Vol. XXTT. No. 8.] 



POPULAR SOIEITCE NEWS. 



123 



A FOSSIL HUMAN FOOTPRINT. 



In various localities, notably upon the rocks 

 of the Connecticut valley, there have been 

 found the footprints of various animals belong- 

 ing to former geological periods, which have 

 been preserved by the hardening of the soft 

 sand or mud into solid rock. There have 

 lately been discovered in Nicaragua certain 

 human footprints which have been preserved 

 in the same manner, although of much later 

 date than those referred to above. Thej' have 

 been described at length by Dr. Daniel Brin- 

 ton ; and four of them have been removed to 

 the Peabody Museum of Archaeology at Cam- 

 bridge, Mass., where thej- are now on 

 exhibition. ' 



These footprints occur on the borders of a 

 lake near the town of Managua, at a depth of 

 twenty-one feet below the surface. Several 

 different strata of limestone, calcareous tufa. 



sand, claj', and volcanic ashes v. ^;^ .v^,,!iil 

 above them, indicating an unusual activitj' of 

 geological forces. The whole region is of a 

 volcanic nature, and in former j'ears eruptions 

 and cliauges of level were much more frequent 

 than at present. 



The footprint represented in the illustration 

 is about ten inches long, and from three to 

 four and a half inches wide. The excessive 

 width in proportion to the length is doubtless 

 due to the soft earth spreading under the 

 weight. The great-toe is large and prominent, 

 and is longer than the second one. This pecu- 

 liarity is considered bj- some archaeologists to 

 be a sign of inferiority of race. The fore part 

 of the foot has made the deepest impression, 

 showing it to be made by a vigorous and stroug- 

 gaited person. 



The age of these footprints is very uncer- 

 tain. In a region where the natural forces are 

 so active, the condition of the superficial strata 

 is of little use as a measurer of time. Certain 

 fossils accompanying the footprints have been 

 referred to the quarternary era, and the bones 



of a mastodon were found in a layer of earth 

 above the footprints. This, however, would 

 not indicate a very great antiquity, as that 

 animal is supposed to have lived there in 

 quite modern times. A skeleton has recently 

 been found in an artificial fish-pond near Con- 

 cordia, in Columbia, Central America. The 

 countrj' surrounding the Lake Nicaragua is 

 rich in relics of prehistoric inhabitants, who 

 were evidently a distinct race from those in- 

 habiting the country at the time of the Spanish 

 conquest ; and although it is at present impos- 

 sible to set a date for these literal " footprints 

 on the sands of time," there can be no doubt 

 that they are of great antiquity, and maj' 

 even date back to that remote period when the 

 northern part of the country was covered with 

 the snow and ice of the glacial epoch. 



THE PEOPLE AND THE SCHOOLS. 

 In a recent communication to Science, 

 Mr. Edward H. Boyer, a principal of one of 

 the New York grammar-schools, has done a 

 good service in placing the responsibility for 

 the over-pressure and excessive work imposed 

 upon their pupils upon those most directl3' to 

 blame, — the parents themselves. There is too 

 much shifting of responsibility in this matter. 

 The teachers claim, and with some reason, that 

 they must complete the courses assigned by 

 the school committee, and the school committee 

 are inclined to place the blame upon the Legis- 

 lature in setting too high a standard for the 

 public schools ; but the fact remains, that not 

 only in New York City, but in everj- citj' or 

 large town in the countrj', the courses of studj* 

 in the public schools are too numerous and too 

 difficult for the average pupil to creditably 

 complete without serious injur3- to his health. 

 As Mr. Boyer says, it is only necessary for 

 the people to demand a change, and that 

 change will be immediately made. 



The schools are to-day just what the people, 

 through apathy, indifference, carelessness, and 

 ignorance, liave permitted them to become, — one 

 vast machine; a treadmill, teachers treading the 

 wheel, happy innocent children the grist, superin- 

 tendents for task-masters, and the product a mass 

 of automatons. 



