336 
NATURE 

[ Aug. 24, 1871 

more convenient one witha folding roof is still open to the same 
objections as regards bulk, weight, and inconvenience. Yet an 
artificial horizon is an absolutely essential part of a traveller’s 
equipment, so that any improvement in its construction is sure 
to be welcomed. Captain George’s instrument is stated to com- 
bine all the advantages of the larger and more cumbrous horizon 
now in use, together with the additional property of securing 
observations at very low altitudes. The improyements are not 
confined to its reduced size and weight, but extend to its 
mechanical arrangements, form, and moderate price. The new 
horizon weighs 1} 1b., while that now in use weighs 6}1bs. The 
self-replenishing horizon consists of two circular disc-like 
reservoirs, about 24 inches in diameter, and three-quarters of an 
inch in depth, made of iron in one casting. One contains the 
mercury, and the other is the trough, fitted with a glass cover for 
observing. The discs are connected at their circumferences by 
a narrow neck, with a hole drilled through it, by which the 
mercury passes from one reservoir to the other, communication 
being opened or cut off by a stop-cock, without removing the 
glass cover, or running the risk of losing any of the mercury. 
A paper by Major Basevi, Ov ¢he Minicoy Zsland, was next 
read. Major Basevi, who is connected with the Great Trigono- 
netrical Survey of India, visited the Island of Minicoy, with 
the object of comparing the intensity of gravity on an island 
station with that at inland stations in the same latitude. Minicoy 
is a small coral island, in shape somewhat resembling a crescent, 
and about 6 miles long. The whole of the island is covered 
with cocoa plants, which are the chief source of wealth to the 
inhabitants, all of whom have their own trees—the rich as many 
as 2,000. The village of Minicoy is situated nearly in the 
middle of the island on the west side. It is half a mile long, 
and contains about 300 houses, built of coral rock, cemented 
with lime and thatched with palm leayes. The result of Major 
Basevi’s observations on the Island of Minicoy was the conc!u- 
sion that gravity on the coast is greater than inland, and at an 
ocean station like Minicoy greater than on the coast. It was 
already known that at inland stations gravity appeared to be in 
defect of that observed at coast stations in similar latitudes ; 
and, by including the ocean station of Minicoy in Major Basevi's 
series, a confirmation of the law has been obtained. 
Captain A. Pullan contributed some notes Ox British 
Gurhwal, where he had been employed for four years on the 
‘Trigonometrical Survey ; and Mr. Samuel Mossman a paper Ox 
the Inundation and Subsidence of the Yangtze River. 
Mr. Clements Markham read a report Ox Badokshan, by 
Bandit Manphul; and a description of a journey from Yassin 
to Yarkhand, by Ibrahim Khan, The most interesting feature 
in connection with these papers was that they confirmed the 
surveys of the country made in 1838-40 by Captain Wood of 
the Royal Navy. Captain Wood, who is a native of Edinburgh, 
discovered the river Oxus, and for doing so was awarded one of 
the gold medals of the Royal Geographical Society. His 
surveys were ignored by Prussian and Russian geographers, but 
were now confirmed by the native travellers who have devoted 
their attention to the parts of the country in question. 
The Rev. F. O. Morris contributed a paper On Lxcreach- 
ments of the Sea on the East Coast of Yorkstire. It was stated 
that on the average there had been a loss of land of from two to 
three yards every year—probably about 2 to 2§ yards per annum. 
If looked at im round numbers, the waste of land, at three yards 
in each year, would be found to be about thirty-nine acres 
between Spurn Point and Flamborough Head alone, or in a 
hundred years of 3,900 acres, which, at a value per acre of 30/. 
or 50/., would represent a serious money loss of grain or other 
crops ; or, taking the waste, as had been calculated, at one mile 
since the date of the Conquest (1066), the money value in that 
interval, at 30/. per acre, would be equal to 691,200/., or at 50/7 
an acre no less that 1,152,000/. Mr. Morris concluded by saying 
there was no doubt whatever that a sea-wall of roughly-hewn, 
or even unhewn, stones, laid on an angle of about thirty-five 
degrees, would for ever protect the land from encroachment. 
“SECTION F. 
THE papers and discussion in Section F are scarcely of a 
nature to come within the range of a report in NATURE. Occa- 
sionally, however, they may well find a place, as when on the first 
day Sir John Bowring read the Aefort of the Metric Committee 
of the British Association. The Committee were much gratified 
at the larle amount of information the Koyal Commissioners had 

