Vol. XXIII. No. 9.] 



POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. 



139 



develop the intellectual faculties to the full 

 extent of their varying powers in dirtereiit 

 individuals, and fit them to be of the best use 

 to their possessors in the infinitely ditVering 

 conditions of their after life. The conditions 

 of adult life are different in almost every indi- 

 vidual, and it is the height of absurdity to 

 hold that any one, or even a dozen fixed 

 courses of study, will be of direct practical 

 benefit to the pupils who take them. The 

 object of preliminary education — that is, up 

 to the time when the college coinse is usiiallv 

 commenced — should be to give a good, solid 

 foundation, upon which the individual him- 

 self must erect the superstructure as the cir- 

 cumstances of his after life may determine. 



A scientific education, then, should be one 

 in which the observing faculties are trained 

 to the utmost accuracy, so that a true and 

 accurate comprehension of facts may be 

 obtained, and next the rcasotii?ig faculties so 

 developed that the logical value of the ob- 

 served facts may be properly estimated. 

 Very few persons are able to properly observe 

 and comprehend any unusual occurrence. 

 Let a teacher question the members of his 

 class separately in regard to any circumstance 

 which may have happened out of the com- 

 mon course, and the chances are that he will 

 have as many difterent accounts as there are 

 scholars who saw it. Let him ask their 

 opinion upon any political or social question 

 of the day, and, in nine cases out of ten, the 

 answer will simply be the opinion of some 

 older person, or of their favorite newspaper, 

 — somewhat changed in language, it is true, 

 but without the slightest trace of any inde- 

 pendent thought. 



Now it is just these deficiencies, which are 

 common to every untrained mind, that it 

 should be the object of education to remove, 

 and the question arises as to what course or 

 system of study is best for this purpose. It is 

 impossible to lay down any rigid course, or 

 certain definite stutlies suitable for everyone ; 

 the individual tendencies of each student 

 must l)e taken into consideration, and it is as 

 much the manner in which the instruction 

 is given as in the subject itself which deter- 

 mines success or failure. One pupil may 

 excel in mathematics, — an excellent discipline 

 for the reasoning faculties alone, — while 

 another may be imablc to comprehend a 

 simple algebraic formida, and jet have a 

 wonderful knowledge of the habits of animals 

 and plants, or spend all his spare time exper- 

 imenting with chemical substances and such 

 scientific apparatus as he may be able to pro- 

 cure. Even the dead languages may be 

 made useful, although we must confess to 

 thinking that, in a practical or scientific 

 method of education, a very little Greek or 

 [vatin will go a great ways. 



Adniittiiig, then, that the individual pecu- 

 liarities of a child's inind must be considered 



first of all, we would recommend the study of 

 the laws, phenomena, and forces of nature as 

 of the very highest value as a means of men- 

 tal discipline, to say nothing of their eminently 

 practical value. They all rest on a basis of 

 absolute fact, and when once the^ are properly 

 comprehended and their logical value esti- 

 mated, the student has acquired something 

 definite, and not — as in the purely literary 

 studies — something that rests merely iqjon 

 the opinion of someone else, and liable to be 

 changed at any time. The pupil should be 

 introduced at an early age to the great king- 

 dom of Nature about him, and taught to 

 observe the animals and plants, the rocks and 

 minerals, and the heavenly bodies, and to 

 note, their habits, characteristics, and move- 

 ments. Later on, he may be taught the hiws 

 governing them, but always with the idea 

 that he is to do the work himself, and not to 

 blindly accept what the teacher may tell him. 

 The essence of science is skepticism. He 

 should undertake original work from the 

 very beginning, even if it is of the most sim- 

 ple kind, for every fact observed, every eiTect 

 reasoned back to its cause, is of infinitely 

 more value to him than pages of text-books 

 committed to memory, only to be forgotten 

 after that useless relic ol' medieval barbarism, 

 the "examination." 



