December 13, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



403 



— It is said that roaches may be exterminated if a powder thor- 

 oughly mixed, consisting of 37 parts of borax, 9 parts of starch, 

 and 4 parts of cocoa, is liberally sprinkled in the cracks and corners 

 •of their rendezvous. 



— The following free course of educational lectures, especially 

 'designed to interest the teachers of New York City and vicinity, 

 has been arranged for, and will be given in the Assembly Hall of 

 the College for the Training of Teachers, 9 University Place, on 

 successive Tuesday afternoons at 4 p.m., beginning on Jan. 7, 1890: 

 Jan. 7, " Rousseau's Pedagogic Theories and their Influence upon 

 Educational Method," by James MacAlister, Ph.D., superintendent 

 •of schools, Philadelphia ; Jan. 14, "The Teacher and the Time," 

 by Miss Caroline B. LeRow, author of " The Young Idea ; " Jan. 

 21, " The Teaching of English Literature," by Truman J. Backus, 

 LL.D., president of the Packer Collegiate Institute, Brooklyn ; Jan. 

 28, " The Voice as an Element in School Management," by E. H. 

 Cook, Ph.D., head master of the Rutgers College Grammar 

 School, New Brunswick, N.J. ; Feb. 4, " The Function of a Na- 

 tional Bureau of Education," by William T. Harris, LL.D., United 

 States commissioner of education; Feb. 11, "The Duty of the 

 State in the Matter of Training Teachers," by W. H. Maxwell, 

 Ph.D., superintendent of schools, Brooklyn; Feb. 18, "Higher 

 Education in the State of New York," by Melvil Dewey, A.M., 

 ■secretary of the University of the State of New York ; Feb. 25, 

 *' Physical Training in the Public Schools," by Addison B. Poland, 

 A.M., superintendent of schools, Jersey City, N.J. ; March 4, " In- 

 ventional Geometry," by Edward R. Shaw^ Esq., principal of the 

 Yonkers (N.Y.) High School; March 11, "Suggestions in the 

 Teaching of Color," by Mrs. Hannah Johnson Carter, professor of 

 form study and drawing, New York College for the Training of 

 Teachers; March 18, "Education in the Nineteenth Century," by 

 •Henry M. Leipziger, Ph.D., principal of the Hebrew Technical In- 

 stitute, New York; March 25, "An Observation Lesson," by John 

 F. WoodhuU, A.B., professor of natural science. New York College 

 (for the Training of Teachers ; April i, " Form Study and Drawing, 

 and their Relations to General Education," -by Mrs. Mary Dana 

 Hicks, director of Prang's normal drawing classes, Boston, Mass. 



— Col. Woodthorpe recently delivered at Simla a lecture on the 

 Aka Expedition of 1883. It may be remembered that this tribe, 

 ■which inhabits the hills north of Assam, owing to some forest dis- 

 putes and a supposed interference with their trade in rubber, seized 

 two English forest officers, and carried them off. To recover these 

 ■men, a small expedition was despatched, under the command 'of 

 •Col. Woodthorpe. The Aka houses, according to Nature, are 

 ibuilt on piles raised above the ground, with a large space at one 

 •end, where the children play. The dress consists of a tunic of 

 Tibetan cloth, and trousers, reaching to the feet, made of thin 

 white material. Long trousers are worn to keep off the damdtcm, 

 a troublesome little fly or mosquito. Bows and arrows, and knives 

 •with blades easily detachable from a bamboo handle, are the chief 

 weapons. The barbs of the arrows are dipped in aconite, and are 

 ■so treated, that, when any attempt is made to pluck out the arrow, 

 the barb breaks off, and remains in the wound. The poison is so 

 ■deadly, that even a buffalo usually falls, after running a few yards, 

 ■when he has been struck by one. Some of the superstitions of the 

 Akas are curious. If a river runs between an Aka's house and his 

 iburying-place, his soul can never go home after death. This in- 

 ■ability of the spirit to cross water is, however, overcome, and every 

 year Akas may be seen stretching a string across the stream that 

 ■divides the grave from the house of the departed. The ghost can 

 easily cross when the slightest foothold is given him. 



— It is sometimes said about old trees (e.g., an old lime in the 

 new Gardens at Potsdam) that the present branches are properly 

 roots ; and it has been reported that trees may be planted, and will 

 grow, in the inverted position. A scientific inquiry into this 

 matter has been made by Herr Kny, in Germany, taking a number 

 of plants of wild vine {Ainpelopsis) and ivy about 3.5 metres high. 

