66 



• KNOWLEDGE 



[FEn. 2, 1863. 



(itato aro horribly proliBc in tho lilood of people who are in 

 certain states of what is called " receptivity." They (the 

 bacteria, itc.) appear to be poisoned or somehow killed olT 

 by the dijjestive secretions of the blood of some people, 

 and nourished luxuriantly in the blood of others. As 

 nobody can be quite sure to which class he belongs, or 

 may presently belonj;, or whether the water supplied to 

 his household is free from blood poisoning organisms, 

 cooked water is a safer beverage than raw water. 



The requirement for this simple operation of cooking 

 increases with the density of our population, which on 

 reaching a certain degree renders the pollution of all 

 water obtained from the ordinary sources almost inevitable. 

 Reflecting on this subject, I have been struck with a 

 curious fact that has hitherto escaped notice, viz., that in 

 the country which over all others combines a very large 

 population with a very small allowance of cleanliness, 

 the ordinary drink of the people is boiled water llavoured 

 by an infusion of leaves. These people, the Chinese, seem, 

 in fact, to have been the inventors of boiled water 

 beverages. Judging from travellers' accounts of the state 

 of the rivers, rivulets, and general drainage and irrigation 

 arrangements of China, its population could scarcely have 

 reached its present density if Chinamen were drinkers of 

 raw instead of cooked water. 



LEARNING LANGUAGES. 



By Richard A. Proctor. 



(Continued from page 498, Vol. 11.) 



MY remarks on this subject have been interrupted for 

 awhile, though by what is likely to increase the 

 weight of what I have to say. I had supposed the books 

 in the Hamiltonian system were no longer published. 

 Readers of Knowledge will have learned from the adver- 

 tising columns that, not only are they published, but that 

 they are now cheaper than they were. I have been 

 engaged during the last few weeks in examining a number 

 of the works published by Messrs. Hodgson it Son and by 

 Messrs. Simpkin, Marshall, A- Co., on this system. I have 

 also placed several of these works in the hands of various 

 members of my own family, and have carefully noted their 

 experience, and tested what they have learned. I shall 

 have more to say on these special points later ; here I 

 only note that the results have been altogether favourable 

 to the system. 



In my last I had considered my own experience in 

 learning Latin and Greek, for what I wanted of those 

 languages, — viz., to read Latin and Greek books, — by the 

 use of " translations." I am disposed to think that the 

 efficiency of this way of learning a language dejiends a 

 good deal on the learner. Not on his zeal and industry, 

 which I take for granted. I am writing for those only 

 who vant to learn, and think it worth while to take 

 some troul)le to learn. The question is not whether 

 they will lie at the pains to learn, but how best 

 they can direct their efforts. If a boy takes a "crib" 

 merely to save himself trouble, he will not learn faster than 

 his fellows — very likely will not learn as quickly. Thirty 

 lines of ^'irgil got up with a crib in ten minutes will not 

 advance a boy's knowledge of Latin so much as the same 

 thirty lines carefully worked at with grammar and dic- 

 tionary during an hour or more ; and the time saved by 

 the first process will be wasted, we may assume, or worse. 

 But a boy or man who wants to learn Latin, and reads 

 three or four pages of Virgil or Cicero with a translation, sav 



in an hour, and then during, say the next half-hour, after 

 going over it carefully, looks up in grammar and dictionary 

 such matters asstill remain notcleartohim; then again reads 

 through the whole passage to get its eflfect as a piece of 

 poetry or oratory ; has beyond all question learned much 

 more about Latin construction, and advanced much more 

 in mastery over the Latin language, than one who has 

 given an hour and a half to the attempt to find out with 

 dictionary and grammar only the meaning of some thirty or 

 forty lines. He has had as good mental discipline as the 

 latter, and has also learned much more about Virgil and 

 Cicero. 



But undoubtedly in such work as this the clever boy has 

 a greater pull over the dull boy than by the grammar and 

 dictionary method. In both cases the brighter learner 

 goes ahead, but much more in the work which appeals 

 throughout to the intelligence than in that which is in 

 great part the same for the brightest as for the stupidest. 

 A clever boy may look out fifty words in a dictionary 

 while a dull one looks out only forty or forty-five, but the 

 former will catch the force and meaning of fifty phrases, 

 sayings, and idioms, while the other has barely understood 

 the significance of half-a-dozen. The work is decidedly 

 more intellectual than the grammar and dictionary work. 

 Hence, perhaps, the reason why many masters object to it. 

 A teacher cannot keep his class together over such work as 

 he could when the drag of dictionary work was upon them 

 all. 



Yet the dullest gain by the change (granting the will to 

 work) ; and that the brightest gain much more is no real 

 reason for objecting to it so far as the learner is concerned, 

 though it may introduce a difficulty which is troublesome 

 enough, perhaps, to the teacher. 



After all, though, we are considering here rather the 

 learner who works by himself and for himself than one 

 who is under class-room discipline. Schoolmasters have 

 pointed out to me difficulties which I have no doubt are 

 serious enough. They know well, and I know very little, 

 the troubles of class-work. It has happened to me nearly 

 all my life that all my best work has been done by myself. 

 I scarcely learned anything about languages from teachers, 

 and nothing whatever about mathematics from them, though 

 I attended classes held by the ablest, and had one of the most 

 eminent mathematicians at Cambridge as private tutor. 

 This may render what I have said of little weight as re- 

 gards school teaching — though I think there remains a 

 good deal of truth in the oVijections I have advanced 

 against the simply preposterous way in which Latin and 

 Greek are presented to boys' minds in many of our school 

 books. But for the student who simply wants to learn a 

 language and is free from all class trammeLs, I am certain 

 from my own experience that the avoidance of the drudgery 

 of dictionary work, by using translations, is most desirable, 

 and if time is an object, essential. The ordinary transla- 

 tions are useful for this purpose. But they are much more 

 useful to the quick than the slow-minded. The Hamil- 

 tonian sy-stem, which I must next consider, is more useful 

 to all, especially to those who work and reason rather 

 slowly. 



(To be continued.) 



It is stated that in the North Atlantic, says the Scieiitijic 

 American, waves have been oliserved of 24 ft. and 30 ft. 

 high, highest being 4.') ft., mean IS ft, in westerly gales. 

 In the Pacific, .■i2 ft. is recorded ; South Atlantic, 22 ft ; 

 Cape Horn, 32ft. ; Mediterranean, 14.\ft. ; German Ocean, 

 13Aft. ; and French sailors mention 36 ft in the Bay of 

 Biscay. 



