rt 
Aug. 4, 1870| 
clusions on the subject, that “‘berries obnoxious to birds will 
stand a better chance of propagating and increasing that variety?” 
If C. W. W. (Nature, July 7) will turn to Letter 55 of 
White’s ‘‘Selborne” he will find the following observation on 
the House Martin :—‘‘The young of this species do not quit 
their abodes all together, but the more forward birds get abroad 
some days before the rest. These approaching the eaves of 
buildings and playing out before them make people think that 
several old ones attend one nest.” 
Our Middle-Class Schools 
I wisu to bring before your readers the necessity of immediate 
action with regard to a branch of education at present not liable 
to legislative interference. Government is becoming more and 
more alive to the fact that Education and Science at the present 
are England’s greatest needs ; hence the steps taken to extend 
and enforce primary education. But whilst increased facilities 
are being afforded to raise the standard of primary education, 
secondary education is at a stand-still, and upon the whole falls 
far short of the point it should reach. Thousands of our middle- 
class schools when compared with what is required, may be placed 
in the same category as the old dame’s school when compared 
with the modern national school. It requires but the slightest 
knowledge of the subject to know that our middle-class educa- 
tional system is as a whole a mere farce, and yet so averse are 
we to change, that matters are allowed to go on year after year 
in the same old matter-of-course style without the slightest indi- 
cation of reform. In order to encroach upon your space as little 
as possible, I will in a succinct and concise form lay before your 
readers a scheme which has been lately mooted, which has re- 
ceived the sanction of the highest authorities in these matters, 
and which is destined ultimately to bring about quite a new 
system. In speaking thus indiscriminately of our middle-class 
schools, I do not include many excellent institutions, in which a 
thorough course of training forms the routine, and which are 
conducted by gentlemen capable and willing to do the work re- 
quired. Alas that there should be so few ! 
Then ist. Itis well known that individual influence is of little 
service. This fact supports the theory that an association must 
be formed, consisting of the principals and assistants of middle- 
class schools, and others interested in the question. 
2nd. This society should have certain objects, and its mem- 
bers combined should use their utmost endeavours to assist in 
carrying out these objects. A few of the aims would be as 
follows :— 
a. The institution of normal colleges for the training of gentle- 
men who wish to enter the scholastic profession. 
B. To recognise some examination, diploma, &c., as sufficient 
guarantee of the capabilities of gentlemen entering the profession, 
and insist that such gentlemen shall have this diploma. The 
evils arising from the incapability of so many of our masters 
cannot be over-estimated, 
y. The necessity of Government or other central supervision 
and examination of every school. At the present moment the 
standard of a school is calculated by zothing. An advertise- 
ment perhaps appears, stating that a/? boys sent to special ex- 
aminations have passed ; and instances are known where one boy 
has been sent up to such examination. It is impossible to decide 
upon the general tone of aschool by the examination of a few 
of the best boys. 
8. The institution of a club-house in London where appoint- 
ments could be made, business transacted, &c., and attached to 
it some means by which the incubus of agents could be 
avoided. 
e. Periodical meetings, &c., &c. 
I am afraid this letter is running to an inordinate length, but 
I just wish to add that invitations have been issued by the editor 
of the Quarterly Fournal of Education to a few representative 
gentlemen for a private preliminary meeting to be held in Sep- 
tember next, when the above scheme is to be discussed. Any 
gentleman wishing to take part in that meeting should address 
the editor upon the subject. I might have referred to the failure 
of the College of Preceptors to do the least good. What we 
must have is an obligatory examination of the whole school, and 
every school; not leaving it to the whim of the principals. 
Neither are assistant masters treated as they should be by the 
College of Preceptors, - 
NATURE 
275 
The Source of Solar Energy 
Mr. GREG ascribes to me views I do not hold, and then 
employs my own reasoning to overthrow them. He must have 
formed his conceptions of my theories from Prof. Pritchard’s 
critique of my ‘* Other Worlds ”—a most unreliable source. 
To begin with,—I do of believe that the solar heat supply 
is solely derived from the downfall of meteors. I have im- 
pressed this very clearly at p. 54 of my ‘‘ Other Worlds.” 
