252 
NATURE 
[Fuly 28, 1870 
same report be found pleading strongly for “the founda- 
tion on equal terms of complete academic institutions 
for science” asa “counteraction of the tendency of clas- 
sical men to lean on authority alone.” 
“Philological culture,” says the eminent physiologist 
of Heidelberg, “ has an ill effect on those who are to de- 
vote themselves to science; the philologist is too much 
dependent on authority and books, he cannot observe for 
himself, or rely upon his own conclusions, and having 
only been accustomed to consider the laws of grammar, 
all of which have their exceptions, he cannot understand 
the invariable character of physical laws.” Granting with 
all respect the premises laid down by Professor Helm- 
holtz, we should demur to the conclusion which he would 
base upon them, and profess ourselves unable to see that, 
because particular institutions had a tendency to dwarf 
and stunt particular faculties, they should therefore be 
left undisturbed to do this evil work uncounteracted. And 
still leaving the premises unimpugned, we should set up a 
cross-indictment to the effect that if classical studies left 
the student of them unacquainted with the invariability of 
natural laws, physical studies leave the student unac- 
quainted with the variability of men’s minds. But, so 
far as the business of life consists in having to do business 
and hold intercourse with our fellow-men, this acquaint- 
ance with the variability of men’s minds is simply the 
particular kind of knowledge which is not only the most 
practically useful and marketable of all kinds of knowledge, 
but is precisely the kind which, by common consent, is 
allowed to characterise if not to constitute “ culture.” 
Lord Lyttelton, however, and the Endowed Schools 
Commissioners would appear to be in favour of the 
establishment of locally distinct schools for the two sets 
of studies and of students, and herein to be at one with 
Helmholtz. The Owens College Delegates, on the other 
hand, are, like ourselves, in favour of a system of bifurca- 
tion, which would not necessarily keep apart persons of 
different mental conformation who might be much bene- 
fited by mutual contact. They have come to this conclusion 
mainly for reasons based on observations and testimony 
given in Germany. Our peculiar social organisation 
makes the question more complex for us ; but we, too, 
have our experience as well as the Germans ; and 
time has shown that an Englishman, whose reputation 
as an educationalist is equal to that of Helmholtz as 
a physicist, may, in this very matter, be as far wrong 
as we believe that great physicist to be. In 1864 Dr. 
Temple told the Public Commissioners (see Report, vol. 
ii, p. 312) that he should “not consider it wise to follow 
the Cheltenham and Marlborough examples by attaching 
to the public schools modern departments. The classical 
work would lose, the other work would not gain!” In 
1867 we find a distinguished Rugby master, the Rev. J. M. 
Wilson, speaking to the following effect of the results 
produced by the changes set on foot in accordance with 
the proposals of the Public Schools Commissioners, and 
earnestly and honestly carried out. “‘ Lastly, what are the 
general results of the introduction of scientific teaching 
in the opinion of the body of the masters? In brief it is 
this ; that the school, as a whole, is better for it, and that 
the scholarship is not worse. . . This is the testi- 
mony of classical masters, by no means specially favour- 
able to science, who are in a position which enables them 
to judge. . . . It is believed that no master in Rugby 
School would wish to give up natural science and recur 
to the old curriculum.” G. ROLLESTON 
PAMPHLETS ON METEOROLOGY AND 
MAGNETISM 
Fournal of the Scottish Meteorological Society. 
wcod and Sons.) 
The Normal Winds of Bombay. By C. Chambers, F.R.S 
WE have received the Yournadls of the Scottish Meteoro- 
logical Society from the beginning of 1867 to the end of 
last year, and we find them, on inspection, to be full of a 
variety of interesting and valuable matter. 
The Scottish Society does not confine its attention to 
one particular branch of meteorology, but is broad in its 
sympathies as well as energetic in the development of its 
objects, and it is no doubt owing to this that so much is 
done with comparatively small means, and so much ground 
occupied with advantage. Among the numerous papers 
which constitute these journals we observe an address by 
that veteran agriculturist, the Marquis of Tweeddale, 
“On the effects of solar radiation in relation to crops.” 
Anything on this subject is interesting from one who has 
himself grown wheat on the fields of India, and baked 
it into loaves which were duly distributed to his various 
sceptical friends. 
We note with pleasure a proposal by the noble author 
for two experiments on the physiological branch of 
meteorology, firstly, What portion of the value of the 
sun’s direct rays is due to heat, and what to light? and 
secondly, Whether the heat is of value as applied to the 
roots in the soil, or as regards its stimulating effects on 
the plant above ground? 
The indefatigable secretary of the society, Mr. Alex. 
Buchan, contributes many interesting papers, and among 
them a series on the well-known interruptions in the 
regular rise and fall of temperature in the course of the 
year. Six cold and three warm periods are discussed 
and the author arrives at the following conclusion ;— 
“The unusually cold or warm periods which occu 
with considerable regularity at certain times of the year 
have, so far as we have examined them, been proved to 
depend on the relations of the polar and equatorial 
currents to each other. And the circumstance that one 
of these great atmospheric currents and not the other 
prevails over this portion of the earth’s surface at stated 
seasons, is a valuable fact in meteorology, particularly in the 
light it seems to cast on the periodicity of weather changes.” 
In-.another memoir, Mr. Buchan discusses the cold 
weather of March 1867, which he attributes to the unpre- 
cedentedly high atmospheric pressure which prevailed in 
the north and north-west of Europe from the beginning 
to the 24th of the month, 
Mr. Thomas Stevenson, in another very valuable and 
original paper, introduces the method of Barometric 
gradients as a means of ascertaining the intensity of 
storms. Very probably it may ultimately be found that 
we can measure a storm better by the Barometric 
differences which cause it than by the violence of the wind 
which constitutes it a storm, but the first step is surely to 
measure directly and accurately the intensity of storms 
considered as independent phenomena, and the second 
(Black- 
