372 



NATURE 



Mar. 7, 1872 



knew precisely what was required. He produced liis scHsnae of 

 hours, and convinced the parent that in order tJ fit his son for 

 college it would be necessary for him to devote a certain number 

 of hours to the reading of a prescribed number of pages and 

 verses of Latin and Greek ; and to do this no deduction could 

 be safely made. He showed that the average attendance of boys 

 was abo-it 6,000 hours, and by assigning to each hour its par- 

 ticular work, if not interrupted by accident or illness, the pupil 

 wjald be able to come up to the prescribed standard. My 

 friend tried to see if a few minutes could not be gained for a 

 small amount of science, but the teacher, with his experience of 

 thirty years, was inexorable, and he could not crowd in a know- 

 ledge of this world into the course of studies even edgewise. 

 It has been sometimes said that the most ignorant members of 

 our community are our men of education ; and after looking 

 over the scheme of studies which the victims of liberal education 

 are obliged to follow, the paradoxical remark would almost 

 appear to be true. It may therefore be asked, What change the 

 advocates of reform would propose ? I cannot attempt to answer 

 this question for all parties, as there is little uniformity of belief 

 on the subject ; but it may be well to state the case of a 

 prominent party in the modem agitation. We have a large class 

 among us who admit the culture to be derived from the study of 

 language, and who would not on any account banish Latin and 

 Greek from the curriculum ; but they would remove that study 

 to a later part of the course, and replace it by scientific subjects. 

 They think that those subjects whicli cultivate and strengthen 

 the powers of perception, observation, and judgment, should be 

 taught first. They would instruct the youth in a knowledge of 

 the laws of health or physiology ; they would have him know 

 something about plants, animals, minerals, and the commonest 

 laws of chemistry and physics, so that if the pupil is com- 

 pelled to leave school at an early age, he would know 

 how to take care of mind and body, and be enabled to 

 turn his knowledge to some account. They would commence 

 the study of Latin and Greek at a period when the mind is more 

 mature, and thus avoid the enormous waste of time, the bad 

 habits of droning over lessons, and the monopolising character 

 of the present system. There are so many instances of persons 

 who commenced the study of the classics at mature years, who 

 have excelled all others, that the advocates of postponing lan- 

 guages to the latter part of a boy's course appear to be justified 

 in their claim. If the study of Latin and Greek could be com- 

 menced after the student enters college, it is believed that more 

 real progress would be made in the four years of the college 

 course than is effected under the present arrangement of devoting 

 ten years of a boy's life to this study. This is the compromise 

 that many good men advocate. They wish the preparatory 

 schools to be wholly given up to mathematical, scientific, and 

 English studies, and to have the colleges assume the charge of 

 the classics. Instead of devoting every hour of the preparatory 

 course to languages, they would give the time to the sciences, 

 and they would demand a knowledge of the general principles 

 of science as a requisite for admission to college. This would 

 be turning the tables entirely, and would afford scientific men a 

 chance to try the effect of the modern education. The other side 

 have had it all their own way for a long time, and it would appear 

 to be no more than fair for thenr to let people of different views have 

 a chance. Such a radical change as this cannot be accomplished 

 at once. It would demand imnense moral courage on the part 

 of the trustees of a college to expose themselves to the cry of 

 lowering the standard of study. They would have the alumni 

 of existing institutions and the prejudices of the whole com- 

 munity against them, and it would require a generation before 

 thi majority would become reconciled to the new order of things. 

 Another obstacle would also arise at the outset, ani that would 

 be the difficulty of securing competent teachers of the natural 

 sciences. It is this obstacle that has stood in the way of the in- 

 troduction of the study of science in our schools. There are far 

 too few teachers. To surmount this difficulty in the city of New 

 York a normal college for females and a free college for males 

 have been established, and scientific schools have been founded 

 in all parts of the country. These institutions are destined to 

 work a great revolution. As soon as they have trained a suffi- 

 cient number of teachers, we shall find our public schools afford- 

 ing a better education than at present, and their example will 

 have to be followed by the owners of private schools, who desire 

 to keep up with the progress of the age. What we want is 

 science taught in plam English, and there is every prospect of 

 our speedily attaining the desired end," 



i SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



j Numbers S, 9, and 10 of the 27th volume of the Pnviwiings 0/ 

 I ti'ie Swedish Academy of Sciences (Ofversigt af Kongk. Vetenskaps 

 I Akademiens Forhindlingar) which have just reached us, contain 

 I several valuable contributions to science. The most important 

 I of these relate to zoological subjects. Thus we find from M. 

