NATURE 



\Nov. 12, 1874 



full grant would be earned, and nothing could be obtained 

 from other subjects. It seemed to him, however, that the 

 passes in readmg and writing ought not to be made so 

 difficult, but that three-quarters of the children should 

 pass. No wonder that under those circumstances the 

 Duke of Devonshire's Commission had reported that the 

 present system had " unfortunately narrowed the instruc- 

 tion given in elementary schools, and, together with the 

 lower standard consequently adopted in the training and 

 examination of pupil-teachers, and the curtailment of 

 the syllabus of the training colleges, exercises a prejudicial 

 effect on the education of the country." 



As to the question of expense for apparatus, Sir John 

 Lubbock showed that this need be no obstacle ; fully 

 recognising that the kind of science to be taught must 

 be no word knowledge, but a practical acquaintance 

 with the actual facts of nature. 



Schoolmasters had on more than one occasion said 

 to him that, it was impossible for them to teach science, 

 because they had not the funds necessary to purchase 

 apparatus, set up a laboratory, &c. Now, no doubt, much 

 money might be profitably laid out in this way, but it was 

 not necessary to do so. Mr. Tuckwell, who spoke from 

 personal experience, said in a paper read before the 

 British Association in 1871, that "it ought to be more 

 widely known for how very small a sum sufficient appa- 

 ratus can be obtained to teach natural history and experi- 

 mental science. A laboratory can be fitted up for twenty 

 boys at a cost of little more than 20/., while each boy's 

 private stock of glass and test solutions need not cost 

 more than Zs. per annum. Botanical ilower-trays, con- 

 taining eighteen bottles, may be bought for half-a-crown ; 

 electrometers, telescopes, polariscopes, models of pumps, 

 and pulleys, may be made, by a little instruction, by the 

 boys themselves, who will learn in their construction far 

 more of the principles which they involve than could ever 

 be instilled into their minds by the choicest products of 

 the shop." 



After quoting the opinions of the late Prof. Fara- 

 day, Prof. Henslow, Dr. Hooker, and Prof. Huxley 

 on the importance of early scientific education, Sir John 

 said it was often urged that in science the very methods 

 of teaching were still under discussion. This, however, 

 was an unavoidable incidence of a commencement. It 

 would be remedied by experience, and could be remedied 

 by experience only. Mr. Arnold truly said that "^when 

 scientific physics have as recognised a place in public 

 instruction as Latin and Greek, they will be as well 

 taught." 



Sir John Lubbock also referred to the miserable pittance 

 which has as yet been allotted to research in science by our 

 Universities ; but as we have referred to this point so 

 recently, we need not dwell upon it here. Altogether, we 

 hope that this moderate and wise, but uncompromising 

 address may give one more strong impulse to the already 

 widespread feeling that we cannot with safety delay 

 much longer in giving to science the place which it ought 

 to hold in the educational system of the country. 



THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SPITZBERGEN 

 AND NOVA ZEMBLA* 



SO much public attention is now directed to the polar 

 regions and their inhabitants, that we do not 

 hesitate to bring before the notice of our readers the 

 important contribution to our knowledge of Spitzbergen 

 and Nova Zembla, recently published by Von Heuglin as 



' ♦ " Reisen inch clem Novdspohumcer in ceu laliren 1870 uml 1871," vo 

 M. Th. von Heuglin. In drei theilen. Dritter Theil ; Heitr.ige zur 

 Fauna, Flora, und Geologie. (Braunchsweig, 1874.) 



the third part of his " travels " in those countries in 1870 

 and 1871. 



In it will be found a complete resume of the present 

 state of our knowledge of the zoology and botany of those 

 distant and inhospitable regions, and a chapter on what 

 is known of their geology. 



The mammals of these northern climes are few in 

 number, consisting chiefly of seals and whales. The 

 terrestrial mammal-fauna comprehends only two species 

 of lemming {JSIyodes torquatus and M. obensis) :- the 

 arctic fox, common fox, and wolf and sea-bear among 

 the carnivores, and a single ruminant — the reindeer — • 

 seven species in all. The birds are more numerous, 

 though here again the marine species far predominate, 

 the land-birds being only ten in number out of a total of 

 fifty. Amongst the former we are surprised to see 

 recorded as an accidental visitor the Hoopoe, usually 

 considered as rather an inhabitant of the tropics, but of 

 which a single straggler was captured in Southern Spitz- 

 bergen by a merchant-vessel in August 186S. Reptiles 

 are conspicuous only by their absence in Spitzbergen and 

 Nova Zembla, but of fishes thirty species are recorded as 

 having been obtained on various parts of the coast, all 

 belonging to known forms either of the Atlantic or of the 

 waters of Northern Asia. 



The invertebrates of Spitzbergen are treated of more 

 concisely by Herr v. Heuglin ; but lists are given of the 

 species of the different orders, and many references to 

 previously published papers and works bearing upon this 

 subject are added. 



The account of the flora of Spitzbergen is mainly 

 founded on Malmgren's paper, published in 1862, in the 

 Proceedings of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Stock- 

 holm, to which, however, additions have since been made 

 by Anderson, Fries, and Nystrom. The Phanerogams 

 enumerated are 117, the Cryptogams upwards of fifty. 

 The botany of Nova] Zembla and Waigatsch Island is 

 separately treated of. Our knowledge of this subject is 

 based upon the excellent researches of Von Baer and 

 Trautvetter, published at St. Petersburg, and a paper of 

 Blytt's, of Christiania. On these islands 146 Phanero- 

 gams and 144 Cryptogams have been discovered. Among 

 the latter a certain number of new species are described 

 in the present work by Prof. Ahle, of Stuttgardt. 



The geological chapter, which concludes the volume, is 

 based upon the well-known researches of the Swedish 

 naturalists Loven, Torell, Blomstrand, and Nordenskiold, 

 who have laboured so long and so diligently upon this 

 subject. 



We can recommend Herr v. Heuglin's work as a very 

 convenient handbook for the use of future visitors to the 

 Northern Seas, and of explorers of those newly dis- 

 covered lands of which we are now hearing so much. 



H. ECKEL'S DEVELOPMENT OF MAN* 

 Anthropogcnie odir Entwickelungsgeschichte des Men- 

 sshen; gemeinverstiitidlichc wissenschaftUcJic Vortrdge, 

 von Ernst Hasckel. (Leipzig: Engelmann, 1874.) 

 II. 



IN tracing the genealogy of our race. Prof. Hajckel 

 while availing himself of the gradual' changes in the 

 fauna of the earth during geological peiiods, and of the 



^ Continued from p 5. 



