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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



the excitement and strain under whicli they 

 labor, when their fate depends upon the 

 correct answering of ten disconnected ques- 

 tions. It is well known to you that some 

 of the best pupils generally do the poorest 

 work in the confusion that attends such 

 highly-wrought nervous states. How much 

 better, then, it is to take the work of the 

 pupil for the whole year, than the results of 

 one hour, under such adverse conditions ! If 

 the teacher really teaches, and faithfully 

 watches the mental growth of her pupils 

 through the work of one or more years, she 

 alone is the best judge of their fitness to do 

 the work of the next gi-ade. The examina- 

 tions of a superintendent should be to ascer- 

 tain whether the principals under his charge 

 have the requisite ability and knowledge to 

 organize, teach, and supervise a large school. 

 The examinations of the principal should 

 test the teaching power of his teachers. 

 And, lastly, the teachers should test by ex- 

 aminations the mental growth of their pupils. 

 This is the true economical system of respon- 

 sibility. First ascertain that superintend- 

 ent, principal, and teacher can be trusted, and 

 then trust them. The testimony of count- 

 less good teachers has been uniform, when 

 asked, ' Why don't you do better work ? why 

 don't you use the methods learned in normal 

 schools, and educational periodicals, and 

 books ? ' ' We can not do it. Look at our 

 course of study. In three weeks or months 

 these children will be examined. We have 

 not one moment of time to spend in real 

 teaching.' No wonder that teaching is a 

 trade and not an art ! No wonder there is 

 little or no demand for books upon the sci- 

 ence and art of teaching ! " 



The Alps in Roman Times.— The ancient 

 Romans, says Professor H. Nissen, of Stras- 

 burg, saw in the Alps a kind of a wall com- 

 pletely shutting them out from the people 

 living beyond them, and so for centuries 

 they hesitated to take possession of the 

 mountain-lands, although their legions had 

 subjected all the country at the base of the 

 Alps to the Rhine, and had made demon- 

 strations toward Germany and England. So 

 great was their dread of those unknown 

 heights that they quietly endured the au- 

 dacity of the rapacious tribes inhabiting 

 them till about fifteen years b. c. Yet Han- 



nibal had crossed them for the first time in 

 September of 218 b. c. This was consid- 

 ered a deed of such magnitude that its suc- 

 cess was ascribed by the southern people 

 to the assistance of the heavenly powers. 

 The darkness that rested over the Alps was 

 first illuminated by the historian Polybius, 

 who visited them and described them from 

 his own observations. Roman power was 

 extended over them by Augustus Caesar, b. c. 

 15. Afterward roads were built over them, 

 fourteen at least, the laying out of which 

 shows that they were made after careful 

 studies of the situation by the engineers. 

 The opening of the mountains to travel was 

 followed by a great streaming of adventur- 

 ers in search of the riches to be found in 

 the regions beyond, and scenes were enacted 

 very much like those which were witnessed 

 a few years ago in California. At one time 

 gold was found in such abundance that the 

 price of the metal was depreciated thirty-four 

 per cent through all Italy. The treasure- 

 hunters carried vines with them and planted 

 them wherever they settled down ; and to 

 this, in part, Germany owes its wealth in 

 vineyards. The forests were laid waste, as 

 a njatter of course, just as they are now 

 wherever a new settlement is planted, and 

 with similar results. The Romans had no 

 appreciation of the beauty and grandeur of 

 the mountains, so highly admired by mod- 

 em taste, but expressed only dread of them 

 and abhorrence of their savage aspect, which 

 they considered well represented in the bar- 

 barous names their indwellers gave to them. 

 They entertained the wildest ideas of the 

 height of the mountains, which they exag- 

 gerated tremendously. Pliny, who was a na- 

 tive of Como, at their very foot, speaks of 

 one of the peaks as being fifty miles high, 

 or sixteen times as high as Mont Blanc. 



The Venom of Snakes. — Drs. S. Weir 

 Mitchell and Edward T. Reichert have ob- 

 tained the venoms from several snakes in 

 the shape of a turbid, yellowish fluid, vary- 

 ing in viscidity, odorless, and having an acid 

 reaction. All the venoms are soluble in 

 water at ordinary temperatures, save for a 

 slight cloudiness which but slowly settles. 

 The poisonous principle of the venom of 

 the moccasin and the rattlesnake appears to 

 reside in two out of three proteids which it 