 Nature states that in 1884 he planted these with both ends in the 

 ground; and in the spring of 1885, after the tops had rooted, he 

 cut the arch at its highest point. In the first year, two of the 

 .plants died, but the others (twelve vine and fourteen ivy) grew 

 vigorously, and were still alive this last spring. To test the extent 



of the inversion, he cut slips from the inverted plants, and planted 

 them in a greenhouse, some with their natural, and some with their 

 artificial upper end uppermost. It appeared that the callus, from 

 which the roots spring, was formed at both ends, but more readily 

 at the naturally lower end, whether this was above or below, in the 

 experiment. Herr Kny considers, that, notwithstanding several 

 years' successful culture, the inversion was not thoroughly com- 

 pleted. He proposes to continue his investigation, and invites 

 people who have gardens to make like experiments with other 

 plants, recommending willows, poplars, and roses. 



— Dr. Quesneville, the French chemist, died on Nov. 14, at the 

 age of eighty. He took his degree of doctor of medicine in 1834, 

 having studied chemistry under Chevreul. In 1840 he started the 

 Revtic Scientifiqtie, a monthly periodical, which he afterwards 

 called the Momteur Scientifiqtce. This periodical came to an end 

 in October last, Dr. Quesneville explaining that the task was ren- 

 dered too severe by the infirmities of old age. 



— Professor Meiklejohn has been lecturing at Perth, Scotland, 

 on literature versus books, and, after an able and humorous dis- 

 sertation, concluded by assuring his hearers that they had thou- 

 sands of teachers, but what they needed to be taught most was to 

 feel. Let them resolve to read as little as they possibly could, and 

 to re-read what was the best, what was worth storing in our mem- 

 ory, what was worth learning by heart. Let them shun the stupe- 

 fying influence of the modern demand for aimless, promiscuous, 

 debilitating, and vapid reading. Let them look for that which 

 forms, sustains, and perennially delights. Clear feeling, deep en- 

 joyment, were what they wanted. With these they had Uterature ; 

 without these they had only a semblance of speech. Let them in 

 literature shun mere acquaintances : let them form friendships. 

 No man could expect to have a hundred friends ; and so no man, 

 especially in these crowded times, could know thoroughly and well 

 more than five or six good books. 



— According to a circular which has recently been sent to the 

 leading physicists, electricians, and others interested in the history 

 of English science, it is proposed to establish a Gilbert club, the 

 inaugural meeting of which was convened Nov. 28 in the rooms of 

 the Society of Arts, London, at 4.30 P. 11. The object of the club, 

 as we learn from Nature, is to do justice to the memory of the 

 illustrious president of the College, of Physicians, who was in the 

 possession of, and was actually carrying on, the true experimental 

 method of scientific inquiry at a time when Bacon was only talking 

 and writing about it. There can be no doubt that the claims of 

 William Gilbert of Colchester have been to a great extent over- 

 shadowed by the fame of the renowned lord- chancellor, and it is 

 much to be regretted that we have not had handed down to us 

 more of the results of Gilbert's labors than are to be found in his 

 celebrated work " De Magnete," published in the year 1600. Such 

 as it is, this work may, however, be justly regarded as the earliest 

 English scientific classic, and its author must be recognized as the 

 first truly philosophical investigator in the now all-important sub- 

 jects of electricity and magnetism. The club has been organized 

 for the object of bringing out an English edition of " De Magnete," 

 as nearly as possible in the style of the original folio edition, and to 

 arrange for a befitting celebration of the tercentenary of this work 

 in the year 1900. To quote the circular, " The publication of ' De 

 Magnete ' not only marked an epoch in the science of magnetism, 

 but constituted the absolute starting-point of the science of elec- 

 tricity. It has been hitherto a reproach to British electricians that 

 they too little recognized the merits of the founder of the science." 

 The preliminary list of members already includes the names of Sir 

 William Thomson, Lord Rayleigh, Professor Tyndall, Sir John 

 Lubbock, Professor Riicker, Professor Lodge, Mr. Preece, Professor 

 Reinold, Professor Perry, Professor G. Forbes, Professor D. E. 

 Hughes, Sir F. A. Abel, Sir F. Eramwell. Sir Douglas Gallon, Sir 

 H. Mance, Col. Festing, Capt. Abney, Professor Carey Foster, Pro- 

 fessor W. G. Adams, Professor J. C. Adams, Professor Roberts- 

 Austen. Professor Thorpe, Professor G. H. Darwin, Professor 

 Liveing, Professor Dewar, Professor W. N. Shaw, Professor Poyn- 

 ting. Professor Ray Lankester, Mr. Crookes, Mr. J. Hopkinson, 

 Mr. Glazebrook, Mr. G. J. Symons, Dr. J. H. Gladstone, Dr. B. W. 

 Richardson, Professor \'ictor Horsley, Mr. Latimer Clark, etc. 



