18 
NATURE 
| Vov. 4, 1869 
The Convolutions of the Brain. — Die Hirnwindungen 
des Menschen. By Alex. Ecker, Professor of Anatomy 
in the University of Freiburg. (Brunswick, 1869. 
London : Williams and Norgate.) 
A SUCCINCT but detailed description of the various Con- 
volutions of the Brain, intended chiefly for the use of 
physicians. It is illustrated by half-a-dozen outline 
sketches. The references to the development of the 
convolutions are not very full, but the author promises a 
more complete account elsewhere. 
The Absolute Value of Knowledge.—Der Scebstandige 
Werth des Wissens. By Prof. K. Rokitansky. (Lon- 
don: Williams and Norgate.) 
THE Materialist school of philosophy are just now 
getting very badly treated by men of science, much 
to the astonishment, it appears, of the general public. 
Mr. Huxley has startled the world by proclaiming himself 
ina way a disciple of Berkeley and Kant, and here is 
Rokitansky, the great master of modern pathological ana- 
tomy, walking in a similar path. To many minds patho- 
logical anatomy would seem to be intensely materialistic. 
It is not so, however, to the Viennese professor. This little 
lecture is chiefly devoted to a development of idealism : 
of that kind of idealism, moreover, which “makes the 
objective wholly and in every way dependent on the 
subjective, for the former is but the projection of the 
latter.” 
Tables of Pomona.—7ajfeln der Pomona, mit Berucksich- 
tigung der Storungen durch Fupiter, Saturn, und 
Mars. By Dr. Otto Lesser. Publication der Astro- 
nomischen Gesellschaft. (Leipzig: Engelmann.) 
THESE tables of Pomona are founded on the disturbance 
of the planets Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars, calculated ac- 
cording to Hansen’s method, and published by the author 
in Nos. 1596-7 of the Astronomtsche Nachrichten. The 
preface gives a full account of the character of the tables, 
illustrated in the usual manner by the calculation of the 
place of the planet Pomona for a given time. 
Although it might seem that the construction of a series 
of tables as full and as elaborate as Bouvard’s Tables of 
Jupiter and Saturn, would bea waste of labour in the case 
of a minute planet like Pomona, not merely invisible to 
the naked eye, but not appreciably affecting by its influ- 
ence any of the great planets of our scheme, yet this is 
not in reality the case. Though Pomona cannot affect the 
other planets, yet these affect Pomona. Her sister orb, 
Themis, has lately been made the means of affording a 
useful estimate of Jupiter’s mass, through the care- 
ful consideration of the perturbations which — that 
planet exerts upon the tiny asteroid. Long since Nicolai 
applied the perturbations of Juno, Encke those of Vesta, 
Gauss those of Pallas, and Briinnon those of Iris, to the 
same end. The more such researches are multiplied, the 
more exact will be our estimate of the mass of the 
principal planets of the solar system. Therefore, the 
present tables, by means of which it will be rendered an 
easy matter to estimate the disturbing action of Jupiter, 
will have a high value. In a less exact but not unsatis- 
factory manner, the mass of Mars may be estimated from 
the same tables, since in certain positions the disturbances 
of Pomona caused by Mars’ attraction can be readily 
separated from those of Jupiter. RACE. 
SCIENCE-TEACHING IN SCHOOLS * 
HE claims of Physical Science, on & friovz grounds, 
to a fair place in the course of school work, have 
been abundantly vindicated, and are, I suppose, established. 
But the method and details of its teaching, the books and 
apparatus which it requires, and the amount of time which 
must be given to it, are points which can be decided only 
* A Paper read before the British Association at Exeter, by the Rev. 
W. Tuckwell. Communicated by the Author. 
by experiment, and have not yet been decided at all. I 
cannot premise too distinctly that the aim of this paper is 
practical. Of the necessity for teaching science to their 
boys many good schoolmasters are convinced ; as regards 
the machinery by which it is to be taught, they mostly 
confess their ignorance, and cry aloud for guidance. In 
my own school it has been taught systematically for the 
last five years, and I offer the fruit of this experience, very 
humbly, to all who are interested in Education. 
The subjects to be taught—the time to be spent upon 
them—the books and apparatus necessary—and the mode 
of obtaining teachers—are the points on which information 
seems to be required. I will take them in order. 
The subjects which naturally suggest themselves as 
most essential are Experimental Mechanics, Chemistry, 
and Physiology. But it has been urged by high authority, 
familiar to the members of this Association, that between 
Chemistry and Physiology Systematic Botany should be 
interposed, as well because of the charm this science lends 
to daily life, as from its cultivating peculiarly the habit of 
observation, and illustrating a class of natural objects 
which are touched indirectly or not at all by the other 
sciences named. Whether all these four subjects can be 
taught depends upon the period to which school education 
is protracted ; but at any rate, let these, and none but 
these, employ the hours assigned especially to Physical 
Science, in the scheme of actual work in school. Abundant 
opportunity will remain for less direct instruction in many 
other branches of science. The Geographical lectures, if 
properly treated, will include the formation of the earth’s 
crust, with the classification and distribution of its inhabi- 
tants, both animal and vegetable, both extinct and recent. 
The possession of meteorological instruments, whose 
observations are regularly taken, and their computations 
worked by the boys, will almost insensibly teach the 
principles of atmospheric phenomena ; while such books as 
Maury’s “ Physical Geography of the Sea,” Airy’s “‘ Popular 
Astronomy,” and Herschel’s ‘‘ Meteorology,” may be given 
as special matter for annual scientific prizes. The laws of 
light and heat will be taught as prefatory to chemistry. 
Electricity attracts boys so readily that with very little 
help they will make great progress in it by themselves. 
The mathematical master, whose best boys are well 
advanced, will not be satisfied till he has obtained a 
transit instrument and a mural circle. And the wise 
teacher, living in the country, will not disdain to encourage 
a knowledge of natural history. He will know that it is 
not only ancillary to severer scientific study, but in itself 
a priceless and inexhaustible resource. By country walks, 
by well-chosen holiday tasks, by frequent exhibitions of 
his microscope, he wiil not only add to the intellectual 
stock of his boys, but will build up safeguards to their 
moral purity. Indeed, even without such encouragement, 
boys who are trained thoroughly in certain sciences will of 
their own accord seek to become acquainted with other 
and collateral ones. Cases multiply in my own experience 
where pupils of a chemistry class have taken up electricity, 
pupils of a geography class mineralogy, pupils of a 
physiology class microscopy, and I need hardly say that 
boys make nothing their own so thoroughly as that which 
they select themselves. 
The time to be given to science should not be less than 
three hours a week. At this rate two years may be given 
to mechanics, two years to chemistry, one year to botany ; 
while the rest, if any remain, will be free for physiology. 
We need not be afraid of beginning early. A boy of 
eleven years old, fresh from an intelligent home, where his 
love of observation has been fostered, and his inquiries 
have been carefully answered, is far more fit to appreciate 
natural laws than a much older boy, round whose intellect, 
at an old-fashioned school, the shades of the prison house 
have steadily begun to close. Most schools are now 
divided into lower, middle, and upper. I would commence 
the study of mechanics with the junior class in the middle 
