Mar. 7, 1 8 72 J 



NATURE 



371 



memoirs certain valuable scientific manuscripts now in hand, the 

 alternative of being obliged to send them to some other establish- 

 ment having more means at its disposal being greatly deplored, 

 as they were based upon the collections of the Academy, and 

 should legitimately appear under its auspices. 



The Clifton College Scientific Society has just issued the 

 second part of its Transactions, containing the record of its pro- 

 ceedings from February to July, 1 87 1. The president and 

 secretary state in their Report that the papers read at the Society's 

 meetings have been as numerous as previously, and the attendance 

 of members and visitors has in no degree fallen off ; and that, 

 although there is still much to be desired in this respect, yet the 

 number of working members is steadily increasing. The various 

 sections of botany, zoology, entomology, geology, arcliKology, 

 chemistry, and physics have, on the whole, done good work, the 

 least satisfactory reports being in the case of zoology, chemistry 

 and physics. The great event of the half-year has been the 

 long-expected opening of the new Museum and Botanic Garden, 

 both of wliich institutions are well deserving of support from 

 those outside the school who are able to assist in furnishing 

 them. The Botanic Garden is already one of the very best to be 

 met with anywhere in the provinces. Among the papers read 

 before the society and printed in the Transactions, the following 

 have struck us as especially excellent : — "A Scientific Visit to 

 Cheddar," by the President and J. Stone; "The Church of 

 St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol," by K. "w. Wilson ; "The Coalfield 

 of South Wales," by A. Cruttwell ; "The Birds of Chfton," by 

 D. Pearce ; and an admirable paper on "The Spectrum," by 

 W. A. Smith. 



The last number of the Bulletin de la Societe de Geographic 

 contains an article by Delesse on the oscillations of the coasts of 

 France. 



The Annual Address, delivered before the Albany Institute 

 New York, by Orlando Meads, on May 25, 1871, has just 

 reached us. It is chiefly occupied with a sketch of the history of 

 this successful and enterprising institution. 



The Pooiia Oisen'er of February 6 gives the following ac- 

 count of Indian Geological Excursions : — "The Principal of the 

 Poona Civil Engineering College, Mr. T. Cooke, together with 

 the Professor of Chemistry, Mr. S. Cooke, with about twenty 

 students of the first class, proceeded on a geological excursion on 

 January 29, and arrived here on Saturday morning last. After 

 leaving Poona they arrived at Shabad, where they remained 

 for a whole day. The next morning they left Shabad and 

 arrived at Krishtna at about ten in the morning, and in- 

 spected the Krishtna Bridge. After inspecting several works of 

 the G. I. P. R., they started for Poona on the afternoon of 

 Friday. The thanks of the students as well as of the Principals 

 are due to the G. I. P. R. Company, in kindly placing their 

 waiting-rooms at the several stations where they halted, at the 

 disposal of the boys. The expense of this excursion is to be 

 borne solely by Government. The amount allotted for the pur- 

 pose of this excursion was 500 Rs." 



The following account of the Aurora of February 4 appears 

 in the Times of India of the following day: — "A magnificent 

 Aurora was visible, from the Rawul Pindee portion of the Pun- 

 jaub, last night, February 4, from 12 to past 12.30 o'clock. It 

 occupied the northern quadrant of a clear sky, or rather more, 

 the stars shining dimly through a glowing deep red hazy light 

 reaching half way up the heavens, and which was crossed by 

 thin vertical rays of white light stretching to the south. The 

 night was calm but less frosty than usual at this season, and the 

 oldest inhabitant who witnessed the display averred he had never 

 seen anything like it in his life before." The suggestion made 

 by our correspondent Mr. Earwaker, that we witnessed on that 

 day a combination of the Northern and Southern Aurora, is thus 

 confirmed. 



SCIENCE IN PLAIN ENGLISH 



TN a paper under this heading, in the Boston Journal of 

 Chemistrv, Mr. C. A. Joy, after quoting from our articles of 

 June 22 and 29, 1871, proceeds thus : — We must admit that what 

 Mr. Rushton says of English schoolsapplies equally well toourown. 

