6i6 



NA TURE 



{Oct. 28, i88c^ 



attached a safe and solid car, capable of containing seats for at 

 least eight persons. A steam-engine is to regulate the ascent 

 and descent, and it will rise to a height of about 900 feet, 

 affording a splendid view of Milan and the plains of Lombardy. 

 The balloon will be constructed at Milan, M. Henri Beudet, the 

 well-known and experienced aeronaut, having been sent for to 

 direct the work. 



The coal-beds on the Souris River, Manitoba, have proved 

 very rich, and are to be developed during the winter. 



The Japan papers call attention to the almost limitless mineral 

 wealth lying dormant in the country, and which is only waiting 

 for development to become a profitable source of revenue. Of 

 coal there is an abundant supply, but only the Takashima mine 

 has been fitted with modern appliances. There are several other 

 coal mines which are only unprofitable because improjierly 

 worked, and now it is averred that Prof. Atkinson during a 

 sojourn in the Mitake Mountains of the Koshu Province has 

 discovered another valuable deposit of coal. 



Mr. North, who was sent by the Natal Government to 

 examine the Newcastle coal-fields, has reported favourably on 

 the quantity and quality of the coal. 



On Friday evening, October 22, previous to distributing at 

 the Manchester Mechanics' Institute the prizes and certificates 

 gained by the students at this year's Science and Arts, Society 

 of Arts, City and Guilds of London Institute, and Union of 

 Lancashire and Cheshire Institute's examinations, Prof. Ayrton 

 delivered an address on Technical Education and on the future 

 of Mechanics' Institutions. Of the two original objects for 

 which Mechanics' Institutions were established fifty years ago, to 

 provide clubs for artisans and places for giving popular scientific 

 lectures, it w^as shown that the latter had to a great extent been 

 abandoned ; also that the mere novel utility of such institutions 

 in furnishing the means for the holding of science and art classes 

 would also be taken away from them when the teaching of 

 elementary science became the duty of our elementary schools. 

 There remained, however, for Mechanics' Institutions a great 

 new field of activity in the teaching of applied science to me- 

 chanics, not the teaching of abstract scientific principles and the 

 applications only perhaps afterwards, bat the teaching of these 

 scientific principles through the apparatus in use in daily life ; in 

 fact, that Mechanics' Institutions could well furnish the machinery 

 by means of which numerous technical classes throughout the 

 country which were so much needed could be rapidly establisheJ, 

 the money voted by the City and Guilds of London Institute as 

 payment on the results of the technological examinations, 

 together with funds locally subscribed, fmnishing the motive 

 power. What the lecturer thought technical teaching should 

 consist of was illustrated by the kind of \\ork now going on at 

 the temporary laboratories of the City Guilds Institute at Fins- 

 bury ; stress was laid on the fact that there were no distinct 

 students' fees there for laboratory work and for lectures, but that 

 every fee, small as it was, entitled each student to at least two 

 hours' practical work in the laboratories for every one hour of 

 lecture ; so that in fact all the 150 students had laboratory work 

 which did not consist in the mere repetition of qualitative lecture 

 experiments, but in the making of accurate quantitative measure- 

 ments, all bearing as far as possible dii-ectly on each student's 

 trade. Of this practical illustrations were given. Prof. Ayrton 

 concluded by warning technical iustructors from attempting to 

 follow ordinary college methods of synthetical teaching, which, 

 although most valuable for a young lad prepared to spend several 

 years at college, was quite unsuitable for an artisan engaged all 

 day in following his trade. Technical education, he considered, 

 must be distinctly analytical — the complete machine as the 

 artisan laiew it must be taken at once, and the science developed. 



so to say, from the macliine itself ; and that it was men with a' 

 good practical knowledge of their trade and with an aptitude, 

 for science rather than men versed in science, but with only a, 

 mere book knowledge of industries, that weie wanted both as' 

 candidates for the technological examinations and as students to- 

 be trained up as technical instructors. i 

 In the note on the late Dr. .Sparks in Nature, vol. xxii. 

 p. S91, for Dr. King's "Therapeutics" read Dr. Binz's. 

