

Nov. 17, 1870] 
NATURE 
45 

Both of these ranges are totally distinct from the Rocky 
Mountains, which are hundreds of miles further inland. 
The only drawback to travel among them is the “ poor 
Indian,” who watches travellers from a distance, and 
signals by smokes. We can well understand the en- 
thusiasm of Mr. Whitney for the mountains of Cali- 
fornia, and we heartily hope with him, that neither the 
Yosemite valley nor the grove of Sequoias which—by a 
unique act of Congress—were ceded to the State for public 
use, resort, and recreation, for all time, will be suffered 
to fall into the hands of the acute but unpatriotic specu- 
lators who are endeavouring to use them for their own 
purposes ; and whowill, if they are not “sat upon,” undoubt- 
edly turn them into “ gigantic institutions for fleecing the 
public.” : W. 


OUR BOOK SHELF 
The Science and Art of Arithmetic: Part Il. Vulgar 
Fractions; Part III. Approximate Calculations. By 
A. Sonnenschein and H. A. Nesbitt, M.A. 260 pp. 
(London: Whittaker & Co. 1870.) 
THE authors of this excellent school arithmetic are to be 
congratulated on having brought their work to a suc- 
cessful termination. In our notice of Part I., which 
appeared ina former number of NATURE,* we pointed out 
the principles by which the authors had been guided, and 
as we believed those principles to be sound, and the 
authors to have carried them out successfully, we had no 
hesitation in commending the work as we did. The same 
good arrangement, ample store of illustration, and copious 
examples for practice, are to be found in this volume as 
had place in the first. The fulness with which the 
elementary portions were treated appeared to us to be 
a merit rather than a defect. From such wealth of illus- 
tration each teacher could select what was most suited to 
his purpose. In this volume we have more advanced 
subjects treated in like manner. But an analysis of the 
contents will give a good idea of the work. Under Part II. 
we have the subject of Vulgar Fractions clearly treated, 
with applications to Practice, and a chapter which treats 
of Proportion, the Chain Rule, Compound Proportion, and 
Proportional Parts. In Part III. are chapters on Con- 
verging Fractions, Decimals with their properties, and 
several applications to Money, Weights, Measures, &c., 
the Metric System, Progressions, Interest, Discount, 
Stocks, Evolution, and a good chapter on Arithmetical 
Complements. There is also a chapter in which we have 
Continued Product to a given limit, Compound Interest, 
Equation of Payments, Complex Decimals, Duodecimals, 
and International Calculations. At the end of the work 
are given 250 Miscellaneous Exercises. There is enough 
here to satisfy any youthful arithmetician, and the methods 
employed are the “latest out.” The complete work gives 
ample evidence that it is the composition of men who 
have given much time and thought to the subject, and 
have had much tuitional experience. Rew. 
Die Schmetterlinge Deutschlands und der Schweiz, syste- 
matisch bearbettet. Von H. von Heinemann. Zweite 
Abtheilung, Kleinschmetterlinge. Band II. Die Motten 
und Federmotten, Heft 1. 8vo. (Brunswick: C. A. 
Schwetschke and Son, 1870.) 
M. HEINEMANN’S work on the Lepidoptera of Germany 
and Switzerland is well known to entomologists, by whom 
it is highly valued. It contains an admirable systematic 
description of the species of butterflies and moths in- 
habiting the above-mentioned countries, and has been 
carried out by the author in so conscientious a manner 
that the students of European Lepidoptera can hardly 
* See Nature, Vol. IL, p, 186, 


wish for a better handbook. The author is now ap- 
proaching the conclusion of his labours. The first section, 
including the larger forms of Lepidoptera, was completed 
some years ago ; of the second section, the first volume, 
published in 1863 and 1864, contained the descriptions of 
the Tortrices and Pyralides, and the part now before us 
commences the true Microlepidoptera, the Tinea and 
Pterophori. The former are exceedingly numerous, and 
the present portion contains descriptions of the species 
of only five out of the thirteen families into which the 
author divides the group. W. S. D. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 
[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 
by his Correspondents. No notice is taken of anonymous 
communications. | 
The Teachings of Tribulation—‘‘The Captain” 
THE technical questions suggested by the loss of Her Majesty's 
ship Caféainz have received their full share of attention—indeed, 
more than their share, for able leaders and letters in the news- 
papers will not teach us how to build war ships. I do not intend 
to trouble you with freeboards, turrets, and metacentres. Nor 
do I propose to dive into all the published evidence and 
statements, in order to discover some delinquent on whom to 
saddle the blame of the terrible disaster. 
The case of the Caféazn is an example, ona scale sufficiently 
startling to attract the notice of the whole nation, of a want in 
our administrative arrangements which has hitherto escaped the 
notice of the many. The few who have long deplored this want 
did not require that a quarter of a million of money and 500 
gallant lives should be sacrificed in order to prove its existence. 
Employing, then, the loss of the Ceffaiz as merely one very 
striking instance out of thousands of others that pass unheeded 
every day, permit me to suggest what is the administrative lesson 
taught by it. The facts must first be briefly stated. This cannot 
be better done than by quoting a portion of the judgment of the 
court-martial, who tell us that they ‘‘find it their duty to record 
the conviction they entertain that the Caffain was built in 
deference to public opinion as expressed in Parliament and 
through other channels, in opposition to the views and opinions 
of the Controller of the Navy and his department, and that the 
evidence all tends [s7e in Times’ report] that the Controller 
of the Navy and his department generally disapproved her 
construction.” 
Now let us analyse the system the working of which justified 
the above reiterated condemnation. Beginning at the top, we 
have a Minister of State, a gentleman usually of high character 
and great general attainments, but not necessarily conversant 
with naval architecture. Being a party politician, he may at any 
moment vacate his post on some question totally unconnected 
with his department. In order to provide him with the know- 
ledge which he does not pretend to possess, and to supply the 
element of permanence in which he is also deficient, he has under 
him secretaries, superintendents of works, and scientific advisers. 
These persons are in the strictest sense of the terms also subordi- 
nates of the Minister, bound to obey his orders. Outside this 
department are two bodies, independent of the Minister, and 
capable of bringing enormous pressure to bear upon him, namely, 
inventors and the public—the first interested, the second ignorant 
of science and owing no responsibility to any one. I disclaim 
any personal allusions in this analysis. Well, here we have two 
forces pulling the Minister different ways. The whole question 
is, whether the departmental, or, as we may call it, the home, 
force is strong enough to enable the Minister to resist, when 
necessary, the foreign invader ; whether reiterated adjurations, 
noisy clamour, and threatened loss of popularity will silence and 
overbear official counsels. ‘The question is already answered. 
The official counsels were overborne. It may be argued, how- 
ever, that the official counsels may be wrong and the public 
right. But the official counsels in the case before us were right 
and the public wrong. Here we are landed in a difficulty. How 
is the Minister, who by our hypothesis has no knowledge of the 
question at issue, to tell when his advisers are right and when the 
public? He cannot tell. But he exercises his discretion. Now, 
it must be remembered that his advisers are his subordinates, and 
therefore, taking men as we find them on an average, not m a 
