i5o 



NATURE 



\Dec. 1 8, 1879 



Within the walls of the Museum Prof. J. D. Whitney 

 has accommodation for geological work. He is engaged 

 in the completion of the memoirs of his great Californian 

 survey. He has recently issued the first part of an ex- 

 haustive monograph of the auriferous gravels of Califor- 

 nia, which is published in the Memoirs of the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology. One of the most generally 

 interesting and important features in this essay is the 

 cautious and masterly way in which the author states the 

 evidence for the existence of human remains in the 

 gravels beneath sheets of basalt, and at a depth of 130 

 feet from the surface. It is impossible to resist the 

 cogency with which he marshals the facts and maintains 

 the genuineness and high antiquity of the Calaveras skull. 

 The second portion of the memoir, devoted to a discus- 

 sion of the origin of the auriferous gravels and of the 

 glacial phenomena of the Pacific coast and of North 

 America generally, is awaited with much interest. Prof. 

 Whitney, in the course of his prolonged researches in the 

 west, made a large and important collection of rocks. 

 These are now being carefully investigated by his asso- 

 ciate, Dr. M. E. Wadsworth — a young petrographer, 

 who in recently taking the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 

 at Harvard, presented, as his thesis, a remarkable essay 

 on rock classification, largely based on these collections. 

 The Professor, with the devotion to geology which has 

 characterised his long and distinguished career, carries 

 on this work at his own expense. The results will be 

 published in full in the Memoirs of the Museum of Com- 

 parative Zoology. 



There is much more than the name of Cambridge to 

 remind one of its namesake at home. Its quiet air of 

 studious retirement, its quaint buildings and tree-shaded 

 walks have much of the mother-country about them. 

 One or two features of the place, however, are charac- 

 teristically American. Thus in the great library at Gore 

 Hall, most of the work of receiving and distributing books 

 is done by young women, and done, too, with a noiseless 

 decorum and celerity worthy of all praise. A magnificent 

 Memorial Hall to those graduates of Harvard who fell 

 in the late Civil War bears witness in its crowded lists of 

 names that culture and courage may go hand in hand. 

 The simple eloquence of these lists, where every class and 

 division of the faculties is represented, brings home to the 

 mind in a startling way the terrible realities of a war. 

 May the occasion never arise for another range of tablets 

 either there or here ! 



AYhile Harvard is necessarily the great centre of 

 scientific research, much admirable work is done in 

 Boston in the way of practically expounding science. 

 The Institute of Technology has for its primary object 

 the education of the community in these branches of 

 scientific knowledge conducive to progress in the arts and 

 industries of life. In pursuance of this aim the methods 

 of tuition are so practical and thorough that the results 

 must be felt far beyond the industrial circles. Established 

 mainly through the enlightened zeal of the present vener- 

 able President of the National Academy, Prof. W. B. 

 Rogers, it began a few years ago to languish, but its 

 founder has recently come back to its rescue, throwing 

 himself into its affairs with all his old heartiness and 

 kindliness until, freshened and stimulated by his influence, 

 it is once more shooting up into lusty vigour. But besides 



this establishment, wholly devoted to scientific instruction, 

 the Boston School Board has made the practical teaching 

 of science an important part of education in the public 

 schools. At an early age the pupils are led to take an 

 interest in physiology by references to the experience of 

 their own bodies, and thus the laws of health are firmly 

 lodged in their minds. From simple beginnings they are 

 conducted through successive years of progress and are 

 well grounded in physics, chemistry, botany, and zoology, 

 until before they leave, if they choose to go so far, they 

 are found at work in laboratories repeating experiments, 

 making analyses, or dissecting plants or animals. The 

 thoroughness of the whole system, and the length to 

 which such State-paid education goes (for it must be 

 remembered that all this training is free), would make 

 most members of our School Boards stand aghast, were 

 any Utopian to propose its introduction in this country. 



A student of science from this side of the Atlantic 

 besides finding himself at home among lovers of science 

 in New England is astonished and gratified to find that if 

 he has himself done anything to advance our knowledge 

 of nature, his work is as well known there as at home. 

 The welcome he receives is all the heartier from men 

 who have long known him by name and have come 

 already to regard him as in some measure a personal 

 friend and fellow-worker. A brotherhood of this kind, so 

 cosmopolitan, so genuine, and so kindly, carries with it 

 an enduring helpfulness. One comes away from a par- 

 ticipation in it strengthened and cheered, with wide 

 enlargement of ideas and sympathies that seem to fill the 

 mind with aspirations and to brace the whole frame for 

 endless exertions to achieve them. Undoubtedly, in spite 

 of all that demagogues may declaim, there is in American 

 society of the more cultured kind a deep undercurrent 

 of affection for the old country. It shows itself in many 

 ways and sometimes crops up unconsciously and almost 

 to the confusion of the native-born American as if he 

 would rather be thought indifferent in the matter. The 

 writer is tempted to conclude with an illustrative story 

 told him by a Harvard friend to whom the incident 

 occurred. Some years ago, just at the time that the 

 famous pamphlet, " The Battle of Dorking," was making 

 a stir in the States as well as here, this friend was in 

 Kentucky with an acquaintance of his who, like so vast a 

 number of his countrymen, had been engaged in the Civil 

 War, and had lost heavily in friends and fortune. This 

 man knew well what were the horrors of war, yet after he 

 had finished reading the pamphlet, and was appealed to 

 by his companion as to what he would do if the picture 

 drawn in its pages were a reality instead of a fiction, he 

 paused and after a little reflection replied, " Well, I think 

 I'd have to go for the old country." There are many 

 thousands of Americans who would have no objections to 

 thrash England themselves, but who would not sit quietly 

 and see the castigation bestowed by any other people. 



A. G. 



PL ANTES "RESEARCHES IN ELECTRICITY'' 



Recherches sur VElectricite. Par Gaston Plante\ (Paris' 



1879O 



M GASTON PLANTE has published, under the 

 • above title, the elegant and important electrical 

 researches which he has pursued with so much success 