Physical geography, geology, mineralogy, 

 an<l botany can always be illustrated in one's 

 own locality, and the connection between the 

 most ordinary actions of life and the great 

 fundamental principles of nature, should 

 always be impres.sed upon the mind. Physi- 

 ology and anatomy should be given a place 

 in such a course, and taught for their .scientific 

 value, and not for the purpose of indoctrinat- 

 ing the ideas of any particular class of 

 reformers. Elementary mathematics are a 

 most admirable mental discipline, if the stu- 

 dent is capable of comprehending them, and 

 the French and German languages are of the 

 highest practical value ; but the main object 

 should always be to teach the student to 

 observe and reason correctly, and, when this 

 is accomplished, he is ready to take up and 

 study intelligently and profitably such other ad- 

 vanced courses— whether literary, artistic, phil- 

 osophical, mathematical, linguistic, or techni- 

 cal — as his natural predilections may indicate, 

 or the circumstances of his after life require. 

 Everyone must, after all, educate himself, and 

 the true fimction of the teacher is to direct 

 and guide the eflbrts, and not to cram the 

 mind with a certain amount of knowledge in 

 a given time, with the sole end in view of 

 having his pupil attain a certain "percentage," 

 or pass a formal examination. 



THE MICROSCOPE PRIZE. 



In the Jiuie nimiber of the Science News 

 we offered a prize of a micro.scope to the 

 scientific amateur first sending us some new 



discovery or observation in natiual or physi- 

 cal science. The first communication received 

 was from W. E. McLaine, of Haverhill, 

 Mass., who reported a new locality for the 

 Anemone cylindrica, — a rather rare flower 

 in that section, — and to whom the microscope 

 was awarded. We must also make mention 

 of an observation by George F. Perry, of 

 Boston, who has found that certain specimens 

 of trap-rock show a distinct magnetic polarity, 

 and a very interesting account of a combat 

 between a wasp and spider by L. A. Frierson, 

 both of which are published in full in other 

 columns. The studies of fossil ferns by F. 

 Hearne Crockard, of Benwood, West Vir- 

 ginia, are also worthy of notice. The plan 

 of offering a prize for amateur work has, 

 in this case, been very successful, and, at 

 some future time, we intend to repeat the 

 ofier, with the conditions so modified that 

 the most distant readers of the Science Nevv.s 

 shall have an equal chance with those living 

 near the city where it is published. 



[Specially Observed lor 'Pke Popular Science A'ews.] 

 METEOROLOGY FOR JULY, 18S9. 



TEMPERATURE. 



Average Thermometer. 



At 7 A. M. 

 At 2 p. M. 

 At 9 p. M. 

 Whole Month 



Last 19 Julys 



75-35° 

 67.65- 

 70.04° 



Lowest. Highest. Range 



60° 

 61° 

 57° 

 57° 



6S;05' 

 in 18SS, 



77 

 S3° 

 76° 



74-So' 

 in 18S7. 



26° 



5-Ss° 



The lowest point reached by the mercury the past 

 month was 57°, on the evening of the 15th, the 

 coolest day, also, in the month, having an average 

 of 60*^; while the highest point was 83 \ on the 8th, 

 but the 30th was the warmest day, with an average 

 of 76.66'^. The last three days were very warm, 

 averaging 76". The entire month was 1.29" below 

 the average for July. The range of temperature the 

 past month was very small (only 26°), having been 

 less but once (25° in 1877) in nineteen years, show- 

 ing unusual uniformity. 



SKY. 



The face of the sky, in 93 observations, gave 39 

 fair, 17 cloudy, 28 overcast, and 9 rainy, — a percent- 

 age of only 41.9 fair. (Between the usual hours of 

 observation, seven other rainy observations were 

 noted, making sixteen in all.) The average fair in 

 July for nineteen years has been 61.2, with extremes 

 of 41.9 in 1889, and 76.3 in 1878, showing great 

 cloudiness tlie last month. July and August are 

 usually our two fairest months, but this year July 

 ha? fallen below the average of the most cloudy — 

 December. Yet we had several fine days during the 

 month. The first morning was foggy. 



PRECIPITATION. 



The amount of rainfall the past month has been 

 remarkable for July, being 9.27 inches, while the 

 average for the last twenty-one Julys has been only 

 3.29, with extremes of 1.20 in 1S8S, and 9.27 in 1S89. 

 This large amount was well distributed through the 

 month, or it might have resulted in great damage ; 

 1.28 inches fell on the 3d and 4th, .07 on the nth, 

 1.50 on the 15th, 1.52 on the 20th, .41 on the 23d, 

 2.15 on the 27th, .42 on the 29th,. and 1.92 on the 

 30th and 31st, with several traces of rain on other 

 days. By adding 1.97 inches, which fell August ist, 