 Anton Stuxberg the first portion of a paper modestly described 

 as a contribution to the Myriopodology of Scandinavia, but con- 

 taining a synonymic revision, with descriptions, of the Swedish 

 Chilognatha, under which the author recognises the genera 

 ytilus^ Tsobates^ Blaniuliis, Polydesmus, Craspedosoma^ Glomeris^ 

 Polyxeniis, and Polyzonium, including in all eighteen species. M. 

 G. Lindstrom contributes a paper on opercular structures in 

 some recent and Silurian corals, in which he refers especially to 

 Gonicipliyllum pyrainidale and Cyslipliyllnin pyismaticum. From 

 M. Gustaf Eisen we have a most valuable contribution to the 

 Oligoch^tal fauna of Scandinavia, illustrated with numerous 

 figures on seven plates, and containing a monograph of the Scan- 

 dinavian species of the ^^rmsLumbriais, of which eight are recog- 

 rised by the author. As the characters are given in Latin, and 

 most of the species are found in this country, this paper will be of 

 particular value to British naturalists. One species, Lninbricus 

 ptiipiiretis, is described as new. — M. J. E. .\rejchoug communi- 

 cates a list, with remarks, of a series of algce collected by Dr. 

 Iledenborg at Alexandria. — The longest paper is an account, by 

 Prof. A. E. Nordenslcibld, of theSwedishExpeditiou toGreenland 

 in 1870. This paper contains some interesting observations, illus- 

 trated with diagrams, on the glacial phenomena of Greenland j 

 the remarks on the geology of the more interesting parts of the 

 coast, especially those where fossil plants are found, are also of 

 great importance ; as is the account given of the supposed 

 meteoric iron-stones of enormous size which have lately attracted 

 so much attention. Analyses of the material of these masses by 

 the authors, T. Nordstrom and J. Lindstrom, are given. Lists 

 of the land plants and algae collected on the expedition, and of 

 the microscopic alga; obtained from the inland ice, form an ap- 

 pendix to the paper. M. P. T. Clevi contribuljes a paper on 

 platinum-bases containing organic radicals, and M. G. R. Dah- 

 lander some investigations relating to the mechanical theory of 

 heat. 



The American Naturalist for January (vol. vi., No. i) com- 

 mences with Prof. Agassiz's letter, already printed in our columns, 

 on Deep-sea Dredgings. Mr. F. W. Putman follows, with an 

 extremely interesting and well-illustrated article on the Blind 

 Fishes of the IVIammoth Cave of Kentucky and their Allies, a 

 sequel to Mr. Packard's paper on the Blind Insects of the same 

 locality in the previous number. Dr. R. H. Ward describes a 

 new erecting arrangement, especially designed for use with 

 binocular microscopes. One of the most interesting articles in 

 the number is on the Rattlesnake and Natural Selection, by 

 Prof. N. S. .Shaler, who, from observa ion of the animal in its 

 native haunts, regards the rattle as a useful appendage, imitating 

 the note of the Cicada, and thus attracting birds which are in 

 the habit of preying on that insect. Prof. Shaler states that, 

 without committing himself to a belief in the sufficiency of natural 

 selection to account for the existence of the snake's rattle, he has 

 been driven step by step from a decided opposition to the whole 

 theory, and compelled to accept it as a vera causa, though still 

 thinking it more limited in its action thin Mr. Darwin believes. 

 There is the usual supply of interesting short notes on the various 

 branches of natural history. 



Jjurnal of the Scottish Meteorological Society, October 1871, 

 New Series, No. xxxii. — This number of the Journal of the 

 Scottish Meteorological Society contains a paper by Mr. Buchan, 

 the secretary, "On the Rainfall of .Scotland," based on obser- 

 vations made at forty-six places during long series of years. The 

 questions of droughts and excessively wet years are dealt with. 

 .\s regards their geographical distribution it is shown that some 

 have been felt over the whole of Scotland, whilst others have 

 been restricted to the west or to the east of the country, or with- 

 in still narrower limits ; and as regards their recurrence, that 

 there has been no perodicity observed, and that there is nothing 

 in the observations of the past forty years to sanction the opinion 

 that there has been any progressive increase or decrease in the 

 Scottish ramfall. The important engineering question of the 

 deficiency of the three driest consecutive years' rainfall from the 

 average is carefully examined, and the conclusion is arrived at, 

 that in estimicing the rainfall of the three driest consecutive 

 years, it will not be safe to deduct less than one-fourth from the 



