28 



NA TURE 



\_Nov. 13, 1 ! 



anatomical and histological evidence summarised in my recent 

 paper — will now see that unless they can disprove the statements 

 of Prof. Marshall, Dr. Jickeli, Dr. P. Herbert Carpenter, and 

 myself, they are bound to admit my doctrine, and to show how 

 their theoretical homology is to be reconciled with it. 



William B. Carpenter 

 56, Regent's Park Road, Londoi, N.W., November 3 



Natural Science for Schools 



The thoughtful and suggestive paper of Prof. Armstrong 

 in the last number of Nature (p. 19) is to be com- 

 mended to the attention both of science teachers and of the 

 head masters of our schools. It is undoubtedly true that, with 

 few exceptions, science is still either completely neglected 

 by our schools or handled in a way which does not at all tend to 

 advance its interests. When it is made a " refuge for the desti- 

 tute," or considered only fit for those intellectually unequal to 

 the study of classics and mathematics, no wonder that observant 

 head masters conclude that little good is to be got from it. 



As a science master of many years' experience (having been 

 in fact responsible for the introduction of science into two of the 

 schools named by Prof. Armstrong as exceptions to the universal 

 indifference), you will perhaps allow me to call attention to the 

 importance of Prof. Armstrong's paper, and to give the conclu- 

 sions to which my own experience has led me. 



The importance of clearly understanding the purpose with 

 which science is to be studied, and the distinction to be borne in 

 mind between the best curriculum for those who are to be pro- 

 fessed chemists and those who will not carry the study of 

 chemistry beyond their school-days is obvious ; but I wish to 

 point out how entirely science masters are at the mercy of 

 examiners, both of University examiners, periodically examining 

 a school, and of examiners for open scholarships. My own 

 experience is to the point. Fully persuaded of the uselessness of 

 attempting to make an analytical machine out of the ordinary 

 school-boy giving two or three hours a week to chemistry for 

 two or three years, and of the very small amount of education 

 to be obtained from such a course, I endeavoured to model my 

 instruction in practical chemistry much upon the lines adopted 

 by Prof. Armstrong, and exemplified in the appendix to his 

 paper. When the examinations came, it was duly explained to 

 the examiner that the course of instruction adopted had been 

 unusual, but, all the same, the papers set were of the usual 

 kind : — " Analyse the mixture A," "Determine the metals and 

 acids present in the solution B," &c. On such a paper, of 

 course, the boys failed, and a depreciatory report was sent up 

 by the examiners, with the result that the governors of the school 

 thought it their duty to interfere, and request that " more atten- 

 tion should be given to practical chemistry." Consequently 

 mv attempt had to be abandoned, and we returned to our " test- 

 tubing." 



Scholarship examinations, being presumably of those who will 

 carry the study much further, may more reasonably demand a 

 knowledge of the ordinary methods of analysis, but I am glad to 

 see that a considerable change has taken place in the papers set, 

 and that now the questions proposed are often such as to place 

 the mechanical analyst at a disadvantage, and to encourage the 

 intelligent observation and interpretation of phenomena. 



Prof. Armstrong of course writes as a chemist. But there 

 can be no doubt that certain portions of physics are educationally 

 more useful, and it seems to be only the difficulty of arranging 

 practical work in physics which has led to the present state of 

 things, where practical science work in schools means nearly 

 always practical chemistry. But Prof. Armstrong's protest 

 against allowing this to degenerate into "test-tubing" should not 

 be disregarded. There seems also no reason why elementary 

 instruction in science — whether chemistry, or botany, or physio- 

 graphy — should not deal first with the familiar things of every- 

 day life. I think much more training is to be got by deter- 

 mining, as Prof. Armstrong suggests, the composition of air, the 

 relative combining weights of silver and lead, &c, than by 

 seeing made any number of oxides of nitrogen, and listening to 

 a description of their properties. There is, however, considerable 

 difficulty in arranging easy methods of determining chemical 

 equivalents which, in inexperienced hands, shall give results not 

 too wide of the mark. 



If a boy gets out the atomic weight of oxygen as 9 when the 

 biok says it is 16, or finds the latent heat of steam to be 300 and 



something when it ought to be 536, he begins to disbelieve in 

 the precision of the statements made, and it is unfortunately im- 

 possible for a beginner to make accurate determinations of com- 

 bining weights. Less erratic results can, in fact, be obtained in 

 certain selected physical measurements. 



The "bareness " of printed instructions is, as Prof. Armstrong 

 remarks, a distinct advantage to the good student, by compelling 

 him to think for himself, but it is fatal to the unintelligent student, 

 to whom "thinking" is the very hardest work he is called upon 

 to do. Scienxe Master 



The Recent Lunar Eclipse 



My object in writing is to confirm in some degree the peculiar 

 appearance of the disk, noticed in your last number (vol. xxx. 

 p. 632). The eclipse was seen here under the most favourable 

 circumstances : the obscuration was so great that the disk could 

 barely be discerned with the naked eye, and the copper colour 

 usually seen was not noticed. Having watched the moon well 

 into the umbra, my attention was diverted for a while, but, on 

 looking again, at 9.35 G.M.T., I was surprised to see a portion 

 of the north-east quadrant pretty strongly illuminated ; my atten- 

 tion was again diverted, but on looking a second time at 10.35 

 G.M.T., I observed a portion of the south east quadrant 



\jp^ 



illuminated in a somewhat similar manner. At both times the 

 moon was well within the geometrical umbra. But the remark- 

 able feature was that on both occasions the boundaries of the 

 illuminated portions were, approximately, circular, and convex 

 toward the axis of the umbra, indicating that the refracted solar 

 rays producing these illuminations had crossed the axis of the 

 shadow-cone previous to impinging on the lunar disk. The 

 portions of the refracting annulus of the earth's atmosphere 

 concerned in producing these effects were those superincumbent 

 on the Southern Indian Ocean and the North Atlantic. 



Wentwortii Erck 

 Shankill, Co. Dublin, November 4 



The Sky-Glows 



In using the word " corona " to designate the coloured glare 

 which has accompanied the sun during the past year, I had no 

 intention of employing it in its astronomical sense, but in its 

 ordinary meteorological meaning — which " G. M. H." (NATURE, 

 vol. xxx. p. 633) has overlooked — as referring to the coloured 

 circles on cloud and haze frequently to be seen round the sun 

 and moon, and classed by some observers with halos. By 

 calling the circle now visible round the sun a " corona," I 

 mean that in appearance and probable optical cause it is more 

 like a meteorological corona than like a halo. 



May I be allowed to point out a misprint in the first paragraph 

 of my last letter (vol. xxx. p. 633), where it should read "un- 

 usual sky phenomena " — the world universal having been printed 

 for unusual, T. W. Backhouse 



Sunderland, November S 



After sunset this evening there was a peculiar pink flush in 

 the western sky here similar to that which attracted so much 

 attention in England last year. Twenty-five minutes after the 

 sun had gone down, the colour was so vivid as to be reflected 

 from the snows of Mount Baker (10,700 feet), which is about 

 seventy-five miles east of this place. Shortly afterwards it dis- 

 appeared, but reappeared thirty-five minutes later, prolonging 

 the twilight and making the stars look green, finally dying away 

 very gradually. The weather for the past twelve days has been 

 very wet, and to-night's is the first clear sunset in that time. 