I do not believe that axzy part whatever of the solar heat 
supply is derived from meteoric fercussion, nor that any meteor 
ever comes within tens of thousands of miles of the sun’s surface 
in the solid state. 
Mr. Greg is very careful to show me that the meteor-systems 
encountered by the earth cannot fall into the sun. I dwell on 
this very fact at p. 203 of ‘Other Worlds”—I say, éotidem 
verbis, that no known meteoric system can form a hail of meteors 
upon the sun. ‘‘It is forgotten,” says Mr. Greg, ‘‘that the 
meteors themselves revolve round the sun,” &c. Ife has at 
any time forgotten this, I certainly have not. 
‘‘Has it ever been proved,” he asks me, ‘‘that the entire 
mass of meteors constituting the zodiacal light, is either com- 
posed of matter in a solid state, or, if it were, that its mass 
would be equal to that of our own earth?” I answer, as Mr. 
Greg would—‘‘No, it has not been proved, nor is it by any 
means probable.” 
There is nothing new to me in Mr. Greg’s letter, and little 
which I haye not described myself long ago in the Lyéellectual 
Observer and Student of 1867, 1868, and 1869. To suppose 
that I should venture to treat at all of meteoric astronomy, in 
ignorance of such elementary facts—the véry A BC of the 
science—is not complimentary. Mr. Greg might, at least, have 
examined what Ihave written before assigning to me the ab- 
surdities he attacks so successfully. 
The fact is, this matter of the solar energy only comes in 
par parenthése in my ‘‘ Other Worlds.” I express no confident 
opinion whatever about it. I point to some deductions from 
known facts, and respecting ‘em express a certain feeling of 
confidence. It is not my fault (nor, indeed, can I blame Mr. 
Greg) if Prof. Pritchard has tacked my words ‘‘I am certain” 
(used with reference to reliable inferences) to a theory respect- 
ing which I have distinctly written, that ‘‘I should not care 
positively to assert” its truth. Eyen that theory is not the 
absurd one attacked (very properly) by Mr. Greg. 
For the rest, most of Mr. Greg’s letter is sufficiently accurate, 
but there are two mistakes in it. 
1. We have abundant evidence that the density of the ag- 
gregation of cometic perihelia increases rapidly near the sun. 
For example, whereas between limits of distance 40,000,000 and 
60,000,000 miles from the sun this density is represented by the 
number 1°06, it is represented by the number 1°67 for limits 
20,000,000 and 40,000,000 miles, and by the number 8°65 within 
the distance 20,000,000 miles. The evidence derived from this 
observed increase of aggregation is not affected by what we know 
of those cometic or meteoric systems whose orbits nearly intersect 
the earth’s (for they must form but the minutest fraction of the 
total number) nor by the observed minimum perihelion distance 
of cometic orbits (for observed comets are but the minutest frac- 
tion of the total number). 
2. It makes no difference whatever as regards the force- 
supply of the solar system, whether the substance of a meteor 
reaches the sun in the solid, fluid, or vaporous state. Given 
that the substance of a meteor, moving at one time with a certain 
velocity at a certain distance from the sun, is at another time 
(after whatever processes) brought to rest upon or within the 
sun’s substance, then either the ‘‘ force-equivalent ” of its motion 
has been already distributed or the substance of the meteor is in 
a condition to distribute that ‘‘ force-equivalent”’ mediately or 
directly. In other words, either heat and light have been already 
distributed, or the central energy has been recruited to the full 
extent corresponding to the mass, motion, and original distance 
of the meteor. : 
I may express here my agreement with the opinion of the 
Editor of NATURE that the observations made on the zodiacal 
light by Lieut. Jones and M. Liais ought to be taken into account 
in any theory of that mysterious object. Taken in conjunction 
with the other known phenomena of the zodiacal light, they 
admit of but one interpretation as to the positicn, dimensions, 
and general characteristics of the object. ‘Vaken alone, we might 
infer from them that the zodiacal light is a ring of bodies or va~ 
pours travelling around the earth (at a considerable distance); 
