39^ 



NA TURE 



\AltgllSt 2 1, I < 



many places a thickness of several yards, have protected the ice 

 from melting, and have made it advance down the valley. 



The last number of the Memoirs of the Caucasian Geographi- 

 cal Society (vol. xiii. part I) contains a series of very interesting 

 papers. M. Dinnik contributes three papers, in which he de- 

 scribes his wanderings through "the mountains and gorges" of 

 the provinces of Terek and Kuban in Ossetia and about the 

 sources of the Rion. The author devoted his attention especially 

 to the glaciers of the tracts he visited, but his descriptions give 

 a very striking picture of the general characters of the region, of 

 its flora, and especially of its fauna. His remarks on this last 

 will be most welcome to the zoologist and geographer. M. 

 Weidenbaum gives an historical sketch of the different ascents 

 of Ararat, and of the scientific conquest of its summit, so boldly 

 denied each time by the Armenians, who do not admit that 

 human feet may step on the virgin snow of the holy summit. 

 The ascents of Tournefor, Parrot, Abich, Khodzko, Messrs. 

 P'reshfield and Tucker, and Bryce are described by the author. 

 M. Lessar contributes a paper on his journeys to South Turco- 

 mania, Merv, Chardjui, and Khiva (already known from what 

 has appeared in the St. Petersburg Izvestia). M. Rossikov gives 

 a narrative of his journeys to the Upper Daghestan and Chech- 

 nia, and describes also two villages, Konhidatl and Enheli, situ- 

 ated in the gorge of the Andian Koyson, the inhabitants of which 

 are engaged in salt-mining. Two lithographs give an excellent 

 idea of this crow's nest in the mountains, the flat-roofed houses 

 of which are built upon one another, offering at the same time 

 a means of defence and an economy of the poorly-allotted space 

 on the slopes of stony crags. 



In a former paper to the Russian Chemical Society, Prof. 

 Mendeleeff had arrived at the conclusion that the dilata- 

 tion of liquids can be expressed by the formula V = , 



1 I - kt' 



where k is a module which varies for difierent liquids, and 

 increases with their volatility. The researches of M. Van 

 der Vaals, combined with the above, have enabled Messrs. 

 Thorpe and Riicker, in the April number of the Journal 

 of the London Chemical Society, to establish the remarkable 

 relation between the absolute temperature of boiling t v reckoned 

 from the absolute zero ( - 273 ), the volume V,, measured at a 

 temperature t, and a constant a, which seems to be near to I '995 

 or 2. Now, in a communication to the Russian Chemical 

 Society (vol. xvi. fasc. 5), Prof. Mendeleeff shows that, if the 

 dilatation of gases and that of liquids be expressed by the 

 formulre — 



/, = I + at and V, = — - — , 

 I - kt 



which would give 2t, = - _, and the constant a be taken 



k 



equal to 2, we receive — 



+ 273 



where k and /, are determining one another. This deduction is 

 confirmed, in fact, by direct measurements. The further pro- 

 gress in the mechanics of liquids, he says, must be expected from 

 new experimental and theoretical researches into the compressi- 

 bility of liquids at different temperatures and into its relations to 

 the modulus of dilatation ; the fundamental equation of liquids 

 must express the relations between their volume, temperature, 

 and pressure, as is the case for gases. As to a complete con- 

 ception of the ideal state of bodies, it must contain also the 

 relations to their molecular weight and composition. 



The "Handbook of the St. Nicholas Agassiz Association," 

 issued by the President, Mr. Haslan H. Ballard of Lenox, Mass., 

 is a little work of great interest, and should also be of much 

 utility to those who desire to train up the young with a love for 



Nature, and a desire to study her products and ways. The Asso- 

 ciation had a very modest beginning. Mr. Ballard was teaching 

 in a school in Lenox, and in 1875 got his pupils to band together 

 for the observation and study of natural objects. "It was the 

 outgrowth of a life-long love for Nature, and a belief that educa- 

 tion is incomplete unless it include some practical knowledge of 

 the common objects that surround us." The idea was actually 

 derived from a similar association in Switzerland, took root and 

 flourished in Lenox, and after a few years the President thought 

 that it might be extended to other places. The assistance of the 

 editors of the well-known St. Nicholas magazine for the young 

 was then invoked, and in 18S0 a general invitation to others to 

 join in the work appeared in that periodical. The response was 

 very gratifying. Classes have been formed in various towns under 

 the direction of the central organisation, and now 650 local 

 scientific societies are at work with over 7000 students. Nor is it 

 confined to the youth of both sexes, although originally intended 

 for them, for the parents in many instances join, and there are 

 some "chapters," or classes, wholly composed of adults. Still 

 the work is principally among the young, and Mr. Ballard notes 

 that the Association has found a wide field of usefulness in con- 

 nection with public and private schools. Many teachers, he 

 says, who have not been able to find a place for natural science 

 in the ordinary school curriculum, and who have yet felt that 

 their pupils should not grow up strangers to the flowers, trees, 

 birds, and butterflies, have been glad to devote an hour once a 

 fortnight to the guidance of a meeting devoted to these studies. 

 The " Handbook," after describing somewhat enthusiastically 

 and picturesquely the advantages of the Association, proceeds to 

 give directions as to the formation and conduct of a class. Then 

 follow chapters on the plan of work, how to make a cabinet, to 

 collect specimens, what to do in winter and in the city, and so 

 on — in fact, directions for the young student in every department 

 of natural history to which he could turn his attention. A list 

 of books recommended and of the various branches of the Asso- 

 ciation conclude the little book. Almost every State in the Union 

 is represented among the branches, some of them very numer- 

 ously, while foreign countries are represented by Canada, Chili, 

 England, and Scotland. On the whole Mr. Ballard has a very 

 gratifying story to tell of successful and voluntary effort, and we 

 have no doubt that his little book will lead to a large increase in 

 the Agassiz or similar associations by showing how easy it is to 

 organise and work a " chapter," and the benefit derived from 

 study carried on in this way. 



In the Report of the Bureau of Education of the United 

 States for 1881 (see Nature, vol. xxix. p. 506) the increase of 

 a class of illiterate population recorded in the census of 1880 

 was touched upon. A Circular recently issued by the Bureau 

 goes more thoroughly into the subject, and carefully compares 

 the numbers of all the different classes of the population which 

 came under this head at the last census with those of the census 

 of 1870. It is satisfactory to find, from the safe ground of such 

 statistics, that the late alarmist assertions of the terrible growth of 

 an uneducated proportion of population is true only of five States 

 out of forty-seven, viz. Maine, New Hampshire, California, 

 Montana, and Nevada. In other States, and on the whole, the 

 ratios of ignorance to education were diminished, even in the 

 Southern States, where so large a proportion of the inhabitants 

 have a tendency to "helpless over-production." Nevertheless, 

 it is true that the absolute number of illiterates has increased, 

 in spite of philanthropic as well as Government efforts, by over 

 half a million in these States, and not among the coloured 

 population only. There were 46,000 more in the Pacific States ; 

 ami thirteen white children out of a hundred throughout the 

 whole States "escaped the combined influences of church, day 

 school, Sunday school, and family teaching." The objection 

 raised in England to the franchise being given to an uneducated 