 Does anybody know of a preparatory school in the United 

 States where instruction in science is given on a systematic plan 

 by teachers especially fitted for the work, and with well-selected 

 apparatus and judicious text-books, and where an equal value 

 for excellence in science is given to pupils as for mathematics and 

 the languages ? There are, doubtless, some such schools, but it 

 is my misfortune never to have heard of them. The truth is, 

 there are few teachers. The custom in this world of studying 

 everything else but the world we live in, which has been handed 

 down to us from our ancestors, has precluded the possibiUty of 

 anybody being fitted to teach the natural sciences excepting the 

 few who have had the energy and the means to overcome every 

 obstacle, and to learn something ; and they are so rare that they 

 are not to be had for ordinary schools. We are now in a fair 

 way to acquire considerable knowledge of the planet Mars, its 

 climate and physical condition ; and it may be that we shall 

 some day be favoured by a visit from an inhabitant of that dis- 

 tant world. The arrival of such a visitor would be rapidly 

 heralded over the land, and he would be introduced to our best 

 society, to the leading men of education ; and as he would doubt- 

 less be possessed of an inquiring turn of mind, he would have 

 many embarrassing questions to ask. He might address the in- 

 quiry to the gentleman on his right at the public dinner, which 

 would be sure to be given to him, as to the composition of the 

 crust of the earth ; or he might ask what the glass windows 

 were made of, and what form of light shone through them, or 

 the water on the table and the air of the room might absorb his 

 attention. If the respondent happened to be a University bred man 

 the chances are ten to one he could not answer a single question ; 

 he would be forced to say tlrat the study of the language of 

 a people formerly occupying a small portion of the globe had 

 monopolised all of his time, and prevented the acquisition of a 

 knowledge of any of the natural phenomena around him ; he 

 might, in fact, have more knowledge of Mars than of the earth. 

 It is probable that our visitor would be slightly astonished at the 

 ignorance of the best educated members of the community. I 

 do not know that we are bound to prepare ourselves for the 

 approaching visit, but the very suggestion of it ought to startle 

 us a little out of our propriety, and make us review the course of 

 instruction we have pursued for so many years. As long as the 

 requirements for admission to college are left just as they are at 

 present, all persons who expect to go to college must follow a pre- 

 scribed course or be found wanting. The teacher in a prepara- 

 tory school knows that the pupil can attend only a certain 

 number of hours, and to get up his task for admission to college 

 nearly all this time must be devoted to classical studies. There 

 is no time left for science, and it is not taught. This state of 

 things has led to a violent controversy on the part of the advo- 

 cates of the two systems, and the question appears to be no 

 nearer a solution at the present time than it was many years ago. 

 The advocates of classical training will not yield an inch of 

 ground, and the scientists are equally firm. It is a pity that some 

 compromise cannot be affected, as a knowledge of Latin and 

 Greek is of great value to the scientific student, and ought not to 

 be omitted. And as the classicists now have the colleges in their 

 power, would it not be well for them to recommend a knowledge 

 of language rather than of grammar, and a facility of reading 

 generally instead of prescribing the precise number of chapters 

 and verses ? If the teacher of Chemistry, for example, were to 

 insist upon the students studying 100 p.iges of Miller, 50 pages 

 of Roscoe, two books of Gerhardt, the correspondence of 

 Lavoisier, and the life of Berzelius, before presenting himself 

 for examination, he would be looked upon as slightly deranged ; 

 and yet this is precisely what is done by our classical friends. 

 A chemist can tell in half an hour whether the candidate is 

 prepared to go on with a certain class ; and he cares not 

 how, when, or where the applicant obtained the know- 

 ledge. Not so our classical friends ; they insist upon 

 chapter and verse as if there were a charm in the prescribed 

 number— and by so doing they do great harm to our schools. A 

 friend of mine desired to put his son at a select school, and had 

 a long conversation with the principal in reference to the studies 

 he would have to pursue in order to fit him for college. The 

 principal had the experience of thirty years in his calling, and 