 " Therapeutics." ; 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Garden; during the 

 past fortnight include a Macaque Monkey (,Macacus cyiiomol^us) 

 from India, presented by Mr. W. B. Tustin ; two Polar Bears 

 (Ursus maritimus), an Ivory Gull {Lams iburneus) from the 

 Arctic Regions, presented by Mr. Leigh Smith, F.Z.S. ; a 

 Crested Porcupine {Hystrix cristata) from India, presented by 

 Mr. W. Middleton ; three Gaimard's Rat Kangaroos {Hypsi- 

 prymnus gaimardi) from Australia, presented by Mr. A. B. 

 Gow ; a — Brocket [Cariacus sp. inc.), a White-bellied Opossum 

 (Didelphys albiveutris), a Brazilian Hare [Lepiis Irasiliensis) from 

 Quipapi, Pernambuco, a White-bellied Guan {Ortalida albi- 

 veutris), a Black Tortoise {Testudo carbonaria) from Garanhuns, 

 presented by Mr. W. A. Forbes, F.Z.S. ; a Frigate Bird 

 {Fregata aquild) from Fernando de Noronha, presented by the 

 Rev. G. Bayldon; a Yellow-headed Conure (Coniirus jendaya) , 

 from Pernambuco, presented by Mr. C. A. Craven ; two Ame- 

 rican Black-backed Geese (Sarcidiornis carunciilata) from the 

 Sertoes of Pernambuco, presented by Miss Davis ; a White - 

 throated Finch [Spcrmophila albogularis) from Pernambuco, 

 presented by Mr. S. Jones ; a Herring Gull {Larus argentalus), 

 British, presented by Mr. J. Palmer ; a Horrid Rattlesnake 

 {Crotalus horridus) from Quipapa, Pernambuco, presented by 

 Mr. H. E. Weaver ; a Bonnet Monkey {Macacus radiatus) from 

 India, a Black Iguana (Mctopoccros cornutum) from Galapagos (?), 

 deposited; a Rock Cavy (Cei-cdon rnpestris), a Green -winged 

 Trumpeter (Psophia viridis), a White-bellied Parrot (Caica 

 leiuogaster), a Red vented Parrot {Pioniis mciistruus), two 

 Golden-headed Parrakeets (Brotogcrys tiii), two Toco Toucans 

 (liamphastos toco), an Orinoco Goose [Chenalopcx juhata) from 

 Brazil, a Rufous Pigeon {Columba ritfina), a Yarrell's Siskin 

 {Chrysomitris yarrelli), two Scaly Doves {Scardafclla squamosa) 

 from Parahyba, three Picazuro Pigeons (Columba picazuro), a 

 Black Tanager {Tachyphonus mclaleticus), a Black-headed 

 Tanager (Orchesticiis atcr), a Passerine Ground Dove (C/ianiapclia 

 passerina), three Yello'.v-shouldered Hangnest {Icterus tibialis), 

 from Pernamlnico, a Brazilian Tanager {Ramphoccelus brasilius), 

 a Blue and Black Tanager (Calliste brasiliensis) from Bahia, a 

 White-eyebrowed Guan {Penelope supcrciliaris) from Panellas, 

 four Cactus Conures {Connrus cactorum), two Banded Tinamous 

 (Crypturus noctivagus), seven Tataupa Tinamous {Crypturus 

 tdtaupa) from Garanhuns, a Great-Billed Rhea {Rhea macro- 

 rhyncha) from Agoas Bellas, Pernambuco, two Orchard Hang- 

 nests {Icterus spurius), a Baltimore Hangnest {Icterus baltimore) 

 from North America, purchased ; two Squirrel-like Phalangers 

 {Belidcus sciureus), born in the Gardens ; a Macaque Monkey 

 {Macacus cynomolgus) from India, presented by Mr. F. W. 

 Manley ; a Dunlin {Triiiga cinclus), a Sanderling {Calidris 

 arenaria), British, presented by Mr. Edmund Elliot, M. R.C.S.; 

 a Horned Lizard {PItrynosoma cornutum) from Texa«, presented 

 by Mr. W. C. Boyd ; a W ayivimg (Ampelis garrulus), European, 

 deposited ; a Black Saki {Pithecia satanas) from Lower 

 Amazons, a Roseate Spoonbill {Platalea ajaja), a Great-billtd 

 Rhea (Rhea macrorhyncha) from South America, purchased. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 

 Ceraski's Variable of Short Period. — It will be seen 

 from a letter which Prof. Pickering, the Director of the Obser- 

 vatory of Ilirvard College has a bircsscd to us, that, contrary to 



