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Sept. 28, 1871] 
NATURE 
437 

THREE important papers are reprinted by Mr. V. Ball, from 
the Fournal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal—‘ Notes on the 
Geology of the Vicinity of Port Blair, Andaman Islands ;” 
“*Notes on Birds observed in the neighbourhood of Port Blair 
during the month of August, 1869 ;” and ‘‘ Brief Notes on the 
Geology and on the Fauna in the neighbourhood of Naucowry 
Harbour, Nicobar Island.” 
THERE has been issued, under the auspices of the Accident 
Insurance Company, an admirable little manual of instruction for 
the prompt treatment of accidents and emergencies, by Mr 
Alfred Smee, the eminent surgeon. It is clear, comprehensive, 
and portable, and the reader is guided in the more important 
curative processes to which it relates by well-executed and 
instructive woodcut illustrations. 
**HuMAN Locomotion, how We Stand, Walk, and Run,” is 
the title of a lecture delivered last December at Cornell Uni- 
versity, by Prof. B. G. Wilder. Dr. Wilder’s lecture was pro- 
fusely illustrated by diagrams and interesting practical experi- 
ments. Among other matters he noticed the curious fact that a 
person never goes in a perfectly straight line for any distance, 
but always turns to one side or the other, and at last describes a 
circle and returns to the point from where he started. The deflec- 
tion is generally if not always from right to left, and is accounted 
for on the principle that one side of the body tends to outwalk 
the other. It isa received opinion among American hunters and 
woodmen that people who lose themselves in forests or extensive 
plains thus travel in a circle turning to the left. 
WE have received a pamphlet on the Economical Production 
of Peat and Peat Charcoal, as carried on at the works of the 
Peat Engineering Company, Redmoss, near Bolton, Lancashire. 
The peat is extracted from the bog, macerated, and moulded by 
machinery. It is also transformed into a superior quality of 
charcoal. That the manufacture is a profitable one is apparent 
from the fact that an acre of peat bog of the average depth of 
ten feet, will yield sufficient to make a thousand tons of charcoal, 
which, in competition with wood charcoal, can be sold at such a 
profit as would alone produce the value of the land from which 
it is extracted. It is stated that in 1852 the actual annual 
consumption of raw and carbonised peat in France amounted to 
359,319 tons, a consumption which has since largely increased. 
THE Révue Universelle says that the German Confederation, in 
acquiring an extended frontier from France, has traced it, not 
upon a topographical plan, but, in all probability, on a geolo- 
gical map edited at Berlin. In fact, it is to be observed that the 
new boundaries between France and Germany absorb, for the 
benefit of the Confederation, all the rich deposits of the mines of 
oolitic iron in the basins of the Moselle and the Meurthe, with 
the exception of the Longwy group. Save this, which has been 
reserved, Germany has made herself mistress of the major portion 
of the best part of the most important mineral beds in France. 
These beds extend under the vast plateau which forms the east 
of the departments of Moselle and Meurthe, and crop out in the 
valleys from Longwy, in the north, as far as Pont-Saint-Vincent 
(Meurthe), in the south, and comprise a full quarter of the mineral 
riches of France. The new determination of frontier will have 
the effect of introducing into the productive industry of Germany, 
according to the statistics of 1867, ‘‘ twenty-three blast furnaces, 
producing 205,000 tons of metal ; 9,000 hectares of iron country, 
yielding 500,000 tons of ore; fourteen works manufacturing 
127,000 tons of iron; and 22,000 hectares of coalfield conces- 
sions, yielding 180,000 tons of coal.” 
THE Maharajah of Bhurtpore has established workshops in 
which steam is the motive power for the industrial instruction of 
his people, 

ON THE STUDY OF SCIENCE IN SCHOOLS * 
EFORE we commence our regular and systematic study of 
science, I wish to say a few words to all of you who will 
hereafter take part in these studies, concerning the nature and 
character of experimental science, and certain matters connected 
with the pursuit of it. It will be well to discuss these subjects 
under the following headings :— 
Firstly. The rise and growth of the sciences we are about to 
study, and their distinguishing features. 
