August 30, 1883] 



NA TURE 



4- 5 



congress, which it was proposed should be held at the end of 

 September. The only other matter w a; with reference to the 

 juries. The reports had nearly all come in, and they had only 

 now to wait for the meeting of the Government and Special 

 Commissioner, to confirm the various awards. 



On the occa ion of the unveiling of the statue of Daguerre at 

 Cormeilles on Sunday, it was stated that the family is not extinct, 

 The pre:ent representative being M. Behon- Daguerre, a contri- 

 butor to French scientific journals. It was on Au,u-t 19, 1S39, 

 that the Daguerreotype was publicly exhibited by Arago at a 

 sitting of the Academy of Sciences. This cDuamunication was 

 made in accordance with the provisions of a law granting to 

 I 'aguerre and Niepce a joint annuity of 400/. for the purchase of 

 their invention on behalf of the French nation. Of the members 

 of the Academy sitting on August 19, 1S39, only two are now 

 alive — M. Dumas, the Perpetual Secretary, and M. Chevreul, 

 who was then in the chair. It was M. Chevreul who congratu- 

 lated M. Daguerre in the name of the Academy of Sciences. 



An excellent paper taken from an a dress delivered fa secondary 

 school teachers in Switzerland has been circulated by the U.S. 

 Education Bureau to answer the questi in, How to teach natural 

 -cience. It urges that knowing fact, i- not the object of such 

 education ; in that case a supply of vv rks of reference would be 

 a royal road. " One gets on faster v ith a child by carrying it, 

 but it is for the child's interest to teach it to run and swim by 

 itself." A teacher, therefore (who must be laboriously grounded 

 himself), must patiently bring all his scholars, not the most pro- 

 mising only, to discover and observe facs for themselves — teach 

 them to see. Cram is most dangerous in scientific teaching, 

 because most easy to both, of them. Books, therefore, should 

 lie little used, and nothing about an object should be taught 

 without -uc'a object before them. After seeing, the next lesson 

 is describing, with the help of drawing if p ssible, both leading 

 h< accuracy in the use of language. Plants first, which are 

 plentiful for experiments, then animals of different classes ; 

 later on minerals should be chosen, mechanical effects on these 

 latter first, later on chemical. The district museum of natural 

 hi,tory and. such classes would mutually assist each other greatly ; 

 in fact neither, to be successful, would long go on without the 

 other. And, indeed, the lecturer wisely cautioned his hearers 

 that making collections must not become a rage with the pupils. 



M. Pasteur has addressed a telegram to M. Dumas, Per- 

 petual Secretary of the Academy of Sciences, to inform him that 

 lie has received telegraphic news from the French Mis ion which 

 has gone ta Egypt to study the cholera. M. Pasteur says that it 

 contains very curious observations of a highly novel character. 



The Royal Commissioners on Technical Instruction are now 

 engaged in preparing their Report, which promises to be a work 

 of considerable magnitude. The completion of it will probably 

 occupy more time than was originally contemplated. 



Prof. W. M. Hicks, M.A., has been appointed Principal of 

 Firth College, Sheffield, in the room of Prof. Jones, the newly- 

 appointed Principal of the South Wales College. Mr. Hicks is 

 a Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and was seventh 

 Wrangler in 1S73. He worked in the Cavendish Library under 

 the late Prof. Maxwell. 



l.\ addition to the observations carried on around the Pole the 

 physical institution at Upsala has also carried out others in that 

 pk.ee during the winter, which were brought to a close on 

 August 15 last. 



We have received from the President of the University of 

 Tokio the Calendar of the Departments of Law, Science, and 

 Literature for the session 1S81-S2. Like the Report of the 

 Japanese Department of Education, this volume comes somewhat 



late. As is the case with all the Japanese educational estab- 

 lishments, we notice here the rapid reduction in the number of 

 foreign teachers, and the increase in the number of qualified 

 natives who take their places. Thus in the department of 

 science we find thirty-six instructors of various grades, of whom 

 only seven are foreigners, and there have recently been still 

 further reductions. Many of the native professors appear to 

 have excellent academical degrees from European and American 

 universities, and one is a Cambridge Wrangler. Among the 

 changes in the curriculum during the session we observe that the 

 permission to students to choose between the study of French 

 and German is taken away, and the latter language made com- 

 pulsory. "This change has been made in order to enable 

 students to pursue their studies or professions in fu'.ure to the 

 best advantage, since it is believed that Germany is the country 

 where the sciences here pursued have reached the highest com- 

 parative development." Several graduates were despatched 

 during the year to Europe to continue the s'.udy of zoology, 

 mechanical engineering, medicine, and political science. The 

 total number of students was 170, 91 of whom had entered 

 for the scientific course ; while the total number of graduates 

 wa 133. 



THK new biological laboratory of the Johns Hopkins di- 

 versity, which will be opened next September, has, Science 

 states, been especially constructed with reference to providing 

 opportunity for advanced work in experimental physiol igy. It 

 contains two large rooms for general advanced work in animal 

 physiology, in addition to others specially designed for work 

 wih the spectroscope, with the myograph, for electro physio- 

 logical reeaic'ie-, and for physiological chemistry. It also 

 contains a special rooai constructed for advanced histological 

 work, and well supplied with apparatus and reagents, a room 

 for micr i-phot igraphy, and rooms for advanced work in animal 

 morphology. 



A 1 ELEGRAM from Batavia, dated August 27, states that terrific 

 del nati ns from the volcanic island of Krakatoa were heard on 

 the previous night, and were audible as far as Soerakarta, 

 showers of a-hes falling as far as Cheribon. The Hashes from 

 the volcano were plainly visible from Batavia. Serang is now 

 in total darkness. Stones have fallen at that place. Batavia 

 was also nearly in darkness. All the gaslights were extinguished 

 during the night. It was impossible to communicate with Anjer, 

 and it is feared that some calamity has happened there. Several 

 bridges between Anjer and Serang have been destroyed, and a 

 village near the former place has been washed away, the rivers 

 having overflowed through the ru-h of the sea inland. This 

 rush is spoken of in the telegrams as a " tidal wave, " but it is 

 evidently more of the nature of an earthquake wave, a pheno- 

 menon so well known on the west coast of South America. 

 Java is the centre of one of the most active volcanic regbns on 

 the globe ; it has about sixteen active volcanoes, and many more 

 which are mostly quiescent, not extinct. 



A terrible tornado broke over the so.itk-eastern part of 

 Minnesota on August 22. At Rochester forty persons are re- 

 ported to have been killed and fifty injured. A third of Rochester 

 is stated to be wrecked, and it is feared that the whole country 

 around that town is in ruins. The number of killed is estimated 

 at some hundreds. A passenger train on the Rochester and 

 Northern Railway was blown off the line, and it is reported that 

 twenty-five passengers were killed and thirty-five injured. The 

 storm also visited Utica, St. Charles, and neighbouring counties. 



On August 5 at about 9 p.m. a very fine meteor was observed 

 from several places around Lake Vettern, in Sweden. It 

 passed across the sky from west to east, and possessed a mag- 

 nificent lustrous head and tail somewhat resembling a large 

 rocket. Its speed was as slow as that of the latter, its pa-sage 