You, the people of New York City, are directly 

 responsible for the larger part of all the evils that 

 exist in the common-school system. Your children 

 attend them; you hear from them daily reports 

 of the manner in which they are educationally 

 crammed; you see them at home, wearing out 

 their young lives in preparing lessons for the next 

 day's recitations: and, if some wise teacher reduces 

 the tasks assigned for home-study, you immediately 

 begin to inquire why your children have no more 

 books, and why they have so few lessons to learn 

 at home. 



I know you do this, for I have heard you talk 

 just that way. In vain have I pleaded with you 

 for the little ones. In vain have I told you that 

 five hours' daily attention to books, to recitations, 

 to instruction, is all that any growing child can 

 safely endure. "No, no!" you cry, "give them 

 more lessons; give them tasks to do at home: " and 

 your children go through their school-lives with the 

 shadow of the coming task always falling upon the 

 task just finished The gentle, obedient, loving, 

 and affectionate little ones suffer; while the dear 



bad boys won't even make an effort, and thrive 

 accordingly. The teacher can sometimes go home 

 with his work finished for the day: the pupil never. 



Now, if I will not permit this wrong to be per- 

 petrated in the school under my charge, you take 

 your boy away, and send him to Mr. Examination 

 Hunter's school; and you take your girl out of 

 Miss Honest's department, and send her down to 

 Miss Show-off's school; and then you point with 

 parental pride to the great load of books your 

 little ones stagger under, as a proof of the superior 

 efficiency of those two principals, " whom we all 

 respect." Then, when your little girl graduates, 

 and Miss Show-off orders all the graduates to wear 

 white dresses and tea-roses, and to come in carriages, 

 and to drape their desks in white, you all say, " She 

 has no right to give any such orders, and it ought 

 to be stopped; and" — yoa get the dresses and 

 the tea-roses and the carriage, and you attend the 

 reception; and it is all so beautiful, and the mem- 

 bers of the Mutual Admiration Society do speak so 

 melliflueutly, — buttered honey, as it were, — that 

 you are as proud of your daughter as a drum-major 

 on parade. And then you go home, and your 

 daughter has typhoid-fever, or spinal meningitis, 

 or some other Latin disease, and you lay the blame 

 on Providence. Who is to blame if the supply of 

 sham education be exactly proportioned to your 

 demand for it? 



If you could only once be roused from your 

 apathy on this subject, do you not know that your 

 servants — the Mayor, the Board of Education, 

 and the Legislature of this great State of New 

 York — would skip around like waiters in a dime 

 restaurant to get you what you want? 



The public schoojs of New York City will never 

 be any better than the people of that city demand 

 that they shall be. 



— « — 



[Specially reported for the Popular Science JTews.] 



METEOROLOGY FOR JUNE, 1888. 



TEMPERATURE. 



The 28th was the coolest day of the month, with 

 an average of 59§°. The 29th, 2d, and 3d days, 

 near the close and beginning of the month, 

 were but slightly warmer. The 23d was the 

 hottest day, not only of the past month, but of 

 the last twenty-four years, including the entire 

 record of my observations. The heat on that 

 day was so remarkable, that a more full report 

 may seem desirable. The mercury did not, in- 

 deed, reach so high a point at any hour on that 

 day as on several occasions in preceding years, as 

 Aug. 3, 1805, July 14, 1868, and July 4, 1872, when 

 it reached 96° and 95°, while the highest point on 

 the 23d ult. was only 94°. But the peculiarity of 

 this day was the continuance of extreme heat 

 hour after hour. Even at 7 a.m. the mercury 

 stood at 82°, also the highest point at that hour 

 during the twenty-four years. At about 10 a.m. 

 it had risen to 90°, and continued at 90° or above 

 until 7 P.M., — an average of 92° for those con- 

 tinuous nine hours. It rose to 94° at 11 a.m., but 

 soon fell to 93°, where it remained till 2 p.m. Soon 

 after 7 p.m. a dark cloud appeared iu the north, 

 with sharp lightning, distant thunder, and a slight 

 sprinkle of rain, reducing the temperature 12° in 

 two hours, and leaving the mercury at only 78° at 

 9 P.M. The average for the fourteen hours, taken 



