feb. 16, 1871 | 
NATURE 
305 

figures of Fossil Tertiary Mollusca. The localities re- 
presented comprise the Ca/catve Grossier, &c. (Eocene), of 
Longpont, St. Parres, Rilly, Ronca, Parnes, Aizy, Grignon, 
Anvers, Chaumont, and numerous other localities in 
France, Belgium, Italy, and Algeria. This is the author’s 
second work, but out of the 106 species, upwards of 80 
are christened by M. Bayan; which implies that either 
he has in the course of his researches come upon an un- 
usually large number of new forms, or, not having been 
able to refer his new examiples to the species already de- 
scribed by M. Deshayes and others, on account of their 
imperfect condition, he has preferred the easier method 
of giving them new names. Thus we find fifteen new 
Tertiary species of the genus Cerzthium added to our 
already overburdened nomenclature, one half of which, 
at least, might have been referred to well-known species. 
This is all the more surprising as M. Deshayes’ grand 
collection is now deposited in the Museum of the Ecole 
des Mines, besides numerous other well-known typical 
collections. The book is written and transferred to stone 
by a new auto-lithographic process, the result of which is 
that there are forty-seven more or less important errata 
given, which the reader must correct before he can use the 
book with safety. We are sorry to be unable to avoid 
what may appear a harsh criticism of M. Bayan’s work, but 
those only know the Jabour which such monographs cause 
who require to use them as works of reference in the 
scientific determination of fossils. We are arrived at a 
period in palzozoology when we cannot be satisfied with 
merely getting a name to a fossil, but we must have the 
right name—that which expresses its identity with, or dis- 
tinctness from, other nearly-allied forms obtained from other 
similar or different geological horizons around ; so that as 
our work progresses we find we are helping to reconstruct 
a history of these old marine faunas, as a whole ; not a 
series of disjointed essays. We want to see the work 
of Professors Beyrich and von Koenen in Germany, 
fitted in with that of M. Nyst in Belgium, and these with 
our countrymen Messrs. S. V. Wood and Frederick E. 
Edwards, joined to M. Deshayes’ grand work on the 
Paris Basin ; these again with Michelotti, Bellardi, and 
other Italian works, joined to Hérnes’s great work on 
the Vienna Basin. By no other plan can we hope to 
arrive at a clear notion of the value of terms applied to 
geological horizons, and the names of the species by 
which they are characterised. H. W. 


EZETTERS TO THE EDITOR 
[The Eaiter does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 
by his Correspondents. No notice is taken of anonymous 
communications, | 
Scientific Instruction in Elementary Schools 
Wut is to be brought under the new Act in our elementary 
schools? The never-ending permutations and combinations of 
the three R.’s, attendant on Mr. Lowe’s Revised Code of Edu- 
cation, will, doubtless, soon be at an end, or at least limited in 
number. What improvement will come ? What encouragement 
will Government give to Science teaching? Under the Revised 
Code it well-nigh disappeared, or, if it lingered on in some few 
spots, became almost worthless, Zev se, owing to its necessarily 
disconnected and unsystematic nature. We say it disappeared, 
which implies that it once had a footing ; it certainly had, and 
was to some considerable extent followed out in very many of our 
elementary schools. The Committee of Council encouraged it, 
not only by simply recognising it, which they have not done of 
late years, but by making special reduced rates to assist the teacher 
in experimental lessons. Ten or twelve years ago educational 
periodicals teemed with hints on the subject, and specimen lessons 
were frequently inserted at full length; books for the use of 
teachers were written by scientific men; the teaching of ‘‘ com- 
mon things,” though- not altogether scientific in its way, yet 
showed the general opinion of competent persons in the matter. 
Why has all this been allowed to die out? We know schools at 

