286 
NATURE 
[Aug. 10, 1871 

this, however, is not surprising, since, for many years, the Uni- 
versity has had for examiner one of our ablest chemists and a 
most eloquent teacher. Nevertheless, observe the following 
questions, in which the italics are mine :— 
“ Describe by equations as many processes as you know for the 
preparation of oxygen gas.” (1870. ) 
“‘ Explain by an equation the process of making ammonia, 
&ce.” (1870.) 
“ Give the names and formule of the oxides of nitrogen, &c.” 
1870.) 
These few are the worst detected after careful search; but 
columns of NATURE could be filled at once with the most un- 
natural questions in all the other subjects. The following, taken 
at random, will serve as brilliant specimens ; to me they are more 
heart-rending than the answers given by ‘‘ Examiner,” because 
even the worst of candidates are corrigible, while examiners do 
not appear to be so. 
*‘Name the Sovereigns who were reigning in England at the 
close of each century from the ninth to the eighteenth suc- 
cessively.” (1870. ) 
“© Give some estimate of the population of England at the 
death of Charles II., &c.’’ (1870.) 
‘* Show how the present Royal Family is connected with the 
House of Tudor, tracing the pedigree to the end of the seven- 
teenth century.” (1869.) 
“State the principal rules of English syntax.” (1869.) 
Moreover, candidates are positively compelled to cram their 
Latin and Greek translation ; the one Greek and the one Latin 
subject are selected ‘‘one year and a half previously,” which 
makes competition of talent against talent so far practically an 
impossibility ; it is a mere trial of cramming against cramming. 
And is this portion of the examination of any practical value as 
proving the efficiency of a candidate? Let the university answer 
for itself: ‘‘ Special stress is laid on accuracy in the answers to 
the questions in Greek and Latin grammar.” Comment is use- 
less. 
A much lower standard for Latin translation, and no selection 
one year anda half previously, would ensure a finer and more 
useful knowledge of a noble language; besides this, a little 
rational conduct on the part of examiners, and a far more 
vigorous and effective supervision of the papers by the Committee 
of the Senate, would enable education to go hand in hand with 
instruction, and learning to part company with cramming. 
Most of us know what school training should be ; it should be 
such as would enlarge the mind, make it capable of compre- 
hending the great and good, and open up a vista of happiness in 
early years. Teachers know what school training must be ; it 
must be such as will satisfy inexorable examiners, many of whom 
appear to be totally unmindful, not only of what should, but of 
what can, be taught during an ordinary boy’s school life. 
To one who regards education as the only means of placing 
man ‘‘a little lower than the angels,” the questions given at 
elementary examinations are more than painful. 
Tem, AuG. ORME 
University College School 
Volcano near Celebes 
THE following note may be perhaps of interest for the readers 
of NaTuRE. March 2.—The Volcano Roeang, near Tagoe- 
landa, the most southern of the Sangi Islands in the North of 
Celebes, began to make noises. March 5th.—In the evening, 
at seven o’clock, a frightful eruption took place; three minutes 
afterwards a large sea-wave reached the shore of Tagoelanda, 
about one mile distant from Roeang, and destroyed three villages 
with 416 men. The mountain worked till March 14, with a 
heavier final eruption. March 30.—I was at the place and 
ascended the volcano, which is, according to my measurement, 
about 2,100 feet high. To proceed into the crater was impos- 
sible in consequence of the thick damps of sulphur. 
The temperature of the soil at the bottom of the mountain near 
the sea-shore some inches deep was 45° Réaumur. I brought 
home a large collection of stones, &c.; the masses thrown out 
were principally sulphur, ashes, sand, and mud, besides small 
and large stones, and even rocks. All details are contained in 
my diary. I then made a tour round the Sangi Islands, and am 
about at this moment to visit the isles of Bangka and Limbe in 
the north and east of North Celebes. 
ADOLF BERNHARD MEYER # 
Manado, Celebes, April 



NOTES 
VICE-ADMIRAL E. OMMANNEY, C.B., F.R.S., proceeds to 
Antwerp to represent the Royal Geographical Society of London 
at the Congress of Geographical Science, which will be held in 
that city between the 14th and 22nd of this month. 
Mr. W. CARRUTHERS has just issued his official report for 
1870 of the Botanical Department of the British Museum, 
Several of the Natural Orders and European and British repre- 
sentatives of other orders have been completely rearranged. The 
most important additions which have been incorporated into the 
herbarium during the year are: from Formosa, collected by the 
late Mr. Oldham; from the Levant, 2,625 species by Prof. 
Haussknecht : from Martinique, by M. Hahn ; and from various 
districts of Europe. A large number of fungi have been added 
from Europe, and from North and South America and Cuba, and 
among other palaeozoic additions, an important series of Devo- 
nian plants from Canada, presented by Principal Dawson, of 
Montreal, illustrating his published memoirs. : 
THE Monthly and Annual Reports have reached us of the 
Department of Agriculture of the United States of America for 
1868 and 1869. The amount of information which is thus 
afforded by the Government to the citizens of the United States, 
may well astonish us in this country. They comprise Reports 
from practical men on a vast variety of subjects of the utmost 
importance to the cultivators of the soil: the cultivation of 
fruit; the manures best adapted for different soils; report of 
recent progress in steam culture ; meteorological statistics ; the 
physiology of Zrichina spiralis; abstract of laws relating to 
fences and wild stock ; tests for the authenticity of seeds ; agri- 
cultural statistics ; report of progress of beet-sugar manufacture 
in Europe, ef mu/ta alia. 
THE discussion which took place before Parliament relating to 
the adoption of the metric system in England, is considered by 
French savans as highly discreditable to that body, and the 
result has occasioned much surprise there. J 
M. BrETON, one of the great Hachette firm, was returned a 
member of the Municipal Council of Paris in the Conservative 
interest. His majority was one vote, which was declared wz/, as 
a man had veted without any right, and in spite of the exertions 
of the chairman of his voting section. Being older than M. 
Heérisson, his competitor, he was elected merely by the privilege 
of seniority. Two other publishers who had been candidates 
were unsuccessful, M. Gernier Bailli¢re and M. Victor Masson. 
No stamp duty is to be imposed on newspapers in France, but 
a duty will be established on every description of printing-paper. 
For books it will 8s. per cwt. and for newspapers 16s. per cwt. 
Newspaper paper is of an inferior description, and will be 
charged twice as much as the superior kind. This absurdity is 
owing to the objection raised to the income-tax by several 
politicians, amongst them M. Thiers himself. But it is supposed 
he will very shortly give up his old prejudices. 
Mr. CARRUTHERS, the keeper of the herbarium at the British 
Museum, has been appointed consulting botanist to the Royal 
Agricultural Society. 
ONE of the Whitworth Scholarships has recently been awarded 
to John Armitage, an artizan student at the Oldham School of 
Science and Art; last year he gained the Department Silver 
Medal for Practical Geometry, and in 1869 the silver medal for 
Machine Drawing. Last year James Taylor, another artizan 
student from this school, also gained a Whitworth Scholarship, 
as well as the Department Gold Medal for Mathematics and the 
silver medal for Theoretical Mechanics. 
A LAUDABLE attempt to encourage floriculture in London is 
an exhibition which was held yesterday in the churchyard of St. 
