September 2, 1895.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



193 



^ 



^OWLEi)^ 



AN ILLUSTRATED 



'^ 



MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE 



SIMPLY WORDED— EXACTLY DESCRIBED 



LONDON : SEPTEMBER 2, 1895. 



CONTENTS. 



a PAGE 



The International Geographical Congress in London 103 

 The Newly-Found Race in Egypt. By J. K. Quibull, 



of /!ie Effi/ptian Researc'i, Accuunt. (IllusiratedJ ... 190 



Wind-Fertilized Flowers. By tlie Eev. Alex. S. Wilson, 



Hr.A., B.Sc. (Illustrated) ... 1!19 



Notices of Books 202 



Science Notes 204 



Letters :— (Kct.) Pat. Stevenson ; Wm. Millek ; E. M. 



.•'. NTONi.\i)i {Illustrated) ... ... ... ... ■■• 204 



Satellite Evolution. B; Miss A. M. Cleeke 205 



Photographs of Elliptical and Spiral Nebulae. By 



Isaac Roberts, D.Sc, F.E.S 207 



Blind Cave-Anirnals. By R. Lydekker, B.A.Cantab., 



F.E-.S. {Illiislrated) 2C8 



Helium, together with a Few Notes on Argon. By 



George McGowan, Ph.D 210 



The Coldest Inhabited Spots on Earth. By Cael 



SiEWEKS. {Illustrated) ... ... ... ... ... 213 



Some Recent Patents. (Illustrated) 213 



The Face of the Sky for September. By IIehbeei 



S.ADLEB, F.R.A.S 214 



Chess Column. By C. D. Looock, B.A.Oxon 215 



THE INTERNATIONAL GEOGRAPHICAL 



CONGRESS IN LONDON. 



THE meeting of the Sixth International Congress 

 commenced at the Imperial Institute on the 

 evening of Friday, the 26th of July last, by the 

 presentation of the foreign delegates to the Duke 

 of York as Honorary President, who subsequently 

 took the chair in the Great Hall of the Institute and 

 addressed the members of the Congress, extending a 

 welcome and expressing his hope that their proceedings 

 would be productive of great benefit to geographical science. 

 His Koyal Highness was followed by Mr. Clements 

 Markham, F.E.S., the President of the Congress, who 

 also offered a warm welcome to all, and especially to the 

 foreign visitors, whom he congratulated on the gathering 

 together of such an assembly of eminent geographers, and 

 on the progress that had been made in geographical 

 discovery. Chief .Justice Daly, President of the Geo- 

 graphical Society of New York, on behalf of the foreign 

 delegates, thanked the Congress for the hearty welcome 

 they had received. 



THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



The presidential address of Mr. Clements Markham was 

 delivered at the general meeting of the Congress on 



Saturday morning, after a letter from the King of the 

 Belgians had been read, in which His Majesty expressed 

 his regret at his inability to be present. 



The President said that, as nations paid differing 

 amounts of attention to the various branches of geography, 

 it was desirable that the line of general advance should 

 be, as it were, dressed by an international gathering of 

 geographers. In the matter of geographical education 

 England was behind other nations, for although 

 geography was the mother of sciences, the English 

 Universities had not yet recognized it as a science. 

 It was time, therefore, that the training of teachers 

 in geography for secondary schools should be taken in 

 hand independently of the Universities. The Royal 

 Geographical Society had for the last fifteen years 

 aided the scientific study of geography, since it was of 

 great importance that explorers should be able by correct 

 surveying, etc., to bring home accurate reports and maps. 

 Locality was the basis on which all human knowledge 

 rested ; hence the importance of stimulating the execution 

 of accurate surveying could not be exaggerated. Carto- 

 graphy, and the bibliography and orthography of geography 

 were important also, and it was now highly desirable to 

 adopt a uniform system of transliterating geographical 

 names. With respect to the Polar regions, the time had 

 long gone by when it was necessary to argue in favour of 

 Arctic exploration. There was not sufficient known of the 

 North Polar region to give correct general ideas of the 

 relative extent of land and sea, of the laws regulating 

 winds and currents, of the biological distribution, or of 

 the geological history of that most interesting part of the 

 globe which was the first to become sufficiently cool to 

 sustain life. Expeditions ought to be undertaken from at 

 least five different directions, but ships ought not to be 

 sent out for the mere purpose of reaching the Pole, but for 

 thorough investigation in the interests of physical science. 

 Though Weyhrecht's plan of simultaneous observations at 

 fixed points was admirable, he thought geographical dis- 

 covery ought to be the principal object of an expedition. 



Then followed an interesting historical review of the 

 contributions to the exploration of the globe by the various 

 nations of Europe and by the United States in the following 

 order, as indicating precedence : — Italy, Portugal, Spain, 

 France, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Austria-Hungary, 

 Switzerland, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the 

 United States. 



The President concluded by again offering a most cordial 

 welcome to the distinguished geographers present. 



Prince Roland Bonaparte proposed that the thanks of 

 the Congress be given to the President for his address, and 

 this was seconded by Prof. Von den Steineu, and carried 

 with acclamation. 



GEOGRAPHICAI, EDUCATION. 



Prof. E. Levasseur, in his paper, "Geography in 

 Schools and in the University," advocated, in primary 

 education, commencing with a description of the place 

 where the school is situated, because it is based on things, 

 not on words, and leads the pupil to reflect and under- 

 stand what is taught. At the outset the plan of the 

 schoolroom teaches what a map is, and leads to the 

 comprehension of a plan of the surrounding district, with 

 which the pupil is presumably well acquainted. Globes 

 are necessary to teach the shape of the earth. Three 

 notions should be absorbed by the pupil — the name of the 

 thing, the shape of the thing, and the meaning of the 

 thing. Besides good maps and globes, and a blackboard, 

 correct relief maps, if obtainable, should be used. In 

 France, in secondary education, since 1872, physical 

 geography has occupied the first place, then historical 



