementary algebra at an age not late' 

 than twelve years. (4) The introduction of elementary plane 

 geometry at an age not later than thirteen years. (5) The 

 offering of opportunity to study French, or German, or Latin, 

 or any two of these languages from and after the age of ten 

 years. (6) The increase of attention in all class-room exercises 

 in every study to the correct and facile use of the English 

 language. In order to make room in the programme for these 

 new subjects, the association recommends that the time allotted 

 to arithmetic, geography, and English grammar be reduced to 

 whatever extent may be necessary. The association explains 

 that it makes these recommendations in the interest of the public 

 school system as a whole, but that most of them are offered 

 more particularly in the interest of those children whose educa- 

 tion is not to be continued beyond the grammar school. 



Mr. Waudo Dennls gives in Science a minute and very in- 

 teresting account of a snake which he watched for an hour in 

 the woods one morning in July last. It went straight up a tree 

 " without crook or turn," and by-and-by lay still for a while. 