Secondly. The objects and aims of the experimental sciences, 
and the reasons why we study them. 
Thirdly. The methods we shall follow for the acquirement of 
a knowledge of science. 
Fourthly. The attitude of mind most favourable to such 
studies. 
As to the first of these divisions, I may mention that the 
boundary lines of the experimental sciences are very clearly 
defined. For we find at the extreme limit in one direction the 
mathematical sciences, mathematical astronomy, mathematical 
mechanics, and so on; and at the other extremity the classifi- 
catory sciences: zoology, botany, and so on. Our course lies 
between the two limits, where we find the physical sciences 
proper: statics, dynamics, mechanics, hydrostatics, hydrody- 
namics, pneumatics, acoustics, heat, light, magnetism, electricity. 
Chemistry is usually distinguished from these, both on account 
of the magnitude of the science, which necessitates separate and 
distinct treatises, and because it concerns the intimate structure 
or composition of matter, while the physical sciences proper are 
concerned with unaltered matter. But the term experimental 
sciences includes both the physical sciences and chemistry, and 
is hence the most convenient for our purpose. 
Most of the physical sciences partake somewhat of the character 
of the mathematical sciences, while chemistry is on the verge of 
the mathematical sciences. The physical sciences relate rather 
to dead matter, to inorganic, unorganised matter, while the clas- 
sificatory sciences relate to organised living matter: the former 
to the mineral kingdom (as it used to be called), the latter to the 
animal and vegetable kingdoms. 
Although isolated facts belonging to many of the sciences were 
known to the ancients, no science can be-said to have existed in 
anything like a complete form for more than 200 years, and 
several of them are less than a century old. The science of 
Statics treats of the balance of forces, of the relation of the various 
forces which act upon solid matter at rest. The derivation of 
the name from fotnu is sufficiently obvious. The science com- 
menced with Archimedes (who lived in the third century B.c.), 
and was greatly developed by Galileo, Bernouilli,.and Lagrange. 
When the equilibrium of fluids is discussed, it is called Hydro- 
statics (from #5wp), and the equilibrinm of gases is described 
under the head of Pxeumatics (wvévua). Hydrostatics owes its 
origin to Archimedes ; you will remember the story of his weigh- 
ing the crown of impure gold in water, and detecting the impos- 
ture ; and thus arose that which to this day is called the ‘‘law of 
Archimedes,” which asserts that when a body is immersed in a 
liquid, it loses a portion of its weight equal to the weight of the 
liquid which it displaces. Stevinus of Bruges, who wrote in the 
sixteenth century, and Pascal contributed much to the advance- 
ment of this science. The reverse of rest is motion, thus 
there are sciences relating to the motion of s: lids, liquids, and 
gases. Dynamics (Svvamis) treats of the motion of solid bodies, 
and of the relation of the forces which produce motion. It 
originated as a science with Leonardo da Vinci, who, besides 
being the greatest painter of his day, was an eminent mathema- 
tician, engineer, musician, and natural philosopher. He showed 
that if two forces are represented in magnitude and direction by 
the two sides of a parallelogram, the resultant is represented by 
the diagonal of the parallelogram. This is the important prin- 
ciple of the ‘‘ parallelogram of forces.” Galileo added the laws 
regarding falling bodies ; while Newton and Huyghens investi- 
gate the laws which regulate centrifugal forces. Hydrodynamics 
treats of the motion of fluids, and bears the same relation to 
dynamics that hydrostatics bears to statics. The motion of gases 
is discussed under the science of pneumatics ; we have no sciences 
of pneumastatics and pneumadynamics. Pneumatics dates from 
the discovery of Torricelli in 1642 that the air possesses weight. 
Eight years later, Otto von Guericke, of Magdeburg, invented 
the air-pump, and the science was then developed with great 
* A Lecture delivered at Marlborough College as an introduction to the 
commencement of Science teaching, by G. F. Rodwell. 
