July 6, 1882] 



NATURE 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



The Transit of Venus in New South Wales, &c— In 

 his address as president of the Royal Society of New Soutli 

 Wales, read May 3, Mr. H. C. Russell, the director of the 

 Observatory at Sydney, gave some account of his arrangements 

 for the observation of the approaching transit of Venus in that 

 colony. Provision was liberally made last year by the legis- 

 lature, and a sum of 500/. has been placed at Mr. Russell's dis- 

 posal for this purpose. With this he states he will be able to 

 provide four high-class 6-inch equatorials, exactly similar to 

 those which are to be used by European observers, and two of 

 4J inches. There are remaining from the last transit one equa- 

 torial of IlJ inches, one of Ji, one :of 5 inches, one of 4 ,', and 

 one of 4t inches. He hopes to be able to take up four stations, 

 in addition to the Observatory, with two observers and two tele- 

 scopes at each point. In order to make the best of the chances 

 of favourable atmospheric conditions, elevated points on the east 

 coast of New South Wales, have been selected, which, it may 

 be fairly anticipated, v. ill have a clearer view an hour after sun- 

 rise than could be looked for near the sea-level. Mr. Russell 

 remarks that in observing the transit of Mercury last November, 

 the observers were stationed at Bathnrsf, Katoomba, and 

 Sydney, places which he had thought were far enough apart to 

 secure different weather ; but the result showed that the weather 

 was practically the same at the three stations. This induced the 

 unpleasant reflection that it may prove cloudy all along the coast 

 on December 6, and he had therefore gladly taken advantage of 

 the recent commission to Lord Howe Island to make some 

 inquiry as to its suitability as a station. It is found that an 

 elevated spot is easy of access, and the weather at the hour and 

 season is almost sure to be fine. 



We have also received from the Imperial Observatory of Rio 

 de Janeiro a report on the proposed arrangements to be made by 

 the Brazilian Government for securing observations of the 

 Transit. In addition to Rio, it is intended to establish a station 

 at Pernambuco and to equip an expedition to Santiago de Cuba. 

 The details are in charge of M. Cruls, acting director of the 

 Observatory at Eio. 



Solar Parallax from Observations of Minor Planets. 

 — Mr. David Gill, H.M. Astronomer at the Royal Observatory, 

 Cape of Good Hope, has arranged with a number of observa- 

 tories in both hemispheres for corresponding observations of the 

 minor planets, Victoria and Sappho, about the times of their 

 oppositions in the present year. Victoria, in opposition on 

 August 24, will be distant from the earth o'So, of the earth's 

 mean distance from the sun ; and Sappho, which comes into 

 opposition in R.A. on September 24, will be within 0*85, so 

 that we have in each case a favourable opportunity of applying 

 the method of determining the sun's parallax, which was advo- 

 cated and also applied by Prof. Galle, the director of the Obser- 

 vatory at Breslau. In a communication to the Astrommischc 

 Nachrichten, Mr. Gill states that the necessary extra-meridian 

 observations will be made in the southern hemisphere at the 

 Cape, Natal, Melbourne, and Rio de Janeiro, and in the 

 northern hemisphere at Dunsink (Dublin), Strasburg, Berlin, 

 Bothkamp, Leipsic, Upsala, Moscow, Clinton, U.S., and pro- 

 bably at Kiel. From the clearer skies of the southern hemi- 

 sphere, he believes that a fully corresponding number of obser- 

 vations will be secured there, notwithstanding the smaller num- 

 ber of observatories, and he invites co-operation from other 

 establishments in the northern hemisphere, on this ground. A 

 list of the proposed stars of comparison is given in his 

 letter. 



Comet 1882*2 (Wells). — The Emperor of Brazil, telegraph- 

 ing to the Paris Academy of Sciences (of which body his 

 Majesty is a member), reports the visibility of this comet at Rio 

 de Janeiro, on June 17, and that three days later the nucleus 

 was very bright, and the tail 45 long. If there be no error in 

 the telegram, the development of the tail must have been rapid 

 after the perihelion passage. 



