382 
NATURE 
[ Sept. 8, 1870 
SCIENTIFIC INSTRUCTION AT THE IOWA 
STATE UNIVERSITY 
HE American Scientific Monthly states that the 
faculty of the State University of Iowa have, with 
marked unanimity, resolved to recommend to the Board 
of Regents a new course of study for the first three years, 
in order to adapt the internal organisation of the insti- 
tution to the spirit of the new organic law passed by the 
late General Assembly. 
According to this plan, the students have four regular 
hours of work, lecture, or recitation each school day, 
This time is equally divided between the /e¢¢ers (language, 
history, &c.), and the sczences (mathematics, physical and 
natural science). The direction of these two classes of 
studies is to be respectively under the Faculty of Letters 
and the Faculty of Science, each to have complete control 
over one-half of the students’ time. 
Of the two hours spent in the different sciences, one 
hour is devoted to mathematics, the other, in the two first 
years to physical, in the third year to natural science. 
This order might, perhaps, with advantage to the student, 
be changed so as to have the second year in physical 
science succeed instead of precede the year in natural 
science ; the student would thereby profit from his greater 
proficiency in mathematics. 
After having completed this three-years’ course—which 
is the same for all students in the sciences, but permits 
the student, under certain wholesome restrictions, to sub- 
stitute the different languages one for the other—the 
student can intelligently decide whether he desires to gra- 
duate in the sciences, the letters, or in pedagogics. In 
the last case, he needs not to have studied any foreign 
language, but will have spent a great amount of time in 
the study of his vernacular and its literature; he may 
then enter the Normal Department, and, at the close of 
one year, receive the degree of B.D. (Bachelor of Didac- 
tics). If, however, he has studied foreign languages, 
especially Latin and German, he can, after two years of 
studies, selected according to his own pleasure from 
among the higher branches taught at the University, 
obtain either the degree of B.Ph. (Bachelor of Philosophy) 
or B.A. (Bachelor of Arts). To obtain the former, at 
least two-thirds of the studies selected by him must have 
been in the department of Science, while to obtain the 
latter degree the same fraction should have been studied 
in the department of Letters. 
Facilities for part-graduate courses are also offered, 
and have, indeed, already been improved by several gen- 
tlemen in the past year. We abstain from giving forth 
details concerning this plan until the Board of Regents 
shall have taken action thereon. We believe, however, 
that this plan, in a judicious manner, combines the best 
features of the American College system with the German 
University system. It will equally prevent one-sidedness 
and class-drudgery ; while securing familiarity with the 
elements of the principal branches of human culture, it 
will, at the same time, not only permit each mind to follow 
its own bend, but also give every individual a fair chance 
to ascertain correctly in what direction his mind leads 
him. 
This new organisation is especially important to those 
interested in science. Hitherto, most students commenced 
the study of science after having spent several years in 
book studies, especially the dead languages. It seemed 
they had been imbued with the absurd notion that such 
studies form a proper preparation for the study of phy- 
sical and natural science. Experience has, however, 
abundantly confirmed the common-sense view, that the 
exclusive pursuit of such literary branches, by permitting 
the faculties of observation and logical reasoning to 
slumber, does unfit students for the successful study of 
nature. For the sake of the student, weare glad that this 
system, at last, has been thorough’'y abandoned. The 
students will heveatiel commence the study of ee 
science immediately upon entering the University, and, 
in regular succession, become familiar with the elements 
and principles of the same. They will take up the natural 
sciences only after they have become familiar with the 
elements of physical science. Hereby the professors of 
physical and natural sciences will, at last, have an oppor- 
tunity given to teach science in such a manner and at such 
a time as they deem necessary. We are glad to state that 
this great reform has the cordial support of each member 
of the faculty. 
NEW CLASSIFICATION OF CLOUDS* 
O one is ignorant that the study of clouds is, from the point 
of view of our practical needs, one of the most important 
questions meteorology can present us. Indeed, there is no other 
meteorological manifestation can so fix the attention of the 
yeoman in the city, of the agriculturist in the country, of the 
tourist on the mountain’s summit, of the soldier in war, of the 
sailor in continual strife with the disturbances of atmosphere and 
sea, and, in fine, of the savant in general. 
We everywhere see these different social elements continually 
watching the diverse appearances which the clouds offer us, and 
casting upon them a look of interrogation, of disquietude, of 
desire, of a wish constantly renewed to grasp their forms, in 
order to predict good or bad weather, according to our social 
needs. 
It is especially when the atmosphere threatens some pertur- 
bation, rain, storm, tempest, that the common people examine 
the character of the clouds. But how often, at every moment 
of the day, do they ask each other about the temperature, hot, 
cold, or wet, which sensibly exists, while just as often do they 
pass by unheedingly the clouds, which exert a no less direct or 
indirect action upon atmospheric variations, as well in the 
abnormal state as in the normal. 
Moreover each country, according to its geographical position, 
topography, &c., has its own type of clouds, Here the Cirras 
predominates, there the Czzdus, elsewhere such and such form 
of clouds which do not exist in other places. All these different 
appearances of clouds are everywhere intimately connected with 
some particular condition of climate, and these climatological 
conditions powerfully influence, in their turn, the health, agri- 
culture, navigation, and the thousand other social concerns of 
humanity. We may say that the clouds are a great book of 
nature, constantly open for the perusal of all classes of society. 
Like a compass, the clouds show us at every instant the direc- 
tion, the velocity, and the altitude of the superior currents which 
afterward determine the inferior winds at the surface of the earth. 
There is, therefore, a permanent weathercock as long as the 
sky contains a single cloud, however small it may be. 
There is necessity, therefore, for undertaking a profound study 
of clouds in their diverse scientific and social applications ; for 
making researches upon the mature, form, quantity, direction, 
velocity, and azimuthal votation of clouds, corresponding to each 
stratum perfectly characterised by the origin, intimate consti- 
tution, and meteoric products of the vesicular vapours and 
congealed particles which constitute them. For, in the intimate 
nature of clouds there is a fundamental condition to be estab- 
lished, which results from the physical force acting immediately 
after gravitation, upon their constitution, This is the element 
of heat. 
Despite this scientific interest, despite this practical need 
which each feels, and which is so universally acknowledged, 
despite all this, the study of clouds is yet unhappily in its infancy. 
It is rarely one sees ‘‘clouds” inscribed in the meteorological 
registers of observatories, and when they are, the registrar has 
wholly neglected to note their form, their quantity, their direc- 
tion, their velocity, and their azimuthal rotation. Some say 
simply, ‘‘clouds ;” others mention the form or the quantity, 
may be the direction, or exceptionally these three elements, but 
assuredly they neglect the velocity, and especially the azimuthal 
rotation which I have first signalised in clouds, and which is 
not yet understood. In fine, not a single register gives these 
five elements for one stratum of cloud, much less for each dis- 
tinct stratum of those which very often appear superposed in 
the atmosphere. 
* Contributed by Prof. Poey, of Havana, to the Semi-Annual Session of 
the National Academy of Sciences, held at Washington, 
on ie 
