_ 
Sept. 22, 1870] 
means of education within the reach of every person in the land, 
but must take care that the education was of such a nature 
as to provide those persons with the knowledge which they 
could apply to their pursuits, and which would tend to make 
them understand best those laws under which the human 
family existed. 
THERE was still another outcome equally noticeable for its 
plain speakiag, for, addressing the working men of Liver- 
pool, the President of the British Association remarked, and 
his: remarks were responded to by three cheers, that it had 
been a shock to him, walking through the streets of Liver- 
pool, to see unwashed, unkempt, brutal people side by side 
with indications of the greatest refinement and the greatest 
luxury. He remarked upon this to working men because he 
believed it was the secret of the uneasiness and unrest which 
betrayed themselves in their political movements. The people 
who formed what are called the upper strata of society talked 
of political questions as if they were questions of Whig and 
Tory, of Conservative and Heaven knows what; but beneath 
there was the greater question whether that prodigious misery 
which dogs the footsteps of modern civilisation should be allowed 
to exist, and whether there should be in those nations which 
prided themselves most upon being Christian that predominant and 
increasing savagery of which such abundant specimens were seen 
in Liverpool. If in the course of history the savagery of 
nations has been gradually put down by one process only—by 
learning the laws of nature and the laws of social life, and obeying 
those laws—he urged upon them that history in this matter did 
not lie; and if they were to succeed in their great aspiration, 
they had only one course, and that was to learn the laws of 
nature and do their best to obey them. To that end all their 
efforts should be directed ; to that end the great educational 
movement must be directed ; and if their efforts were directed 
wisely and well, he could not doubt they would meet eventually 
with the most perfect measure of success. 
THE war has, unfortunately, much curtailed the Reports of the 
British Association in the London Press, but this is not all, it is 
surely a matter for regret that the space given has been devoted 
to the least important papers. The Liverpool Press, too, has 
disappointed us, and has fallen far short of what has been done 
in smaller towns at recent meetings of the Association. We do 
not blame the editors, they know their public, and this is the 
real source of the evil: the British public, there is no concealing 
the fact, have as yet not the least idea of the importance of 
Science ; they do not know what it means, or how it may help 
them in the daily affairs of life. One of the Liverpool reports 
has particularly struck us on account of its charming za/vetd. 
Speaking of Professor Clerk Maxwell's paper on Hills and Dales, 
after remarking, with a tone of regret, that in Section A there 
was only a very small attendance which “* consisted exclusively 
of mathematicians,” the report adds, ‘‘ The whole subject was 
treated in a very scientific manner, quite unlike what might 
have been supposed from the plain English title of the paper.” 
TuE five classes of the Institute of France have unanimously 
resolved to draw up a protest in view of the eventual bombard- 
ment of the monuments, libraries, and museums of Paris. The 
protest will be addressed to every academy in the world, inviting 
them at the same time to give their adhesion to it. Meanwhile, 
the Minister of Public Instruction has been given a credit of 
50,000f. to enable immediate precautions to be taken. 
Tue foundation stone of the new building about to be erected 
for Owens College, Manchester, is to be laid next Friday. His 
Grace the Duke of Devonshire, K.G., F.R.S., President of the 
Extension College, the Bishop of Manchester, and the President, 
and other distinguished members of the British Association are 
expected to be present and take part in the proceedings. 
NATURE 
415 
Ir is said to be the intention of the Government to greatly 
increase the number of medical officers who arc employed for 
the purposes of sanitary supervision under the Privy Council ; 
the whole of the kingdom will be divided into sanitary dis- 
tricts, each under a medical officer with a salary of not less 
than 600/. per annum. 
ANOTHER Dutch contribution to Natural History lies on our 
table in the form of a monograph of the Squirrel, ‘‘ The Ostc- 
ology and Myology of Scirus vulgaris L., compared with the 
Anatomy of the Lemuridz and the Chiromys, and on the Position 
of the latter in the Natural System,” by Dr. C. Kk. Hoffmann ant 
H. Weyenbergh, jun. It is a prize essay for the Dutch Academy 
of Sciences at Haarlem, but is written in German. 
ProF. RAULIN’s ‘Description physique et naturelle de Vile 
de Créte,” is published under the authority of the French Minis- 
ter of Public Instruction in two thick volumes and an atlas; the 
first volume including the history, geography, and statistics of 
the island; the second, its meteorology, geology, botany, and 
zoology. 
THE first annual part of Dr. G. RadJe’s Report of biological 
and geographical researches in the Caucasus country includes an 
account of journeys in the Mingrelian mountains, and the three 
mountain-valleys Rion, Tskenis-Tsqabi, and Ingur, with maps 
and plates, the latter beautifully executed and coloured, 
A SERIEéS of experiments has been made at the Government 
farm in Madras oa the applicability of the ‘‘gram” plant as 
fodder for cattle and horses in those districts instead of the seed ; 
it succeeds well on poor soil, and gives four crops in the year. 
It has been found superior to grass, and can be made into hay. 
THERE is good report of the progress of ipecacuanha cultiva- 
tion in India, where it is found so valuable in that prevalent 
disease, dysentery. Since Dr. John Murray obtained for it the 
notice of the Indian Government, it has been successfully planted 
in the Neilgherries and other of our hill settlements, and in the 
plains. It has done well even at Calcutta. 
A SOLUTION of tannin has been used in the treatment of 
cotton fabrics, as are hides in the manufacture of leather, and, 
according to Cosmos, the cotton thereby acquires greater strength, 
and resists moisture and disintegrating effects better. Noattempt 
is made to explain the chemical reaction which produces this 
important change, but it is believed that the change cannot be 
great, since it has escaped the notice of practical tanners. 
TuHE Rey. Cyrus Byington’s ‘‘ Grammar of the Choctaw Lan- 
guage,” the manuscript of which is in the possession of the 
American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, has just been 
published under the editorial supervision of Dr. D. G. Brinton. 
Mr. Byington was a native of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and 
from 1819 to the close of his life, in 1868, was a missionary 
among the Choctaws, whose language he studied with so much 
thoroughness, that when he died he was engaged in revising h’s 
grammar for the seventh time ; and his family still have a Choctaw 
dictionary, embracing 15,000 words, which was left, like the 
grammar, in manuscript. Another work of interest to philolo- 
gists has been printed at Bogota, in New Granada: a Grammar 
of the Chibcha Language, by Dr. Ezequiel Uricoechea, The 
title is :—‘*Grammatica, Frases, Oraciones, Cathezisms, Con- 
fessonario y Boca Bulario de la Lengua Chibcha, 1620. Copiada 
del Manuscrito Orijinal por E, Uricoechea,” The volume fills 
64 pages in 8yo. 
SALMON, it appears, are found in great abundance on the 
Pacific coast. The Sax Francisco Bulletin says, ‘‘ From Mexico 
to Alaska every clear stream running into the ocean is frequented 
by salmon, These fish even ascend small streams which one can 
jump across, and the number which frequent large streams is 