Prof. Zona has made a communication to the Societa di 

 Scienze Naturali of Palermo, in which he describes the undula- 

 tions in the tail ob erved there in the week following April 14. 

 On the 17th, in a fine sky, it is remarked of the phenomenon — 

 " Sembra che la luce della coda vada a poco a poco diminuendo 

 stringendosi attorno il nucleo come se venisse da questo attratta, 

 poi ad un tratto si spande di nuovo." 



T ] 



EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES 1 



HE great work of the American Bureau of Education 

 continues, like that of a large Reference Library 

 among men who know its value. About 100 inquiries a 

 day are addressed to it, and 150 letters of information 

 are sent out on subjects varying from the Semitic lan- 

 guage to dress-making, and including everything that 

 comes within the limits of education. Its latest report, 

 in which everything is tabulated, down to the opening of 

 a normal summer school only kept open for four weeks, 

 and in which attention is called to many matters of special 

 interest, cannot be gone through without advantage to 

 educationists in any civilised.country, and most of all to 

 those in our own. 



If we are accustomed to think that Americans look 

 upon their country with complete satisfaction, and as 

 standing ahead of the Old World, more particularly in 

 the matter of education, we shall not find such self-praise 

 in the Government reports. A very interesting resume is 

 given of what foreign countries are doing. Attention is 

 called to the more thorough manner in which young 

 persons aiming at commercial pursuits are instructed on 

 the Continent, while England is quoted as an example to 

 be followed of the higher education of women. It is 

 satisfactory to find, in this Report also, that the province 

 of Ontario, in Canada, stands at the head of educating 

 countries. There a system of free schools and compulsory 

 attendance was established in 1S71 ; and while the number 

 of children within the school ages of five and sixteen was 

 492,460, there were actually attending schools 489,015! 

 On the other hand, it is surprising to find the illiteracy of 

 a verv large proportion of the population of Prussia, where 

 of 40,000,000 persons (including infants, &c), 25,000,000 

 were unable to read or write ! 



The schools requisite to supply education to so widely 

 spread a population as that of America are far more 

 numerous than in our crowded country. Naturally, 

 therefore, it is a great difficulty to find sufficient teachers 

 properly educated and qualified for this important work. 

 It might seem, at first, that, in a country where, on an 

 average, each individual is better educated than in 

 England, there would be no lack of able teachers ; but 

 teaching is an art requiring a technical education as much 

 as any other art ; and the work of those who have not 

 had this technical training is as clumsy as most amateur 

 work is, and is found to have the fault of superficiality. 

 The Bureau of Education is simply an office of informa- 

 tion and reference ; it has no central control over the 

 various States; and one result of this is, that no uniform 

 standard of capacity is required of those who present 

 themselves as teachers, and two standards are to be found, 

 not only in the same State, but in the same city. A more 

 unsatisfactory difficulty still is the favouritism and even 

 corruption, not unfrequent in appointing and dismissing 

 teachers, who, in many cases, seem to go in and out of 

 office like the nominees of a government. The picture 

 of corruption on page xxii. must surely be an extreme 

 case ; but its possibility must add greatly to the difficulty 

 of the situation. Pennsylvania's is called a proud record, 

 there dishonesty among school-board officials is almost 

 unknown; "a few thousand dollars would cover all the 

 losses." These things tell greatly against the business of 

 a teacher being an attractive one, and, to add to them, in 

 many States, as in Virginia, diminished public funds have 

 been allotted to the common schools; the number of 

 schools has been reduced, and the salaries of the remain- 

 ing teachers lowered. In some countries in that State 

 the local boards determined to open no schools, and to 

 use the income for paying off debts. 



The small pay of teachers, in the lowest standards espe- 

 cially leads them to throw up that branch on the first 



1 United States Report of the Commissioner of Education for the year 

 1879. (Washington Government Printing Office, 1881.) 