the present time where the apparatus liberally granted by Govern- 
ment, in days long gone by, has been carefully locked up in the 
cabinet for years, waiting for more enlightened times to return. 
We do not say that the Committee of Council on Education has 
positively prohibited all scientific instruction in our elementary 
schools ; of course, they have done no such thing directly, but, 
indirectly, they have prevented it:—(t) by not recognising it as 
formerly ; (2) by discontinuing grants of apparatus; (3) by 
making the examination in reading, writing, and arithmetic so rigid 
as virtually to confine the attention of the master to these three 
subjects. The examination of the boys in these schools has, in 
fact, been proportionally much more severe than that of candi- 
dates for the Civil Service, and at the same time more so than 
that of the pupil teacher placed over them. Hence the teacher 
has hardly dared to venture on giving time to other subjects with 
the value of which he was at the same time well acquainted. 
Our middle-class schools, as well as those of a still higher 
grade, are gradually becoming more and more convinced of the 
value of a scientific education, and we must not lose sight of it 
in our elementary schools. It is even more important there than 
in the others ; there the ‘‘ working man ” receives his education, 
and if our artisans are to become really intelligent men, fitted to 
compete in their various branches of labour with their fellow 
workmen on the Continent, we must prepare them for it in early 
life, and they are to be found as children, not in such places as 
Eton, Harrow, or Marlborough, but in our National and British 
schools. Education, we are told, is to be extended and im- 
proved ; how can it be better improved than by the increase of 
scientific instruction? Any elementary schoolmaster will tell us 
that the general education given in our schools now is far below 
what it was before Mr. Lowe introduced his changes. The three 
R’s are, no doubt, better taught in many instances, but the intel- 
lectual powers of the children have not been drawn out and 
properly cultivated ; we question whether in many cases they have 
not been stunted in their growth. The same three lessons 
morning and afternoon, day after day, for twelve months, until 
H. M. I. comes round again—what has it been to both teacher 
and children, but unwelcome drudgery? We do not think the 
Educational Department need feel the slightest apprehension that 
ordinary subjects of instruction would suffer by restoring the 
former state of affairs (though it is to be hoped they will go fur- 
ther than that) ; there can be no doubt that an extra hour or two 
during the week set apart for science lessons would be not only 
no loss of time but a positive gain in many respects, by enlarging 
the intellect of the children, and enabling them better both to 
apprehend and comprehend what is placed before them in other 
subjects. It is a great relief to teacher and children to turn for 
even half an hour a week from the usual monotonous course to 
some subject totally different, both in its nature and in the mode 
of treatment. We have seen the faces brighten up, and the eyes 
sparkle again at the preparations made for an experimental lesson 
in physical science, or for one in natural history. 
We hope, then, to see a change for the better in this respect ; 
we trust that the almost forgotten apparatus and the rolled up 
diagrams will once more see the light of day, and be restored to 
their legitimate use. As to the plans to be adopted, each teacher 
is the best judge, perhaps, in his own school ; he knows hew 
may hours per week can be spared from other subjects ; but two 
branches of natural science at least should be taken up, one of 
which should be natural history, as at once the most interesting, 
the best adapted for cultivating the powers of close observation 
and discrimination, and asa study which can be most easily 
followed up by the pupil himself. But every boy in our elemen- 
tary schools ought to have a fair knowledge of the laws of heat, 
of sound, of fluids, of health and ventilation, of mechanics ; of 
the outlines of electricity, the chemistry of the commoner ele- 
ments and their combinations, ¢.g. oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, 
carbonic acid, atmospheric air, coal gas, &c. &c. 
The branches to be taught might vary in different localities, 
according to the nature and productions of the district, and the in- 
dustrial occupations of the inhabitants, ¢.g., in mining districts 
a certain amount of practical geology should be taught, together 
with a course of lessons on the minerals obtained there ; in coal 
districts, the nature of the coal, the formations in which it is found, 
the principles of mining, the nature and properties of carbonic acid, 
light and heavy carburetted hydrogen, coal-gas, the principles of 
ventilation, especially in reference to mines ; also to some extent 
lessons on flame and heat, the ‘* Davy” lamp, and others used in 
the mines, &c. In manufacturing districts, similarly, a practica 
course on mechanics and steam might be followed out, and a cer- 
tain amount of chemistry with regard to the operations performed 
