5'8 



NA TURE 



[Sept. 25, 1884 



life. The ordinary master of a school has many duties to dis- 

 charge. Me cannot by any possibility give any sufficient pro- 

 portion of his time to the art and practice of scientific demon- 

 stration. By the peripatetic system experimental lessons can be 

 given at every school, by a trained man of science, at a moderate 

 cost. A central laboratory is erected in which experiments are 

 prepared. The demonstrator visits each school in succession, 

 the apparatus being brought by a hand-cart from the laboratory. 

 Tlie results actually attained in Birmingham were described. It 

 was argued that experimental teaching gives the death-blow to 

 cram, and that the elements of ordinary education are 1 otter 

 mastered when the intellectual life of the scholars is aroused by 

 science. The arrangements of the peripatetic system will 

 suffice until the Sixth Standard is passed ; but special provision 

 must be made for those lads who can remain a year or two 

 longer at school, and whose future employments render the ex- 

 tension of their scientific training desirable. To meet the wants 

 of this class, a school has been opened as an experiment in 

 New Bridge Street, Birmingham, in premises belonging t . > the 

 Chairman of the Board (Mr. George Dixon), who, at the cost ■>! 

 more than 2000/., has adapted them for the purpose, and placed 

 them rent free at the service of the Board. It is specially in- 

 tended for scholars who will have to become working-men, but 

 whose parents can keep them at school after they have passe I 

 the Sixth Standard, and the fee (yl. a week) is adapted to their 

 means. There is a special master for chemistry and metallurgy, 

 another master for mechanics and physics, a drawing-master, 

 and a mathematical master, a highly-qualified scientific man 

 being placed at the head. Workshop instruction is provided, 

 and includes a knowledge of the chief wood tools, and the 

 properties of materials, while it supplements the mechanical 

 'hawing of the schoolroom, and it is an aid to the study of 

 theoretical mechanics. The course of instruction is arranged to 

 extend over two years. It is not an attempt to benefit a few 

 picked scholars, or to provide a higher-grade school for those 

 able to pay high feees, but it is a continuation of the science 

 training given by means of the peripatetic method in every 

 ordinary elementary school under the Board. 



The Americans are not content with an Electrical Exhibition 

 at Philadelphia ; we see that there is to be another at Boston 

 this year, opening on November 24 and closing on January 5. 

 1885. Space and power to be found free, but there is an 

 entrance fee of ten dollars. The object of the Exhibition is 

 stated to be " to show the rapid advancement that has been 

 made in electricity, its methods and appliances, and all its 

 possibilities and probabilities." 



WE are requested to announce that the Fifth Annual Crypto- 

 gamic Meeting of the Essex Field Club will be held on Friday 

 and Saturday, October 3 and 4, in Epping Forest. The 

 meeting will be under the direction of Dr. Cooke, Dr. H. J. 

 Wharton, Mr. Worthington Smith, Rev. Canon Du Port, Rev. 

 J. M. Crombie, Prof. Boulger, Mr. David Houston, Mr. F. ). 

 Hanbury, Mr. Henry Groves, Mr. W. W. Reeves, Dr. 

 Spurrell, and other well-known botanists. Those wishing to 

 attend the meeting should apply for programmes and tickets to 

 the Honorary Secretary, Buckhurst Hill, Essex. 



We stated some months ago that Cap*. Scheele of the Swedish 

 rading barque Monarch, before leaving Sweden for Melbourne, 

 had asked the Zoological Museum at Upsala to lend him the 

 necessary apparatus, vessels, &c, for deep-sea researches, with 

 which request the Museum gladly complied. The results 

 appear to have been so fruitful, that the New York Herald 

 and the Sin,, on the vessel recently arriving in New- 

 York, sent representatives on board, and devoted a great 

 deal of space to descriptions of the collection marie by 

 "the intelligent Swedish seaman." The collection is, it is 



stated, very rich, filling two hundred vessels, and contains many 

 new varieties. It will be forwarded to Upsala, while Capt. 

 Scheele proceeds with his scientific researches during a voyage 

 to the West Indies. 



One of the most remarkable articles of export ever despatched 

 for scientific purposes from any country is without doubt the 

 consignment which has just left Norway for Germany. It is no 

 less than fifty-two skeletons of Lapps, which have during the 

 summer been unearthed at Utsjok in Russian Lapland, and 

 which an enterprising dealer of Vardo has sold to various mu- 

 seums and societies on the Continent at the price of 61. a piece. 

 Two of the skeletons are those of children, the rest those of 

 adults. 



The Berlin Academy of Sciences has commis ioned Dr. 

 Georg Volkens, a young botanist, to proceed to the sulphur- 

 baths of Heluan, which are situated some 20 kilometres west of 

 Cairo, in order to make a thorough investigation of the anatomy 

 of desert plants, and micro- copical researches concerning the 

 growth of these plants. 



Up to the present the North Cape on Mager Oe was con- 

 sidered to be the northernmost point of Europe. Capt. Sorensen,. 

 however, has recently found that Cape Knivskjaerodden, on the 

 same island and west of the North Cape, lies 30" to the north of 

 the latter ; 30" of arc would correspond to about 926 metres. 

 The latitudes found by Capt. Sorensen for the two capes are 

 71° 10' 15'' N. for the North Cape, and 71 10' 45" X. for Cape 

 Knivskjaerodden. 



A severe earthquake occurred at Windsor, Ontario, at a 

 quarter to three on the afternoon of September 19. Shocks were 

 felt ;it twenty minutes past two at Grasslake, Michigan, where 

 some school children fainted with alarm, and at Toledo, Ohio, 

 and neighbouring towns. The shocks lasted fifteen seconds, 

 and in some instances buildings rocked and their contents were 

 displaced. 



MM. D. Tommasi AND Radiquet have brought out a new 

 battery witli two carbon electrodes. The positive electrode con- 

 sists of a carbon plate placed at the bottom of a porcelain vessel 

 and covered with peroxide of lead, the negative electrode con- 

 sists of a carbon plate containing on its upper surface platinised 

 coke. The two plates are separated by a sheet of parchment 

 paper. The liquid used is a saturated solution of common salt, 

 which must not completely cover the upper plate. The E. M.F. 

 on closed circuit is o'6 volts. 



In a ] aper on "Electric Lighthouses" M. De Meritens gives 

 some very interesting figures in comparing oil and electricity as 

 ilhiminants. The figures, he states, are taken from two memoirs 

 by M. Allard. As an example, the light at Dunkirk, obtained 

 from mineral oil, is 6,250 candles, which in weather of mean 

 transparency is seen for 53 km. ; if this lie compared with an 

 electric light of 125,000 candles, it is found that the electric 

 light is seen for 75 "4 km. Thus, an increase in the illuminat- 

 ing power of twenty times only increases the penetrative distance 

 22 km. or 42 per cent. If we now take a less transparent 

 stale, tlie ratio is reduced to an increase from 24 to 32 km. or 

 34 per cent. Or, lastly, in very foggy weather the distances are 

 3 '7 and 4 '6 km., showing an increase of 24 per cent. From 

 these general figures M. Allard has calculated that in foggy 

 weather in the Channel the luminous intensity with oil of 6250 

 carcels is 3 '805 km. ; then, if this be increased to an oil illu- 

 mination of 125,000 carcels, the luminous intensiiy of 4740 km. 

 Now, comparing this with an electric light of 125,000 carcels, 

 lie finds the luminous distance to be 4^696, or the penetrating 

 power of the electric light is less than I per cent, le-s than mine- 

 ral oil, whilst its cost, as computed by both English and French 

 engineers, is from four to six times less than that of oil. 