collected in regard to the metric system, but regretted that the 
Commissioners had not recommended a bolder course than the 
permissive legislation of its use. The Commissioners assumed 
there was no immediate cause requiring a general change in the 
existing system of legal weights and measures of the country for 
the purposes of external trade, but they had not sufficiently taken 
into account the bearings of the question on education and 
scientific workmanship, and the general economics of the nation. 
The committee admit that the full realisation of the advantages 
of the system must be the work of time, but all the more neces- 
sary is it to make provision for the same by inserting in any 
measure on the subject clauses fixing a time when the use of the 
new system will become binding. Pending the final settlement 
of this important question, the committee are gratified in finding 
that the Educational Code of this year for the first time prescribes 
that in all schools the children in Standards V. and VI. in 
arithmetic should know the principles of the metric system. The 
committee are convinced that the school is the proper place for 
initiating this useful reform, and urge that teachers should at 
once commence to introduce this subject in the schools, The 
committee have represented to the London School Board the 
desirability of introducing the metric system into its schools, and 
will correspond in a similar manner with other school boards. In 
order to diffuse information on the subject, the committee suggest 
that they should be re-appointed, with a grant of at least 752. 
from the funds of the Association. 
report was accepted—it being understood that no opinion was 
expressed on the compulsory question. On the same day 
the Report ef the Committee for the Tabulation of the Census 
was read by Mr. Fellowes. It stated that various suggestions 
had been made to Mr. Bruce, with the view of having the returns 
from the various parts of the kingdom tabulated in one uniform 
method, and the committee had reason to believe that the recom- 
mendation in their memorial would ultimately, to a considerable 
extent, be adopted by Her Majesty’s Government. 
After the reading of Mr. Fellowes’s paper Ox a Proposed 
Doomsday Book, giving the value of the Governmental property, 
as a basis for a sound system of national finance and accounts, 
Mr. T. J. Boyd, master of the Merchant Company, read a 
paper On Educational Hospital Reform ; the Scheme of the Edin- 
burgh Merchant Company. The object of this paper was to 
illustrate, from what had been done by the Merchant Company 
in recent years, the manner in which similar foundations might 
increase their use‘ulness and extend the benefits contemplated by 
the founder. 
On the following day Col. SirJ. E. Alexander read a paper Ov 
Sanitary Measures for Scottish Villages. Among the evils 
pointed out as existing in these villages were the overcrowding 
of cottages, the system of ‘‘ box-beds,” in which father, mother, 
and children might often be found huddled together, the built-in 
windows quite incapable of being opened, the general want of 
air and ventilation, and the proximity of cow-sheds and pig-sties. 
The writer showed how ministers, surgeons, schoolmasters, and 
employers might promote the welfare of the people by incul- 
cating the laws of health, and promoting a taste for pure and 
innocent recreations. 
One of the most interesting episodes in this section oc- 
curred on Saturday, when the reading of a paper by Mr. 
George Smith, Ox Jndian Statistics and Oficial Reports, 
gave occasion to the following remarks on Indian educa- 
tion by a native Hindoo, Mr. A. Jyram Row. A_ great 
element in the success of the schemes for the better educa- 
tion of the Indian population was the nature of the educa- 
tion which must in future be given to the natives of India. At 
present it was certainly of a character calculated to do a great 
deal of good, but at the same time it was restricted to English 
literature and mathematics. Now, the mere reading of Shake- 
speare, and the mere cramming of a few propositions from 
Euclid, would never enable people to embrace large questions 
of speculative and scientific interest, which alone could be ex- 
pected in the end to lead to any practical result. Without such 
an education these statistical schemes would seem at first sight to 
have nothing to do with anything that was practical, unless it 
were (as some people supposed) that they merely had reference 
to the imposition of a poll-tax or some such thing. They could 
not see (and it was not to be expected that people unaccustomed 
to scientific questions and the bearings of each department of 
science upon the solution of problems entirely unconnected with 
the department could see) that such schemes would be of the 
highest consequence towards the material welfare and progress, 

After some discussion, the- 
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