210 
NATURE 
[Dec. 23, 1869 
most excellent in their way ; but as generally taught, they 
are too desultory and unsystematic to effect fully their 
intended purpose. The principal manuals on the subject 
show a want of arrangement and system, that greatly 
detracts from their value. One day the children are 
supposed to learn a lesson on a piece of iron: the next 
on a flower, the third on a shell, and so on. Too 
much stress is laid upon cultivating the powers of ob- 
servation, and too little on connecting the facts observed, 
and drawing conclusions from them. The lessons, too, 
are very frequently unconnected with each other, and 
the facts taught lean almost too much towards the 
practical and economic side of knowledge, and too 
little to that of systematic science. Great scientific 
ignorance is displayed in many cases: for instance, 
one book informs us that plumbago is an ore of iron; 
that iron is generally found as an oxide in combination 
with szdphuric and carbonic acid; that fluor spar is 
composed of fluoric acid and lime ; and that lime unites 
with various proportions of carbonic acid. These mistakes 
are the result of imperfect scientific knowledge, and may 
be passed over forthe sake of the valuable instruction 
given to teachers, which cannot fail to produce most ex- 
cellent results, if applied to systematic scientific teaching. 
It may be urged that children of 8 or 9 are too 
young for systematic science teaching, but facts prove the 
contrary. An ordinarily intelligent boy or girl of this age is 
perfectly capable of understanding the broad differences 
between the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms ; 
that there are more gases than one in the world; that 
some of them are colourless, while others are brown or 
green; that some burn and others do not; that some plants 
grow from the inside, while others grow from the outside; 
that some animals have jointed backbones, that others 
have their bones outside their bodies, while others have 
none atall. Facts such as these are perfectly comprehen- 
sible to children even younger than those I have named. 
During the first two years of a child’s school life, after he 
has learned to read and write, he should be carried through 
the whole range of physical science in a systematic 
manner. The fundamental truths of chemistry and physics 
should be first taught him: all theoretical considerations 
being left aside. As few definitions as possible should be 
given, the whole task of the teacher at the commencement 
being to cultivate the child’s powers of observation to the 
utmost. Gradually the powers of induction and deduction 
may be developed, facts and phenomena should be com- 
pared, and conclusions drawn from them. Order in 
thought and description should be specially insisted upon, 
and occasional retracings of the ground already gone over 
should take place. The objects of this preliminary science 
teaching should be twofold: first and foremost, to train 
the mind and form the judgment; and secondly, to give 
the child a general idea of the object and scope of the 
natural sciences. At the age mentioned, the faculties are 
all fresh, and in full process of development; and such 
is the desire to exercise them in intelligent children, that 
their thoughts often run wild. There is nothing a child 
likes so much as investigation, or “ finding out all about 
things,” as he himself would phrase it. The boy in the 
nursery rhyme who cut the bellows open to see where the 
wind came from, is a type of his class. Unfortunately at 
the present time, scientific teachers for children are 
extremely rare, but let the want once arise, and the demand 
will soon be met. We have plenty of scientific teachers 
and lecturers for boys and men, but the child has hitherto 
been left out of consideration. Teachers, in the true sense of 
the word, are every day on the increase, and even the old- 
fashioned schoolmasters are beginning to see very plainly 
that they must alter their system of instruction, and yield 
to the pressure of the times. But it is not only upon these 
that I would urge the necessity of beginning science 
teaching at the earliest possible period, but also upon those 
who have already adopted science as part of the ordinary 
school curriculum for the older boys. 
CHARLES W. QUIN 
THE GOLD FIELDS OF VICTORIA 
The Gold Fields and Mineral Districts of Victoria, 
R. B. Smyth. (Melbourne: J. Ferres. 
Triibner and Co.) 
By 
London : 
lie 
WENTY short years ago, the territory of Southern 
Australia comprised within the colony of Victoria 
offered comparatively little attraction to the emigrant. 
Its population had increased but slowly during the half 
century which had passed away since the discovery of 
Port Phillip Bay. Graziers, shepherds, and farmers were 
its chief occupants, and by them the value of its soil was 
estimated very much according to the number of cattle 
or of sheep which each acre could maintain. But to-day 
everything is changed, The land is dotted with hamlets, 
villages, and towns, and is intersected with roads and 
railways. The population has increased from 77,000 in 
1851, to 660,000 in 1867. In the former year only 57,000 
acres were under cultivation, in the latter the area had 
risen to 631,000. This growth in the population has been 
accompanied by a corresponding increase in the value of 
the imports and exports, which are now ten times what 
they were ; while the value of rateable property in town 
and country districts is estimated at about 442,000,000, 
This marvellously rapid rise of the colony is mainly 
to be ascribed to the discovery of gold there in 1851. 
Never had the prospects of the colony been gloomier than 
just before that discovery was made. The able-bodied 
part of the population was moving off to the gold-fields of 
New South Wales, glowing accounts of which appeared 
from week to week in the newspapers. Every kind of 
property was sinking in value. At last, after small finds 
of gold had been reported from different parts of Vic- 
toria, a public meeting of the citizens of Melbourne 
was convened, for the purpose of raising funds towards 
offering a reward to any one who should discover 
a workable gold mine within twenty miles of that 
town. The attention of the colonists was now thoroughly 
roused, and in the course of a few weeks reports came 
from many of the surrounding districts that gold existed 
in large quantities. From that time the tide of emigration 
from the colony was arrested, and the population began 
to increase with that wonderful rapidity just alluded to. 
From the very beginning of the mining operations they 
were regulated and inspected by the Colonial Government. 
A mining department was instituted, with a responsible 
minister at its head. Mining registrars and surveyors, 
wardens of mining districts, and other officials were ap- 
pointed with the view of aiding and regulating the labours 
